Wednesday's Log
For the past few weeks I've been wrestling with something that's been bothering me, and today I've come to a pretty big decision regarding it: I'm going to stop working on the Double Bass... for this year. This is a tough decision because a) DB is, in my humble opinion, the coolest instrument in the world; b) I got an Upton Brescian last year and, gosh darn it, do I LOVE playing that thing; c) playing DB is SUPER fun. However, if I'm to become a good bassist, I think I need to hunker down and really learn the instrument functionally. And it's a lot "easier" to do that on the electric bass, becasue the technical barrier to entry is much lower.
For a while, I've also been feeling as if I'm not really giving the DB enough attention and thus not really progressing in any meaningful way. Thirty minutes a day is barely enough, really, and I feel unhappy with only doing that, knowing that it's not enough. The more I talk to people, the more I realize that, sure, they are functionally the same instrument, but, technically speaking, they are basically two different instruments. And learning two different instruments at the same time, while working a 9-5, while also tying to have at least some semblance of a social life seeing friends once a week, while also prepping/giving talks at conferences, while managing my bipolar, while learning Portuguese, while..... well, it's a lot and time/energy is limited. In the end, I'm only cheating myself - both, doing poorly on the DB and taking time away from studying bass playing overall.
So, I'm gonna push through this year, taking lessons with Anthony Wellington becasue that is an amazing opportunity, and really hunker down for the next year and hyper-focus on internalizing the basics of the instrument on the EB. Then, the next year, having, hopefully, really gotten a handle on the bass and not needing to focus as hard on
what I'm doing functionally, I can turn my attention back to the DB and give it the time it deserves to learn to play through the technical requirements it has that are a bit challenging for me because of my shoulder. I'll still play around on the DB here and there, but won't be doing any real dedicated practice.
Basically, Jan 2021 will be marked in my calendar!
Ear Training
- Piano - 15
- Daily Quiz - 20
- M2/M3/M4 - 72%
- I'm mixing up asc, desc, harm to see what effect that has. Apparently not too bad. haha.
- Maj/Min/Dim/Aug - 66%
- Ionian/Aeolian/Harmonic min/Melodic min (scales) - 74%
Electric Bass
- Rhythm exercises - 60
- SBL groove grid
- Paradiddles
- Phrase Shifting
- Workout 3 - 15
- Pentatonic modes - 30
- Chord/Arpeggios - 15
- Walking bass - 15
Notes:
- The phrase shifting exercise is really trippy, especially if you move the phrase each pass (pass 1 starts on 1, pass 2: e of 2; pass 3: & of 3, and so on. I'm noticing that I'm weakest on the 'a' of beat 2, 3 and 4, so I'm really going to hone in on hearing that as a starting point.
189/10,000
