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Post by De-la on Nov 22, 2004 6:11:43 GMT -5
how do you get faster? you need the 'wankmaster' You can order one via Paul (GranTorinoBassMan)
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Post by BootsySkid on Nov 22, 2004 6:15:14 GMT -5
Cool...wankmaster sounds good...i hope i don't have to practice it too much...could be messy!!!
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Post by De-la on Nov 22, 2004 6:19:09 GMT -5
ha!ha! its called a GripMaster!!
Just take a very basic slap riff and play it till your hand cant move any more then keep doing that till you can play as fast as you need to play!
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Post by HowardK on Nov 22, 2004 8:29:10 GMT -5
This might seem a bit odd, but trust me it is 110% true... You should not pratice speed, you should pratice good technique and accuracy. Speed is a by-product of good technique. If you learn to play something correctly, you'll be able to play it fast. And by correctly I mean absolutely perfect phrasing and above all correct i.e. most efficient, fingering. One-finger-per-fret! So... I've been playing 14 years and I'm only just starting to understand how to use my pratice time efficiently. The most common mistakes are: 1) learning/ playing things too fast 2) praticing until you get it right, rather than until you dont get it wrong 3) Not using a metronome! The best way to learn something (actually, I think this is the ONLY way to learn something, but that's another conversation!) is to sing it first - and I mean properly sing it so you can feel every little inflection of the phrasing and rhythm and you can hear every note clearly inside your head. The next bass line or song you learn, sit down with the tune and sing the bass line for 15 minutes before you even pick up your bass. Make sure you sing it correctly - no mistakes, grooving and in time etc... I learnt this lesson on a week long jazz course I attended earlier this year. Our group tutor got a group of musicians (2x sax, baritone, guitar, piano, drums, bass) all playing a song we'd never heard before note-for-note within 15 minutes.. because he made us all sing it first (..and yeah I did feel like a prat, but it worked!) Just try this once and see if it makes a difference to how quickly and how well you learn the tune. De La - OK, cheers, it sounded like some other technique - tis pretty quick. Have you lot checked this guy out: www.munkio.com/music/music_videos.htmlCheck out the "loop jam" at the bottom of the page. It's a big file, but it's worth it. I'm planning to see this guy for lessons (although he's not actually a teacher) on wooten style double thumb technique (my other slap techniques and fingerstyle are relatively close to his), but his DT is off the scale!! Enjoy!
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TheBassPlayer
Full Brotherhood Member
Post Rock with Bollocks
Posts: 46
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Post by TheBassPlayer on Nov 22, 2004 11:59:57 GMT -5
Good Good point, singing is an excellent way of learning anything, even when improvising sing yourself a bass line then try and play it until you can play exactly what you are singing. A lot of double bass players in jazz do this, they sing along to what ever they are playing... walking bass lines as well as soloing!!
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Post by De-la on Nov 22, 2004 13:52:46 GMT -5
"You should not pratice speed, you should pratice good technique and accuracy"
Mr K!! one of my bass teachers said that exact same thing to me a few years ago....
I agree and second all yopur coments........... and no i aint tryin to get in your pants lol...
De-la
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Post by HowardK on Nov 23, 2004 3:26:26 GMT -5
Definitley a wise policy... I'm sure it's not a nice place to be ;D
As it happens I had an introductory lesson with a (new) local teacher last night. This guy is classically trained at Guildhall and is currently studying with the same teacher who taught John Patitucci... needless to say, if he can pass on 1% of what he gets from his teacher to me and I work hard enough, I'll be able to vastly improve my playing. So, he gave me just a few little bits of advice last night and they really made sense - it's amazing what a good teacher can do for you, really amazing.
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Post by GranTorinoBassman on Nov 23, 2004 3:33:58 GMT -5
I'm with the rest of you - it's all about practicing various techniques (even better inventing your own as well) slowly until you can play them consitently. Once you have mastered each technique then the speed will follow naturaly
Howard K - You are one lucky Mofo having a lesson from that dude. Do you reguarly have lessons?
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Post by BootsySkid on Nov 23, 2004 3:43:43 GMT -5
What do you reckon to Louis Johnson's style Anyone checked out Abe Laboriel??? His style is great, i'm trying to get my head around popping a string on the upstroke with my thumb...it's getting there... (Guess what?...with practice too!). I guess there is some technical name for what Abe does but i don't know it...i just do it! 99% Perspiration 1% inspiration ! However i've kinda put the slap thing on a backburner for a while as i wanna progress my jaco style....the music theory is paying off....Gran Torino, get The AB guide to Music theory its fun and all those Scaley things (not fish slappers) will make a little sense! Get up for the downstroke!
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Post by HowardK on Nov 23, 2004 3:46:17 GMT -5
Howard K - You are one lucky Mofo having a lesson from that dude. Do you reguarly have lessons? Not yet. He's only just started advertising as a local teacher. I plan to start regular lessons in the new year. Anyway, yeah I know, mad eh. I knew he'd be an excellent musician, but I'm amazed how lucky this is. The thing is, this guy got how good he is by practicing (are you sitting down?!), 5 or 6 HOURS A DAY!!! So, he is going to expect a lot out of me - i.e. I'm going to have to work ay arse off to make it worthwhile. I know that it's going to require a lot of dedication and probably push me prety hard.
