Practicing Time

[ImAGoodDuck]

A pretty simple thread, any special ways you other guys practice your time and more specifically your walking time?

[musicman5string]

I do it a couple of ways. I'll sometimes play along to bass lines I transcribed from recordings and emulate the feel as well as play the notes. Sometimes I'll put on a metronome clicking on 2 and 4 and play time. Sometimes I'll just play alone playing time.
I think one of the most valuable things a jazz bassist can do though is play alot of gigs without drummers. Make sure you tape yourself at said gig and check it out.

[Aaron Cohn]

One thing I do sometimes is practice walking in 4 with the metronome clicking every three beats. I think it really checks the evenness of your time.

Also, when playing, try to hear the rhythmic placement of your note before you play it, and to hear the time independently of what you play. This way, I find that if I, say, flub a note I'm less likely to play any other notes out of time. Hope this helps.

Aaron

[Sam Sherry]

Good advice, as exepected. It's interesting -- I do exactly the opposite as Aaron does, for the same reason. I play with the metronome only on 2 or only on 4 or only once every other bar. Once every eight beats will REALLY check your time.

I play along with records too. Jimmy Cobb, man -- I may never meet him in person but I've been playing with him for decades. A guy's gotta dream . . . .

[TomSauter]

Originally Posted by musicman5string

I think one of the most valuable things a jazz bassist can do though is play alot of gigs without drummers. Make sure you tape yourself at said gig and check it out.

Even better would be to play a whole bunch of gigs with really great drummers. I also like to practice with the metronome on all four beats. When I just have it on 2 and 4 it feels like I have a little bit of room for error where it will still sound good, but any little discrepencies are more obvious with all four clicks. I practice on 2 and 4 if I want to work on some rhythmic stuff.

[Aaron Cohn]

Originally Posted by Sam Sherry

It's interesting -- I do exactly the opposite as Aaron does, for the same reason. I play with the metronome only on 2 or only on 4 or only once every other bar. Once every eight beats will REALLY check your time.

I probably didn't explain clearly what I meant. I didn't mean I put the metronome on beat 3, but rather so that every three beats it clicks i.e. ONE two three FOUR one two THREE four etc. Not that there's anything wrong with putting it on beat 3.

I'll have to try what you've been doing as well with the 2 or 4 every other bar. I've done the every 8 beats thing with the metronome on 1, but not on other beats. But my metronome's slowest tempo is 40, so the slowest possible tempo I could do it at is 320.

[jallenbass]

I once saw a masterclass with David Friesen and his trio. The piano player suggested the AND of 1 or the AND of 2 etc as the metronome beat.

[ThomasLiu]

Originally Posted by jallenbass

I once saw a masterclass with David Friesen and his trio. The piano player suggested the AND of 1 or the AND of 2 etc as the metronome beat.

Hi
Do you mean the metronome on first beat at first bar and on second beat at second bar ?

[Aaron Saunders]

Playing with the nome on the AND of 2 and stuff like that is pretty awesome. Generally I play with the click on all four if I'm using the metronome.

To be honest, I don't work on my time enough. Lately my friend Jamie (drummer) and I have been doing just DB and drums jams with a click. Just playing together with a lot of focus on the feel, time, swing, what have you in the tune is going to help so much. It's already made a significant difference in my time playing.

[jallenbass]

Originally Posted by ThomasLiu

Hi
Do you mean the metronome on first beat at first bar and on second beat at second bar ?

No. On all of the up beats ie. the second eight note of each beat.

[Ale]

I use the aebersold CD's sometimes , but mostly i work with a Swedish CD called "its all about time" , that features different tracks (mostly blues progressions , coltrane changes etc) with different breaks and stops to play along.
I run this CD everyday once , from first to last track . So about 2 hours time practicing every day.
I always practice with a metronome , and i think its really important to start at low tempos , like 40 BPM's , and play slow 4th notes phrases , not just walking but also soloing at this tempos.
Really , its all about time.

[Clay_Bass]

I got the excerxise from an electric bassist (anthony wellington) but take a 3 note patern say open a open a then an ovtave up, Play this as 3 16th notes in a row. First play it starting on one and let 3 measures go by so youre doing a 4 bar phrase, then start the pattern on the E or the 2nd 16th note of the first measure, then start on the and or 2nd 8th of the measure, then start on ah or the 4th 16th note of a measure, then start on 2, then then e of 2, etc moving through untill you get to the ah of 4. Then go backwards, the and of 4, the e of 4, 4, ah of 3, and of 3, e of 3 etc. you dig?

[damonsmith]

I like the metronome on all 4 beats lately, and still trying to make it feel good. John Lindberg's advice was " try to make th emetronome sound hip".
Then I like playing basic poly-rhythms like 3 over 4 or 5 over 4 and moving between the poly-rhythms and the 3, 4 and 5.
I also like taking a 7 and breaking it into 3 and 4 and then doing 4 over the 3 and 3 over the 4.
Trying to be fluid with that stuff has been keeping me busy lately.

The other thing I love is practicing at 40 BMP. Just walking and scales with the bow.

[neal davis]

arron I think it is good you are jamming with drums and working on your feels but sometimes playing with a click can also get in the way. I have played with many great players who sometimes get too caught up on the click and don't make the music work. Take music like some of the miles quintet, sly and the family stone or even some early stevie wonder music, it grooves, is it in perfect click time no, does that mean it is horrible no. Some of the exercises Damon has mentioned are great with helping your time and by no means am I advocating not using a metronome but perfect time also doesn't mean perfect feel. I remember as I was leaving the school and Mike started as head of the bass department he was talking about internalizing the time, how to feel it no matter what is going on and that is something that has stuck with me. Keep working with the 'nome and finding different ways to make it musical. now lately I have been practicing learning the drums more than anything and trying to learn to drum the way I like to hear drummers play. As for bass I'm getting a bunch of music together for a couple of gigs in Switzerland in late may that is very tricky with lots of wierd time changes like going from 15/8 to 7/4 to 23/8 then fast swing etc etc, really fun stuff and man is the metronome helping

[Aaron Saunders]

Neal, I totally agree -- we only do it occasionally. Most of the jams we're both very open to changes in feel, tempo, style, what-have-you, but for a while we get out the click just to practice staying on one tempo consistently. I find I have a tendency to lay back on the time if I lose focus when playing, so I use the time practicing with the click to practice this.

PS: As a general note, only the drummer's hearing the click.

[damonsmith]

I don't "Practice Improvising" much but another thing I do is turn on the metronome and Play my extened techniques in and over time and work on moving fluidly between them. that way if a pulse comes up in an improvisation my language can still exist without getting boxed in or only having the choice of playing a bassline.
Ultimately, the metronome should be something that gives you more choices and freedoms, not less.

[Aaron Cohn]

I've been playing walking time with the metronome a few different ways lately, and I think the variety is helpful. One old standby is with the click on all four beats. This of course lets me hear my exact note placement against the click.

I've also, along the line of the 3-beat groups I posted about above, been putting the metronome in various cross-rhythms against my 4/4 time, and trying to maintain a good, natural feel. For example, I've been working the last couple days with the metronome playing 2 against 3, so that against my 4 the clicks line up like this:
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & etc

What I like about it is that it helps me check how consistent my time is with other stuff going on against it. I can't as easily rely on the metronome to tell me where to play--I have to just play evenly myself. And it's a great feeling when I get a rhythm like that really locked in. Anyway, hope this is helpful and/or interesting to someone.