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She-Ra's Shed
- Thread starter adudenamedruby
- Start date
They certainly can but for a beginning bassist I suggest improving technique and learning library before venturing into composing.
I very much disagree! When I started on my first instrument, violin, in 1977, the teacher encouraged me to write violin exercises for myself, using the strings/notes i'd learnt so far.
Several of that teacher's pupils kept at composing, as it can be fun. (As for me, composing quickly became the single favourite pastime of my childhood. With friends I performed my duos, trios, quartets, quintets, and sextets. There were even some symphonic pieces and some choir pieces. Maybe none of it was of any great quality, but it was a lot of fun.)
Nothing to stop a beginner from writing their own exercises, and see where it leads. Or write a song, if that's what you hear in your head. Maybe it's for you, maybe not. But there's no harm in trying!
These are definitely great suggestions that I'm going to take to heart starting next week - giving myself some time to just get back to playing and getting into the swing of things. 
Thanks!
Thanks!
Friday's Log
Double Bass
Double Bass
- -
- Ear Training - 15
- maj2 vs maj3: 174/200 (87%) @ 3.5 sec average time to recognize interval
- Today, the super was doing construction in the apartment next to mine and it was loud. I couldn't concentrate on actual study, so I just spent some three-four hours noodling on the bass on arpeggios, and revisiting the major/minor pentatonics
- My hands feel rusty when it comes to playing the stuff I used to play... and they're much more tired than after a four hours session from before, however, so I definitely need to work back up to my former stamina. And this is both hands.
- I also spent time watching some Anthony Wellington Masterclasses and I really like how the guy teaches a lot of the concepts he was talking about. I found out he does skype lessons, so I may sign up for that in Feb, just for a change of pace. That way, I'll do lessons with him for electric, and lessons with my current teacher for DB. Not a final decision, I am looking to explore more.
Saturday & Sunday's Log
Notes:
- Practiced some long tones and fifth position exercises on the DB
- Also just fooled around one the DB for a bit because it's really such a blast playing on it!
- Did some ear training but didn't have a chance to keep track - still in the mid 85% range though
- Worked on pentatonic major/minor to refresh my fingerboard geometry
- M7, m7, 7 & m7b5 arpeggios all over the fingerboard to again refresh memory of fretboard and unlock my fingers
Notes:
- Going back to work next week so this weekend was rather filled with chores to get everything ready for that
- Also had some family time and a birthday party
- In other words, I stole as much time with the bass as I could, but wasn't able to be extremely consistent. That's ok because as I found out, I really need to get my stamina back up on the bass so this was a great excuse to pick up the play for 30 mins here and there throughout the day
- Starting tomorrow, however, I'm excited to get back into a full routine again
Monday's Log
Double Bass
Notes:
Double Bass
- -
- Ear Training - 20
- M2/M3: 86%
- M2/M3/M4: 71%
- Rhythm clapping exercises - 15
- Major & minor natural, harmonic, melodic, pentatonic - 25
- Practiced as 16th notes @ 50bpm
- Major & minor & diminished triads (all inversions) - 30
- Bass Aerobics - Workout 1
Notes:
- Slowly getting back into shape. I want to review a lot of the stuff I was doing and get back to the arpeggio inversion project I was about to do.
- Warming up with some exercises from the Bass Fitness book - they are quite intricate!
Tuesday's Log
Double Bass
Notes:
Double Bass
- Long tones - 10
- Articulation exercise - 5
- 5th position exercise - 5
- F major & Bb major - 10
- Ear Training - 20
- M2/M3: 44/50 88%
- M2/M3/M4: asc - 35/50 70% harm - 32/50 64% desc - 35/50 70%
- M2/M3: 44/50 88%
- Rhythm clapping exercises - 15
- Major & minor natural, harmonic, melodic scales - 15
- M7, m7, m7b5 & dom7 - 30
- I spent time making random songs/grooves with each, rather than just practicing them coldly. However, I'm a bit rusty, so tomorrow I will spend some time practicing them coldly. Haha
- 16th notes @ 80bpm- 5
- Workout 1 - 15
- Walking basslines review - 20
- Looking over techniques I was focusing on, from Mike Downes and Ed Friedland books
Notes:
- So ear training is pretty discouraging and frustrating right now. I'm doing slightly better than chance... which is disappointing. I guess I just gotta hunker down and stick with it but, man... when I confuse a M4 for a M2, I feel pretty stupid. haha.
drop the ear training for transcription. will help learn songs, bassline/solo construction, rhythm, triads etc.
Wednesday's Log
Double Bass
Notes:
Double Bass
- Long tones - 10
- Articulation exercise - 10
- 5th position exercise - 5
- Rhythm exercises - 15
- doing these on the bass now to really get a feel for them on the instrument
- Major & minor natural, harmonic, melodic scales - 20
- M7, m7, m7b5 & dom7 - 30
- boring technical practice today, but I can feel my fingers getting back in shape
- I need to focus on keeping my left hand a bit more relaxed - I'm tense right now
- 16th notes @ 60-80bpm - 5
- Workout 1 - 15
- Practiced over a beat and made it musical, rather than just an exercise
Notes:
- Busy tonight so less time for practice. Tried to hit a general few things to keep this "getting back in shape" week going.
