Hitting a Wall

[bkberwanger]

This might be long-winded, but here goes
I have been playing electric bass for 25 yrs, upright for 14. I graduated with a music ed degree and currently teach elementary music. I give private lessons and gig on a regular basis. I am a solid player and musician. Lately I feel I've hit a wall with practice. I work on ear training, scales, technique, different pieces in many genres. I just feel stuck and stagnant. Any ideas or recommendations on how to break out and enjoy playing again are greatly appreciated.

 

[Rib 13]

Couple of ideas: Un- educate yourself and work on your "Street playing"

Listen to genres, styles, and bands you dislike or normally don't interest you

Listen to a lot of original music and garage bands of various genres ( every bass player has at least one cool signature thing that they do and, if theres a recording opportunity, by golly they're gonna get it on there lol)

Adapt chops and licks from other instruments: sax and piano in particular

Start recording original music......a Lot

 

[ebo]

What is this “practice” you speak of? Seriously, I am a firm believer in the Victor Wooten school of thought. Don’t practice, just play. Play is fun, practice is not fun. I work on stuff as I play to expand my knowledge and skills, my chops as it were, but I literally never practice. I could be a better player if I focused on practicing scales and what not, but for me music is fun. I work at being better within my play time. Sounds like music is your work (kudos to you for making music your livelihood). You’re probably plenty good already, I’d say relax and enjoy the ride.

 

[Les Fret]

Stop you bass for awhile or put it on hold and learn another instrument. Piano, guitar or upright or even drums. Eventually that will give you new ideas for your bass playing too.

 

[srosenthal13]

Stop you bass for awhile or put it on hold and learn another instrument. Piano, guitar or upright or even drums. Eventually that will give you new ideas for your bass playing too.

Absolutely concur with learning drums. It's the other half of a symbiotic relationship. You'll think differently about how you approach bass. I'm coming at it from the other direction (drummer learning bass), and it's definitely sparking new thinking about how I play drums and develop parts.

 

[WestyBassBob]

What is this “practice” you speak of? Seriously, I am a firm believer in the Victor Wooten school of thought. Don’t practice, just play. Play is fun, practice is not fun. I work on stuff as I play to expand my knowledge and skills, my chops as it were, but I literally never practice. I could be a better player if I focused on practicing scales and what not, but for me music is fun. I work at being better within my play time. Sounds like music is your work (kudos to you for making music your livelihood). You’re probably plenty good already, I’d say relax and enjoy the ride.

This

and write and record some songs. Get some new band mates. Don’t practice. Play. I mostly practice by playing with recordings. It lets me try different ways of playing the same song over and over again and the band mates don’t care if you mess up. I like to play music that doesn’t have an obvious bass part but it totally works with anything you just want to listen to and play with. It’s really taught me a lot about the role of bass etc.

 

[WestyBassBob]

Absolutely concur with learning drums. It's the other half of a symbiotic relationship. You'll think differently about how you approach bass. I'm coming at it from the other direction (drummer learning bass), and it's definitely sparking new thinking about how I play drums and develop parts.

Bass and drums go together like sodium and chlorine. By themselves they are not so great. But together they can do things like make bacon.

 

[CallMeAl]

If you have the time and energy, get out and play with new folks. Try a new genre. Look for sub work. Go to jams.

If you are time poor, or generally feeling anti social- learn a new instrument. Piano and guitar would be my top picks.

I did both of these. Spent about 5 years playing for a brilliant guitar player, which led to 2 regular bands plus sub and backing band stuff. I learned a ton … Then between initial covid restrictions, and later work and family stuff- I took up guitar. I’ve learned so much and it’s really influenced my bass playing.

PS you sound a lot like me; I’ve played bass 20+ years, music major (trumpet,) now my wife and I run a school

 

[chris_b]

Whenever I feel stale I sit down and play along with a couple of Stevie Wonder, Steely Dan or Keb Mo albums.

Always makes me feel better.

 

[Bass Ameg]

As being said above, don't practice, but play music. Play along songs and records, have a beer, give your grooves to the world, imagine you're a rockstar. Don't work but have fun.

