The Hal Leonard Bass Method thread

[ShawnG]

I've been using the floating thumb technique since day one but for various reasons I'm questioning the decision. I decided to try All Four One (uses all the strings) via anchoring on the PU and E strings per videos I've seen; It felt promising, even given the mere 10 or 15 minutes I spent, but I got a ringing A string; how to mute it I wondered. It then occurred to me flip to the front of MB1 to see what Ed might have to say! He's anchoring at the PU, E and E/D strings; no ringing A. The PU & E anchors felt good right away but the E/D will take a little work, but I'm going to try this out for a decent while. If anybody can point me to a video that demos this please sing out; I'm looking but no dice yet. Hmmm, well, I was looking for "instructional" videos; I think I'll just go find one where he's simply playing! Still, if you know of one, please let me know!

Edit: In this vid he's using PU/E and resting pinky or ring on A!

When I was playing before, I dropped my thumb down to the next string for all four strings (thumb on pickup for E-string, thumb on E-string when playing A- string, thumb on A-string when playing D-string and thumb on D-string when playing G-string), muting the strings above with the pad of my palm, and it worked pretty well. But I have noticed that almost all instructors do NOT drop the thumb to the D-string when playing the G-string, instead, “reaching” across the A-string to play the G-string and muting the A-string by “following through” the G-string to land on the A-string, so that is what I am trying to do as I restart with the HLBM. I think this is because most don’t effectively mute the E string when dropping the thumb to the D-string, just a little to far for the pad of the palm to press on the E.
I really need to focus on the “follow through” the string you are playing to mute the string above, it’s not something that comes natural to me and something I neglected last time I was learning bass. It’s one of the things I am trying to be especially mindful of when I go back and revisit an earlier exercise or piece that I already know, where I have a few extra brain cells and can then focus those precious resources to refining my technique vs. just trying to find the right string/note on the neck!

 

[ShawnG]

Weekly update.

There was progress this week and I am glad for it.

I spent most of the week working though the TalkingBass.com pitch reading exercises (2, 5 or 10 minutes at a time several times a day) on the E & A strings and all of a sudden on Friday a switch seemed to flip and it got easier for me and I was able to get through the exercise with naturals, sharps and flats with minimal mistakes. I’m not perfect, but I was a lot better and could run the exercise at a pretty consistent (again, not metronome perfect) pace. Today I decided to start back with the HLBM book and conquered exercises 34(Roll It) - 37 (A Little Heavy) with little to no trouble. I actually played through “A Little Heavy” the first time along to the backing track and just sight read it and it went really well. Pretty proud of myself! The pitch reading exercises definitely help with sight-reading! “12-Bar Blues” took a the most work, due to the slightly higher tempo and some fingering choices that I had to make for myself (I’m playing the A both on the E-string 5th fret and at the open A-string, and am learning how to choose which to play based on what works best with the the notes before and after it). It was really nice to get back to playing along with the backing tracks!!

I also pulled out the green (Book 1) Easy Pop Bass Lines book and sight read through “Imagine” with the backing track. That song uses only notes on the E & A strings and is pretty easy with only whole and half notes. A couple of clankers the first couple times through, but on the third or fourth try, I was able to play it along to the backing track error free. All in all, a positive week.

I’ll be traveling for 3 days next week, but plan to work on adding the notes on the D-string and will try to get through pg 27/ex 48 by the end of next weekend. Will keep on keeping’ on with the pitch reading exercises, first just on the D-string then running the exercise that has all the notes, frets 1-5, on E, A & D strings. That’ll probably slow me up, but it’ll be worth it. With those three strings under my fingers, I’ll work on “A Whiter Shade of Pale” in the songbook, as that’s then next one up and has notes on E, A & D strings.

Have a good week ahead everyone!

 

[HoHumbucker]

Weekly update.

There was progress this week and I am glad for it.

I spent most of the week working though the pitch reading exercises (2, 5 or 10 minutes at a time several times a day) on the E & A strings and all of a sudden on Friday a switch seemed to flip and it got easier for me and I was able to get through the exercise with naturals, sharps and flats with minimal mistakes. I’m not perfect, but I was a lot better and could run the exercise at a pretty consistent (again, not metronome perfect) pace. Today I decided to start back with the HLBM book and conquered exercises 34(Roll It) - 37 (A Little Heavy) with little to no trouble. I actually played through “A Little Heavy” the first time along to the backing track and just sight read it and it went really well. Pretty proud of myself! The pitch reading exercises definitely help with sight-reading! “12-Bar Blues” took a the most work, due to the slightly higher tempo and some fingering choices that I had to make for myself (I’m playing the A both on the E-string 5th fret and at the open A-string, and am learning how to choose which to play based on what works best with the the notes before and after it). It was really nice to get back to playing along with the backing tracks!!

