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playing what you hear inside you on bass

#21
I've been playing bass for 43 years and I still strive to get stuff out of my head and onto my bass :) Does this ever end?
 
#22
Here is a fun musical exercise/quiz:

Without listening to a recording of "Over the Rainbow" or picking up your bass (i.e. using only your internalized memory of listening to the song), ask yourself, at what point in the melody (what word in the lyrics) is the #4 that is this song's only non-diatonic note outside the home key major scale?

The rest of you can play at home too, but let's give kay prince an opportunity to answer the question (since it is his thread) before we spoil the answer. :)

For extra credit, can you think of any famous songs/melodies (without looking it up on wikipedia) that also use the #4 interval? Hint: if you live in the USA, then you probably know a really, really famous example. ;)

These are the kinds of exercises (learning to recognize the intervals that make melodies distinctive, using only your "mind's ear") that are incredibly useful for learning to play what you hear inside you on bass!
 
#25
If you're thinking, you're stinking! <just kidding>

One other thing to add to all of the good advice above comes from Seth Horan



who mentioned during an interview to sometimes practice in a completely dark room to become REALLY familiar with your bass and where notes are. IIRC, this was mentioned in discussion of playing complex parts and singing at the same time.
 
#27
Let me chip in this so u cud help me.............I only practice learning songs I think am loosing somtin...I think ...am lacking the fundation,I read somtin frm de internet and it says learning songs u shud be part of my practice routine.........if so then what should I learn....????scales,chords or what??help ur brother cus am giving up on bass......:(
 
#30
The important thing is to learn YOUR favorite songs (not my favorite songs). ;)

We can't do the work for you, though. You need to practice the skill if you want to improve. There is no shortcut.
 
#31
phillybass101 said:
I've been playing bass for 43 years and I still strive to get stuff out of my head and onto my bass :) Does this ever end?
Click to expand...

I dont think so .... And to add,

for me it sometimes seems like I am bass deaf inside my head

but in spite of this I feel very bass intuitive in emotion...and connected when I actually play. ..

I can hear guitar in my head, and sometimes all the time.... bass stuff in my head can at times seem like a void....

I don't know if there is a medical condition for that syndrome. :) lol

Possibly it's because I started out young on guitar and later moved to bass.. And possibly because I have spent a lot of time learning from reading and not from listening

I also use to sing from ear and sight reading as a young soprano and that was all in treble clef so possibly that might be what it's about or

Heaven forbid, it might be I am just plain lazy in the ear training and the reliance on study of written music compensates for this but at the expense of then not hearing bass ideas in my head and then applying myself to playing what I hear in my head ... Mmmm

I think I am over due for a visit to my therapist... Lol... Because here I am performing psycho analysis of oneself on TB..

Rossa :)
 
#32
kay prince said:
Am not familiar with the song :) am an African so this is my first time of hearing the song maybe that's why lol :)
Click to expand...

Right. If you aren't familiar with the song, that defeats the whole purpose. The point is to start with a song that is already "in your head": something you know so well that you could sing it, whistle it, or hum it at a moment's notice without even having to think about it. Songs you learned as a child are ideal, like children's songs that your mother used to sing to you, or popular folk songs that are part of your culture that everyone knows. Another good choice might be your country's national anthem.

Besides the crucial fact that these are songs that are already deeply ingrained "in your head," they are also good for this kind of exercise because they tend to be very melodic, but also relatively simple. Good luck!
 
#33
kay prince said:
Let me chip in this so u cud help me.............I only practice learning songs I think am loosing somtin...I think ...am lacking the fundation,I read somtin frm de internet and it says learning songs u shud be part of my practice routine.........if so then what should I learn....????scales,chords or what??help ur brother cus am giving up on bass......:(
Click to expand...

Practice routines are absolutely proven to work. Design the one you use for the results you're trying to get. Make it a routine, not just "whatever-whenever" for best results. It takes 6 weeks to build a habit, so diligence is required. Just playing along with youtube or a CD is good for learning songs, but less good for overall musicianship. For that, you need some fundamentals.

I'm from a classical background where everything is written, but now I play BG and need to be able to play lines by ear on-the-spot, so I try to make my fundamentals 60% of my practices at least. If you have solid scales and arpeggios, you won't even have to think about which notes come next; it'll be right under your fingers every time there's a chord change. There is study material for all of this stuff all over TB.

