Exercises for each day

[matius88]

Hey, how are you, i'm having trouble to make a "excercise to do list" for every day of the week, i was thing something like:

20m: Chromatic exercises
10m: x scale training
20m: improvisition.


do you do something like this, could you share me your experience?, i want to organize my playing to improve my technique, because now im in a dead end ( i can play a lot of songs by tab, but i cannot make my own bass lines, or improvisation, and i cant improvise a lot with scales, etc)

if you have a good book please share it with me.

the other thing i want to ask you, if you now a way to make less fret noise (i think i play so strong with my hands that i make buzz and i want to eliminate that problem.. i dont know if i have to bring up my strings or play a little soft haha, the problem is that when i play soft i dont hear my playing and i have to put my amp volume up).

thanks a lot

 

[BassChuck]

You get the most from practice time if you have a goal (even a small one) for that day and work until you see improvement on that problem. Note that improvement does NOT equal perfection. Just get a little bit better each time you work on the issue.

Any book by Ed Friedland is worth twice what you'll pay for it. Time spent reading the 'stickies' on Talkbass is time well spent.

Your hands are in your control (hopefully). If you don't want to hit the strings hard.... don't.

 

[Nashrakh]

when i play soft i dont hear my playing and i have to put my amp volume up).

That's the idea. Might as well do it

 

[Dixon Steele]

the other thing i want to ask you, if you now a way to make less fret noise (i think i play so strong with my hands that i make buzz and i want to eliminate that problem.. i dont know if i have to bring up my strings or play a little soft haha, the problem is that when i play soft i dont hear my playing and i have to put my amp volume up).

There could be a couple of reasons why you're getting fret noise. Firstly, as you mentioned, the action could be too low, in which case you'll need to raise it a bit.

The second reason could be your left hand technique. If you don't place your fingers right at the frets you get fret noise. Just remember to practice fretting as close to the fret as possible.

In any case, I don't think playing softly is a good solution, you want to be able to create dynamics in your music by playing both hard and soft.

 

[MrLenny1]

Have a new tune to learn on your daily list.
Pick a hard one to do & stay with it.
Learn to read notation!

 

[the_stone]

Have a new tune to learn on your daily list.
Pick a hard one to do & stay with it.
Learn to read notation!

This - the fastest way to improvement is to learn basslines by ear, as accurately as you can.

 

[fearceol]

( i can play a lot of songs by tab, but i cannot make my own bass lines, or improvisation, and i cant improvise a lot with scales, etc)

if you have a good book please share it with me.

IMO what you need are lessons where one builds on the information from the previous ones. The Study Bass site linked below, does exactly that.

If you dont know where the notes are on the fretboard, then that's a great place to start.

It is important to know your scales, but chord tones are equally important. These consist of every other note(1357 etc) in a scale. For example the Cmaj scale is CDEFGAB(C), so the Cmaj chord (135) is CEG.

An inversion is when the root note is not the lowest sounding note. For example, in the key of C, CEG is called the root inversion. If you put E as the lowest note (EGC), this is still the Cmaj chord, but it has E as the lowest note. This is the 1st inversion.

Use the Study Bass site to learn about chord tones and their inversions. Learning these will help you to be able to create your own bass lines.



Play chord tones around the cycle of fourths, starting on the twelfth fret, E string, naming the chord out loud.

Play chord tone inversions around the cycle of fourths starting on G (third fret E string).



If all of the above does not make sense to you then it would be best to go to the very start of the Study Bass site and work your way through it.

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A good book to check out would be :

http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836


Hope this helps.

 

[phillybass101]

Have a new tune to learn on your daily list.
Pick a hard one to do & stay with it.
Learn to read notation!

+1 I was going to add Ear Training. Learining to transcribe is invaluable. Also concentrate on learning the sounds and notes that make up chords. You''ll advance faster. Another great thing is to practice playing intervals and learning how they sound. For example a 2nd, 3rd. 4th.5th. etc. The bigger your ear gets, the faster you'll pick up things.

 

[enricogaletta]

As I read in some previous comments, you need to add to your week schedule some other stuff, better with topics you aren't familiar with.
Because if you study always the same thing you'll reach a limit of not-learning anymore.
Tabs are good but just to learn how some musicians feels to play some particular lines, or to understand better how play a specific lick.
Than just forget about it, otherwise you'll become a tab addiction musician. It's the same thing to learn a groove/lick/solo and than don't spend time to analyze it, why a musicians use a scale instead another, or why a player use to play a groove in that way instead use different dynamic approach or technique.
I think you should at least including in your week schedule, ear training, transcriptions and groove analysis.
The most important thing a bass player should do before learn anything else is groove!
First learn bass lines from all music styles, not just the one you like it, and than try to experiment and apply what you got using your harmony and techniques knowledge, playing with drum machines or drum loops.
When you're thinking things start to get better than move on steps ahead and start to learn improvisation and soloing.
So at the end a new good topics to add will be groove and reading.
if you need more help just ask again or pm me. I will be happy to help you.
Cheers!!