Your pearls of wisdom

[onlyclave]

Play the right notes ALL of the time.

 

[CatfishStudios]

" Music is just as much about the silence between the notes, as it is the notes themselves." Helped me immeasurably as a musician,

 

[derrenleepoole]

Don't eat the yellow snow

 

[tigerbass]

When practicing, especially originals, try playing them in different positions than you normally would. Also try playing stand-out runs and parts completely different than you originally wrote them. I have significantly improved parts that I thought were really good just on accident! In other words, don't get complacent. Instead of just getting bored playing the same old songs, I try to amuse, or make myself, and my drummer, laugh by trying different crazy stuff.

 

[tomd03]

Someone said something similar to this, but I want to word it a bit differently.

"I don't like playing metal," "I don't like playing funk," "I don't like playing polka," etc.
I'm going to be blunt, it's not that you don't like it, it's that you can't play it.
I've found that 95% of the time, when people say they dislike playing a style, it is because they:
A) Have never attempted to play it
B) Have attempted, but didn't dedicate time to it and gave up

Open up to styles, give everything a shot. If you can play a multitude of styles, the chances of you getting a gig are much higher than if you turn them down by saying "I don't like playing that."

 

[armandine2]

Bring them in sweetly, Gut them completely, pack the up neatly. Sell them discretely. Ebmaj. From Britten's Peter Grimes, lovely four bar rhythm, I saw it on a bass staff, it said something about 7/4 time;
eb,f,g/ab',ab',.,.,ab',bb',ab'/g,g,.,.,eb',bb',g/f,f,.,.,f,bb',bb/eb,eb,.,.,
It was my small catch last week, for only the cost of a photocopy, seen in a lovely little pamphlet on the aforementioned at Covent Garden Opera, complete with some neat cartoons on the characters. I guess my pearl is, if you see the bass clef and some notes, which someone has taken the trouble to highlight there's no harm in playing it and seeing what you get.

 

[mambo4]

abandon tab in favor of notation as early as possible.

 

[brivello]

Listen to lots and lots and lots and lots of music. Go see live music whenever possible.

 

[tZer]

"Most of your questions can be answered by listening to recordings"

You beat me to it.

I was going to say, "Record everything (your practice, your band's practice, gigs) and listen to it a lot"

The 'tape' don't lie.

 

[tZer]

Bring them in sweetly, Gut them completely, pack the up neatly. Sell them discretely. Ebmaj. From Britten's Peter Grimes, lovely four bar rhythm, I saw it on a bass staff, it said something about 7/4 time;
eb,f,g/ab',ab',.,.,ab',bb',ab'/g,g,.,.,eb',bb',g/f,f,.,.,f,bb',bb/eb,eb,.,.,
It was my small catch last week, for only the cost of a photocopy, seen in a lovely little pamphlet on the aforementioned at Covent Garden Opera, complete with some neat cartoons on the characters. I guess my pearl is, if you see the bass clef and some notes, which someone has taken the trouble to highlight there's no harm in playing it and seeing what you get.

I'm sorry. I think this may be a case of two people separated by a common language, but I am completely baffled by the first part of your comment. Can you elaborate on the "Sweetly, Completely, Neatly, Discreetly" thing?

 

[pinkzepphish]

learn modes! it makes soloing so much easier

 

[bassmanrocke]

More than anything, playing is supposed to be fun. If it becomes work, take a break and come back when it is fun again. The world is full of closets with basses of beginners who made it not fun.

 

[Ric5]

know every single note on your fretboard.

 

[Benjamin Strange]

There's nothing wrong with your playing that more gear can't fix.

 

[Jim Carr]

"Bring them in sweetly. Gut them completely. Pack them up neatly. Sell them discretely."

I believe this is from Britten's Opera "Peter Grimes." It refers to fish. It might also be transfered to building bass lines, though then it would become quite cryptic again...which could be a good thing.

My pearl of wisdom: Give yourself permission to sound bad. If you can't do that, you will never get better. You will be trapped by the fear of how far you have to travel to sound good, and you won't be able to bear the disappointments of real practice.

So do it. Give yourself permission to sound bad--for now.

 

[kesslari]

My pearl of wisdom: Give yourself permission to sound bad. If you can't do that, you will never get better.

A friend of mine says something similar - anything worth doing is worth doing badly (i.e., you if it's fun to do, do it because it's fun, whether or not you're "good" at it).

I'll add one more:

Practice slowly and accurately. That will develop speed better than practicing fast and sloppily.
Speed comes from accuracy.

 

[JTE]

learn modes! it makes soloing so much easier

Well, I find MOST modal teaching to add un-needed levels of complexity to things. Learn them, but know what they MEAN instead of just learning fingerings.

For a lot of music, if you look for key-centers and OWN the chords (that is, you know what notes are in each chord, you know how that chord functions in the context of the chords around it, and you know the key center that ties them together) then you don't need modes.

But the point is that you need a solid reliable framework for building harmony.

jte

 

[armandine2]

I'm sorry. I think this may be a case of two people separated by a common language, but I am completely baffled by the first part of your comment. Can you elaborate on the "Sweetly, Completely, Neatly, Discreetly" thing?

.

I guess the beat helps pass the time and gets the work done, whilst reflecting on the nature of the work as well. As a bassist you're often the moral centre of the music.