Monday's Log
(Warning: long, somewhat introspective read ahead, today.)
- Fretboard
- Eb @ 110bpm - 5
- C @ 110bpm - 5
- D @ 90bpm - 10
- Technique & Dexterity
- SBL:TA L2 - 20
- Bass Fitness: Part A @ 100bpm - 20
- Groove & Time
- Theory
- Genre Studies
- Transcription
- Lesson
- SBL Technique Accelerator (SBL:TA) Lesson 2 - The Engine Room, Pt 1
- And so it begins. Today's lesson concentrated on the plucking hand and the rest stroke. Homework is four exercises, to be done each day for a minimum of 20 minutes total (though I think this is the same for every week, so I won't include homework each time I summarize a lesson). For what it's worth, yeah, today's lesson was as basic as it gets - all this stuff is definitely available online for free. And yet, the teacher I was doing lessons with in person covered none of these things, rather, immediately expecting me to jump into scales and such. How can you play fast and fancy, if you can't control what you are doing? So, no, this lesson didn't have anything new or groundbreaking. But Scott did absolutely bring my attention to a variety of aspects of the plucking hand as I play that I am definitely sloppy on. Overall, I'm quite excited to have this stuff laid out in a thoughtful manner, with exercises to practice different aspects of plucking hand technique. I'll definitely do more than the minimum amount, because, my ultimate goal for this course is to be able to express myself freely on the bass and, to that end, like I've mentioned before, I'm dedicating till the end of August to shed any pretense of learning "fancy stuff" and really focus on how to physically play well, or, as normal people call it, technique. If I'm going to spend the rest of my life playing this instrument, what's six months right now?
Notes:
- Final dentist visit today fixed all the cavities and broken crown, but that also means another shortened bass day.
- I took yesterday off from practice, I felt like taking it easy, and while I binged S2 of Altered Carbon on Netflix, I was noodling around on the bass, just doing stuff mindlessly. It was good to just noodle aimlessly.
- I was going to go to the jam today, but after the dentist, watching the SBL lesson, and a full day of meetings than meant I didn't get home till 7:30pm, I wasn't really feeling up to it. To be very honest, deep down, I think those are excuses, and I just used them to chicken out. So I'm committing to going next Monday, and to ensure that, I texted a friend and asked if they wanted to go with me to the jam and they agreed. Now I can't back out! Silly me.
- I'm wanted to clarify why I'm being vague about my lesson contents: I respect the content anyone produces (whether videos, or lessons, or whatever), especially if it's high quality. It's always a balance, because I want to write down what was covered to remind myself, but also not give away the lesson for free.
- @instrumentalist I do agree that noodling, and playing through repertoire is certainly helpful with a variety of things - and really important for the brain to settle and absorb all the work I'm putting in. However, deliberate practice only counts things that you have trouble doing because they are new or are still difficult to do. If you'll read the first post in this whole log, I do explain it a lot more in depth. The reason I'm sticking to that strict rule is because, honestly, I'm very guilty of noodling around and then realizing that out of a 30 min session, I've really only "practiced" for 10 minutes. By observing my rules, I'm ensuring that my practice time is always challenging, and focused on the things that I'm having trouble doing. There's no reason to "practice" things that I can already do comfortably, other than to maintain or for instant gratification of, "Yeah, I can do that. Cool!" I was actually talking to my dad about this, and he was saying, "I thought you play bass a lot more than you have in your log. In fact, I've seen it. So how many hours have you actually played?" And he's right - I'm not sure how many hours I've actually played in total. It's just that that particular time is not counted as deliberate practice and so is not tracked. This log is meant to help me evolve (and trace my progress) as a bassist, and I can only do that if I'm brutally honest with myself - both about my strengths and, more importantly, about my shortcomings and flaws - and then I can take action to set myself up for success.
A personal note:
As I mentioned in the first post of this log, I don't know that I'm looking to become a bass player to tour the world with endless acts, I'm certainly not looking to "make it", I'm not bothered with fame, or obsessed with achieving any sort of acclaim. But I certainly do let myself have dreams of maybe being a professional session player, one day, who is able to express themselves on their instrument in an articulate and honest way. While I'm satisfied with being a programmer and I might not stop doing that for a living, I certainly would like to involve music in my life as much as possible.... partly because I love music, partly because I've really fallen in love with the bass over the last six months, and also, partly, because it's been one of the few things that have really kept my bipolar disorder somewhat in check, or if not in check, at least less prone to triggers due to the discipline it requires.
To this end, I'll say I've alway believed that to succeed in pursuing whatever vision you have, you must exhibit both humility and nearly blind conviction, but that to do so, you need a guiding idea to lead you through the hard times and to which you must remain true through the good times, as we humans are flawed creatures that stray from the path we set out for ourselves too easily. Much in the same way that I took a year off when working on my Bachesor's in Philosophy to pursue the Cartesian project of truly examining my beliefs, rejecting what made no sense, building up a view of the world based on the evidence before me, and finally writing that down into a thesis that has guided me throughout my life so far, I've been setting aside some time every day for the past few months to do the same thing in developing an artistic vision that will allow me to navigate whatever I am doing, artistically speaking, with true intent. This one is a little less wordy than a 400 page thesis, because I wanted something clear and concise. I've finally finished, and I'm happy to post up my artistic manifesto.
I promise to read this once everyday and remain true to the intent that originally drove it.
270.5/10k
That's ok. I have a lot of things to work on.
