This series of videos are tips on navigating and surviving as a sideman/support musician in the local music scene based on my personal experiences. They are aimed at people who are interested in taking their playing from the ‘shed’ to the stage.

Please feel free to leave comments, questions, suggestions or make requests for topics that you might like to see covered.

In this post I’m going to use standard notation and one note ;  “A”. You can use any note that you like.

I’ve included two handwritten examples showing how standard notation looks compared to the yardstick concept.

I would suggest getting a paper and a pencil (with a good eraser) and start experimenting!

One “trick” when reading standard notation is to not get overwhelmed by a bunch of notes.  See the beats first. As you become comfortable with how each subdivision feels it will become easier and easier.

Groove Concepts 1:

• The first four systems show different permutations of beat 1.  Play through each one as needed until you’re comfortable.
• The second four systems utilize each of those same permutations on beat one and in other places within the bar.  Play each one until you feel comfortable.

Here are some audio examples in the same order as they are in on the pdf.

Before I continue; let me acknowledge that the way that I am going to begin explaining this comes from one of Anthony Wellington’s lessons on Victor Wooten’s Groove Workshop DVD.  I thought that it was brilliant how he explained this concept using a diagram that he called the “Yardstick of Time and Groove”.

Remember that the goal is to become comfortable with each subdivision so that you can acknowledge it without thinking about it. This is a great way to visualize rhythm and can also serve as sort of a primer for learner how to read standard notation. (DO NOT BELIEVE THE HYPE – You should learn to read music if you don’t already.  If you’re going to be any kind of serious musician you are going to be able to open more doors if you can read – Period.)

Anthony uses a diagram that looks like a ruler for this exercise. (please forgive my pitiful artwork)

• Set your drum machine to a medium tempo.
• Use a pencil with a good eraser or a white board because you’re going to make a ‘tick mark’ underneath each line where you want to play a note. Any note will do.
• You don’t have to keep writing tick marks once you become comfortable.  Just feel.

1. 1. Play each down beat individually until you are completely comfortable. That could mean for four bars you may just play beat 3 of the bar until it becomes comfortable. I know that they are just down beats but be honest with yourself.  And play them short (the equivalent of a 16^th note)

1. 2. Play each up beat individually ….

*It’s ok to just hang onto one sub-division until you just know how it sounds. For instance, if you have trouble feeling the “and of beat three”, just loop the one bar pattern and play only on the “and of beat three” until it becomes second nature.  Remember – writing your name didn’t come automatically –you had to practice writing it one letter at a time.

1. 3. Play the “e” of each beat individually.  Are you detecting a pattern? Same rules as 1 and 2 apply here.
2. 4. Play the “a” of each beat individually….
3. 5. Play through this one bar pattern and displace the note that you play each time until you come full circle and then do that in retrograde!

Example:  (the bold indicates what subdivision is played)

II: 1 e+a  2 e+a 3 e+a 4e+a :II

II: 1 e+a  2 e+a 3 e+a 4e+a :II

II: 1 e+a  2 e+a 3 e+a 4e+a :II

II: 1 e+a 2 e+a 3 e+a 4e+a :II

II: 1 e+a  2 e+a 3 e+a 4e+a :II etc….

6. Then, in retrograde: rest until you hit the ‘a’ of beat four, the ‘and’ of beat four, the ‘e’ of beat four, the downbeat of beat four, the ‘a’ of beat three….

example 1 (the video/audio are out of sync)

Sorry for the lame vid. quality

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Last night I lost a friend and ‘low-end’ comrade, Dewey Tucker.

The talented 24-year old bass player — a member of the Kev Choice Ensemble as well as bassist for The Coup — shared the stage with Chico Debarge, Lauren Hill, Martin Luther and many other musicians.

Tucker was shot multiple times last night on Interstate 80, according CHP He was heading to a rehearsal.

This may be a bit “off topic” but check out some of his vids on youtube. There’s somethign to learn there. What I have learned is that life is short. Be grateful for every moment.

Peace,

B

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Drum loop programmed in Reason 4.

Click here to view the embedded video.

view on youtube

Simple A minor groove using the Boss ME20B and the usual funk ingredient, A Minor Pentatonic

Original youtube video

Old video with a 15 second delay in between parts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I don’t really “advertise” the fact that I play upright bass because it started as an “academic requirement” and, even after playing for a little over 3 years I still really feel like a beginner on the instrument.  In the beginning I found it very easy to get inundated with new “stuff to learn” with everything out there on the web and being so hungry I found myself quickly overwhelmed and frustrated.  Then,  I realize what I’ve known all along: it’s very difficult to chase more than one rabbit…. At my age (38) I may never know every Marcus Miller or Victor Wooten lick.  I don’t have hours and hours of available time to play as I did when I was 14 (ah, the good old days).

I’m probably never going to retain every nuance of every great MarloweDK “lick of the day”.  I’m certainly not saying that all of things aren’t valid and of course it’s certainly worth having some of this stuff under your fingers. However, I have to be realistic in my pursuits, I have a recital in the fall, my first ever, and there is no escape! :-0

35-40 minutes SOLO classical acoustic bass! Capuzzi, Vivaldi, Wagner & Bach! I squandered about a month of practicing the pieces because I was torn between upright and electric and, quite honestly didn’t know where to start with these pieces, in a style of music that I am, quite honestly, not that familiar with. Even after having played upright for a little over 3 years I only started receiving comprehensive private instruction in January, 2009.

