What's the longest you have worked learing a single phrase?

Colin_D · #1 03-08-2010, 09:31 PM

Ok, I'm still a beginner, and I'm working on something that is at the ragged edge of my playing ability (It's the octave run that Duck Dunn does on the Bb/Eb/E7 in "She Caught the Katy") I've been banging on it for about 2 hours now, with the metronome, slowly working up my speed, as I got close to full speed I realized that the way I was playing it (raking the octave/D wasn't going to give me the sound and feel I wanted so I had to slow back down and start alternate picking it, which was a huge blow to my sense of accomplishment. I'm back up to about 80bpm which is getting close, but I *had* to give my right hand a break. So I am wondering

What's the longest you have ever worked on a single phrase, and do you find that as you improve, that time goes down, or does it stay about the same as the limit of your abilities grows to include more complex playing?

Just feeling like I'm swimming through sludge right now

onlyclave · #2 03-08-2010, 09:35 PM

Turn the metronome off. If you can't play the phrase slow you can't play it fast.

The longest I've worked on a phrase is 16 years. I've been trying to find the best way to play the first 8 bars of Teen Town.

Jazzerbone · #3 03-08-2010, 10:13 PM

There's been some licks that I've been pounding on for years. Sometimes they were just too hard for my abilities at the time and I had to put them away until I could approach them with more competance. Sometimes a lick has been the thing to get me over technical hump. Got a Match has been a pain for several years.

Sixteen years man... When I attack Teen Town it'll probably take me 20.

I wonder how long it took Jaco...

fearceol · #4 03-09-2010, 02:39 AM

My band plays "She Caught the Katy". The bass lines are quite fast and tricky. As "onlyclave" says, turn off the 'nome. Play the phrase very slowly... fifty times if necessary, to get it under your fingers. When you have nailed that, then increase the tempo slightly using the 'nome. If you find yourself getting a bit frustrated, do something else and come back to it.

Everyone learns at their own pace, so be patient with yourself. Cant remember how long it took me to learn "..Katy", but I know it took a bit of work.

Elrend · #5 03-09-2010, 02:45 AM

I've been working for 4 months on soloing over Giant Steps.

ausf · #6 03-09-2010, 07:03 AM

You have to build muscle memory on difficult phrases or even something simple that's a pattern you've never played before. It takes time, but eventually will click. I've struggled with a line only to be able to nail it cold the day after.

Case in point: Flea has this little slap line during an interlude in 'Get On Top'. I can play all his more difficult stuff and this was a relatively easy 3 note phrase. The rub was, it requires a steady pop of the octave but using pinky, ring then index finger as you progress the line D-E-F (D octave steady) including mutes. My hand never had to move like that at that speed, it is more like switching chords than a bass line. It frustrated the crap out of my for a few sessions until it clicked, now it's almost a joke it seems so simple.

Minotauros · #7 03-09-2010, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colin_D

What's the longest you have ever worked on a single phrase, and do you find that as you improve, that time goes down, or does it stay about the same as the limit of your abilities grows to include more complex playing?

Since I've only been playing since Christmas 2009 when I got my first bass and started learning, I guess you could say it's taking me that long to work on anything.

Seriously, for a few weeks, this little bass line drove me crazy, not the notes, but the rhythm (not tabbed here)...

|--------------|
|---4-7-4------|
|-5------------|
|--------------|

Jump to 0:18 and notice how he plays around with the rhythm. I've finally gotten something very close to it that I like. I was finally able to get it in about an hour one evening. It's a fun line. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiyf7OfYMoA

Some things start to come really fast, others take forever. One step forward, two steps back, three steps forward, one step back... annoying but true, imo.

Hoover · #8 03-09-2010, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onlyclave

The longest I've worked on a phrase is 16 years. I've been trying to find the best way to play the first 8 bars of Teen Town.

I woulda had "Teen Town" down cold 16 years ago if I could play the first seven notes...but to this day I just cannot fathom how anybody executes those low C's cleanly in the context of that phrase.

NickInMesa · #9 03-09-2010, 02:35 PM

I always keep improving my rendition of a complex bass line by listening, imagining the fingering, realizing I got it wrong, going back.

Tabs are never right. The best ones will be 95% right, at most.

The longest IN ONE SITTING was for the bridge in Are You Gonna Go My Way (Lenny Kravitz). I wanted to nail it note for note at an audition. 4 hours. Over and over and over again.

Kipaste · #10 03-09-2010, 02:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by onlyclave

Turn the metronome off. If you can't play the phrase slow you can't play it fast.

The longest I've worked on a phrase is 16 years. I've been trying to find the best way to play the first 8 bars of Teen Town.

Hehe, I was just about to post something very similar.

I got my first bass lesson a two days after I bought my first bass. During the lesson we wen't over some basic techique and scales. At the end my teacher gave me Jacos debute album on a cassette and notes to it and said that it's the first homework assignment due to 2008. As much as I'd like to think otherwise, I did fail.