I also pulled out the green (Book 1) Easy Pop Bass Lines book and sight read through “Imagine” with the backing track. That song uses only notes on the E & A strings and is pretty easy with only whole and half notes. A couple of clankers the first couple times through, but on the third or fourth try, I was able to play it along to the backing track error free. All in all, a positive week.

I’ll be traveling for 3 days next week, but plan to work on adding the notes on the D-string and will try to get through pg 27/ex 48 by the end of next weekend. Will keep on keeping’ on with the pitch reading exercises, first just on the D-string then running the exercise that has all the notes, frets 1-5, on E, A & D strings. That’ll probably slow me up, but it’ll be worth it. With those three strings under my fingers, I’ll work on “A Whiter Shade of Pale” in the songbook, as that’s then next one up and has notes on E, A & D strings.

Have a good week ahead everyone!

I am getting back to the HL book and in about the same spot you are in. Question. Do you work on a page or two at a time? Do you play through a number of pages, then go back and see how well those earlier lessons have stuck? I am just curious how others approach this.

 

[ShawnG]

I am getting back to the HL book and in about the same spot you are in. Question. Do you work on a page or two at a time? Do you play through a number of pages, then go back and see how well those earlier lessons have stuck? I am just curious how others approach this.

I kind of work through the exercises one at a time until I get them down, then move on to the next. When I come back the next day (or days…) I usually go back a couple of exercises (usually the ones with a play-along track because they are more fun to me) and replay them to make sure I haven’t back-tracked. If I have, I rework those until I’m happy, then move on.

Glad to have you here and have someone who is working along at the same part of the book. Good luck to you!!

 

[HoHumbucker]

I kind of work through the exercises one at a time until I get them down, then move on to the next. When I come back the next day (or days…) I usually go back a couple of exercises (usually the ones with a play along track because they are more fun to me) and replay them to make sure I haven’t back-tracked. If I have, I rework those until I’m happy, then move on.

Glad to have you here and have someone who is working along at the same part of the book. Good luck to you!!

Cool. Very similar to me experience and approach as well. Bass is new to me, and I am happy to have the Hal Leonard books to work from. I am also doing the Jeff Berlin sight-reading etudes (albeit very slowly).
This is a fairly comfortable approach for me since I ahve spent most of my life learning and playing woodwinds. I still have the Rubank exercise books i used for sax, clarinet, and flute sitting around my music room somewhere.

 

[ShawnG]

Hey guys, I’m having trouble getting to the Hal Leonard site today to access my Library to use play along tracks. Anyone else having issues? It seems like their website is down as I’m not having trouble accessing other sites on that device.

 

[lowplaces]

Hey guys, I’m having trouble getting to the Hal Leonard site today to access my Library to use play along tracks. Anyone else having issues? It seems like their website is down as I’m not having trouble accessing other sites on that device.

I just logged in there and it let me go to my library.

(On my phone)

 

[lowplaces]

Try a different browser ?

 

[ShawnG]

I was just coming here to say that whatever problem they were having, it’s fixed. Logged in about 30 mins ago.
Maybe I should consider downloading the clips for the future, but so far I’ve been using their player, Bluetoothed from my iPad to my Fender Studio 40 and it’s been working great.
Thx for the reply, much appreciated!!

 

[NotAGardener]

I've been trying to figure out how to improve the efficiency with which I progress. Here's where I am in that evolutionary journey and maybe it will be of use to others.

On this second pass through MB1 I got to page 35 with decent improvement, eyeballs glued on the written music and fretting by memory, as has been my MO. I've decided to turn that around and exercise my little gray memory cells; they need it.

I retreated to page 27 and my plan is to learn each exercise by heart while mentally imaging what each note looks like in the staff and what it's name is; I know it but not uniformly quickly enough and my error percentage while practicing needs to drop. All those relationships need to be much better cemented and the perception-reaction times reduced.

When I can play a given exercise by heart I'll work on getting smoother and a little quicker before advancing to the next. Having eyeballs on my left hand should help.

I feel better able to do this mentally, physically and in terms of maintaining motivation via achievable goals, on this second pass through the book. It will be a while before I get to the end with this approach, but however far I get, and my intent is the rest of the book, has to be worthwhile.

Right now the most ragged thing I've got going on exercise 57 is the E-flat to G fretting in measure 7. I've been practicing it while plucking but I still suck! I'm going work on that, without plucking, again and again until it starts getting smoother with hints of reliability. If I can't do it without plucking, I surely will fail while plucking!

 

[SteveCS]

I retreated to page 27 and my plan is to learn each exercise by heart while mentally imaging what each note looks like in the staff and what it's name is; I know it but not uniformly quickly enough and my error percentage while practicing needs to drop. All those relationships need to be much better cemented and the perception-reaction times reduced.

