Tuesday's Log
Double Bass
Electric Bass
- Major Triad - 1:30
- Traveling all over the neck using the different inversions, liking everything together
- Major scale - 30
- Walking over blues - 1:00
- Rhythm exercises - 15
- Sight reading - 15
Notes:
- Just motoring on along. Nothing very exciting, just hard work.
119/10,000
Thought I'd check in to see how you've been doing on your lonesome. Your gig clip looks like you're doing quite well at this stage and about ready for a little next level stuff. Would you mind terrible if I made a suggestion or two? Thank you...I will.
---Gradually spend less time on scales and triads and more on reading. Memorize your major triads and major scale notes and where they fall on the staff if you haven't already, and even if you have to spend your entire chord work for the day on memorizing where one note falls every place on the neck and staff, it's time well spent because you'll have it memorized in 12 days! But you seem to have a humming pace going along with the basics and you're putting the time in, so I would think you could have it all memorized in less time. But don't put any pressure on yourself. Soon come.
---Spend a few at the end of your practice time (just a few, no more than 5 at first) taking a peek at how minor triads are formed. Check not only how they're different but how similar they are to major triads. They're a lot more similar than different.
---Make sightreading the last thing on your mind right now. Spend your reading time playing short pieces perfectly, and don't stop playing a piece till you can. Go over single notes and phrases over and over in those pieces till you can play them automatically. Over time you'll see that you've memorized a small library of stock phrases you'll recognize automatically, and you'll be able to do it on a lot of the music at the level you grow into over the coming months. THAT is when sightreading starts.
Not posting this just for you by any means, but just in case someone out there doesn't know the difference between "reading" and "sightreading" yet:
Reading: The act of interpreting the meaning of musical notation to playing music.
Sightreading: The ability to read notation quickly and accurately with feeling, with being able to read a piece the first time through it as the ultimate goal.
And sightreading ain't gonna happen overnight! I never once set out to improve my sightreading over the years. Still don't. I just read a lot in school, read a lot at lessons, worked out all my mistakes before I ever moved on to another chart, and over a year or so, I discovered I was recognizing more things on the paper that I've seen before and could quickly figure them out without much hassle. And the more I did it, the more stuff I recognized. The more attuned my eyes and ears got to associating pitches with notes and phrasing, the better I got. And I still read on a fairly regular basis. Next to a typical pro horn player my sightreading skills are toast, but I'm pretty good for a rhythm section guy and better than most
I rate your current game plan so far 5 out of 5. You did pretty good onstage for a virgin. You were solid, didn't humiliate yourself, and it sounded like music. You also have a really good work ethic, and that counts for a whole lot. Someone with all that going for him has this stuff licked. In time. Just take your time with it, have fun, and don't ever be afraid to back up a few steps down to progress one step up. It's not a race.
I may ask for volunteers to help beta test as time goes by so keep an eye out for that.
