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How much time do you spend jamming to a drum looo or Jan track?

WrapRough

WrapRough

Jan 26, 2021
760
1,239
London
#1
Recently I've been getting lost just jamming away to loops or jam tracks on YouTube. I've been trying to change my starting fingers to change up the lines, and also just picking three or four notes and just changing the rhythms etc. It's muchos fun... Then I feel guilty that I should be practicing technical work... Then I think no, this is groove work...and carry on :)

Outside of joining a band, this is as close as I get to making music!

So just wondering how much time you good people spend doing something similar? How much practice time should one devote to such endeavours?
 
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#2
It's not practice. It's jamming with a machine. Sure, it can be fun, but this kind of activity, being self-directed, tends to exercise skills you already have and ignore those you don't.

I practice with a double bass, a bow, and sheet music... so how much of my time doing this? None.

I'm not saying you're wrong to do it (have some fun!) ... but it's not practice.
 
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#3
AGCurry said:
It's not practice. It's jamming with a machine. Sure, it can be fun, but this kind of activity, being self-directed, tends to exercise skills you already have and ignore those you don't.

I practice with a double bass, a bow, and sheet music... so how much of my time doing this? None.

I'm not saying you're wrong to do it (have some fun!) ... but it's not practice.
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. It's practice IMO.

You're practicing groove, improvisation, tightness, and chord changes at a minimum. You don't get those things from technical practice, you get it from playing. From practicing them.
 
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#4
WrapRough said:
I respectfully disagree. It's practice IMO.

You're practicing groove, improvisation, tightness, and chord changes at a minimum. You don't get those things from technical practice, you get it from playing. From practicing them.
Click to expand...

Okay. You're practicing jamming. If you're already a master of technique and laying down great bass lines for others, practice away! :bassist:
 
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#7
AGCurry said:
It's not practice. It's jamming with a machine. Sure, it can be fun, but this kind of activity, being self-directed, tends to exercise skills you already have and ignore those you don't.

I practice with a double bass, a bow, and sheet music... so how much of my time doing this? None.

I'm not saying you're wrong to do it (have some fun!) ... but it's not practice.
Click to expand...
True, but there is definitely some value in playing along to different beats, rhythms and types of music. That stuff gets stored in the bank for later use.
 
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#9
It appears that you're not looking for contrary opinions here, and I've already given mine, but I'll add:

A standard athletic-coach cliche: "The way you practice is the way you play."

Jamming to loops doesn't exercise harmony and theory, and it doesn't provide a real-world-like playing experience. It may help your ears and your facility, and it can be fun (as you stated twice). But when you're faced with your first/next time with other musicians, it will not matter that you can jam to loops. That's not what will be asked of you. At least 95% of what bassists do is provide a foundation for the other pieces. In a sense, you will be asked to provide the loop, and it needs to be steady and confident.
 
#10
AGCurry said:
It appears that you're not looking for contrary opinions here, and I've already given mine, but I'll add:

A standard athletic-coach cliche: "The way you practice is the way you play."

Jamming to loops doesn't exercise harmony and theory, and it doesn't provide a real-world-like playing experience. It may help your ears and your facility, and it can be fun (as you stated twice). But when you're faced with your first/next time with other musicians, it will not matter that you can jam to loops. That's not what will be asked of you. At least 95% of what bassists do is provide a foundation for the other pieces. In a sense, you will be asked to provide the loop, and it needs to be steady and confident.
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I don't see anything wrong with it. Janek Gwizdala does it all the time, regularly post videos of himself doing it, and he's played worldwide plus won a Grammy. So if it's good enough for him it should be good enough for anybody. Maybe not good enough for you but I don't see how that matters a whole lot.
 
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#11
AGCurry said:
It appears that you're not looking for contrary opinions here, and I've already given mine, but I'll add:

A standard athletic-coach cliche: "The way you practice is the way you play."

