What one specific thing do you feel helped elevate your playing

[And I]

For me it was right hand floating thumb. I'm finding it easier to play things that were difficult right-hand wise and easier to relax during faster songs. I used to have awful carpal tunnel symptoms and the new right hand position is way better on that as well.

 

[ONYX]

Learning to play piano. This was the thing that really opened up my understanding of how melody, harmony, and rhythm function as a single entity.

 

[Acoop]

Practice, ask questions, practice, ask questions, learn piano, practice, understand theory, practice, ask questions, practice, study song form, practice, write songs, ask questions, practice, stop worrying about what other people say, enjoy yourself, practice and look forward to tomorrow. ... (I'm 64 and everyday, for at least an hour, I study and 'practice' New Orleans piano styles). ... Never stop learning.

 

[Tommyc]

Reading through reams of jazz. Coltrane, Davis, Oscar Pettiford et.al. For one thing, the stuff isn't easy to read, for me anyway. For another, it's a different language. At once familiar, but not familiar. Many times I'd read a phrase and think, surely that's wrong. But once it started to settle in my mind and then body, i realized what geniuses these guys were.
What's that got to do with one's playing? It starts in the mind right? Treating rhythm with equal consideration to notes requires the player to always evaluate control and precision. So mechanically, I'll spend time playing things, familiar things dotted, dots in front, dots in back. It cleans up your playing and helps further synchronize the hands. The demands of the music, in other words, changes your approach to how you practice. Everyone should look at at least a bit of jazz.

 

[gfaulkner]

Playing with good drummer and paying attention to what everyone else is doing.

 

[Scott Lynch]

To the OP: in contrast to your question I have to say it wasn't one specific thing. It was lots of little things that have accumulated over time!

The best answer I can give is the same as what many have said: joining a band with the goal of playing out. That one thing inspired me to get started with other activities to improve my musicianship and improve my capacity to contribute to whatever groups I play with.

 

[brianrost]

Taking lessons when I ran into things I couldn't play properly. Along with that realizing that something I worked on for that week's lesson wouldn't be integrated into my playing until weeks or months later so just be patient.

 

[Jazzcaster89]

Moving from guitar to bass I was able to get playing really quickly just using the arpeggio shapes in a sheet similar to this below. I started with getting to know the Pattern 1 and Pattern 4 major and minor shapes. Knowing just these two patterns meant I could easily play a major or minor of any chord just by hitting the root on either the E or the A string. Once comfortable with that adding in a b7 or 6th gave some different flavours. While I now have learnt a lot more I still use Pattern 1 and 4 the most.

View attachment 1057730

Very helpful!

 

[Jebberz]

Play with as many people as I can, in many different genres.
Learn a new instrument (keys for me) also help approach the bass with another point of view and help improve. (One of my friends actually improved his guitar playing by 200% just by putting his guitar away for a few month and learning drums)

 

[Marc61]

There's a Jaco documentary where he's being interviewed by Jerry Jemmott. Jerry asks him what scales to practice. Jaco responded - Just make it musical. So instead of practicing to a metronome I tend to practice with drum beats and create riffs for myself to play.

 

[Jazzcaster89]

There's a Jaco documentary where he's being interviewed by Jerry Jemmott. Jerry asks him what scales to practice. Jaco responded - Just make it musical. So instead of practicing to a metronome I tend to practice with drum beats and create riffs for myself to play.

I do this as well. Keeps it fresh for me.

 

[TimBukToo]

Practice! Practice! Practice! I hate to state the obvious but if there is one rule about playing music that I have always found to be true, it is that if you practice, you get better.

 

[onosson]

Learning to play more quietly and with a lighter touch.

 

[Marc61]

Learning to play more quietly and with a lighter touch.

I use different styles with different bands but, with my Soul R&B group I do this and the tone gets proper, the playing gets better

 

[NortyFiner]

Plugging into an envelope filter and it telling me very harshly how my playing touch was all over the place. QUACK!

 

[bassmeknik]

For me one of the things that pushed my learning forward was to learn note recognition/interval training. Today after much practice I learn most bass lines entirely in my head without a bass. I can hear the bass line and decipher what is being played by recognizing the interval between each note. Other than learning the key signature (which can often be determined by listening due to open strings, assuming standard tuning is employed) I need only to get comfortable playing the "new" pattern. And after a while there are VERY FEW new patterns...

Now what pushed my performance forward was practice, with help from my friends at TB where I learned about a lot of stuff (largely technical type stuff) that helped me shape my bass sound.

Overall my performance has been improved by my willingness to try new ideas and keep an open mind to concepts that seemed at first to be counter intuitive, such as "the size of the driver means NOTHING about its frequency response" and "mixing drivers is a crap shoot, it might work well but it might not". Learning those 2 concepts and adopting them has done more for me since joining TB than the previous 20 years of practice. My bass tone would not likely have made the progression it has without the influence of TB. Thanks TB!

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Yoga. Somebody asked me recently what I was thinking about while playing. My answer: "Invalid Link Removed. Breathe through your nose."

 

[micguy]

Gigs. Nothing makes a players, or bands, whip themselves into shape like a date on the calendar quickly approaching.

I agree at least 150% - fairly regular gigs helps focus the practice routine. When you're playing with other competent musicians, it also helps - you realize that you, if you don't practice, might be the weak link.

My next step (in process) is moving from using chord charts for part of the gig (I play in church, that's OK) to complete memorization. When you really know the music, you can be loooking around the room and at other musicians, for clues as to where things are, how they're going, etc. Staring at a sheet of paper, you miss that stuff.

 

[BobDeRosa]

Reading through reams of jazz. Coltrane, Davis, Oscar Pettiford et.al. For one thing, the stuff isn't easy to read, for me anyway. For another, it's a different language. At once familiar, but not familiar. Many times I'd read a phrase and think, surely that's wrong. But once it started to settle in my mind and then body, i realized what geniuses these guys were.
What's that got to do with one's playing? It starts in the mind right? Treating rhythm with equal consideration to notes requires the player to always evaluate control and precision. So mechanically, I'll spend time playing things, familiar things dotted, dots in front, dots in back. It cleans up your playing and helps further synchronize the hands. The demands of the music, in other words, changes your approach to how you practice. Everyone should look at at least a bit of jazz.

The real benefit of learning and playing jazz is that you immerse yourself in jazz theory, which is invaluable. The ii-V7-I progression that you learn as a jazz player appears in many different styles of music, and understanding that progression, or even understanding just the sound of a V7-I progression, makes you a better player.

 

[InhumanResource]

Playing with people and proper technique, in that order.