curse of the fixed position

I've been there. A few years ago, all my solos would sound like a bunch of scales and not solid ideas. Then I realized, I was just practicing scales, arpegios, etc. Well, if that's what you practice, that's what will come out. When I broke away from patterns, I started to form ideas. When I practice, I sing melodies in my head and then try to play them on the bass, without regard for what key or mode I'm in. Sometimes the minor third will work better over a major chord if you approach and resolve it correctly. The goal, for me, is to get technique and theory down well enough, so that I can forget it and just play...So that it's second nature.

 

Agreed, I would certainly like to hear that as well.

 

If you've practiced your scales and arpeggios a lot, then maybe now it's time to see what you can do with only three or four notes.

 

Only use a limited number of notes and see how creative you can be, very different than using lots. And you have to host the file somewhere else, and link to it here.

 

Nice one, Pacman!

 

Just right. Impose some limits on yourself to make yourself develop other aspects of your playing. You'll have to improve your phrasing and rhythm to sound decent, and your choice of notes will be more important when you play fewer of them.

 

You can also skip around the mode you are working with. Play pieces of it, break it up and jump from string to string.

Check out blues guitarists and how they solo. A lot of times It is seriously just 3 notes being played over and over and over for a couple measures...

Our problem is that we think we need to play more but sometimes
less is more...

 

I'm not sure if this will be useful for you but I'll throw it out there anyway. Have you worked a lot on playing all your scales up and down each string (as opposed to accross all strings)? I've found that this is one of the keys to opening up the fingerboard because it helps to connect all the positions together when improvising.

 

9DIGITS - sorry, is English your first language? I think some of the things you are typing aren't coming across.

 

Damn, sorry. Although I guess coming from NC, the question still stands....

Positional playing is just one solution to fingering, it's not a hard and fast rule. In fact positional playing can do a lot to "rob" a line of a vocal, melodic quality. There are any number of )for instance) bop heads that can be fingered without a lot of positions shifts, but phrasing them this way can make them sound choppy and not swinging at all. The simplest, most elegant fingering may (in fact) shift you between several positions;making each part of the phrase easier to finger. a good rule of thumb is that if a fingering is awkward and ugly-looking when you stick to one position; SHIFT.

As far as the statement isnt that what musicians are meant to do, well, no. Musicians are supposed to create MUSIC. There are any number of tools that they use to do so, the most useful of which are the two things on the side of your head.

I do have to ask, who told you that you have "near perfect right hand technique"? Most musicians I play with talk about sound and ideas, not physical aproach. That is to say, talk about the MUSIC not about the tools.

You say "im learning melodic, and diminished scales to added to my arsenal of theory knowledge but it seems to be sounding the same to my ears." There's a great bassist and teacher who posts on this site named James Stinnett who has something really wonderful to say on this point. He says that when you are asking about more scales to play, it's akin to somebody who's trying to learn to shoot asking for more ammunition instead of working on improving their aim. You don't NEED more vocabulary at this point, you need to learn how use the vocabulary you have now in a more meaningful way, to speak with intent.

Do you have a teacher? What are you working on with them? Have you asked them about your concerns? What has been their response?

 

Is a blooming Yoda similar to a BLooming Onion in any way?

 

That second sentence sounds like it was translated from idiomatic Japanese, I'm not really sure what you're trying to say.

Well, teacher or no teacher is certainly your choice. Best of luck then.

 

This post should be auto-posted to anyone starting a thread about "My technique is the roxxors, but no bands wanta play wit me."

Seriously, Ed, very well written, and great advice.