One of my favorite exercises is to put on a 4-measure drum beat on a drum machine and make up a groove. Already it's good, right! So then you have the drum beat play for 3 measures and cut out for the last one, try to come in again right on time. Then do the same with 2 measures and 2. Then 1 and 3. Keep doing this until you only have 1 hit every 4 measures. Then stop playing. Keep the groove in your head and just guess where the beat will be. Then leave the room with the groove in your head. Come back in and guess where the beat will be.

You can add fills to your groove or do an all-out solo to make this harder. It is without question the best exercise to improve your internal clock.

Oh, by the way the last exercise was brought to you by a 13 year old... your in your teens finally, right Maise?

Hells YES I am!

Thats actually a good idea! yaay for good ideas!

On the internal clock note...

I think I copped this one from Ed Friedland or an old BP article:
Dust off the old quartz metronome, set it so it in 4/4 so it accents the 1. Play your groove for a few measures, until you're fully locked in. After that's comfortable, play so the accent falls on 2. Once you master that, let the accent fall on 3. If you've made it this far, try letting that accent fall on 4.

A bit of advice? Take a break from playing every once in a while.

Sure, we need to maintain our physical chops by periodically practicing, jamming or performing. But as musicians we aren't simply a physical means of playing the instrument. Your mind and soul are tremendously important to your output as a musician. So take care of them! How? Well, start by living your life every day. Sure, we tend to congregate with other musicians, but we should all be actively pursuing interests away from music. This could be in personal relationships, reading a good book, checking out a movie, travelling...anything, really.

As bassists we aren't just the sum of our musical education. If we're able to tap into our psyches for inspiration, the creative bug can come from anywhere. Inspiration can come from a beautiful experience or from something troubling. So pay attention to what's going on in your life and try to turn those experiences into a cool groove or a heartrending fill.

And another thing? Taking some time off from the instrument can be refreshing. You can come back to the instrument with a new sense of purpose. And picking the bass up after a break can be liberating. Your hands feel fresher when you play again after some time off. We take vacations from our jobs. Why not consider taking an occassional vacation from music?

Building on (or adding to, or deviating from--however you see it..) what Nicklab sez: I think the best thing a bassist can do is learn other instruments.

IMO a bassist should also play some piano and rhythm guitar as well.

And... learn to read sheet music! At least Bass clef!

I have spent the last seven years searching for the perfect tone. I hear it in my head, but have always had trouble getting it out.

I joined a band a year and half ago and everything changed. Playing a variety of original rock tunes with two guitarists and a drummer made me realize that the perfect tone is different for most tunes. My tone for home was great soloed, but didn't cut through with the band. And it certainly didn't fit EVERY song.

I've since taken a song-oriented approach to tone-seeking. I have a few different tones as my mainstays, but am always experimenting with technique and effects to find that just-right tone for each song.

I guess I said all that to say this; no one piece of gear is going to give you perfect tone. The best you can do is get a bass that feels good to play, an amp with a variety of sounds, and whatever effects you think are fun. After that, nothing beats playing with other musicians.

Don't neglect your aural skills. Learn intervals. Play a note and sing it. Pick an interval, play that and sing it. Eventually you will be able to play a note and sing various intervals around that note, checking that you are right by playing it afterwards.

Incorporate this into your practice regime.

The ability to hear an interval and play it is an essential skill for all musicians frequently overlooked or forgotten. It's not beyond anyone’s reach with a bit of practice. Don’t just rely on playing and hearing, you need to be able to hear and play as well.

Then take the metronome at its slowest speed. Imagine the click is on one and play. Then imagine the click is on the second sixteenth of one and play; then on the 'and' of one; then on the fourth sixteenth of one; then on two etc. That one comes from Ed Friedland too!

My advice to beginners:

Learn to properly set up and tune your bass. This would include string changes, bridge saddle adjustments (for intonation and string height), truss rod adjustments (for neck relief) and pick up height adjustments. A properly set up and tuned bass will sound and feel its best. Knowing how to do it yourself will save you money, make you more connected with your instrument and can save you when that last minute before gig problem arises.

