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r_a_smith3530
March 27th, 2006, 10:58 AM
Practice in the basics DOES pay off!

When I came back, now playing bass, I used a different approach. Where before, as a guitarist, I kept trying to play like Eric, Jimi, Jimmy, Keith, or someone else, and trying to copy song licks, this time around, I went back to the basics.

Although I began buying CDs, and listening to every famous (and a few not-so-famous) bass player I could find, I did not try to emulate any of them. Instead, I started from scratch, working on fretting exercises and scales. I played scales until I could hum them in my sleep. I played scales until my family begged me to stop. I played scales until I could do it with my eyes closed, using what Obi Wan would call "The Force," that small still voice within. Eventually, that same force powered my finger movements, performing cross string fretting and picking exercises with ease. I did come across a few licks , quite by accident, while doing this.

Finally, I began to learn some simple blues progressions on the bass, some in basic 4/4 time, but others in 12/8. I began to notice that I was playing these, not mechanically, but rather from somewhere deep within. Everything that I had been listening to was suddenly influencing my fingers, and I wasn't playing like Stanley, or like Marcus, or even like Jaco. Rather, I was playing like Rob, like "Sporty Rob!"

Saturday, my friend and I journeyed down to Evanston, to put one of his custom, luthier-built acoustic guitars (a Randy Allen) up for consignment at the Guitar Works. While he did that, I wandered around the store, checking out various toys (I still don't like the Fender BG-32 acoustic bass). I was looking through the book rack and something caught my eye. It was a book put out by Hal Leanard and Musician's Institute, titled "The Art of Walking Bass." I perused it a bit and decided to take it home. Due to work, I didn't get to look at it, or even play for that matter, at all yesterday. I did go to sleep last night playing the accompanying CD.

This morning, I opened the book, and played the first progression, a twelve bar in quarter notes. On the second try through, I was actually nailing it note-for-note! After working with it for fifteen minutes, I had it down and was adding my own embellishments. As I played, I noticed that it was coming from the heart. I wasn't looking at the book, or my bass' neck for that matter. What I was playing was coming from within.

I'm taking a break now, well into the third progression in the book, and letting some things sink in, while I give the pads of my fingers some rest (or at least execise of a different sort). I'm finding that I am bringing my own sound, through both my timing, and through how I attack the strings, to each progression. I think that I am at the point where I realize that I have my own style. That is so cool!

BTW, something I forgot to mention above. While playing these new progressions this morning, not only was I able to learn them quickly, add my own embellishments, and play the progressions with my own feel; I found that I also had no trouble whatsoever transposing the key in which I played them, even when open notes were involved.

Practicing the basics does pay off!

tot_Ou_tard
March 27th, 2006, 04:23 PM
That's fantastic. It sounds like I am on the right path as I spend time playing scales and understanding the structure of the fingerboard. I learned some basic music theory too. It wasn't hard...took about a week. I play some blues progressions, some jazz progressions, some chord forms, some scales, try my hand at a song or two, then get out my slide & tune to open G and slide around a bit. Anything to keep moving and progressing.

Nelskie
March 27th, 2006, 05:07 PM
I'm finding that I am bringing my own sound, through both my timing, and through how I attack the strings, to each progression. I think that I am at the point where I realize that I have my own style. That is so cool!

r_a_ - Yours was easily one of the best posts I've read in a good while. Personally, I walked that very same path with my own playing, and for a good long while, too. Years, as a matter of fact. When I came to the realization that finger-tapping and vibrato tricks weren't helping me to enjoy playing (actually the exact opposite), I went back to the basics - i.e. the blues. Simple to digest, easy to learn, fun to play. But in switching my style from prog. heavy metal to blues, I also learned another important thing: feel. What I had been trying to accomplish with a dizzying array of licks I was doing with two and three notes or chords. Again, I discovered this quite by accident. As my playing improved, I began enjoying it so much more. Not only that, but I soon began finding my own voice in the music I played, not somebody else's. And when that happened, iit was like the clouds opened up, and light shone down from above. There it was!

