Yeah, you really have to have the bass line down so well it just goes on automatic and then you can pay attention to your singing. I can pull it off "most" of the time.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
How much practice before you perform?
- Thread starter WestyBassBob
- Start date
I usually listen to the tunes a few times .. 5 or 6 spins. I will write out charts afterwards and that puts me in a comfortable spot.
My routine is to listen to the track. Away from my bass. Too tempting to play along right away. I usually miss things if I do that.
While listening, I count how many parts there are. Intro, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, etc. I label each with a letter. A, B, C, etc...
Then, I count and chart measures, or repeats, of how long each section lasts. And come up with a formula for the song. A2, B4, C2, D4, etc. Once I have all that, I'll start playing. Learning each part separately. Then, slowly I end up knowing the tune's arrangement, which I consider the most important part of performing the song.
Last are the licks and such that makes each performance unique to the player. Depending on the assignment, I learn em note for note or install myself into those parts. If a tribute act? Note for note. If my band? I write licks or interpret them. If originals? I create it all.
The most important facet, for me, is listening to that song! Over and over. Songs I grew up hearing and loved are WAY easier to learn. Cuz I kinda half know them already. Tunes I never heard before, in styles I don't listen to regularly, can be more of a challenge. But, to me, learning songs is FUN. More fun than lessons or using video. Each song has a lesson in it. Counting, dynamics, melody and technique. I enjoy it. Immensely!
While listening, I count how many parts there are. Intro, verse, chorus, bridge, solo, etc. I label each with a letter. A, B, C, etc...
Then, I count and chart measures, or repeats, of how long each section lasts. And come up with a formula for the song. A2, B4, C2, D4, etc. Once I have all that, I'll start playing. Learning each part separately. Then, slowly I end up knowing the tune's arrangement, which I consider the most important part of performing the song.
Last are the licks and such that makes each performance unique to the player. Depending on the assignment, I learn em note for note or install myself into those parts. If a tribute act? Note for note. If my band? I write licks or interpret them. If originals? I create it all.
The most important facet, for me, is listening to that song! Over and over. Songs I grew up hearing and loved are WAY easier to learn. Cuz I kinda half know them already. Tunes I never heard before, in styles I don't listen to regularly, can be more of a challenge. But, to me, learning songs is FUN. More fun than lessons or using video. Each song has a lesson in it. Counting, dynamics, melody and technique. I enjoy it. Immensely!
The time depends on the music. I practice until I know the material well enough to play it through without any major claims a few times in a row.
This! Nothing I like better than sitting down with my headphones and a song and puzzling it out, and discovering that something I'd never paid attention to before actually has something very cool in it that I'd never noticed.
Hey y'all thanks for responding. Love hearing all the different techniques you use to learn new material. I've learned a lot.
one of the things that's great about music is how individual it is. There's no formula that works for everyone or any piece. So the more you know...the further you go.
one of the things that's great about music is how individual it is. There's no formula that works for everyone or any piece. So the more you know...the further you go.
This has to be a genre or even song specific question. I've played old time tunes that literally just repeat the same two chords for the entire song. Those type I sometimes pick up pretty quickly. Sometimes.
I have a routine down - overlapping weeks of practice - it takes me a good 8 or 9 evenings of practice before I have a weekend's set for a church gig locked and loaded, so I start on Friday a week and a couple days before the gig (I'm still polishing that weekend's material at that point - thats the overlap). Typically, a weekend has or two new songs, and two to four that I've played before. Often one or two of those will have a different arrangement than I've played before (some of the hardest songs to lear are those you already know, but with a different arrangement).
Often, a few days before the weekend, 60% of the keys for the songs get changed. And maybe we add or change a tune. OK, it's a chaotic routine, but by the Monday before a weekend, I have everything memorized (at least in he key it's in at that point). The last 6 evenings (and a few hours in the car listening to the tunes on the way to and from work) are polishing. Yes, I could do the gig well with half the practice, but....amateurs practice until they get it right, pros practice until they can't get it wrong - I lean heavily into that philosophy.
My goal in all this is to know the material well enough that I'm looking at the audience and other musicians much more than my own hands. Music is a team sport; if you never look at your teammates, you're not playing music.
Often, a few days before the weekend, 60% of the keys for the songs get changed. And maybe we add or change a tune. OK, it's a chaotic routine, but by the Monday before a weekend, I have everything memorized (at least in he key it's in at that point). The last 6 evenings (and a few hours in the car listening to the tunes on the way to and from work) are polishing. Yes, I could do the gig well with half the practice, but....amateurs practice until they get it right, pros practice until they can't get it wrong - I lean heavily into that philosophy.
My goal in all this is to know the material well enough that I'm looking at the audience and other musicians much more than my own hands. Music is a team sport; if you never look at your teammates, you're not playing music.
- Jan 1, 2014
- 1,016
- 3,480
- Disclosures
- Decendant from the Clovis culture. "Emitting that wonderful bass effect since 1970".