Thursday's Log
Double Bass
Notes:
Double Bass
- Long tones - 10
- Articulation exercise - 10
- 5th position exercise - 5
- F major & Bb major - 10
- Ear Training (M2/M3/M4) - 20
- asc - 59/100 59%
- harm - 34/50 68%
- desc - 31/50 62%
- Ugh! Rough
- asc - 59/100 59%
- Rhythm exercises - 15
- Major & minor natural, harmonic, melodic, pentatonic scales - 15
- M7, m7, m7b5 & dom7 - 20
- 16th notes @ 60-90bpm- 5
- I should go back down to 85bpm. I'm sloppy here and there at 90. I'll aim for 55-85bpm on Saturday
- Workout 1 - 15
- Walking basslines review - 15
- Technique review over regular blues
Notes:
- No practice tomorrow as I have a friend date with my friends and we shall play boardgames galore!
- So I started just randomly poking around YouTube for backing track is all sorts of styles and genres. I think, from now on, I will start to compress my chord/scale practice (where appropriate) into one thing and jam over a backing track. The idea is to be more musical with the practice, but also to start really seeing chords and scales for what they really are - a different expression of the same group of notes.
- I sold my old laptop that I had Band-in-a-Box on and I haven't yet put it on my other computer (because I am lazy, there's no excuse) so I'm not able to practice walking yet with BiaB - iRealBook Pro will do for now. lol
Saturday's Log
Double Bass
Notes:
Double Bass
- Long tones - 10
- Articulation exercise - 10
- 5th position exercise - 5
- F major & Bb major - 10
- Ear Training (M2/M3/M4) - 20
- asc - S1: 38/50 76%;
- harm - S1: 34/50 68%;
- desc - S1: 24/50 48%;
- asc - S1: 38/50 76%;
- Rhythm exercises - 15
- Scale/chord practice to backing tracks - 40
- Major, minor natural, harmonic, melodic, locrian, mixolydian, pentatonic
- 16th notes @ 50-85bpm- 10
- Much better precision that Thursday. I'm going to stick to 80/85 for a bit to really get comfortable there, and then I'll increase it back to 90+.
- Workout 1 - 15
Notes:
- I've started building a playlist on Spotify, made of random songs I find that have interesting basslines that I'd like to transcribe.
- I meant to mention this, but I've started changing up how I'm doing this practice log. I'm sitting down before practice and thinking through what I want to do that day and writing it down beforehand, including the time I'd like to spend on it. This is helping structure/focus what I'm doing a LOT more than doing something and then noting it down. I'm not very rigid about it - if I write I'm doing something for 30 minutes, and I end up spending 45 on it, I'll just update the time. Sometimes you need to keep working on something as opposed to moving on.
Good call! You really have a way of finding what works for you.
Said the man whose practice has always been intuitive and chaotic.
Monday's Log
Double Bass
Notes:
Double Bass
- Long tones - 10
- Articulation exercise - 10
- 5th position exercise - 5
- F major - 10
- Ear Training - 25
- (M2/M3/M4) 50 questions each
- asc - 66%
- harm - 66%
- desc - 48%
- asc - 66%
- Maj/Min - 66%
- (M2/M3/M4) 50 questions each
- Transcription - 20
- I Got The... by Labi Siffre
- Rhythm exercises - 30
- SBL exercises
- Anthony Wellington Paradiddles
- Scale/chord practice to backing tracks - 30
- Major & mixolydian (incl pentatonic)
- 16th notes @ 50-85bpm- 10
- Workout 2 - 15
Notes:
- I spent some time, after practice on the DB, just fooling around on grooves in half position while really being conscious of playing relaxed and the effort I was putting in, using my left hand. I've also raised the DB by about and inch and a bit; I'm leaning it more into me, meaning that the fingerboard is in a similar position at my head, but the bottom of the fingerboard is higher meaning I'm able to more easily play it. We'll see how this plays out, but, so far, it feels a bit more comfortable and intimate.
- I Got The... This was pretty fun! It's a simple song, overall, but such a fun groove. I sat on this for a while afterwards and just jammed along with it (outside of dedicated practice time). Also, yes, this is somewhat of a cheat, as I restart transcribing: I'd figured it out before a few months ago. But I'd forgotten most of the first section, and all of the second section. So I figured it was both a simple song to get started with transcribing again, but also good because I'd done it before.
- I've been starting and stopping ear training every other day and I really need to do two things if I want to see improvement; because at this pace, I'm starting to get really frustrated/discouraged. First I need to split my ear training into two sessions: one where I play intervals myself on a piano and just spend time listening to them, and a second where I do quizzes for identification purposes. Second, I need to do this everyday! I can't expect to see results otherwise. I'm also hoping as I start making transcription a daily part of my routine, that it'll have big gains to my ear training too. The question that's nagging me at the back of my head is: if I'm not gonna be able to hear what I want to play, to really hear the music.... what's the point of learning to play an instrument if I'm always following rote patterns!?
- Spoke with Anthony Wellington today. He said he'll take me on. We'll start lessons next week on a bi-weekly basis. I'm very excited!
