Becoming a Competent Musician: Playing Instrumentals Helps

To become a jazz musician, or any genre of musician, you must practice consistently over time, both with other musicians and alone.  Progress will be incremental over time.  You will not wake up one day and voila:  you are a competent musician.  You will get better little by little and you will reach plateaus of achievement. 

It is very helpful to record yourself, especially when playing with other musicians or a band.  Do this for both practices and actual gigs.  The feedback is invaluable.  You can learn what you are doing right and what needs improvement.

I record all the practices with my band.  Over a year and a half, while listening to the recordings, I notice that I wince less than before!  I hear fewer missed beats, fewer wrong chords, better rhythms.  I can tell I am progressing and it is encouraging.

Yesterday, Sunday, August 19th, we had our usual Sunday practice.  Our singer couldn't make it, so we used the opportunity to polish our instrumentals.  It's a different trip to play just instrumentals, because the lead instruments (guitar and piano, in our case) have to carry the lead by themselves. 

Have a listen to the practice here:  www.soundcloud.com/gwaltrip.

My New Practice Routine for Bass Guitar

In order to have an effective practice routine, you need to know (1) what to practice and (2) how to practice it, and (3) the sequential order of concepts to learn.

Dale Titus's site has helped me tremendously in that regard.  (See sidebar for link.)

My new Rickenbacker bass has provided the motivation.  I didn't realize it when I was playing my little Fender Mustang bass, that the instrument you play is very important.  The Mustang is a fine little bass, but seems like a toy compared to my serious Rickenbacker.  In any case, getting the Rickenbacker was a shot in the arm.   For the past four days I have had a thorough, effective and gratifying practice, learning the modes, learning new and interesting ways to play scales, expanding my knowledge of music theory.  In the process, my fingering skill and my ear have both improved, and my knowledge of the neck, though good, has also improved.

Here are my practice goals for the next month or so:

1.  To play any scale, triad, arpeggio, mode or run without looking at the neck, and to play them with expert fingering, not muffing or rattling a string on a fret.

2.  To know every note in all 12 keys, both major and minor, by heart.

3.  To know every note in all 12 major and minor triads, by heart.