Absolutely zero. Some bands like to do it this way. Here's a few examples of the last band I was in that never rehearsed or prepared anything. We just played.
For me, it is now so much quicker and easier to learn songs having learned basic theory. Once you see why bass lines are what they are and how they're constructed, it makes so much more sense, and the need to spend countless hours doing mindless rote memorization of notes is gone. And I sometimes really enjoy the creativity of making my own bass lines rather than always regurgitating the original bass line from the song.
Last edited:
This completely depends on how complicated the song is and how many times I've heard it in the past.
If it was a big radio hit from the 70's or 80's, odds are good I can play it without any practice at all. If it is completely unfamiliar to me but simple in structure, I need a few run throughs to make sure I know the structure, and I need to make notes about the arrangement and chords, etc.
If it's complicated and I'm trying to do a very faithful, note-for-note rendition, I will need much more time than that.
If it was a big radio hit from the 70's or 80's, odds are good I can play it without any practice at all. If it is completely unfamiliar to me but simple in structure, I need a few run throughs to make sure I know the structure, and I need to make notes about the arrangement and chords, etc.
If it's complicated and I'm trying to do a very faithful, note-for-note rendition, I will need much more time than that.
it really depends on the song. took me a good long evening and next morning to get Sir duke but easy stuff I can learn before the song ends. but I've been playing 20 years consistently so it helps. but now with youtube somebody has almost always figured it out already and that makes it so much easier.
Yup depends on the song. I pick up songs pretty quck now I think. But I'd say for an average song I've never heard before I need three days. Day one I learn it with the structure etc. Day two it's like.....what? learn it again much quicker. Day three it's in my head and pretty much good to go.
Does this count all the time I spend listening to it on repeat in my car before I even pick up my bass?
As others have said... as long as it takes.
My band doesn't really rehearse (maybe 4 rehearsals a year), but we add new songs regularly. For me (and everyone in the band) that means we practice them on our own until we don't get them wrong. Some songs, that could be in a single listen in less than the actual time of the song (something like Stand by Me). Other songs, that could mean a couple of days listening and going over them (something like The Killers - Somebody Told Me).
Being that ya said you're a newbie, I'll offer this suggestion. Its best not to compare your progress with anyone other than yourself. A few years ago it took me twice as long to learn a song as it does now. The more we do it, the better we get.
And another tip I wish I had stumbled upon decades ago. Try learning songs without your bass in hand. No matter how much you suck at it. Listen, and try to imagine where the notes would be on the neck. After doing it for a while to the best of your ability, even if you're 100% off - pick up the bass and learn it. By doing this over and over we start to really train our ears. Do that for 100 songs and I promise you'll be well on your way to learning tunes by just listening to them. And you will make far less mistakes when performing. Your fingers kind of just learn where to go.
Same here. My regular acts don't rehearse. Each gig is a rehearsal for the next. We also add tunes. With the trust the other guys are learning it. Sometimes we f it all up. Not often. But on occasion. And, glory be, we don't get fired from the gig. We laugh. And rarely make those same mistakes the next time.
But the reason I quoted your post? The Killers. Somebody Told Me. The band is exceptional. I was asked to learn several of their tunes. I'd never heard of em before. I figgered, some new pop type stuff. How hard can it be? Haw!!! Very. I procrastinated. BIG mistake! Once I started learning them, I realized very quickly how crafty they were. And how good that bass guitarist was. Yikes!!! Well, I got em well enuff to rehearse. Showed up to run the tunes, and they'd transposed them. Not down, as usual. It was a female singer, and she needed them UP!!! A step and a half!!! I still haven't mastered Somebody Told Me. Tho I have performed it ten or twelve times. That tune is a beast in the regular key. Open strings help in the original key. At C#? Wow! What a workout!
I bring this all up cuz I forgot to mention that the absolute FIRST thing I do is find the key. Ask the bandleader what key the song will be performed in! Don't just trust the recording. Usually, because this has happened before, I practice songs in alternate keys. One usin open strings, then a "closed position" key. Eliminating open strings. This helps in case I show up to a cold call and a leader has Transposed the song. Learning a song twice can be a pain. But it is ALWAYS an education. A lesson. In transpositioning a key. That skill is handy in what I do.
- Oct 18, 2012
- 6,683
- 5,538
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Fender, Spector, Ampeg, Curt Mangan, Nordstrand Pickups, Korg , Conquest Sound
It really depends on the song. I've been playing for over 40 years and can learn most songs very quickly, especially if I've heard them many times. As far as performing the song is concerned, I won't perform it until everyone in the band has mastered it and can play it without thinking about it. Some songs have taken a couple of rehearsals and other have taken weeks. There have also been some that just never sounded good so we scrapped them. The toughest part of being a musician is being your own critic and understanding when you can't play a song well no matter how much you like it.