After church service on Sunday I had a teenager come up to me and said his dad just bought him a bass and wanted some advice. This is what I told him.

1. Find a good teacher - it speeds up the learning process and keeps you from developing bad habits.
2. Find gear that works for you and stick with it. Just because a piece of gear works for your bass hero doesn't mean it will work for you.
3. Learning songs note for note is the best way to get better.
4. Learn Jazz - no matter what style you want to play, learning jazz will take your skills to new heights.
5. Spend a little time learning to sight read each day.

Anyway, he seemed to appreciate the advice, so I thought I would pass it on to you.

Best tip:
I met Nathan East during a Clinic for Yamaha, where I was the translator. I took the best advice from him just talking at the hotel:" Enjoy the moment and have a positive attitude. If you do that, everybody is gonna play better because they do feel well and relaxed."
I completely agree.
Thanks Nathan.

The Dominant 7th Game

Here is an exercise that helped me to learn the fretboard and also how 7th chords resolve. I call it a game because there are numerous (almost infinite) note combinations - what matters is that you outline every chord and resolve it to the next dominant 7th chord.

Start on let's say B, and treat it as the 3rd of a G7 chord. Then play D next (the 5th). Now you may choose to go up to the G above, or down to the G below. Either way, play G (root) and then F (7th). That F will now resolve to E, which will be the 3rd of the new chord - C7. Now outline the C7 in the same way - play 3rd and 5th (G) , then go up or down to C(root) and Bb (7th). The Bb will now resolve to A, the 3rd of F7. Continue until you go through all keys. Continue until you've been up to the highest note you can play, and down until you've hit the lowest note you can play. You may play each measure across 1, 2, or 3 strings.

Here is one example. (Please forgive my music notation freeware):




For extra bonus, play it while you sing it ~or~ say the notes you're playing.

When you feel that you've mastered the game in this manner, try reversing the game so that instead of the 7th resolving to the 3rd of the next chord, you resolve the 3rd of the dominant chord to the root of the next one.

Good luck,

Shirky

What a great first post, Shirky!

Thank you and welcome to the forum!

I've given exercises like that to my students for years. (not that they all actually practice the exercises enough).

Please continue posting and join in the community here!

Great post Shirky! What software is that?

I was checking the August issue of Bass Player, and I noticed that little pearl of wisdom that contributed by C. Alexander Claber. He was aboslutly right, and if may boldly piggy back on his thunder I would add this little tidbit; as someone that has been playing bass since before the advent of active electronics and onboard pre-amps, I learned a long time ago that one of the best way to get tonal variation out of the instrument is to vary your picking technique. Don't just confine yourself to that old finger funk, using that pick, or limit yourself to slapping and popping, learn all three techniques. Limiting yourself to one style of picking is fine, if you just play one style of music, but who out there really consciously pigeonholes him/herself to one style, would you really want to? Learn all three major picking techniques and you will broaden your tonal palette, without having to crack open your wallett.

Thanks! The software in question is called Denemo (google search finds it), although I guess the free version doesn't have all the bells and whistles. For example, I attempted to make the notes eighth notes instead of quarter notes, but I was unable to do so.

Shirky

If you are like I, you may sometimes all of a sudden realize, while practicing, that your thoughts have wandered a thousand miles away and that you are actually not LISTENING to the notes that you play.
What to do: get irritated, frustrated, angry at yourself?
What works for me is just accepting the fact, that I lost concentration and do this following little exercise:
Take a breath, play one note (any), listen closely to it as it swells into existence, listen to it while it full sounding, listen to it as it slowly decays. Listen until you swear that it is not audible anymore.
By that time, you will probably also hear a lot of other sounds, that you didn't notice before: traffic, neighbors, the refrigerator, etc.. All because, once again, your ears are open. Do it with a couple of different notes, then resume practicing whatever you were (not) practicing before.
By the way; what you'll hear while listening is also YOUR sound, in reference to Reader's tip in the august 2007 issue.
Thank you.

is this working?

