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The fumbling around method

drummer5359

drummer5359

Jan 10, 2011
4,675
4,582
Pittsburgh PA USA
#1
I'm am no great wizard of the bass. I take lessons and practice a good bit. I find however that some of my biggest gains in playing come when I'm just fumbling around noodling.

For instance...

I'll hear a turnaround or walkup in my head. I'll pick up the bass, pick a key and screw around with the different walks and turnarounds that I do know and move stuff around until I figure out the exact run that I was shooting for.

It's not very scientific, but as I say, it's proven effective for me.

Does anyone else seem to have their bigger "aha" moments when noodling?
 
#3
Totally. I trend to spend the last 5-10min of my sessions of learning songs or practicing scales, strictly for noodeling. I come up with some cool riffs to learn from & incorporate somewhere later
 
#5
I am most definitely a fumbler.
Add me to the club.
Honestly although I spend a very good amount of time working on theory and technique other than that I feel all I do is fumble. :)
 
#6
I also fumble. I'll start playing something that I hear in my head, and it begins to evolve. Often, without a clear idea of the end result I'm after, I'll change it as I go. I make mistakes, and sometimes the mistakes are worth keeping. Eventually I've got a phrase or tune more or less finished, but I still continue tweaking it.

Tom
 
#14
drummer5359 said:
I'm am no great wizard of the bass. I take lessons and practice a good bit. I find however that some of my biggest gains in playing come when I'm just fumbling around noodling.

For instance...

I'll hear a turnaround or walkup in my head. I'll pick up the bass, pick a key and screw around with the different walks and turnarounds that I do know and move stuff around until I figure out the exact run that I was shooting for.

It's not very scientific, but as I say, it's proven effective for me.

Does anyone else seem to have their bigger "aha" moments when noodling?
Click to expand...

This is How I learned and still play. I play by ear and I hit the notes that come into my head. Give it 30 years or so & you brain will give you the notes fast enough to get them on the fretboard in time. Or....Learn all the theory, Scales, Modes, Charts etc. and make it easy on yourself.:) Here's a video of how I do it. Solo at 5:40. The Ric is straight into a Crate with a 18"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGgEyQXkSkk
 
#16
If I had to fumble around for 10 minutes every time I thought of a cool riff and wanted to play it, I'd probably kill myself. Nothing better than being able to think of a riff in your head and be able to play it almost instantly. That's what learning some theory will do for you. Don't mean to be Debbie Downer, just stating facts.
 
#17
Victor Wooten advocates making time to just play what's in your head as part of your practice routine in his Groove Workshop DVD.

I think it's a useful way to creatively apply the theory, technique, etc. that you're working on. I hope it goes without saying, but if noodling is ALL you do, then the usefulness will be limited.
 
#18
INTP said:
I think it's a useful way to creatively apply the theory, technique, etc. that you're working on. I hope it goes without saying, but if noodling is ALL you do, then the usefulness will be limited.
Click to expand...

I think that's pretty much a given. Being able to play what you're hearing in your head is essential to being a solid musician.

For songrwriting though, just about everything I've ever written has evolved. I rarely, if ever, sat down with something in my head and said, "I want to make this a song!" I'm often noodling, sometimes even while doing something else, and something comes up that I like. It then starts to grow and expand and if I don't get tired of it within a few days, becomes a song.

Everybody has their own process, and whatever works works. That's what works for me. It's actually often the same if I'm writing parts for someone else's song. Sometimes I'll hear something in my head and say YES!, but more often than not, I'll try different things until I really love what's happening. Especially if I'm working on the part with a drummer, as we start influencing each other and some really awesome stuff can start happening.
 
#19
I like to fumble thematically. I'll think "today I'm only going to fumble around with a pentatonic minor" or "I'm going to fumble exclusively in locrian mode with a tonic of C". While simultaneously restrictive in a sense, it also has helped me come up with some of my best lines.
 
#20
I like to improvise whatever comes to mind but if I heard something in my head and I have to find out what it is it has to be very quick or I'll loose patience very fast. Same thing if I want to cover a song i like ... I don't like shooting in the dark until I touch something a week later
 

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