You may notice from a few of my posts that I am constantly bringing up the point of finding your own "voice" in your music & playing. So many players try to sound or play like others, and it isn't getting them to where they want to be as guitarists / bassists. Your point on dedicated practice is so very true, and completely drives that point home. Proficiency in the basic fundamental skills will indeed open new & exciting doors to your playing. And only by making that committment, and sticking to it, will you reap those rewards.

Katastrophe
March 27th, 2006, 10:22 PM
That's awesome, "Sporty Rob!"

I can't put it any better than Nelskie (VERY well said, my friend), but that's what learning an instrument is all about, and it's very cool that you took your own way to get there.

After all these years of playing, I'm still trying to get there. I keep working at it, and it will happen, hopefully before I'm using a walker and forgetting where I put the good Sunday-go-ta-meetin' teeth.

marnold
March 28th, 2006, 09:31 AM
I've been thinking a lot about your post since I read it yesterday. It's hard to say that just the scale work did it for you and to totally discount learning other's licks. I can play a lot of things on my guitar that sound like just going up and down scales, because that's basically what it is. Guitar 101 (or maybe 201). The advantage of learning licks is that you can start to "see" different ways to apply scales that would never have occurred to you otherwise. Contrary to somewhat popular opinion, no one is truly "original." We all borrow from each other. It's the way that we put it all together that makes us unique.

The benefits to playing scales all the time (which is something I do--I've been woodshedding the three-note-per-string Aeolian/minor) are these: 1) you get your hands in sync with each other and 2) you drill the intervals into your head so when your mind "hears" a note, your fingers know where to go.

I've got the Metal Method "Classic Metal Licks" DVD. I'm not sure how many of those licks I'll ever incorporate into my own style. The nice thing is that I can practice things like bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs, etc. without going through the same mindless exercises all of the time. It keeps things new and fresh.

On that DVD, all of the licks have been transposed into the key of A. Most of them are blues scale, minor pentatonic, or Aeolian. When I learn a lick I ask myself several questions: 1) Do I like the lick?, 2) What about it (technique, note selection, etc.) made me like or dislike it?, 3) Why did the original guitarist choose those notes?, 4) Even if I don't like the lick, is there some portion of it that I can steal and make my own?

I'm pretty much convinced that I could create new things on my bass because I learned how others had done it by learning their songs. When you do that for a while, you learn how bass "works" and then you can apply it to your own style. I'm hoping the same thing happens with guitar, and to a certain extent, I can see it happening already.

I'm sure part of it is just because we're all wired a little differently. I have a hard time coming up with things that are brand new and original. However, I am quite good at taking something that's already there and tweaking it to make it a lot better.

r_a_smith3530
March 28th, 2006, 11:21 AM
Ah, marnold, it is good to see that my post has you thinking. A great teacher once said that if you give a man a fish, he will eat for one day, but if you teach him to fish, he will eat forever. I'm glad I got you "fishing."

Yes, just as the ancient Chinese have said, there are many paths on the road to enlightenment; mine is but one. Yours may be different, and that is not a bad thing, merely a different thing.

I started this post right after reading about someone who wanted to sound like someone else (famous, of course). It got me to thinking how many times I had read similar posts over the past weeks and months, and they're all the same, "How do I (alter my style, make my guitar/amp sound, etcetera) in order to sound more like (insert favorite guitar/bass hero's name here).

Early on in my playing, I had seen this, and it made me think. How come no one ever says, "Wow, that BB King sure plays like (insert name here)." I've never heard someone say, "Boy, Eric Clapton sure sounded like (insert name here) when he played that Layla tune." I noticed that almost every really big name guitar player (I hadn't gotten into bass yet) had their own style, they weren't copying the guy next to them.

