Yeah, this is the first time I’ve ever played anything continuously for that long. I’m trying to build up my endurance in case I ever throw in with a band.
You’ll notice most of the errors are toward the end as fatigue started to set in. I’ll get better with practice practice practice.
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@T_dub - good question, and an important point that I’d like to make explicit. Also - never shy away from bringing up questions about bass! I love that you pointed this out, and certainly took it in the earnest manner you showed - not at all combative.
I did not, in fact, mean either of the options you listed. I meant - to be more specific - the following:
If you are engaging in practice - focused, studied time to improve yourself on your instrument, then thou shoudst neither noodle, nor practice without an honest time-keeper of some sort - be it drum machine, metronome, or recording.
If you are picking up your bass to just enjoy the sounds of the bass and you’re not concerned with anything other than enjoying the sweet, sweet tones of your instrument - then noodle away! Noodle to thy heart’s content. And if you want a time-keeper, fine. If you don’t, fine. Just make sound.
HOWEVER.
Never ever ever tell yourself that the unstructured noodle time is bass practice.
That’s the hard contrast I wanted to make clear, and you helped by raising that question.
It’s almost all mental. You have to hear your bass parts as all equal. There can’t be cool parts contrasted with not-cool parts. It is all bass! As a person who fails at this Enlightened Mindset this 99% of the time, the result is rushing your fills, and rushing all the parts leading up to and out of the cool parts. This also happens with challenging parts that I’m nervous about - hits that have to line up in tricky ways / beginnings / coming out of long breaks / endings - those kinds of things.
Here’s what I’ve noticed:
When a cool part comes up, the brain stops its forward momentum of the bass line. If the the full bass line to a tune was a short story, it’s like your brain rips out all the pages after the cool part.
When I’m worried or excited about a part I’m about to play, I start to hear only me, and my internal time moves away from the ensemble, and into my own brain where my own excitement speeds things up*.
Tips to avoid this:
Mentally:
Stay focused on the bass line as a complete story. You have to be thinking of the music grooving through and out of whatever part has got you worked up.
Physically:
Don’t just practice that part.
Practice playing in time before, during and - most importantly - after that part. You gotta stick the landing!!
In conclusion -
Play whenever however you want.
But… practice is only when it’s focused, directed, time/groove-honest bass playing.
(noodling is real fun and healthy and never don’t play if you want to play)
And
All bass lines are cool bass lines.
*the phenomenon of time being experienced in different ways depending on one’s state of mind is well documented, and endlessly fascinating. (It’s why cops ask you to let them know when you think 30 seconds have elapsed in a field sobriety test.)
I have tremendous energy and excitement when I play and it is one of the reasons I ask everyone else in the band to count off songs.
Even when I slow down, sing the song to myself, and find what I think is a nice, relaxed, groovy tempo that we all agreed on in rehearsal… when I listen back, I’m usually 5 to 10 clicks faster than our fastest rehearsed tempo.
I have fast-tempo brain on stage.
Some people get slow.
Having a cool head in the band or, if you don’t, a metronome handy is a lifesaver. Or, more accurate, a groove saver.
…which is actually more important.
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I am fairly new to the bass, with that being said I have played guitar for many many years. I love the bass because it is essential to making a person feel the music it inspires the body to move. When learning guitar as a youngster I developed all kinds of bad habits that hurt my improvement as a player. When I started playing bass I chose to take a more structured approach. I use a metronome, I learn full songs, I practice with backing tracks , technique etc… I think what I love the most about the bass is the groove. Finding the right note isn’t as important to me personally as finding that groove and feeling it in my bones. I have learned so much from you all in just a few days of being on the forum. Thanks
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Thanks for the great response.
I have another question for you @Gio
Is it safe to break Learning and Practice into two categories? Where Learning could be done with or without a time keeper, but Practice should always be done with a time keeper of some sort?
More specifically is the example I gave in my last post, about how, when I am learning to memory, Scale, chords, triad and arpeggio patterns, etc…, and this will be considered Learning and if I play them without time keeping until you I am ready and confident to play them thru a progression of some sort, like the cycle of 4ths or 5ths would be OK?
But once I do go past the memorization of the patterns and shapes, and start to PRACTICE them, by playing thru a cycle, or playing modes thru the key, etc… that is shouold be done with a metronome, drum track, or time keeper of some sort?
Is this a sound way to go about it, or would you recommend, or highly suggest that all learning be done with some form of time keeper, even when you are trying to memorize patterns and shapes and positions on the fretboard?
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Hail @T_dub! Another good question.
I’m not big on creating concrete rules for anyone if I don’t work with them and know how they flow. I can be pretty confident in the ‘no noodling during focused practice time’ thing because I’ve had enough students come through telling me they practiced, while they were, in fact, merely noodling.
How you qualify the learning process, what you do and how you do it, when you put on the metronome - all of it is completely dependent on you the student.
- how you learn
- your schedule
- what works for your brain
What you described above sounds fine if it works for you.
My recommendation with any musical idea that anyone is practicing would be to apply the metronome/groove as soon as it is feasible.
You can’t keep time if you don’t know what the line/pattern/form is.
But as soon as you can get through it slowly, put on the time-keeper.
Again, there are different tiers of this for different people.
If folks like to watch movies and run through things on their bass, awesome. Go for it.
I’d imagine that the person not watching movies would progress faster and better if they are more focused on the playing… but I don’t have a scientific study to point to.
I do know of a bass player who likes to put on drum loops and goof around on his bass while watching all manner of terrible movies on mute. Not gunna name any names, but I’d bet he’d progress faster if he turned the movies off.
(but… he’s also be way behind in MST3K and anime series… and he might be sadder. So - what gets sacrificed?)
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Sooooooo…
Last night at the session with my bass coach, he was reviewing the 1625 Cmaj piece that I had posted here earlier, and he said something that really hit home.
He told me that as a bass player I am not there to serve myself (meaning show off, try to impress the audience, etc.) Flea immediately came to mind.
He went on to say, my job is to “Serve the tune”.
What a great saying, “Serve the tune”.
He said next time, all you have to do is keep it simple, stay in the groove, and keep the rhythm.
So that’s what I did on this recording, just kept it simple and “Served the tune”. I just mixed up some quarter notes and eighth notes.
I even got to use my B string a couple of times with the 6(F#), 4(D) and 5 (E) just for a little variety.
I think I did this without any errors. You be the judge.
It’s only 3 minutes long.
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Thanks @Gio, Perfectly feasible to generalize a subject when the answer to the question goes out to multiple people, because, as you pointed out, most, if not all readers are not working with you personally, AND, like you pointed out, people learn differently, and teaching a person, assigning homework and setting up a practice routine is a personal affair.
From your generalization, I can determine that this statement will work very well for me, and it means that I put a metronome on Sooner then I do, but not too much sooner.
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Nice grooves Pam, @PamPurrs.
Blended really nicely with the backing track, nothing sounded as if it didn’t belong.
Cheers Brian
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Great job. I love how. you served the track!!!
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“Serve The Music” was a non stop mantra from my college jazz/bass prof.
I love it!
Well done @PamPurrs and thanks for bringing that wisdom to the forum.
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Great job @PamPurrs! Sounded perfect to me. I’m going to make a banner for my wall that says “Serve The Tune”. Great advice.
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T-shirts work too.
Bass Buzz
Serve the tune
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I though t-shirts with “ Bass Buzz…we serve the tune” would be good but it sounds like some weird cult
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Great minds…
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somebody might stop you to ask…“what does tune taste like?”
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Is that your stop smoking remedy? 
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