Practice Pays Off!
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!
Rob Smith
I AM the bass player!
GUITARS: '93 ZON Sonus 4, '85 G&L L-2000 (Mahogany), '05 Schecter Stiletto Custom 4, '06 SX SJB-62MG (Fretless), '07 Squier Bronco (project), '06 Ibanez AEB10E-BK acoustic bass, '70s Epiphone OO-sized acoustic, '94 Peavey Reactor (extreme makeover edition)
AMPS: '03 Ampeg BA115 bass combo, '86 Peavey MkIV Series 400 bass head, SWR Workingman's cabs, 2x10" & 1x15", '00 Peavey Micro Bass