Mind you, I got a late start. The first time I picked up a guitar was at the age of 37 (or 38). I played around, on and off for a couple years, and then let it drop for a period of time. During that layoff, I had Carpal Tunnel Release surgery performed on each of my hands. At some point thereafter, I picked up the guitar and discovered that I lacked some of my former dexterity, and this required much more careful (read slow") articulation in order to play at all. At the age of 51, I finally decided to pretty much abandon guitar and instead concentrate on the bass. I also decided to start from square one, using a completely different approach than I had previously. I knew that I wasn't doing this to become a famous (insert favorite musical genre here) star, but rather for my own personal enjoyment. I remembered from days long passed (a short stint in violin as a kid) that the first thing classical music teachers did was to drum the basics into you. Scales, chords, fretboard theory, and speed exercises, all that kind of stuff. Well, that's what I did.

At the same time, I began listening to a number of bass players, in a number of different musical genres, from Stanley Clarke, to Willie Dixon, from Stu Hamm and Flea to Suzie Quatro, and from Jaco to Yo Yo Ma (yeah, it's a small bass!). I wanted to fill my head with bass sounds, not in order to copy them, but rather in order to recognize them. At some point, I began hearing things in my playing. Some of those things I would recognize as similar to something else I had previously heard.

Today, everything about my bass playing, from my choice of instrument and amp, to my style, is based solely on what I like, not on how X player sounds. That was what I was after. As the saying goes, your mileage may vary. I didn't want to sound like Marcus Miller. He's been playing since he was a pup, and there's no way I could ever completely assimilate his sound at my age. Plus, I didn't want folks to say, "Why, he sounds just like Marcus Miller." That's not what made Marcus Miller great, and it certainly would not make me great either, at least not in my opinion. I don't believe that it will make anyone else great either. That's my opinion, I may be totally wrong, but if you look at all the famous players that you admire, one of the things you probably admire about them is their originality.

So, as I said in the beginning, if my post got you to thinking at all, it served 110% of its purpose. If it got you thinking about YOUR sound, and how that might differ from anyone else's sound, then it has served a purpose that is infinite in its percentage.

Make beautiful music, and make it come from the heart, not just from the mind. And play, as if it were your last day on Earth!

Now, back to the woodshed. These hands ain't gettin' any younger!

marnold
March 28th, 2006, 04:33 PM
Ah, marnold, it is good to see that my post has you thinking. A great teacher once said that if you give a man a fish, he will eat for one day, but if you teach him to fish, he will eat forever. I'm glad I got you "fishing."
Yep, you definitely did get me thinking. Still am. Although my favorite corollary to the above statement is, "Build a man a fire and he will be warm for one day. Set a man on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life." :)

I agree with you on wanting to play like a specific person. I've heard a lot of people ask, "What do I need to do to sound just like SRV?" Well, step one is "be SRV." If he were alive today and I would play his rig, I'd sound like me. If he played my humbucker-equipped Fender through my Vox, he'd still sound like Stevie. If someone says, "How can I get my tone warmer like SRV's?" or "What was his favorite scale to use?" that's a different issue.

The long and the short of it is that I hope one day to be able to play guitar instead of having the guitar play me.

r_a_smith3530
March 29th, 2006, 12:12 AM
Yep, you definitely did get me thinking. Still am. The long and the short of it is that I hope one day to be able to play guitar instead of having the guitar play me.

Ain't it the truth!

Hey, the best one I've heard recently was the other day when someone asked in a G&L bass forum how they could make their L-2000 sound just like a P Bass. One of the regulars pops up and replies that the best way to do that would be to sell the L2K and go buy a Fender!

I can get a lot of good tones, but even my hacked Deluxe P doesn't sound exactly like a vintage P.

I'm nowhere near being an excellent player, I'm a mere student, but when I play, I want to be remembered for sounding like one person only, and that's myself! Good, bad, whatever, I gotta be me!