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Need your bass wisdom

G

Gabriel Gamboa

Jun 15, 2014
14
1
30
#1
Every time I do a run/fill on my bass I end up using the same fills that my bass teacher is using I try mixing it up but I would always ended up using the same fill/run any suggestions on how to help break the habit? What's your favorite run/fill? Also what is a good technique to speed up your fingers.
Ps: my bass teacher is Braylon lacy! Super rad guy.
 
#2
Link your fingers with a single rubber band, half turn between each finger. It will make your fingers feel light as air when you remove it. But remember, it's better to play slower and clean than fast and sloppy. Work on your left hand and your right hand will come around. Speed will come naturally with practice.
 
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#3
Gabriel Gamboa said:
Every time I do a run/fill on my bass I end up using the same fills that my bass teacher is using I try mixing it up but I would always ended up using the same fill/run any suggestions on how to help break the habit? What's your favorite run/fill? Also what is a good technique to speed up your fingers.
Ps: my bass teacher is Braylon lacy! Super rad guy.
Click to expand...

Here's an easy and quick tip. Pick a string. Any string, but I recommend E or A. Knock it out of tune by a half-step up or down. Try your runs/fills some more. They'll sound different and will lead you to explore new patterns, as well as learning to play what you already know in an altered tuning. When you return to your normal tuning, the fingerings will again sound different, but you'll have at least a few cool new fills and a platform to jump off for creating new ones.

Transpose them to a different mode. If your fills are all in Dorian, try Phrygian.

Move the same notes in the runs/fills to a different part of the fingerboard.

Try starting the measure on the 2nd, 3rd, or 4th note in your fill and move the first few skipped notes to the end.

Speeding up fingers? Start by chugging your way through Tower of Power's What is Hip until you can play it to tempo, comfortably and with controlled dynamics. Serious 16th note finger-funk workout. It'll help with string skipping, stamina, and speed.
 
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#5
Gabriel Gamboa said:
Every time I do a run/fill on my bass I end up using the same fills that my bass teacher is using I try mixing it up but I would always ended up using the same fill/run any suggestions on how to help break the habit? What's your favorite run/fill? Also what is a good technique to speed up your fingers.
Ps: my bass teacher is Braylon lacy! Super rad guy.
Click to expand...

I'm no wise bassist, but this might help:

#Listen and learn to (good) songs (nicluding fills in it) not only from your teacher, but from as many songs/records possible. And don't only learn the bass (nor fills) in the songs. Learn anything else too.

#Exercise scales or anything as clean as possible patiently with metronome set to slow tempo (say it 60 BPM), then repeat and each time turn up the tempo step by step (say it +10 BPM each time) for the same exercise. everyday. As clean as possible and patiently. Stay exercise at the same tempountil you play it fluently before increase the tempo. Never go speed up before you play clean.
You'll be able to play speedy fast whenever you want.

And I think this thread should be in technique or General Instruction sub forums instead of here in Basses sub forum (?)
 
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#7
Jefff said:
Theory, theory, theory. Learn it, as much as you can.

You need to know the rules before you can break them.
Click to expand...

To which I would add music is best learned as science, but best practiced as art. Although his views on music education seem to piss a lot of people off, Jeff Berlin has it right.

For instance, he recently said:

"As an academic music, jazz is the best music to study. Learning it doesn’t necessarily mean you will become a jazzer. It means you will improve as a player through working on perfect musical content. The goal of all players is to play what you hear inside of yourself. If you cannot play what you hear inside, then you either don’t know where the notes are on the neck, or you don’t know what the notes are. There can be no other explanation for a lack of playing ability, which makes the solution to this problem easy: Learn music on your bass. Why is jazz study so effective? Because it is pure content applied directly to your instrument. There is no better way to improve—not in academics."

I'm not entirely convinced his claim of Jazz theory as the key to learning all music is entirely true. For instance, there's a lot of classical music I've transcribed to the bass and playing a "bass part" along with orchestral pieces has opened my mind in ways (I don't think) Jazz ever could. On the other hand, Jazz theory can be used to analyze a lot of classical pieces. So maybe he's on to something.

Another word of advice: whenever you pick up your instrument, always plan to do something musical with it: play a scale, arpeggio, work out a tough section of a song you like. You'll learn much faster and much more with the deliberate act of furthering your knowledge. That wasn't meant to be as didactic as it sounds.
 
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#10
Shovel said:
Fifths, octaves, and fourths and thirds are your friends. Different rhythms with the same notes in the same order can sound completely different, so play with some different rhythms and pauses.
Click to expand...
Well, speaking of that, sixth and ninth (second) and seventh (major and dominant) are also friends..
Willy Dixon and many other bassists use sixth to five before playing root notes on the first beat in many records, that are beautiful.
Many many jazz/blues/rock/pop bass utilize seventh as a prime 'running' note before or after playing root. Also beautiful.
etc etc...
So I think, while I got your point, about third, fifth and octave, that they are basic notes or intervals of the chord, but to only thinking of the three especially in creating fill as the OP asking is, sorry, not quite right, instead it's very limiting.
IMHO in creating fill(s), it's better to think 'melody wise', which mean, all notes in the scale (or even out of the scale) can be involved.
 
