Areas of improvement- Things a bass player can do to actually improve.

[Joshua Higginson]

Dear BCers.

A couple of weeks ago, I completely finished my GCSE music course after the rather tedious listening and appraising paper, and have now taken up GCSE performing arts.

Unlike music, it's much more orientated around the playing and improving aspect, and my teacher states that the lowest boundary should be the the level that we were achieved for the solo performance we gave for the music course in the March of this year, which I happened to get full marks on! (Sir Duke)

This has really got me thinking about where I can go to improve now. Currently, I feel like I'm not progressing, almost just reading and playing songs as they come.

I've just finished learning A Portrait of Tracy, and have came to this halt on what to do, how to improve, how to generally get better!

I would really appreciate your guys help to get together some sort of list on things that can constantly be built on to grow! I've picked out 3 or four main aspects that I think that I could work on, but I don't know the steps to go about it, and if you have any more things you would like to almost hear more or less of in other bassists, please please add, doesn't have to be an essay- Something like this could be a useful tool to me and others.

On a side note, if there is a post very similar to this, please may I be directed?

[center]Greater use of dynamics.[/center]
[center]More ambitious technical phrasing and ideas in solo performance.[/center]
[center]Greater confidence and stage presence in front of an audience.[/center]
[center]Stay rooted into a groove or a swing in the appropriate songs.[/center]

Thanks all,
Josh

[AttitudeCastle]

I have many things to say on this subject but won't post them all here!

I'm sat my Higher (second last year of school) Music exam two/three weeks ago so I'm guessing we're about the same age?

When you say get better, do you mean as a player, on a technical front or as a musician?

I find they are hand in hand but two seperate entities and when they work together is when the purest and best (expressive yet truely "musicial") music is made!

All IME and IMO!

[Bilbo]

Are you reading dots? If not, that would be a MASSIVE way to improve

[Joshua Higginson]

[quote name='AttitudeCastle' timestamp='1338323748' post='1672870']
When you say get better, do you mean as a player, on a technical front or as a musician?
[/quote]

I think that at the moment, I'd be looking at the "musician side"

Thanks for your responses

And I agree Bilbo! Straight after posting, I saw Major's bass boot camp and plan on slowly plowing through that! I know the basics of reading dots, it's just trying to get my head around some of the more complex of patterns!

[ZMech]

With performance arts I find that there are two main sides that you can develop, either the flashy side of things (crazy slap/tap/harmonic madness), or those qualities that the general punter probably won't consciously notice (timing/groove/harmony knowledge). So it depends which of those two sides it is you wish to develop, the icing or the cake. I think most teenagers (myself included) get too excited about the flashy side first, before realising that spending many hours with a metronome will benefit them far more as a musician.

Therefore, I'd say learn to play walking basslines, as this will dramatically improve your knowledge of harmony and how to generate a complimentary bassline. Of equal importance is timing, so I'd say try one of the various exercises where you maintain your own speed whilst continuously halving the metronome, so that it goes from clicking on every beat to once every four bars.

([url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR9to6lbqTY&feature=player_embedded"]A Wooten video about that metronome exercise[/url])
([url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilh4uMAdss8"]Scott Devine's walking bassline lesson[/url])

([url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8QazNAZjhM"]A Ray Brown masterclass, where he talks about these kind of skills[/url], notice his timing and swing for his intro bassline)

Hope that helps

Edited May 30, 2012 by ZMech

[El Bajo]

[quote name='ZMech' timestamp='1338366561' post='1673209']
With performance arts I find that there are two main sides that you can develop, either the flashy side of things (crazy slap/tap/harmonic madness), or those qualities that the general punter probably won't consciously notice (timing/groove/harmony knowledge). So it depends which of those two sides it is you wish to develop, the icing or the cake. I think most teenagers (myself included) get too excited about the flashy side first, before realising that spending many hours with a metronome will benefit them far more as a musician.

Therefore, I'd say learn to play walking basslines, as this will dramatically improve your knowledge of harmony and how to generate a complimentary bassline. Of equal importance is timing, so I'd say try one of the various exercises where you maintain your own speed whilst continuously halving the metronome, so that it goes from clicking on every beat to once every four bars.

([url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR9to6lbqTY&feature=player_embedded"]A Wooten video about that metronome exercise[/url])
([url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilh4uMAdss8"]Scott Devine's walking bassline lesson[/url])

([url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8QazNAZjhM"]A Ray Brown masterclass, where he talks about these kind of skills[/url], notice his timing and swing for his intro bassline)

Hope that helps
[/quote]

+1 to those links, I'm working on both Vics and Scotts lessons at the moment.

[51m0n]

Timing and consistency.

Two things that seperate really fantastic studio/live pro players (ie players who get paid to play for people rather than players in bands) are they absolute own the groove, spend a lot (I mean a lot!) of time with drum breaks/metronomes whatever really slow tempos etc etc, Wooten goes into a lot of ways to do this, playing with the metronome coming in on usual points in the bar (ie beat two 4th semiquaver at 80bpm) so that you make the groove and it just reinforces it.

