Re: Q for gigging bassists: how do you practice?

Jeff Berlin? Ouch, that's a low blow...

OK, think of it like this:

If you go to the gym, fart around on the Stairmaster for a few minutes until
you get tired, hit on some chicks, and hit the sauna - is that a "workout"?
Outside of a few phone numbers, are you going to see any real progress from
following that routine for 3 months?

The difference between yourself and someone who wants to be as good as you
is that you have taken the time to master your instruments, to master the
elements of music, to constantly push yourself - and you didn't do that by
jamming to Smoke On the Water for 10 min a day. In fact, I'd wager that you
take the songs you work on and turn them into technique building exercises,
as do I.

I'd also wager that you DON'T just open up an Abersold book, play a few 1/2
assed, struggling choruses of a tune, and move on. Right?

And PLEASE don't think I'm saying that this is all there is to music or bass
playing. One of my late night fun time activities is to have a few drinks,
get out my short scale SG bass and play along to Beatles mp3s. I When I had
my 8 string, I'd grab a pick and play along to Cheap trick CDs. I do a ton
of writing, transcribing, and general experimenting. And when I'm onstage,
the last thing that goes through my mind is "what scale should I play here?"

But I wouldn't be able to do ANY of the above if I didn't have scales and
chords memorized all over the neck, to the point where they are second
nature. That's all I'm saying.

--
Lessons, music and more at www.jmsjazz.com

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid,
but most stupid people are conservatives."
- John Stuart Mill








"Frode Berg" <frode@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:GqGdnVemdNXLDCje4p2dnA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> "John Shaughnessy" skrev i melding
> news:EV7tf.6268$pk4.334@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> > Learning songs for a gig is not practicing; it's learning songs for a
gig.
> >
> > Running over songs may be fun, but it's not practicing, it's running
over
> > songs. There may be some interesting ideas and techniques for you to
> > isolate
> > and work on later, but for now, you're just running songs.
> >
> > Practicing is learning scales, chords and techniques that unlock the
> > fretboard and demystify your playing experience, and make songs easy to
> > learn. It's pushing yourself into playing things that take you beyond
your
> > current level.
> >
> > You don't get that from Mony Mony. That's all I'm saying.
> >
>
> Hehe....sounds like an old BP column from Jeff Berlin....
>
> Off course running songs can be practising.
> If you're training for the NY marathon, you would even consider the long
> passes of the week as training, right? Even though they're long and slow.
>
> Any time I'me near my bass, I consider myself to be "practising" in the
> sense that I'm practising my craft as a musician.
>
> It probably boils down to how you define "practising".
> If it is mechanical excersised devised to develope facility and strength,
> and/or learning new motoric ways of playing, then I agree, playing songs
is
> not practise per se. But anytime else, I would have to disagree.
>
> Frode Berg
>
>


.

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