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, position changes, or some tricky cross-string plucking, but it doesn't require much thought.

a few years ago i had worked out my fretboard through the major scale. mapped out the positions and could really see the shapes. every day i'd practice in a different key so the pattern was fluid, it was never fixed to a specific set of frets. it felt great to have access to the entire fretboard for the first time in my life. the downside, though is, although it's an accurate map, it's not terribly functional. sure, you can use it to figure out what notes are available in the key and and a few other tidbits, but you can't really use it as-is. you end up playing stuff that sounds fine, in that it's diatonic, but it's just... diatonically correct.

i've been looking for a better way to navigate the bass. so lately i've been working on my arpeggios and really hammering on the functional-knowledge of the fretboard. like every time i approach something new on the instrument i toss my preconceived notions and ego right in the trash and start on the ground floor. day 1 stuff, people.


there is nothing glamorous about plucking away at your instrument and speaking notes out loud as you play them... in a very jerky, fumbling fashion. sure, i knew the notes on the fretboard already, but i haven't practiced them like this before. applying the pressure of a metronome makes you have to think hard about what you're about to play. some arpeggios are more familiar than others... and some have slipped through the cracks almost entirely. when you have less than 4 beats to figure it out you either make it happen or you're starting over. 20 minutes of this and i'm pretty toasty. i've found that 2 or 3 sessions of this per day is really helping get it under my fingers.

being difficult is good. it means i'm pushing myself into new territory. when i look back in some time it will all seem so obvious that it will be hard to remember when i didn't know.