Practice tips

[funkbrother13]

Justin, what kinds of things do you find yourself coming back to in your practice time?

 

[jmjbassplayer]

Justin, what kinds of things do you find yourself coming back to in your practice time?

I don't do practice time. I play all the time, bass or otherwise, so that's my practice. I only practice bass inadvertently when I need to in the instance of learning music for a gig/session. But when I do that, I tend to:

1) Slow things waaaaay down.

2) Take it in smaller pieces first, then expand outward. For instance when learning a song, I toss it in Pro Tools and study it that way, laced up w/ arrangement markers, etc. That way I can slow tempo down without pitch, loop small phrases, etc.

3) Try to avoid relying on my hands (muscle memory, patterns), and instead rely on my mind and a sense of musical instinct or understanding. That is to say: if you can't "sing" or hum (verbally or mentally, but preferably verbally) the part you're trying to learn, then I'd venture to say you don't really know it yet, and you should keep working on it.

One's hands, going swiftly through the motions on the fingerboard by rote, is not the same as making music.

J

 

[iceberg]

I remember reading an interview ages ago where you talked about metronome work you did at one point. Like 30bpm or something and trying to keep the groove (or at least that's how I interpreted at the time). I did that on the regular for a bit and it helped me a ton. Monotonous in the best way haha

 

[jmjbassplayer]

Yeah it wasn't about 30BPM per se, but what I always suggest is that you start in the center of the metronome (like 100BPM) with one time value, such as 1/4 notes. Make the beats disappear with clapping. Then slow it down 2BPM, do the same. Another two, etc. down to super slow. Then go back up to center, re-orienting yourself to 100, then do the same thing, speeding up at 2BPM increments. After that, then take it to the instrument and do the same thing.

The next logical step would be to subdivide to 1/2 notes, or multiply to 8th notes, etc. Was a good exercise for me in my early years and I would say it helped me a lot with my time.

J

 

[JimmyM]

Yeah it wasn't about 30BPM per se, but what I always suggest is that you start in the center of the metronome (like 100BPM) with one time value, such as 1/4 notes. Make the beats disappear with clapping. Then slow it down 2BPM, do the same. Another two, etc. down to super slow. Then go back up to center, re-orienting yourself to 100, then do the same thing, speeding up at 2BPM increments. After that, then take it to the instrument and do the same thing.

The next logical step would be to subdivide to 1/2 notes, or multiply to 8th notes, etc. Was a good exercise for me in my early years and I would say it helped me a lot with my time.

J

The value of taking things slowly cannot be understated. I love to hear great players rip if they do it in a musical fashion, but if you can't play footballs on the one (whole notes) reliably, then you've not completed the path to bass enlightenment. Listen to what Cliff Williams does when Angus does his little striptease thing...plays the same two notes every two bars over and over for 5 minutes, and is always dead on the money and never changes it. Not as easy as it looks.