What are you working on right... NOW?

[Porksicle]

Just a thread to see what folks are doing.

I'm focusing on slap technique, walking lines, and building accuracy and left-hand stamina. I'm spending about 1 1/2 hours a day on this (about half-an hour on each of the three books).

I'm also trying to incorporate one hour a day (at least!) of song transcribing - see below for CD's I'm currently working on

Books:

"Slap It" (Oppenhiem), Page 14 - Examples 1 thru 3

"The Art of Walking Bass" (Magnusson), Section 2 - Blues / Diatonic Passing Tones, Exercises 7 thru 9

"Bass Fitness" (Des Pres), Section 2 Part A, Exercises 49 thru 52


Songs:

CD's currently transcribing:

Ray Charles - "Ultimate Hits Collection"
Sade - "Best of Sade"
Stevie Ray Vaughn - "Greatest Hits"

Songs this week:

Ray Charles - Lonely Avenue, Ain't that Love
Sade - Is It a Crime, Never as Good (as the First Time)
SRV - Tight Rope, Little Wing

[Verticos]

i never really have a practice regime persay, but i play at least 2 hrs a day. If i can't play something, i work it till i can. Otherwise i just play, sometimes solo, sometimes along with records, sometimes improvising... But most important is definitely playing with my iPod. I have over 3000 songs, i put my ipod on shuffle, and anything that has a bass part, i figure it out right then and there and i play it.

[LM Bass]

I'm practising:

7th chords from harmonic minor
6-note symmetrical augmented scale, and all its possible chords
Walt Weiskopf's "Beyond the Horn"
Drop 2 voicings on my 6-string bass, right now focusing on chords related by major thirds Cmaj7+5, Emaj7+5, Abmaj7+5 for example.

My double bass isn't getting much love this summer. . .

[funkalicious101]

I was arranging Tocatta and Fugue in D minor for bass, but my new compter doesnt have guitar-pro. So for the time being I am working on Syrinx by Debussy.

[Nappa]

Trying to make a simple part of a song that you can do root notes for the whole song (original one from guitarist) sound more interesting.

[Siegy]

I just learned Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars because I got bored.

<bass blasphemy>

I'm actually working on my guitar skills right now. I'm joining a new band with sort of a harder but not quite screamo sound. I've been studying a lot of Armor for Sleep, Saosin, Underoath (on They're Only Chasing Safety), and some Chiodos. Those names probably don't mean much to most of you, but it's what I'm doing.

</bass blasphemy>

[HaVIC5]

<less egregious bass blasphemy>

I just bought a practice pad and "Stick Control" and I've been working on basic sticking patterings for drums for the past week and a half. It's really humbling starting a new instrument from scratch, but a whole lotta fun.

</less egregious bass blasphemy>

I'm working on arco performance on upright, which is good for the ol' intonation (very pesky if you're a fretted electric player). I'm also working on sight-transposition, I bought an Eb real book volume II and working through it. Thinking up a minor third can be tricky.

[ssbass]

using my left hand pinky to fret

[rdmjazz]

"Bass Fitness exercise handbook" Part A

"Charlie Parker Omnibook" Yardbird Suite

[paganjack]

mostly left hand stuff, but some other theory based exercises too.

-double thumbing
-three finger picking
-modal scales (every one of them)
and then jamming along with the ol' looper, which sort of fits in with modal practice.
and songwriting, as usual

[Muusers]

bernadette and the seinfeld theme

[DudeistMonk]

Lessons / materials out of my control.

composing some drum and bass grooves to use for attracting potential guitarists/vocals and to use as song foundations for the future.

[etoncrow]

"What are you working on right... NOW?"

Designing the HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems for the engineering office/shop of a VA hospital. Wish I could sit around transcribing music and noodling on the fretboard like you guys....

[Elsebet]

Data models. However tonight I will be:

- Trying to get cleaner and more accurate for the verse bassline of "Believe" by the Bravery.

- Learning the bassline to Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World"

- Refreshing my memory of easier songs.

- General "spider" type exercises, running through chords/scales/CoF/etc.

[73jbass]

I'm repairing a #4 bearing housing for a Pratt & Whitney JT8D-219 engine.

[rdmjazz]

Originally Posted by etoncrow

"What are you working on right... NOW?"

Designing the HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems for the engineering office/shop of a VA hospital. Wish I could sit around transcribing music and noodling on the fretboard like you guys....

Yeah, but you are getting paid!

[etoncrow]

Originally Posted by rdmjazz

Yeah, but you are getting paid!

Not so's you'd notice. Did you ever try to squeeze money out of an architect?

[Thunderthumbs73]

On bass: Learning the songs of ABBA/ABBA Gold, as closely to "as recorded" as possible. Good ear training, and it's a collection of songs I've never tried to play before.

[E2daGGurl]

Originally Posted by etoncrow

"What are you working on right... NOW?"

Designing the HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems for the engineering office/shop of a VA hospital. Wish I could sit around transcribing music and noodling on the fretboard like you guys....

Awwww. But think of the good you're doing!

It's really interesting to hear the range of what people are working on (some of you guys are amazing and it helps so much to hear what different people are doing).

I'm working through Friedland's "Building Walking Bass Lines," with the CD in my laptop (a year ago, I couldn't get past the first exercise - now I'm all the way up to about exercise 13 - chromatic lines). It takes me days and days to really get each new thing the way I want to. It has really helped my bass playing, as you all can probably imagine.

As part of that, I've worked out several alternate lines to Autumn Leaves. I'm also working on my transcribing/arranging skills. My summer goal was to get my bass clef sight-reading up to tempo on bass (like it is for my left hand on keyboard), not quite there (tempo has to be pret' slow for me to do it reliably). Practicing Pachelbel's Canon, And I Love Her, Norwegian Wood, and doing original bass lines for 2 compositions our guitar player wrote.

Also, I'm working at learning to use our BOSS DR-880 drum machine for practice (I think that's it's name).

I'm so impressed with RDMJazz and his Charlie Parker "Yardbird Suite" practice.

All the different things you run into on bass (sight transposition for example) just make it so fun and exciting. Better than anything else, except maybe one thing.

[gre107]

Technique:
Working on Double thumbing and applying it to melodies.

Songs:
Spain, Oleo, Orinthology, Friday Night at the Caddilac Club and Stablemates. (Need these ready by 8:00 tonight! No Pressure Ahem... )

Working and re-working other songs on the set lists...

Books:
Slap Bass Soloing by Anthony Vitti
Walking Bass Lines (forgot the Author)

Reading:
Anything but mostly stuff out of the Real Books.


Oh yeah, at work:
Writing/re-writing a Database system that will tie in two seperate databases and an enterprise system for a security card system by the push of a button.

Tons of fun.... (Much sarcasm...) But it pays the bills.

Peace