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7/03/08: Bass Practice Tips


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Lesson of the Day: Bass Practice Tips

 

07.03.2008

 

JohnFalstrom13-bass.jpg

 

You've heard it a million times: practice, practice, practice, and more practice. It's the only way to get better, whether you play the standard six-string guitar, a banjo, a mandolin, drums, or the bass. The professional musicians of today didn't achieve their status without sweating through hours and hours of grueling practice time. And you're not going to come close to making a career out of playing music unless you do the same.

 

Since we promised a week's worth of bass lessons, we're ending this shortened Fourth of July holiday week with a brief—but very important—lesson on how to set up an effective practice schedule to sharpen your bass playing skills.

 

Today's lesson is from master bass instructor John Falstrom of Mel Bay Bass Sessions, and his advice is to try and divide your practice time into several categories so that you concentrate on one aspect at a time instead of trying to learn everything in one shot.

 

Falstrom's tips are well worth the time, and to some may even seem a bit basic in nature. But Falstrom's been playing and teaching the bass for over 30 years now, so he's got to be doing something right. You'll even be somewhat surprised at a few of this tips, one of which is to stay away from tablature, which "takes you south when you should be heading north."

Try dividing your practice time into these four "tried and true" categories:

 

1) Ear Training-----Figure out the bass parts from songs (CDs, tapes, the radio, etc.).

Also try to figure out melodies, guitar parts, keyboard parts, horn parts, etc. This is how you learn to play "by ear". This will teach you relative pitch (being able to duplicate what you hear from a song.

 

Tip: Have a stereo system in arms length of you and your bass guitar. (You'll be stopping, rewinding, and pausing songs constantly to get "the parts" correctly). This is an extremely good thing.

 

2) Reading-----Read any form of music that you can apply to the bass guitar.

Analyzing (instruction books, sheet music, etc.). Analyze the bass parts "against" the chord changes.

 

Tip: Stay away from tablature (you'll never see it on an actual bandstand) i.e. you'll never use it or need it I tell my students that tablature "takes you south when you should be heading north", and it does.

 

3) Theory-----Play and memorize as many scales, chord arpeggios, double stops, strummed, and/or plucked chords as possible. Every song is written around a major or minor scale (this is where the melodies, chord changes, bass lines, solos, etc. come from). Transfer any music theory information (that you can find) to the fret board of your bass guitar. Memorize "the shapes" that scales and chords have on the fret board.

 

4) Improvisation--"Make up" your own ideas on the bass, i.e. original songs, bass lines, solos, exercises, etc. Using a metronome and/or drum machine will help you "come up" with an incredible amount of fresh ideas.

 

I must mention that playing with other musicians is of the utmost importance for your development of becoming the bassist/musician that you strive to be.

 

And please don't forget to check back next Monday for another killer lesson from Gibson Lifestyle!

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