This brings me to the subject of goals. What you practice and how you practice it depends on your goal. Basic fundamentals will always apply. (Practicing without a metronome is just plain silly!). Another big one, as Thomas mentions in his Practice Tips and Thoughts section is the use of a timer. It doesn’t have to be a fancy gadget. I use a good old fashioned wind up egg timer! The next issue, and the biggest for me, then, is time. I know what the goal is but how do I best manage my time??

My schedule is so crazy sometimes and sometimes, well, I’m just lazy. With the help of journal I found a way to better manage my practice time as it helped me to really see how I could organize what little time I have and then evaluate it at the end of each week. For instance, how much time had I set aside to practice how much time I actually practiced, how much time I spent on a specific piece or section of a piece and what was the actual focus of that time (in this case, intonation, bowings, fingerings, etc.)

It’s important to note that the following breakdown applies to my own upright bass practice regimen tailored to my goals but the ideas apply to any instrument and you certainly can tailor this to your own goals and instrument. Important: even if I’ve promised myself that I’m going to practice for an hour, bare minimum, a day it doesn’t necessarily have to be all in one sitting. As Todd Johnson would say “What’s the best way to eat an elephant? The same way you eat a chicken, one bite at a time!”  I also take that to mean that a focused 15 minute practice session is better for you than an unfocused hour of ‘noodling’.

For me, the most productive practice time is first thing in the morning.  My upright practice, for the last couple of weeks, has looked something like this:

1. 10 – 15 minute warm up: This is usually one two octave scale (whether it be major or minor or something a little more ‘exotic’) and its corresponding arpeggio per day with a particular focus whether it is fingerings bowings, intonation or whatever. We’re talking about a full body instrument with no frets.  To me, the best way to really get to know it is to play scales and I believe that the same applies to electric bass.  Besides if you stick to one thing at a time you’ll have a better shot of retaining it!

1. 15 – 20 min: 2, 4 or 8 bars of a particular piece or a particular section of a piece. How many bars depends on how long I’ve been working on the piece. For example: One day I  just “eat the notes” – just finding the notes, working out the most logical fingerings until I get to the point that  I don’t have to think about that aspect anymore and can make music it musical! I work out the phrases, the musical sentences. For instance: Capuzzi’s Concerto for Double Bass. Starting at Rehearsal Marker #2 it starts to get a little tricky. There’s a bar of 16^th notes that is a bit brutal at 104 bpm.  So one day I take that bar and the bar before it and just played it until I could do it (painfully slow speed) at least seven times without making a mistake. Then I add the down-beat of the next bar.  Little by little I chipped away at this two bar + one down-beat phrase. Every day, bit by bit until I am able to spend this time slot on that entire section. Even though I can’t play Capuzzi like I’ve been playing it for years, as I review and learn the subtle nuances fingerings are just one less thing that I have to worry about!  Watch a baby try to walk for the first time! They stumble, they fall, they get back up, and they realize that if they grab a hold to something familiar it will support them.   The keep at it, one step at a time, little by little. Try to think back to when you were learning how to write your alphabet… I think you get my point. J

1. 15 – 20 min: Next Piece, same deal. If it were only the one piece I would simply start working on the next section.

1. 20 min: Review, find trouble spots, fix, makes a list of practice priorities for next practice session, repeat.

The point is to keep moving, go back and review and, gradually, keep moving.  Focus on what’s right there in front you. I have the problem on trying to look too far ahead and that, more often than not, gets me into a jam! Whenever I relax and take things one step at a time I get farther, ‘faster’ and step back and think “wow, how’d I get this far so fast?!” Slow and steady wins the race!

While I agree that no one practice plan is going to work for everyone I believe in my heart that “what gets measured gets done”. If you set realistic goals and make a plan to whittle away at those goals day by day you will find marked improvement in your playing. I know that have seen improvements in my own playing!  You must have an idea of what it is that you are trying to accomplish. Imagine that you have only about an hour or so in an entire day to PRACTICE, not noodle… practice! What if you had only fifteen minutes before you left for work? What would would you practice? The answer would be directly related to your ultimate goal but, remember, you’ve only got 15 minutes.

You’ll know when you’ve mastered something when you can do it just as easily as you can recite your name!

So….in short

1. Set ‘appointments’ to practice. Appointments that you can’t afford to miss. Find the best time when you can have focus, uninterrupted practice. (youtube, although a great resource is, along with facebook and myspace the greatest waster of time)
2. Don’t waste time looking for anything! Make sure that ALL of your materials are in place.. [Metronome, timer, reading, cables, recordings,  etc.]
3. Make a plan and know what it is that you are trying to accomplish and WHY? (are you learning that lick just to be able to be the local music store hero or are you getting the concepts so that you can use the ideas as a springboard for your own ideas? There’s nothing wrong with either just be honest with yourself about your intention!). *If your goal is to know your neck better set aside time to master a scale per day around the cycle and then review them all.  If you want to improve your tone experiment with different right hand techniques….while playing scales – two birds, one stone. The list goes on and on.
4. Record Yourself! The recording will not lie.
5. Keep a Journal. Metronome Markings, progress, focus, etc.

BTW – I just found a $1.99 USD ipod/iphone Music Journal app. It’s very very simple and will give you graph of how much time you spent practicing a certain piece or exercise on a given day, week, month or year.

http://www.beadysea.net/musicjournal/

another is:

Musicians Practice Log by Burton Kaplan

http://www.magicmountainmusic.org/pdtBooks.html

Just my 2 cents but I am only one man -