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#11
bluesdogblues said:
Well, speaking of that, sixth and ninth (second) and seventh (major and dominant) are also friends..
Willy Dixon and many other bassists use sixth to five before playing root notes on the first beat in many records, that are beautiful.
Many many jazz/blues/rock/pop bass utilize seventh as a prime 'running' note before or after playing root. Also beautiful.
etc etc...
So I think, while I got your point, about third, fifth and octave, that they are basic notes or intervals of the chord, but to only thinking of the three especially in creating fill as the OP asking is, sorry, not quite right, instead it's very limiting.
IMHO in creating fill(s), it's better to think 'melody wise', which mean, all notes in the scale (or even out of the scale) can be involved.
Click to expand...

This is true. For instance, if your band is vamping on a G7 (G-B-D-F) chord (in G Mixolydian mode), the notes from the Gm blues scale (G-Bb-C-Db-D-F-G) work for grooving and creating fills even if you don't know exactly what key or mode the piece is in. Yes, it looks odd to be playing the flat 3rd instead of the natural 3rd from the G7, but it works well.
 
#13
As usual, lots of good ideas. But the post I liked hit upon what I think is the deepest Kung fu. There are only 12 notes, not counting the multiplicity of octaves, but an infinite possible number of rhythmic variations. Timing and placement are more important than the notes, in my opinion. In fact, a lot of great bassists never even bother with too many tensions, they get it done with swinging placement and feel, and that applies even more to funk, reggae, and rock than to jazz.
 
#15
Ibycan said:
Practicing with a metronome would make all the difference in the world
Click to expand...

I started out using metronomes for running scales, arpeggios, fingering exercises, reference tempo for practicing difficult passages at slower tempos, working out exercises. Once I'd built up my bass vocabulary and began thinking in terms of grooves, progressions, runs, fills, etc., I discovered drum machines (with and without quantization) and live drum loops were much more inspiring. With the loops, you've got tons of options. Some with a snare behind the beat, some on top, some ahead. After that, band backing tracks for learning improvisation.

If you have an audio interface and DAW software (Garage Band is fine), you can dump your accompaniments into one track and then record yourself as you play along in a separate one. My playing improved massively, since I could critically lesson to my performance repeatedly. Also handy for learning what frequencies to boost or cut to make the bass sit nicely, as well as learning how to use a compressor. For instance, with multi-track drum loops, I used the kick track to trigger a compressor via a side-chain to tighten up the low end in my mixes. When the kick hit, the bass levels would duck a bit.

Plus it's cool to record a few tracks of solo bass to build a montage and play along with yourself. Put a whammy pedal and a distortion box in your signal chain for some cool Doug Wimbish-style pitch shifted shredding.

Or, if you're Jeff Berlin, just take a sledgehammer to your metronome, as he doesn't consider them useful in learning to play. He and Steve Bailey had a friendly, but contentious debate about it. Think it's on YouTube somewhere.
 
#18
HeisnbrgUncertn said:
I started out using metronomes for running scales, arpeggios, fingering exercises, reference tempo for practicing difficult passages at slower tempos, working out exercises. Once I'd built up my bass vocabulary and began thinking in terms of grooves, progressions, runs, fills, etc., I discovered drum machines (with and without quantization) and live drum loops were much more inspiring. With the loops, you've got tons of options. Some with a snare behind the beat, some on top, some ahead. After that, band backing tracks for learning improvisation.

If you have an audio interface and DAW software (Garage Band is fine), you can dump your accompaniments into one track and then record yourself as you play along in a separate one. My playing improved massively, since I could critically lesson to my performance repeatedly. Also handy for learning what frequencies to boost or cut to make the bass sit nicely, as well as learning how to use a compressor. For instance, with multi-track drum loops, I used the kick track to trigger a compressor via a side-chain to tighten up the low end in my mixes. When the kick hit, the bass levels would duck a bit.

Plus it's cool to record a few tracks of solo bass to build a montage and play along with yourself. Put a whammy pedal and a distortion box in your signal chain for some cool Doug Wimbish-style pitch shifted shredding.

Or, if you're Jeff Berlin, just take a sledgehammer to your metronome, as he doesn't consider them useful in learning to play. He and Steve Bailey had a friendly, but contentious debate about it. Think it's on YouTube somewhere.
Click to expand...

I understand your point, but.. while to the OP question - about create fills - practice with backing traks or drum tracks perhaps is more appropriate, but it is different than "practice with 'metronome only'".
IMHO 'practice with metronome only' (click track) still has different purpose & value and still is a must thing to do aside of practice with beat/drum/backing track. With backing track (s) one tends to 'noodle' around with notes,..while click track/metronome only is strictly needed to exercise one's ability etc about playing in tempo.
 

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