The ear training thing does sound frustrating!
I can remember a time when my results would have been like yours. These days I could ace that sort of test without thinking. That said, I'm not an expert, and I've never done any music teaching, so take my random ideas as just that:
- I assume you've already heard the song-association advice. (Find a common song that starts with the interval you're learning, etc.)
- I know how easy it is to feel like surely this one exercise is something you've *got* to be able to do, and shouldn't be *that* hard, and to just be bullheaded about keeping at it. But maybe it's time to step back, try a different ear-training approach for a while, and come back to these interval identification quizzes in a month or two?
- Singing is another way people usually come at this. Have you tried stuff like: play a note, see if you can match it with your voice; play a note, see if you can find the major third above; etc.? Or there are plenty of sight-singing methods out there, you could pick one up and work through the exercises.
- If you're open to trying technology, I'm rather fond of "functional ear trainer" (free ios/android app) and "meludia" (online subscription service, but I think you can try some of the exercises free). They both take a different approach.
- Ear training is one of the things music departments do every day, so if there's some way to sign up for a course near you, that might help. They'd have the advantage of a tested curriculum, teachers that can answer questions, fellow students to collaborate with, maybe labs with software you can use, etc.
- Hopefully Anthony Wellington could make some suggestions too.
Keep at it! In my experience it is normal to hit plateaus and not make progress for a while. But any progress is very rewarding in the long term!
I can remember a time when my results would have been like yours. These days I could ace that sort of test without thinking. That said, I'm not an expert, and I've never done any music teaching, so take my random ideas as just that:
- I assume you've already heard the song-association advice. (Find a common song that starts with the interval you're learning, etc.)
- I know how easy it is to feel like surely this one exercise is something you've *got* to be able to do, and shouldn't be *that* hard, and to just be bullheaded about keeping at it. But maybe it's time to step back, try a different ear-training approach for a while, and come back to these interval identification quizzes in a month or two?
- Singing is another way people usually come at this. Have you tried stuff like: play a note, see if you can match it with your voice; play a note, see if you can find the major third above; etc.? Or there are plenty of sight-singing methods out there, you could pick one up and work through the exercises.
- If you're open to trying technology, I'm rather fond of "functional ear trainer" (free ios/android app) and "meludia" (online subscription service, but I think you can try some of the exercises free). They both take a different approach.
- Ear training is one of the things music departments do every day, so if there's some way to sign up for a course near you, that might help. They'd have the advantage of a tested curriculum, teachers that can answer questions, fellow students to collaborate with, maybe labs with software you can use, etc.
- Hopefully Anthony Wellington could make some suggestions too.
Keep at it! In my experience it is normal to hit plateaus and not make progress for a while. But any progress is very rewarding in the long term!
I second singing - there's a natural feedback loop between listening and producing the note with your voice that really aids in note memory, in my opinion. (I have perfect pitch - grew up with a piano in the house and sang a lot as a kid, and my guess is that's probably why.)
Dude!
Dude!
Tuesday's Log
Ear Training
Notes:
Ear Training
- Piano practice - 20
- M2/M3/M4 played asc/desc/harm and listening to intervals
- Playing a note and trying to sing an interval
- Playing major/minor triads in root inversion to internalize sound
- Quiz (50 questions each) - 20
- M2/M3/M4
- asc - 74%
- harm - 70%
- desc -50%
- asc - 74%
- Maj/Min -66%
- M2/M3/M4
- Transcription - 1:00
- What's the Use by Mac Miller
- Writing this out took a lot longer than figuring the line out by ear. haha
- 16th notes @ 50-85bpm- 10
- Rhythm exercises - 20
- SBL exercises
- Anthony Wellington Paradiddles
- Workout 2 - 10
- Scale/chord practice to backing tracks - 20
- Midolydian/pentatonic
- Walking bass - 30
- Jazz blues form
- Learned about dominant approach & dual function notes (ie. F blues: F G* C F** Bb F... * C is the dominant approach to the fifth/dominant of the F7; ** this F acts both as the root of the current F7 and is also the dominant approach to Bb7)
- -
Notes:
- @bfields Thanks for the advice! I did a bunch of research yesterday on different methods, in addition to the EarMaster program I'd doing, and approaches to ear training in order to vary it up. It's great to see you actually list a large chunk of those, which means I'm, at least, on the right track. The song association is hit or miss for me, to be honest. But I'm noticing that as I started singing notes, and test singing tones by myself, I was definitely "hearing more" or at least differently. Anyways, this is a long term project, I think, so it's really just going to be a constant battle between working hard, analyzing what's working and what's not and changing it up, hitting plateaus and knowing that eventually I'll push through them.
- Last time I played through the workouts, I went through them in a very rote manner. This time, I'm spending time to look at what's actually happening and working to understand that, so I can incorporate those lines/ideas into regular playing. It's actually lots of great little ideas packed in each two page workout.
- Today was a busy day: had my post-op appointment, dentist appointment, laundry, cleaning, work, I randomly met four of my neighbours and we chatted in the hallway for about 30 mins..... I was not as focused during practice as I usually am.