Sounds like progress is happening

I would suggest supplementing this with actual sight-reading exercises. The problem with learning by heart is that you are no longer reading. Specially-designed sight-reading exercises are available by the thousand because they are designed to be 1) very difficult to memorise and 2) used once in a "See it; Play it; Next" approach.

 

[NotAGardener]

Thank you Steve.

I will surely do that, and for the reasons you note, but I'm not yet solid enough with the foundational skills. The approach I'm using now seems to be helping but I've also just been practicing a lot too. Although my goal is to get to the point I can perform each exercise without looking, and then leveraging that to improve speed and technique, a lot of note reading is required to get there. I think this mix of ways to exercise the foundational skills will help get me to the point that site reading specific exercises will be beneficial rather than over my head and frustrating. I'm looking forward to the day that I'm ready for those new exercises.

 

[EddiePlaysBass]

Sounds like progress is happening

I would suggest supplementing this with actual sight-reading exercises. The problem with learning by heart is that you are no longer reading. Specially-designed sight-reading exercises are available by the thousand because they are designed to be 1) very difficult to memorise and 2) used once in a "See it; Play it; Next" approach.

Yeah, I try to avoid hanging on one of these exercises for too long, for fear of memorizing the songs. Similarly, I do catch myself "filling it in" more than I care to. By that I mean, I anticipate what the next note will be, rather than read what the next note will be. And while I am sometimes right, it's not exactly the point of this book

 

[NotAGardener]

I think it worth noting that, at least for me and I'm guessing some others, getting to the point that one can play an exercise without looking at the music requires a LOT of practice and substantial use of the score; and that involves LOTS of fretting and plucking which is beneficial to:

Individual fretting finger dexterity, accuracy and fret buzz reduction.

Repetition and improvement of the more difficult fretting movements and shapes.

Plucking repetition with improvement in consistency, finger movement generally, raking in particular, and floating thumb movement (which is feeling much better and more natural than just the other day).

Increasing reliability and speed of the connection between seeing/thinking a note and playing it well.

Finding positions on the couch that enable me to comfortably spend an hour or four noodling around with all of this! That is not a minor deal to me!

Memory exercise which for oldsters like me is a very good thing!

There will be a time for bona-fide sight reading exercises but I'm not there yet.

 

[Geogio]

Back in the day.....

Whose hand is this?

 

[HoHumbucker]

Back in the day.....

Whose hand is this?View attachment 7034623

Unless I am mistaken, that would be page 8 of the Roger Filiberto book. I have that one in addition to the HL and the Jeff Berlin materials.

 

[Geogio]

Unless I am mistaken, that would be page 8 of the Roger Filiberto book. I have that one in addition to the HL and the Jeff Berlin materials.

I grew up on Mel Bay method material... Guitar, Tenor Banjo... the first bass book I had was Roger Filiberto who was published by Mel Bay.

I could be mistaken but I do believe that is the hand if Mel Bay because that picture was in all of his books. "The Hand" is iconic for me.

 

[EddiePlaysBass]

Today I noticed that my understanding of the rhythm notation has improved significantly. I was a bit hesitant to start over again - mainly because I always tend to stop at a certain point in any book and then never move forward. But in this case it was necessary and it seems to be paying off.

Now to find more time to practice. 30 minutes a day does me a lot of good, but it's the "per day" part where it goes wrong. Currently it's more like two, three times a week. Still, I am slowly making progress. Emphasis on slowly

 

[ShawnG]

Time for the weekly update:

I’m glad to see that most/all of the of the responders to the thread this week feel like they’ve been making progress! Way to go HLBMers! Unfortunately for me, not much progress on my part this week, but no back-tracking either, so I guess that’s a positive.

Now to find more time to practice. 30 minutes a day does me a lot of good, but it's the "per day" part where it goes wrong. Currently it's more like two, three times a week. Still, I am slowly making progress. Emphasis on slowly

I am quoting you @EddiePlaysBass , as lack of regular practice was my downfall this week. I may have got in one 30 minute session this past week, and a few 10-15 minute ones, but not enough, regular, practice to do much more than tread water. I did get through Ex 41 “Minor League” without much trouble this week, but didn’t put in much/any work on the combined E, A, & D string pitch-reading exercises. Just didn’t have it in me this week. That and 3 days away from home and a lazy Saturday and Sunday pretty much did me in.

