Hey Josh,
Definitely great exercises. I expanded on them a bit by starting on different frets each time I ran through an exercise until I got down to the first fret. Gives you an idea on how much the frets drift apart.
Also, after the starting note in each exercise, I look at the sheet music and not my fingers as I play each fret and shift my hand down to the next set of notes. I felt that this builds up some muscle memory.
Hope this helps.
Johnas
Great vid. Thanks for posting this. I also enjoyed your excellent head bobbing. That’s definitely an area of my playing I need to work on!
Thank you. I’ve got a metronome playing in my headphones there. I’m pretty dependent on playing songs I know based on just knowing the rhythm of the song so I’m working on playing to a metronome or drum track to improve my timing in general.
I’m the same, although I’m a foot tapper rather than a head bobber. For me to play a full song I need to know the structure so I can anticipate the changes. The idea of following tab or sheet music to play a song I don’t know is soooo far beyond me. There’s some on the first 100 songs list that I’m going to have to get intimately acquainted with before I attempt playing along with them.
I have filmed my self today as a bench mark doing the drills. Not as good as I would have liked but I suppose thats the point of them. I fell apart a bit on third drill and on the final one I could not get my fingers to stretch at all so micro shifted while trying not to have flying fingers. As Josh said as a 4 week veteran of playing the bass I should not worry about this to much. I also have no bass face only a supper concentrating face my daughter says looks like the toy ‘Timmy Turtle’
That fourth exercise is kicking my butt. The stretch and controlling the flying fingers at the same time is a challenge. One thing I have found that is helping is adding going down before going up.
i.e.
start with 7th and 10th fretted, play the 10th fret, then lift to play the 7th fret
fret 7th, 8th and 10th, play 10th, lift to 8th etc.
This is easier for me than going from the 7th to the 10th for example.
I’ll do a round or two of that, then I’ll go back and forth,
10th to 7th, then 7th to 10th, for example through a round or two
then I’ll try the exercise as written and screw it up and miss the 10th fret.
I’ve got most of a month to get it.
I’m in a good position to test this, I just finished the course a couple of days ago and can still use the practice. I added these to my warmup routine last night. Here’s my first impressions and where I’m at right now on them, to see if there’s any improvement:
Hello Esteemed Bass Guru Master-
As a well published scientist, might I suggest a randomized controlled trial with several comparison groups? Maybe a wait list control, a drunk practice condition, and a practice with one hand tied behind the back condition? Of course, we can’t forget the classic righty playing a lefty instrument control.
Only kidding. I am finishing module 10 but will incorporate the exercises to see if they increase my speed. With London Calling (and my damaged 72 year old hands) coordinating my alternate plucking and triplets in the medium and fast workouts sounded very sloppy. Slow was okay after warming up for a bit. Looking for better ways to coordinate my right and left (repaired tendons) hands, and to pick up some speed. Maybe this will help. Thanks!
Just saw this today….and guess when I’m gunna start
Today! Will let you know how I go. Thanks Josh!!
Hey Team. Are the play along vids only on this tread or are they elsewhere?
I’m right with ya there. No finger stretch on that final drill. My pinky just wants to point towards my ring finger.
@JoshFossgreen can you put these all in a pdf? That way I can load them into my music app.
Great timing, until now I used ‘With or without you’ and recently ‘Gimme some loving’ for this before every module. Gonna give this a try after dinner.
On exercise 2, it looks like you keep your fingers down/fretting as you move to the higher frets? Is that correct?
So far; pinkie still kind of weak but getting better. I need to concentrate on pressing harder whereas the other fingers just do it naturally. My lifting is decent, pinkie is the weak link once again. My limited forearm rotation (surgery years ago) won’t allow a 4 fret stretch beyond frets 3-5 depending on string. Not much I can do about that, unfortunately.
Voila!
beginner exercises.pdf (31.9 KB)
Yep! I think I cover that in the video above, maybe in the context of ex. 3 (which is the same notes)
Only here for now, once this challenge ends I’ll eventually put these in a public Youtube video.
Hey Josh. Would love to sign your bass mate! Let me know when you’re coming to Oz ; )
Rhyssa,
A fun thing I have been doing is practicing that song as my cool down end of practice song but that’s also when I pull out my pedals to learn them as well. I also play it at different speeds and note lengths.
I’ll do an update video in a day or two, but I am happy to report that it’s working really well. I practice this almost every day, but didn’t play at all this four day weekend, and I’m seeing a lot of improvement on flying fingers. The last exercise is no longer the more challenging exercise for me. I do have to stare at my fretting hand to do it still, because if I don’t I’m short with my pinking and that 10th fret buzzes like crazy. It is still not natural for me to stretch that far, but I can do it if I focus.
The biggest challenge for me now is building the endurance to do exercise 3 well. Trying to keep good time that long and play each note cleanly and at consistent volume is not easy. I find myself dragging after awhile or playing weak notes, especially when its time to shift my fretting hand up. Going from the 12th fret to the 8th fret in time is a challenge.
