walking basslines and thinkybits
welp, things don't always turn out as you'd hoped. a good ol' wrench in the works is certainly a pain to deal with. regardless of how bog of a wrench it may be i find that doing my daily practice routine helps keep me maintain a sense of normalcy in my life. i just don't feel right if i haven't put my time in for the day first thing in the morning…
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gear
opinion: buy it.
i guess every one comes face-to-face with the "does gear matter?" question at some point. it's natural. it's reasonable. it's also tiresome. i'm going to cut to the chase on this one. the answer is "no" with a caveat of "yes". the end. you can stop reading now. if for some reason you're still reading, let me just stat…
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soft-softer-soft
if i had to make a quick assessment of everything i've ever learned i'd say dynamics are likely the most difficult technique i've ever tried to get under control. they're maddeningly difficult when you've spent literally your entire musical career not giving them any thought and that muscle memory runs deep on this one. for years i really worked …
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don't tell anyone.
welp, i guess i'm a 5 string guy. i know it doesn't sound like really much of anything but it goes a bit deeper than surface level. let me explain. for virtually my entire career of playing bass i've firmly identified as a 4-string guy and played 4 strings exclusively. when thinking or talking about 5-strings i'd quickly dismiss them as "unnecess…
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sh*t technique
i, for one, enjoy the repetitive nature of practice... especially the practice of technique. now i'm not saying my technique is awesome, it's quite shit i assure you, but it's getting better. i've been spending months trying to fix all the bad habits i've developed over the past 27 years or so and it's quite the task. if you're pretty muc…
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practice routine
more on arpeggios.
i'll never get tired of being blown away at some new piece of the puzzle being dropped into place. to do a thing daily it's easy to let it fall into a normalized state where it just is. everyday you do the thing and there it is, same as it ever was. it can be challenging to gain new perspective or to otherwise breathe a little bit of freshness into it, whatev…
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practice routine
peer inside the matrix.
the hope with learning an instrument is that it's always an ascent in skill. the thought is every day you play you're better than you were the day before. each time you learn a new song, rhythm, technique, etc., you have increased your net skill by a certain amount. the hope is that it is accumulative. once you've learned a thing you can pack it away and…
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rut rants
burn out.
wuuf. burnout is a thing. i get hit with it every now and again and now is one of those times. i've been hitting it pretty hard lately... in fact the past 2 and a half month has been pretty active. i've been practicing every day over multiple practice sessions and the results are nice but yikes, is it repetitive. i mean, it has to be to a large extent, and i…
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practice routine
the long game.
for the past 5 weeks or so i've been focused on getting a handle on a functional understanding of the fretboard... and i mean focused. each day i've done at least three 25-minute practice sessions on just this one topic. every. single. day. each day begins with my normal hour to an hour and a half practice, of which at least 25 minutes, and often 50, is spen…
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reality check
expectation management.
recently i've been working on some stuff. it's a lot of stuff. i'm working on getting my fretboard knowledge together and it's... a lot. i'm up for the challenge, though. it's not hard material. it's become apparent to me that music really isn't an intellectual pursuit. i mean, it can be if you want it to, but for the most part it…
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inspiration
bass fraudulence.
so technically i've been playing for about 28 years. i mean, on paper i got my first bass when i was in 8th grade. ever since then if someone were to ask me if i play bass (or guitar) i'd say, "yes", of course. i mean, isn't that really the only qualification to be a bassist, simply owning one? for some people it certainly is. not me, though. b…
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practice routine
thinky bits.
it's been a long time since i've really had to think about what i was playing. it's been my experience that learning songs, riffs, tasty licks, etc., may have challenging aspects, but rarely do they need to really be thought about. sure, slowing down a lick to work it out may take focus, maybe a little bit of problem solving in terms of fingering, positi…
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practice routine
exercise development
when learning an instrument half the battle of improvement is just becoming aware of a weakness. i mean, the other half is the part where you do something about it which is the actual work part, but first you have to identify that there is a weakness in the first place. becoming aware of a thing can be difficult, though, especially if you've been playing for a lo…
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practice routine
plan it
practice. some people want nothing to do with it. some tolerate it to an extent. others might want to but find they don't know where to start or what to work on. all valid. i get it, practice for most people probably is a chore. something viewed as having to get through or that one "should" do it, like taxes or basic hygiene. and sometimes it is a cho…
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inspiration
limits.
working at the limit of your technical abilities is frustrating. i mean, i can be cool as in sometimes it's fun to be just barely hanging on, but it's frustrating hitting the brick wall limiter of your own hands. i never set out to be fast . i'll never be fast. that, having been said, sometimes relative fast is what a piece calls for and if i'm go…
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practice routine
navigation and not knowing.
okay, moving on. so, 5-string. there are those that are pro-5 and those that are retro-snobs. i fall in between. i play 4 strings more or less exclusively. i own a 5 string, mostly because i like to have my options covered. i'd like to incorporate it into my tool box but haven't really managed to. i think i know why. it has been my experience that whenever i …
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rut rants
ugh... i shouldn't do that.
this one is going to be a rant, for sure. possibly without a definitive point and certainly will meander a fair amount. i'm likely just going to complain to the void just to get it out of my head. you've been warned and i can't be bothered with learning how to write more goodly. recently i've been feeling somewhat stuck in my playing. in particular, i…
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tracks and charts
i've been working through some jam tracks from an online educational site, as i am wont to do. i like them because you can download a .pdf of the notation/tabs and really dig into them. now, i can't read notation, but i did learn how to read the rhythm of notation. that, to me, was much more useful and practical. i won't ever have to read but knowing how…
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inspiration
filling in the gaps
i got a hold of some bits and pieces of riffs and parts that one of the guys i'm playing with had recorded into protools. i tossed it into reaper and began working up some of my own guitar parts for it. after quickly figuring out the BPM and key i was off to work. it's standard I-ii-vi-V progression in straight 8s, mostly down-picked. the guitars were doubled…
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reality check
ruff...
last night i got together a few people to just work on some junk. they had jammed before but it had been an easy 6 months snice they last got together, and even then didn't really have anything worked out. i didn't feel out of place walking in because i had been given the heads up on the casual nature of the "band". i was brought it to play guitar a…
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inspiration
sometimes tone is in the gear.
we've all been guilty of hearing with our eyes at some point. we see a new shiny pedal, bass, amp, pickup, cable, bridge, strap lock, gig bag, string winder and think, "yeah, that's the thing that's going to make me sound good"... and then we buy it. of course it's never "the thing" but we certainly convince ourselves that it is f…
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rut rants
dis(en)couraging
i've been working on a piece that's got me up against my personal limits and i've got it, for the most part. i've been practicing it at about 10 bpm slower and on occasion have been bumping it up to full speed and i can hang . i've been focusing on keeping my 16ths tight and in check, watching my rests, and making sure i hold notes for the correct…
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rut rants
unmotivation and... and... what was it?
today is another one of those days where motivation is hard to come by. although i got up at my usual hour, got my coffee and oatmeal, and sat down to practice, i'm finding myself just going through the motions. no progress is being made i'm just not regressing, i suppose, though i probably am doing that. it's frustrating and doesn't feel good and it …
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