Jamming to loops doesn't exercise harmony and theory, and it doesn't provide a real-world-like playing experience. It may help your ears and your facility, and it can be fun (as you stated twice). But when you're faced with your first/next time with other musicians, it will not matter that you can jam to loops. That's not what will be asked of you. At least 95% of what bassists do is provide a foundation for the other pieces. In a sense, you will be asked to provide the loop, and it needs to be steady and confident.
Click to expand...

I welcome contrary opinions, but it seems you've decided you're right.

This is not an either or situation. Practice is the deliberate act of getting better at something. As you can see from my original post I am jamming with intent, working on rhythms, working on timing, working on phrasing, working on groove creation.

Jamming to jam tracks absolutely exercises harmony and theory, helps practice chord changes, soloing etc...

Let's agree to disagree :)
 
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#12
WrapRough said:
I welcome contrary opinions, but it seems you've decided you're right.

This is not an either or situation. Practice is the deliberate act of getting better at something. As you can see from my original post I am jamming with intent, working on rhythms, working on timing, working on phrasing, working on groove creation.

Jamming to jam tracks absolutely exercises harmony and theory, helps practice chord changes, soloing etc...

Let's agree to disagree :)
Click to expand...
I can rattle off at least a dozen world-class musicians who practice to loops. So you just do you man. Don't even worry about the rest of them.
 
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#14
AGCurry said:
Jamming to loops doesn't exercise harmony and theory,
Click to expand...

I don't really follow why this would be true. I rarely jam to loops, but when I write music I often start with loops and go from there. In order to compose, I have to exercise all of these things, and I often compose over loops. So I think it's not so much a matter of what you're playing along with as much as how you're pushing yourself to move in a creative or otherwise useful way.

If you're just repeating phrases you already know, that's not going to teach you much except maybe how to tighten up, rhythmically. But you can play in a band and also never move outside of your comfort zone. It just depends on what you actually push yourself to accomplish.

I can play along with "iRealbook" and walk simple lines, or I can move for notes that are outside of the box in order to improve those skills. I am not sure how playing along with that is different from playing along with an actual drummer and pianist.
 
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#15
WrapRough said:
So just wondering how much time you good people spend doing something similar?
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i use loops for composing and arranging --- helps the players get a feel for the piece(s) --- and i'm crafting rudimentary bass parts with them so i spend a little time that way. (FWIW: i'm creating whole drum parts with fills, turnarounds, yada yada.)

WrapRough said:
How much practice time should one devote to such endeavours?
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who knows? i can see the 'metronomic practice' value, and various rhythms value --- and you seem to be incorporating other studies/aspects, and you're having fun --- so there's that.

curious: if you believed that say, 50% of your practice time was well spent working with loops: what would you be doing for the other 50% of your practice time?
 
#16
JRA said:
curious: if you believed that say, 50% of your practice time was well spent working with loops: what would you be doing for the other 50% of your practice time?
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Scales, chord tones, arpeggios, extended arpeggios, sight-reading, slap, speed work, song practice, muting.. obviously not in all one session but I mix up those aspects. I'd say its probably more 80/20. 20% being jamming as discussed in this thread.

The whole point of playing the bass is writing and playing basslines. I'm not sure how one is expected to practice and get good at that if you only ever do it with a band at rehearsal once a week. When I was in a band, I'd take lines I'd created at home while jamming and then work them with the band. I figured that's what everyone did?
 
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#17
AGCurry said:
It's not practice. It's jamming with a machine. Sure, it can be fun, but this kind of activity, being self-directed, tends to exercise skills you already have and ignore those you don't.

I practice with a double bass, a bow, and sheet music... so how much of my time doing this? None.

I'm not saying you're wrong to do it (have some fun!) ... but it's not practice.
Click to expand...

Disagree, as well. You're practicing fluidity, consistency, repetition, getting technique/phrasing down, etc. Also, it's a great tool for knocking the boredom out of practicing fingerboard memorization. Your practice comes in many forms and to say playing to a loop is just "jamming" and not practicing, is inaccurate. If you're talking theory, sure, but that's obvious.

OregonMike
 
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