I am trying to give myself some grace, though. Last time I was trying to learn bass, part of what made me stop was the feeling of guilt I felt for not being able to stick with a more disciplined practice schedule. It got so that I would look at my bass on the stand, not feel like picking it up and then feel bad about myself for not doing so. There got to be a negative connotation to looking at my bass, to the point that I just quit looking at it. I vowed this time to let it come to me, to pick up the bass when I feel like it, not because I feel like I have to to stick to some schedule I set for myself, and it’s been working. I DO pick up the bass more often when I’m walking by it and usually will work on an exercise or two for 5-10 mins before heading off to do something else. 5-10 mins, twice or three times a day is way more than zero, and if I do it semi-regularly can add up to some real time by the end of the week, especially if combined with a 30 minute session here and there. I’m supposed to be doing this for fun, so let’s keep it fun!!

I should be home for the first four days of the week before heading on the road for another 3-day trip, so will try to work my way onto the G-string this week (or at least get through all of the exercises for the D-string).

Oh…and I now get what all the complaining has been about in this thread re: the chord annotations above each note on Ex 42, “D-Lite!” Yeah that takes some actual work to ignore and definitely can affect what note I try to reach for!! It’s pretty amazing how much those letters above the staff can screw with you, even just out of your peripheral vision, I really have to work to ignore them!!

Have a good week, everyone!

 

[HoHumbucker]

Time for the weekly update:

I’m glad to see that most/all of the of the responders to the thread this week feel like they’ve been making progress! Way to go HLBMers! Unfortunately for me, not much progress on my part this week, but no back-tracking either, so I guess that’s a positive.

I am quoting you @EddiePlaysBass , as lack of regular practice was my downfall this week. I may have got in one 30 minute session this past week, and a few 10-15 minute ones, but not enough, regular, practice to do much more than tread water. I did get through Ex 41 “Minor League” without much trouble this week, but didn’t put in much/any work on the combined E, A, & D string pitch-reading exercises. Just didn’t have it in me this week. That and 3 days away from home and a lazy Saturday and Sunday pretty much did me in.

I am trying to give myself some grace, though. Last time I was trying to learn bass, part of what made me stop was the feeling of guilt I felt for not being able to stick with a more disciplined practice schedule. It got so that I would look at my bass on the stand, not feel like picking it up and then feel bad about myself for not doing so. There got to be a negative connotation to looking at my bass, to the point that I just quit looking at it. I vowed this time to let it come to me, to pick up the bass when I feel like it, not because I feel like I have to to stick to some schedule I set for myself, and it’s been working. I DO pick up the bass more often when I’m walking by it and usually will work on an exercise or two for 5-10 mins before heading off to do something else. 5-10 mins, twice or three times a day is way more than zero, and if I do it semi-regularly can add up to some real time by the end of the week, especially if combined with a 30 minute session here and there. I’m supposed to be doing this for fun, so let’s keep it fun!!

I should be home for the first four days of the week before heading on the road for another 3-day trip, so will try to work my way onto the G-string this week (or at least get through all of the exercises for the D-string).

Oh…and I now get what all the complaining has been about in this thread re: the chord annotations above each note on Ex 42, “D-Lite!” Yeah that takes some actual work to ignore and definitely can affect what note I try to reach for!! It’s pretty amazing how much those letters above the staff can screw with you, even just out of your peripheral vision, I really have to work to ignore them!!

Have a good week, everyone!

Shawn,
Thanks for posting updates of your journey. I have to admit that they are helping prod me to try to be more regular in my studies.
I have been a woodwind player for 45+ years and a couple years ago bought a bass after seeing The Warning (Alejandra Villarreal) play live.

In the past 15 years, I have gotten performance-level skills at half a dozen wind instruments (clarinet, flute, euphonium, tuba, tin whistle). My experience is that it takes me ~2-300 hours of dedicated work to get to a point I am comfortable playing a gig in public. That is an hour a day for much of a year. Some take less, others have taken more. I also know that for me, 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week is far more productive than 90 minutes per day, twice a week. I am no where close to that level of dedication on the bass for some reason. I DO know that I also work better at dedicating time if I have a gig or show or some other performance deadline to kick me in the rear. I don't have that currently with bass, and I think that is one of the main reasons I have been scattered in my approach.

I have a bass and amp right next to my desk, but for some reason I don't pick it up for 15-20 minutes regularly enough. I need to do that more often. I do know that I am making progress, albeit very slow. My progress has been pretty hit or miss.
I have been unsystematically using the following resources as the 'core' of my learning.

• Hal Leonard Books
• Jeff Berlin Sightreading Course (I want to be able to read notes and chords)
• Learning notes on the fretboard with a random note generator Random Music Notes and Chords for Instrument Practice - AudioGearz
• Noodling around with songs in iReal Pro

Interesting your comment about the chord callouts above the staff. As a 40 year big band player, that is completely normal for me to see and deal with, but I can understand that it can be a distraction. I would love to be able to be a serviceable sit in for a jazz combo or ensemble, and want to learn how to translate those chords into useful bass lines for that.