Playing the same groove for 5, 10, 15 minutes. Yup relentlessly holding down a groove, I mean relentlessly. No mistakes allowed, no deviations, no fills, nothing. The groove equivalent of just a minute. Will hold you in very very very good stead in the studio.

Improvisation with others, the opposite of the above, which leads on to the other hands down massive diff between great pro players and 'the rest', your ears. Work on interval and chord recognition, singing what you want to play, then playing it, etc etc etc. If you cant listen to a bassline first time out, and play it back on the instrument pretty much straight away there is room for improvement - I wouldnt have believed this myself until I saw JakesBass do this a couple of years ago at a Bass Bash, and he does sessions in Abbey Road (I wonder why they book him, and not me?).

Working as a small cog in a big wheel. Get used to it, you are a sideman, that is your role, work on your people skills, this is what gets you a gig over and above the obvious can you play. Improve your listening to people, and 'getting' what they are saying. Just thinking about it is a start but tomes have been written on how to be a team player, and not in a pure music sense. That leads on to networking skills, if people dont know you exist, you wont get hired, get out and get playing in bands, get your name in peoples heads.

Play live - a lot, more than once a week for a year if possibly can - any gig in any genre, you need to have a hadle on anything from skiffle to death metal, who knows who mmay be looking for a bassist? Stu Hamm used to have a different warddrobe depending opn the genre of gig he was auditioning for - its good advice! Live gigs are especially good if its in front of musos, they can be very very harsh critics - once you realise they dont hear the mistakes in your playing you do the fear will melt away, and the confidence will shine through you. Its a self perpetuating state once you are there.

Work on your knowledge of the business, how tax works for the self employed, what and how you can claim against it etc etc.

Just a few ideas....

[wateroftyne]

Get out and play with people.

[louisthebass]

This is really good:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sw_trDFJw8&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Sw_trDFJw8&feature=related[/url]

[Hector]

In no particular order, three major things you can do which will improve you as a musician:

Learn to read music.

Practise with a metronome until everything in/on/around you happens perfectly in time. Until people you play with can't help but play in time because you radiate it like the lovechild of chrenobyl reactor 4 and a grandfather clock. Get metric mitochondria, groovy Golgi apparati, rhythmic ribosomes. Down to a cellular level, have good time.

Work on playing what you hear (both in your own head, and from records around you). This isn't just lines/riffs, but try to work out the harmony of tunes using your ears and cunning. Be able to hear music as well as you see it on paper. Better even.

[Joshua Higginson]

Wow, thanks a bunch guys! Sorry I haven't been on for a couple of days, got back to a goldmine of ideas. Thanks for all of the ideas. I have a feeling that the metronome will be coming out more often! I'll let you all know how I get on ^^

[leftybassman392]

Hey Joshua - I see you got yourself a band! Nice going. Plenty of good advice above. The Major's boot camp series is excellent and well worth the time. You could do worse than getting yourself a good tutor - did anything come of your conversation with Dave at the Lefty Bass Bash?

[lowdown]

[quote name='Hector' timestamp='1338423215' post='1674517']
try to work out the harmony of tunes using your [b]ears and cunning[/b]. Be able to hear music as well as you see it on paper. Better even.
[/quote]

All very important stuff this, added with learning to sight read.

Chops will always move along with your own requirements and needs in the early years [with regular practise and a good teacher]
But many Musicians, which includes a lot of Bassists - leave their ears behind.


Garry

[ZMech]

[quote name='Joshua Higginson' timestamp='1338807837' post='1679425']
Wow, thanks a bunch guys! Sorry I haven't been on for a couple of days, got back to a goldmine of ideas. Thanks for all of the ideas. I have a feeling that the metronome will be coming out more often! I'll let you all know how I get on ^^
[/quote]

Good luck, I think all the stuff mentioned should keep you going for the next few years

[surfinbernard]

Practising with a drum machine or playing along to a cd, alternatively a metronome but it's a bit boring. Groove, groove, groove. Repeat grooves for at least a song length at a time, lock right in, it becomes an obsession, perfecting the feel each time you play the groove, trying to improve on it each time, articulating it for maximum 'loose tightness'.... shorten a note slightly, lengthen a gap slightly, two notes slide together for a nice shove towards the 1, make the middle of three notes staccato and emphasise the last more.... these micro adjustments are what gives it the groovey feel and playing many repetitions of the groove enables you to explore and experiment with it, and enjoy what the groove has to offer.

The most beneficial thing you can do to improve general musicianship is not playing but listening, IMO. Listening to different styles, following your favourite styles of music back through their roots etc, listening to good bass players and asking yourself what is it that sounds great about how they play? Developing your listening ear and your appreciation of music will, I believe, have a massive knock on effect because playing an instrument is done more with the ears than the hands.

Playing with other musicians is something there is no substitute for and is the most fun it's possible to have on this planet to my knowledge.