Yes!

Alex

The best exercise I've learned playing bass is just to have fun. When you're having fun, people notice and it's infectious.

One very important thing that you must remember is that practing scales and appargios is very important. They will first of all help your plucking speed and plucking accuracy. And of coarse their main purpose to know which notes sound good and dont to that note.

Also, stretching and warming up your fingers are very important. Espiacially if its cold out. Your fingers could break and bone or crack. And it is very very uncomfertable to play without stretching them.

And Lastly, having some kind of rhythm would be good. Drum machine, or just a drummer, rhythm guitarist, or even a metronome is good. Keeping time is very important for the bassist. Also you can intesivly improve on scales, accuracy, and even speed.

Al

This is copied from an issue of bass player magazine, or maybe whoever wrote it in BPM, copied it from you. Nice tip anyway.

No, man!!!!

Bassplayer printed this after Alex posted it on this forum. Read the article about it in BP!

Yes, it's a great piece of advice!

Welcome to the forum, mate!

The thing that helped me the most and still continues to do so is when I started learning from myself. Sure it is great to go out and talk, read mags., ask qusetions, take lessons, but once you have foundation stop looking elsewhere and look inside yourself for what to play and how to play. That is the only way your true inner, musical voice can come out! By the way, My name is Frank, A.K.A., "BASS JEDI" aand I thought it would be good to introduce myself to you all. Started playing cello at the age of 10. Been involved with music ever since. Naturally gravitated to the low end cuz' that's where it's at!!

Great post, and welcome. If I can expand on that idea just a bit...it can be a really good educational thing to sit down and learn Jaco/Rocco/Wooten/whomever bass lines note-for-note. But, I think that at some level, you can start to play like them rather than playing like yourself. The thing that I generally try to do is to back up one step from the actual bass line and instead try to catch their vibe (like say, the twangy growly Jaco runs, or Rocco-ish muted 16th's, etc.), then mix that vibe with my own approach to things and my own creativity (for instance, I may do a Rocco-ish muted 16th bass line, but execute it using 3 or 4 finger plucking rather than left-hand muting...has some of the same vibe to it, but sounds quite different...it sounds like me rather than Rocco). In a nutshell, it's more like borrowing a motif rather than copying a style. I think the benefit here is that it requires you to inject your own creativity into it, which I think is a good thing.

Dave

[quote=bassman_rules
This is copied from an issue of bass player magazine, or maybe whoever wrote it in BPM, copied it from you. Nice tip anyway. [/quote]

Funny moment of the day!!!!

Welcome to bassjedi and the bassman, stick around guys

Check out the introduce yourself thread

Hi, Jonathan. Below is my "Reader's Tip".

Having trouble getting your walking lines to sound stylistically credible? Try taking your ring finger out of the equation so that your left-hand technique emulates an upright player’s. The key is to use the ring finger as a “brace” for your pinkie and to forget about spreading your hand out over a four-fret area. This is especially useful if you are one of the manifold bassists switching, as I did, from guitar.

I remember my bass teacher telling me to watch John Pattitucci’s left hand, which I got a chance to do up close when he came through my town with Chic Corea. Sure enough, he used his ring finger, and I was quick to point this out to my teacher. My teacher’s reply: Yes, of course he used it, but only seldom, if ever, while playing walking lines. He was, of course, correct. JP used what was in essence an upright technique while walking on the electric bass.

For more info see F. Simandl’s New Method for the Double Bass and The Evolving Bassist by Rufus Reid.

-----------------------------------
Simandl, Franz. New Method for the Double Bass Revised by F. Zimmermann. New York: Carl Fisher, Inc, 1984:vi.
Reid, Rufus. The Evolving Bassist. New Jersey: Myriad Limited, 1983:46-51.