Here's what's been working for me (practice routine, 60-90 min/day at least) in the last 6 months since I switched from DB to BG. There's almost always something else to add to the list for a day or a week, but these are the basics.

Every day - all 36 major, minor, and blues scales, for two octaves, up and down. Finger exercises for stretch, shift, and speed. Run my two-dozen-or-so practice licks a couple of times in a couple of keys, and do some "groove practice". All of the technical stuff is with a metronome, differing tempos (80-180) and durations (w-h-q-e-s) in nut position.

Every other day - same scales with "box" positioning, arpeggios and runs for a bunch of chords, for two octaves, in the common keys. Also run all the songs that are on "current" set lists (hopefully without looking at the changes) and hit one new or technical song/line/phrase/pattern a couple of times, by ear if possible, but with a lead sheet or play-along if it's complicated.

Weekly (usually Mon or Wed) - Sheet music reading, usually jazz or some flavor of folk, with at least one new or technically difficult song. Vocal practice, mostly songs but also some scales, interval exercises, and intonation practice at least

Weekly (usually Tue or Thu) - Learn a new bass line or lick from a non-preferred genre, then "library" work. My current play-along-on-shuffle list is maybe 3h long and has all the stuff that I might play again somewhere, bass lines I need to refigure, covers that I should know, songs somebody challenged me to learn, complicated arrangements, blues and jazz jam tracks, stuff I want to talk a singer into, music for try-outs, etc.

My needs are specific to me; You can do this type of thing to address your needs. You could even start TODAY with quick one-octave major scales on all the natural tones as a warm-up before you play anything else.
 
#37
Learning to play what you hear inside you:

1 practice playing melodies you know on the bass ( for instance America, Star Spangled Banner, these are major with that #4 in the melody that other posters mentioned). Christmas songs work well and lots of them are well known and are diatonic.

2 as a starting place, most major key melodies are less than two octaves top to bottom and can be played in one position on a five string bass without going more than a fourth or fifth higher or lower than one octave
So for instance in the key of C, use the position that places your second finger on C (8th fret on the A string) This gives you from a G to F almost two octaves without moving your position to play melodies. You just move this base position up and down for different major keys. Use this same approach for minor positions as a starting place. Also up an octave to put your melody in a higher range of course. Of course you need and want

2 do not look at your bass neck and fingers when you play. (Ever 'wonder' why Stevie Wonder is so great? pun intended lol)

3 play along with recordings

4 play more chorally

5 hear what you want to play in your head and then find it on your instrument

6 play more chromatics in your lines (make sure you can play chromatic scales all over your bass). It is amazing what practicing the chromatic scale can do for your playing.

7 get some ambersold material for ear training to play along with

8 play in every key in all parts of the bass neck

9 play common progressions and simple riffs and melodies in flat keys, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb for instance if you are a rock type player

10 make sure you know every note on the fingerboard

11 sing what you play or play what you sing. (Check out George benson for instance)

11a sing what you play or want to play...did I say sing what you play and can hear.

11b. One more time...sing along. Have you noticed that you can hear a melody and sing it ( even if you don't have a good voice). our voice is our best and most developed instrument

12 learn about 2 5 1 progressions. ii V I

13 learn to think in numbers. 1-8 and 9th, 10th, b3, b5,b7 etc. there are only 12 notes total.

14 learn the naturally occurring diatonic chords. 1 4 and 5 are major, 2 3 and 6 are minor, 7 is dim. Play them in every key for ear training. This stuff is in just about every song.

15 play arpeggios in each inversion. Lots of melodies use chord tones starting on the fifth or seventh or third of the chord.

16 think in short phrase and connect them

17 use a metronome when you are doing your ear training and such.

Take a song like 'What are you Doing for the rest of Your Life' and learn the melody and learn it on the bass. It is in minor.

Things like this are all good to do to learn to have "Elephant Ears"

It does not happen overnight it can take a long time but you will get better at it.

Just don't play the same old minor pentatonic "box" shape patterns you first learned this gets you nowhere!
 
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#39
Without music to play to, my bass plays me. It's all still a surprise.

If I'm playing with a band, I'm still not really playing my bass. I'm really attempting to get in the other musician's heads, or improve what they are doing.
 

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