Your pearls of wisdom

[charic]

Ok thought of this while i was at work and if its successful maybe it would be an idea too have this stickied. As it would be very useful for beginners.

The idea is you give your one tip (practice is not YOUR tip everyone knows it no matter how important it really is). And you cant repeat a tip already given before you on this thread.
This way we get a wealth of information (hopefully).

I remember thinking i needed a thread like this when i first started playing and have seen many threads where beginners ask for tips.

So whats your pearl? One per person please

To get this started mine is:
-Try playing in the dark it makes you listen too the bass more and you learn the fretboard without looking. I also find that it helps me creatively.

Rik

[bassteban]

Try to learn something from music you don't like. Why you don't like it, for instance.

[Joe Nerve]

I tried starting a somewhat similar thread a couple of weeks ago. Didn't go so well.

What have you learned in the past year...

I'll plug into this one though.

[bassteban]

OK, this isn't really music-related, but the thread looks lonely. When you need to set your drink/food/whatever down to open the car door, set it on the hood on the driver's side.

[ryco]

Get the money first.

[Gyoon]

When you practice, have a small, specific goal. "I want to work on evening out my picking fingers a little more". "I want to learn that cool lick". "I want to learn the entire solo to "donna lee" is probably not too realistic to most of us. It's gotta be attainable and modest.

So many of my students think that they are practicing simply by picking up the instrument and noodling. If you have 3 hours a day to devote to the instrument, noodle away for an hour. But if you only got 30 minutes, setting a goal will keep you on track.

[tjh]

... it is easy, and fun to get hung up on gear ... one who spends his time and money on his hands and ears learning the instrument can make most ANY gear sound good, where many of us spend our time and money searching for that special piece of gear that will MAKE us sound good ... and yes, I am preaching to myself on this ... I spend way too much time reading gear reviews and in classifieds ... and no, I didnt mention the p....... word, cuz you said not to ...

[jady]

During your favorite hour long tv show, run scales during every commercial break. That gives you 15-18 minutes of pure scales evey day, you will improve within the month.

[cowsgomoo]

my pearl of wisdom is: stop thinking about the darn bass so much!!

erm, what I mean is... remember you're a musician first and foremost... if your 'top ten' list of musical heroes is ALL bass players, i'd suggest you need to stop thinking bass bass bass and listen more widely... there are other instruments and other musicians that you can learn from...

get out of the bass ghetto for a few hours... it might refresh your ear & benefit your bass playing as a result

[Groovy Bastard]

"Most of your questions can be answered by listening to recordings"

[RWP]

If you want to remember how hard it is to learn to play bass, try playing left handed. Or right handed if you are
left handed. If anyone here is ambidextrous please post!


Practice while you are watching TV without looking at the fretboard.

[justinb515]

I know this can be a fire starter, but learning theory never HURT anyone. You dont necessary have to become a composer or anything, but music is a language, and learning the rules of the language can help you break them properly later.

[shubball]

my pearl of wisdom is this:

If you have access to a tape recorder/multitrack/dictaphone and you are getting frustrated with how you are progressing on the bass or with a certain technique. Record yourself, keep practicing and listen back to the recording in a months' time.

You will (or should be) pleasantly surprised with your advancement.

(incidentally I found an old tape of me learning to slap from about 8 years ago, and I sound awful) lol.

[51m0n]

No one was born able to play the bass.

So every one of your heroes went through what you are going through now to learn or work out how to play that thing that makes you love their playing.

So in all likelihood, with the right dedication, you can learn it too..

[BillMason]

Before changing any gear in your quest for perfect tone, try a different set of strings.

Play as many styles with as many experienced musicians as you are able to find.

[Phalex]

Don't be timid. Own every single note you play.

[JTE]

Sing everything you practice. Learning to wiggle your fingers through a scale, mode, arpeggio, bass line, etc. is utterly pointless if you don't have the music in your head. If you can't sing it, you don't know it.

jte

[kesslari]

Take frequent, short breaks. Stop practicing (whatever you're working on) after a set amount of time (say 5 minutes), or if you don't set a timer, stop while you're still playing it well.

What you want to do is teach your mind-muscle connection how to play whatever it is properly.
What you want to avoid is practicing mistakes.

You especially want to avoid the scenario where you're almost ready to stop, but decide to play that riff or whatever "just once more".
You screw it up, so, a bit frustrated, you decide to play it "just once more, and play it right". Of course you're more frustrated now, so you're more tense, so you screw it up again, and "just once more"...
After screwing it up several times, you either give up in frustration, or finally play it right.
Either way, what you've accomplished is teaching yourself several-to-numerous repetitions of playing it wrong, when what you're trying to do is teach your muscles to play it right.

Stop playing sooner, take a short break, and come back to it focused.

[bassman9]

Take at least one spare of everything, if possible two. Put together a "tool-kit" which will act as a first aid kit for your bass. Mine includes 2 sets of strings, various screwdrivers, 2 sets of lung keys (for adjusting saddles + truss rod), superglue, pliers, wire cutters, soldering iron, extra 9v batteries for active bass + charger, straps, picks, isolating tape (metal + vinyl), cloths, extra dc supply transformers and heavy duty sticky tape.
I'm aware that this at first hand sounds totally absurd, but if you never have to use any of the above ever during a gig or practice then you've been really lucky. And being prepared is better than being lucky, IMHO. The more things you can keep under your control the less likely the chance of having a flat out world war 3 style panic fest on your hands. In my experience, it actually helps your playing... if you go on stage confident in your bass as well as being prepared for anything that may happen during a show, well then there's less for you to worry about. Obviously you can't control a power outage, but you can control your response time and ability to change a string on the fly. "Chance favours the prepared mind." sorry didn't mean to ramble on

[What a mess]

Play less notes, runs, licks, music is not merely the notes played but also and often more so the gaps. Many times less is more, more is anoying noise. Play with some different levels of volume and attack up on chorus down on verse. Make room for other instruments and vocals. Listen to the kick get the grove 1st, make sure the foundation is rock solid the band and music is depending on you. Play the type of music you think is boring well, don't be a genre snob include some others to strech yourself. Simple music played well really is cooler then complex music played poorly. Play with people better than yourself allow people that are not as good as you to join in music is about community. Help someone learn you get a lot from teaching.