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What is practice?

#21
GianGian said:
I won't buy the book, could you give me an idea what it is about? Anyway, if one's plan is to play something remotely close to what he does, one surely needs to practise a lot of boring stuff. I am just a rock n roll player. It is not my aim to make things like that.
All my respect to those who do, but it is just not what I want to achieve with the bass. I also doubt that I have the physical aptitude to play like that.
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Sign it out of the library then. Good read that isn't really about bass playing, or how to play a piece. As Mr Levin notes, "Victor Wooten is the Carlos Castaneda of bass."

Put it this way, its about the places between point A and B.
 
#22
I don't practice, I jam. Everytime I sling my bass, I'm playing for fun and for me. Sometimes that means running scales, working on technique or just noodling around. Either way, I never force it in a regimented practice session. Bass is a hobby for me, so therefore it is paramount I find it fun. Everything else is a bonus.
 
#25
Roy Vogt said:
I will add that practice should generally not sound good. You'll be making the most progress by working on things that you're having trouble with until they are easy. Then, it's time to put them aside and move on to something else you're having trouble with.
This is my opinion, but I first heard this espoused by Stanley Clarke and later by Jeff Berlin.
The important thing is that practice is not a performance, but a study.
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I'm not sure I agree with this.

Although one needs to work on things that don't come easily, it's just as bad to get into the habit of ONLY playing things that are beyond your capability. When that happens, the player never settles in -- never learns how to "sound good." And sounding good is the name of the game.
 
#26
plangentmusic said:
I'm not sure I agree with this.

Although one needs to work on things that don't come easily, it's just as bad to get into the habit of ONLY playing things that are beyond your capability. When that happens, the player never settles in -- never learns how to "sound good." And sounding good is the name of the game.
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Well, the missing ingredient is to work on the difficult things until they become easy to play, and then move on to something else. Maintenance practicing can help you to "sound good" but if all you do is play what you can already play you can sound stale very quickly. We've all had the experience of just gigging for an extended period of time and finding that our "chops" degrade since we're just playing the same thing over and over. That's the extreme of maintenance practicing. If you balance gigging and jamming regularly with working on challenges you can keep your chops up and continue to grow as a player at the same time, IME.
 
#27
Roy Vogt said:
Well, the missing ingredient is to work on the difficult things until they become easy to play, and then move on to something else. Maintenance practicing can help you to "sound good" but if all you do is play what you can already play you can sound stale very quickly. We've all had the experience of just gigging for an extended period of time and finding that our "chops" degrade since we're just playing the same thing over and over. That's the extreme of maintenance practicing. If you balance gigging and jamming regularly with working on challenges you can keep your chops up and continue to grow as a player at the same time, IME.
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I wasn't referring to playing what already comes easily. I was talking about making whatever you do as musical as possible. If you always practice stuff that is simply technically difficult, you never find your sound. You get more and more technique but never learn to make it "feel" good. (I know a lot of guys in their 40's who still practice that way -- and it shows).

It's also not about chops at a certain point. It isn't like the more you practice the more and more chops you get in a never-ending linear way. We all have a cut -off point. Then, it's a matter of taking whatever technique you have and saying something artistic. THAT, takes a lifetime.
 
#28
plangentmusic said:
I wasn't referring to playing what already comes easily. I was talking about making whatever you do as musical as possible. If you always practice stuff that is simply technically difficult, you never find your sound. You get more and more technique but never learn to make it "feel" good. (I know a lot of guys in their 40's who still practice that way -- and it shows).

It's also not about chops at a certain point. It isn't like the more you practice the more and more chops you get in a never-ending linear way. We all have a cut -off point. Then, it's a matter of taking whatever technique you have and saying something artistic. THAT, takes a lifetime.
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My assumption is that the OP was seeking a general view and didn't know WHAT to practice-a common problem.
If you are working on what is difficult and trying to play it well I would assume that playing it well would mean playing it musically.
As to developing "feel" and musicality I'm not sure that's something for the practice room, but something for the rehearsal hall, the stage and the studio. If my experience is a common one feel comes with those years of gigging and learning. You can speed learn it to an extent by recording yourself and your gigs or practice sessions, finding a drummer you like and playing as much as possible with them, or even playing with a drum machine. I have taught students for 33 years at one college or another or privately, and I've never seen any other way to develop "feel" than to listen and play along with recordings you like, trying to emulate the sound, touch and timing of those players and then figure out what you like from them and try and come up with your own spin on it while playing in as many musical situations as possible.
I look at chops with this analogy: If I'm driving from Nashville to Memphis and I have to pass a semi I can have a choice of 2 cars. Both will pass the truck. One is a Kia and one is a Porsche Boxter. I'm going to opt for the Boxter since it will likely hit 85 in second gear-the Kia, not so much....I don't know that you can continue to develop your technique in a linear fashion but it's sure fun to try.:)
Practicing is NOT playing YYZ, Donna Lee or Classical Thump over and over because you can, IMO. There's a certain bit of maintenance practicing you have to do to keep that music sharp if it's important to you, but each of those pieces will have a certain set of musical and technical fine points and there are an infinite set of those for an infinite variety of music. It's a moving target, for sure.
Living in Nashville as I do, feel always trumps chops. If you can't make half notes groove as hard as your 16th note extravaganzas you will starve....
 

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