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Post by BootsySkid on Nov 23, 2004 3:54:43 GMT -5
Practicing 5-6 hours a day man...thats commitment...it makes you think doesn't it, Jaco confessed to super practice....i guess you gotta put it in to reap the rewards....i'm gonna practice after i've typed this!!!!. I saw Michael Mannering & Steve lawson in Exeter, it's truly some of the best if not the best bass playing i've ever seen, and Michael confessed to having no friends as he practices 25hours a day. If any of you bassists get chance to see this duo then make it a major goal,it's more than worth it. There are three kinds of people who can count, those that can and those that can't!
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Post by HowardK on Nov 23, 2004 3:55:02 GMT -5
Oh, and generally speaking, yeah I do regularly have lessons... I did about a year and a half of monthly lessons with Steve Lawson (solo bass dude) between 4 and 5 years ago, because I knew nothing about harmony. And at the moment I attend Richmond college for a jazz ensemble class each week, with a tutor who is an excellent bassist, Dave Jones. These private lessons will be the first I've had in a while, other than the odd one off lesson with people. Lessons are great, teachers teach you stuff you dont know, it's fantastic!
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Post by GranTorinoBassman on Nov 23, 2004 3:55:51 GMT -5
Yo skid - hows tricks today? That Louis Johnson masterclass video is amazing. He is one induvidual slapping dude. He uses a variety of slap/pop techniques such as pinching each string between the thumb and forefinger and pulling it away from the bass!!! Mad I have got the AB guide to music therory - It's actually in my toilet but I can never seem to get past the first 5 pages without my head being fried. Probably because i'm concentrating on other things Howard K - 5-6 hours a day!! Thats madness, I'm lucky if I can practice 1 hour a day. Wish i could practise for that long. My mind wanders though after about 2 hours. Didn't jaco used to practice for about 6-7 hours a day then go and knock up his guitar budy in the middle of the night when he had a cool riff to jam!!??
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Post by BootsySkid on Nov 23, 2004 4:01:25 GMT -5
Howard k...you had lessons with Steve lawson...awesome. i love his solo ambient stuff he's doing with the bass and a sampler, have you heard any??? he was doing that kinda stuff at mansons in Exeter with the Manthing Soloing all over it on a 3 octave fretless Zon......truly mind blowing.
What did you learn to learn harmony??? probably a stupid question but its the only way to learn.
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Post by HowardK on Nov 23, 2004 4:56:21 GMT -5
Yeah, I've heard quite a bit of Steve L's music, I have 3 or 4 of his CDs.. and he uses loop boxes in his lessons - they are a great learning/praticing tool. Learning harmony... well, firstly, you can never know all there is to know about harmony - and I'm propbably still learning the first 1% The route into learning about harmony is the C Major scale. The notes are C D E F G A B C. Now, a chord is basically playing 3 or more notes together, and each chord is dervived from a scale, by taking the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th of the scale. Hence people talk about playing "root and 5th", or "adding in some 3rds". Once you've learnt the C major scale - play the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th notes (every other note) in the scale and you have a C Major 7 chord C E G B Now starting on the D, take every other note and you get a D minor 7 chord, D F A C ...starting on the E, take every other note and you get an E minor 7 chord E G B D ...starting on the F, take every other note and you get an F Major 7 chord F A C E ...starting on the G, take every other note and you get an G dominant 7 chord G B D F ...starting on the A, take every other note and you get an A minor 7 chord A C E G ...starting on the B, take every other note and you get an B minor 7 flat 5th chord B D F A And back to the beginning again...starting on the C, take every other note and you get an C Major 7 chord C E G B That's harmonisation of the major scale. Bascially, you have built seven different chords from the one scale by starting on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th notes and taking everty other note. If you learn all these chord patterns, in order (note roman numeral numbering) I C Maj7 II D min7 III E min7 IV F Maj7 V G 7 (dominant 7 is shortened to "7") VI A min7 VII B min7b5 (a minor chord with a flatted 5th) ...you'll notice that C major and F major are the same shape one the fingerboard, as are D, E and A minor. The other two, G7 and B-7b5 are two new chords -notice how these two chords sound more tense than the Major minor chords? So, you have 4 basic chord types. The key thing to get those sounds inside your head. Play them, every day in order until you can do it with your eyes closed and hand tied by hind your back... and then do it some more. Write basslines using JUST A minor and D minor, or just D minor, G7 and C Major 7 - or just C Major and F Major? I guarantee you'll know the sounds of some of these chords already - this is just putting names to the faces... so when your duitarist says "4 bars of E minor, 2bars of A Minor" you know the notes in those chords and are ready to go with more than just root plus 5th. Really, all this is best learnt via regular lessons with a teacher, as technique is important ..oh and listen to the sound of the notes B and F together in the Bmin7flat5th and G7 chords
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