 

[JonathanPDX]

I can relate: 25 years of bass, though after 20 years doing it to pay the bills I finally got a day gig so my music goals are much more selfish now. I found that my musical pursuits had become so focused on other people and what they wanted, I'd stopped really working on the stuff that made me attracted to playing bass in the first place.

Burnout is normal, as is hitting a plateau. I've been fortunate to study with and learn from a lot of great musicians, so a few ideas to toss around:

Try a deep dive into a player or band, especially someone you have never really dug into before. Forget your gigs or job and pick something that intrigues you personally. Go learn Jaco's solo in Havona even though nobody will ever ask you to play it on a gig.

Try to identify at least one thing you suck at. Maybe it's odd times or reading jazz charts or a technique or even just a feel or style. At this stage, you know what it takes to improve, so the adventure may be finding those gaps in your knowledge base and feeling around for their edges.

Go see some monster players perform live. I've known Victor Wooten for about 20 years and seen him play literally hundreds of shows, but every time I see him play I go home excited to pick up my bass and practice.

If you are really stuck in a rut, trick your brain into a challenge. My teacher, Scott Pemberton (in Portland, OR but he tours all over the country) puts his guitar flat on a bar stool and plays it overhand, like a piano. Approaching the instrument overhand changes all of your logic around scales, shapes, and when to shift your hand position. Something that you have done in your sleep for 20 years suddenly becomes new and even challenging when you are faced with looking at it upside down and backwards. Hell, if that's not enough, try a different tuning, too!

Just for fun, here's an example of what overhand can look like:

 

[woodsracer]

I do go through this sometimes, playing the same stuff and feeling like I'm getting monotonous. Play with new musicians and have fun improvising. Write some changes, write some solos. Record your own music and improvise over it. Post your work to help motivate yourself. The suggestions on playing other instruments is good. I have gone through phases of playing a lot of different stuff and it most definitely makes you feel more invigorated musically.

 

[Five or Six]

Keb Mo albums

Definitely!

 

[yberwaffe]

Buy more basses/pedals.

 

[J Wilson]

I've 'hit a wall' or 'painted myself in a corner' several times over my time strapped behind a bass guitar.

Speaking only for myself, none of the many great suggestions above didn't work in my case. I didn't want to practice anything at gunpoint. Going to see some fabulous player made me feel like a loser. And on and on.

If you asked me, I'd advise to certainly honor your obligations you're locked into. On the other hand, any and everything you can put on hiatus I would. Then go fishing. Bowl. Learn to paint. Take a trip. Get in the Kitchen and wear out The Joy of Cooking. Take up skydiving. Binge every episode of The Sopranos.

In other words, as much as is reasonably possible in your life, walk away for a while. Take a vacation from playing and let the swollen Bass Playing part of your brain settle down.

You are a skilled long time professional, your chops aren't going to vanish any time soon. I always found after a Time Out, I came back with a fresh outlook, and even tricky parts I just couldn't get, I was suddenly killing them effortlessly. You will find that while you've been away, your subconscious has been steadily updating and rebooting that bass playin' part of your mind.

Maybe not for me everybody, but it always worked like a charm for me.

Best of Luck,

JW

 

[BlueP]

This might be long-winded, but here goes
I have been playing electric bass for 25 yrs, upright for 14. I graduated with a music ed degree and currently teach elementary music. I give private lessons and gig on a regular basis. I am a solid player and musician. Lately I feel I've hit a wall with practice. I work on ear training, scales, technique, different pieces in many genres. I just feel stuck and stagnant. Any ideas or recommendations on how to break out and enjoy playing again are greatly appreciated.

concur with comments above by other people ….

you mentioned above ‘many genres’ … so possibly you could try one that is totally out of your comfort zone … and focus on that for a period of time …

or think about what, if any, aspects of your playing that you could improve on, and set some goals around that…

for those of us geared to ‘practice’ it can be hard to break from those habits… but sometimes the so called walls are just signalling to either take a new approach or step away and take a break for a while …

some educators explain that our learning is not linear… I took a few months off early last year, came back re energised…. good luck