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warm up / scales

M

masturBASStion

Feb 19, 2010
1
0
#1
Dear Bass Experts -

How do YOU recommend practicing scales? I'll usually play major and minor scales and then a major 7th arpeggio exercise up and down the neck. Any other scale exercises you'd recommend? Also, I usually just play each scale in one position, so I for instance only know the C scale starting on the 3rd string 3rd fret. What about other warmup exercises? I usually like to run without stretching, but I do see the value in the warm up exercise. Thanks!!

James
Houston, TX
 
#2
During warm up, the most important thing for me is doing the scales in a very relaxed way. Its taken a long time (years) for me to get the tension out of my shoulders, arms, and wrists and to play fluidly. Its important when I warm up to focus on that "feeling" right away and not play "tight", especially before a gig.

There is a warm up exercise that I do, that has really helped here. I do hammer on and pull off up and down the fretboard on all 4 strings, (don't have a 5 string) keeping a quiet hand position and using all four fingers one per fret.

Over the years its worked great for me.
 
#3
When warming up, I always start with a few scales, then run through a bunch of arpeggios up and down the neck. As Klokker said, do so without tension, stay loose and relaxed as you would want to be when playing live.
My main concern is always the angle of my wrist. I usually stretch my wrist right before playing, and then focus on keeping it in proper technique while executing warm up.
I would also recommend running through patterns with your right hand as well if you are into tapping at all.

Keep Rockin
 
#4
A quick thought on scales: How often are the basslines you play built entirely from scale patterns? How percentage of the intervals you play are 2nds? (that is, the notes in a scale, adjacent to one another)?

When we're talking about practicing music in any given key, the idea that playing scales up and down the neck is any more useful than playing any other permutation of notes within the key isn't really borne out by the music we play (unless you play a lot of Bach, or late 80s shred guitar licks) - most music requires us to be equally proficient in playing notes in a lot of other combnations, some of them arranged in linear up or down patterns; more often, not.

So the question is, I guess, how do we get our practice material to be a more thorough exploration of the kind of thing we play when we write/perform/record/improvise the music we love? How much of the practice stuff we play is actually getting good at the art of practicing, but leaves a great gulf between those exercises, and the actual stuff of creating and performing music.

So, which patterns you choose to play at any given time is fairly arbitrary - what you don't want is holes in your playing. There are a million useful and helpful and musical combinations that one can work on, and getting the notes in order is only one aspect of the process of creating meaningful music. Don't be seduced by the idea that dexterity is any measure of expressive ability, or that playing scales to a metronome is some kind of magical start point for great music. It's a start and end point for playing scales along with a metronome. It is what it is. Which isn't bad at all, it's just nowhere near as important as so many practice methodologies would have us believe... :)

Steve
www.stevelawson.net
 
#5
Well said Steve, I like to use a sports analogy in regards to the importance of scales. Whatever sport one plays, certain strength building exercises must be done to bolster technique. I think of practicing scales w/ a metronome like doing sit-ups, push-ups, or lifting weights: somewhat boring, repetitive, and not very inspiring, but a good way to build technical strength. Not as fun as 'playing the game' itself, but one thing to do to lead up to a strong performance while actually playing. But, as you say, often times it becomes a thing of itself and one must actually practice more musical phrases. Jaco says some great stuff in line with what you're saying about keeping it musical in this vid, at about 57 seconds in: Jaco Vid Thanks again for nice post!

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#6
Hey, just want to add a little note after talking to you on twitter about sports analogy. I realize music is not a competitive sport (or at least not for me:) and that the only thing that matters is how it moves those who listen. The analogy is really only something I came up with in response to students of mine approaching me wanting to play technically demanding bass lines/solos, yet not having the facility to execute them, and being too impatient to attain the fundamentals of playing, in essence like someone wanting to pole vault a 20 foot bar, who can't really even run yet. Thanks again for the opportunity to talk with you, really interested to hear you thoughts!
 
#9
practice everything in every position possible. once you can do that, start improvise fingerings for scales and other exercises. this will help you by making more of the bass more familiar, and allow you to work your way out of a corner if you do end up in a position you're not comfortable in.
 

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