practice routine
you can't fake the work.
as i've mentioned in previous posts, i've been taking lessons for the past oh... 14 months or so. i diligently do the work assigned to me each lesson. every morning i get up, get my coffee, make my oatmeal, and sit down for the 90 or so minutes i've set aside for practice. every. day. i've got some technique stuff, the assigned jazz stuff, and whateve…
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practice routine
the depth dimension.
it seems to me that playing bass is 3 dimensional... well, i guess that would be true for any instrument. the 3 dimensions being pitch, time/rhythm, and dynamics. some may be more important that others depending on context, but there you have it. combined they sum to the feel of a bassline. pitch is obvious and doesn't need much explanation. it's the first …
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reality check
well ain't that a thing?
so i've been working with one of my teachers for over a year now on jazz fundamentals, walking basslines and the such. jazz was and is not a dominant genre in my life but when i approached him about lessons and i said i struggled to create basslines of my own he said "great, walking basslines it is". that's fine with me. he's been in the biz for…
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reality check
yikes.
okay, so... recently i've really become interested in my technique, well, lack of technique. okay, that's not fair, i have technique, it's just complete trashgarbage. i've sort of come to the realization that being self-taught i've developed some really awful habits that are not helping or are directly impeding progress... and in some cases, just …
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practice routine
may the cycle be unbroken
whenever i start working on something new i've noticed i go through a predictable series of stages. let's say there's a complicated or syncopated rhythm that i'm trying to learn. from the downbeat of one to being able to play the rhythm confidently, the arc is always the same. becoming aware of the arc and leaning into it has become an effective tool …
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reality check
slow bummer
progress is slow. glacially slow. i've been a bit bummed out that it feels like i'm not making any headway and i'm not at a place that i thought i'd be at by now. well fuff. at work i have a lot of time to think being by myself for 8+ hours a day and it can be a good thing or a bad thing. recently it's been a bad thing and i ended up talking myse…
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performance is a skill
this past week was the memorial show for bill bates and it was well attended. people had a lot of nice things to say about him. it was the first show i've played in about a year and a half. as far as i'm concerned, i played less good than i did when we were still a band...4 years ago. it was a long drive home. i've chewed on it since then and i've com…
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reality slap
so there was a bit of unfortunateness recently. bill bates, the one of the guitarists from the last band i was in, passed away rather unexpectedly last week. it's a bummer, but it happens. <moment of silence> </moment of silence> there is a memorial show that is being put on so we're "getting the band back together" as it were... you kno…
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inspiration
jazzy stuffs
welp, it has been a while since i've felt like i've had anything to post about. i still don't, yet here i am. it's been a little over 6 months that i've been studying jazz with Todd. i don know know how it is taught in any school, but his method certainly is the product of his own playing career and that of his time in academia teaching countless…
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gotta make the space for it.
if there's one thing that i've always wanted is a practice space of my own. i mean, like a room dedicated to my garbage where i can have and my stuff set up and ready to go at a moment's notice. there is nothing that's more of a motivation murderer than having to set stuff up to get started. i'll carry that a bit further, and say that (for me) not…
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chewy? ruff!
it has been a uh... rough... couple of months. practice has certainly been less-focused, shall we say. regardless, i still do practice daily. sometimes it's relatively light consisting of maybe a few exercises to keep material fresh and then maybe i run through a couple of songs i'm either working on or know well enough i don't have to relearn any parts. …
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