Encouraging Progress on the Double Bass

Last night was the sixth and final session for my "Beginning Big Band" class.  After the class, the band went out together for beer and dinner at the Los Gatos Brewery.  We all enjoyed the beer, snacks and conversation.  Several people complimented me on my bass playing, and that was nice.  The lovely lady band leader gave me a big hug.  The guitar player tried to recruit me for another local big band.  I told him I would gladly consider it.

My biggest challenge in playing upright bass is the arthritis in my right shoulder and shoulder blade.  I must continue exercising with weights to overcome it.  My desire to be a serious bassist is also my greatest incentive to get and stay in shape.

Now that I don't have my weekly class meeting as a practice incentive, I must find new incentives, e.g. a new class, a new band.  I will think on it.

What I take away from this classroom experience:  (1) a much greater ability to read notes (2) an improving knowledge of the bass neck, and better intonation; (3) practical experience in the maintenance and transporting of my large double bass.

Musical Progress! Reading Notes, Playing Bass and Replacing My End Pin

I have now finished three classes of "Beginning Big Band," an adult education class, and my skills continue to grow.  The band leader is a lovely lady Brit who seems to like me a lot, probably because I am one of the few musicians in the class who doesn't play some kind of horn (we have four alto saxophones, one baritone sax, one tenor sax, two trumpets and a trombone.  Non-horn musicians include a drummer, a guitar player, and me, on string bass).

I am reading notes better and better.  Now when I look at the sheet music, it makes a lot more sense then when I first glimpsed the chaotic collection of dots and lines on the page (the notes and staff).  More and more the feeling grows, that not only is this possible to become a literate musician, it is inevitable.  It will happen.

We have a two week break before resuming our weekly class, which ends in early August.

Last week the end pin on my bass broke, and I was wondering how to repair or replace it.  I took a chance and ordered a new end pin unit, not knowing if it would suit my bass as opposed to other brands of basses.  However, when I loosened the strings on my bass, the old end pin could be pulled out and the new one inserted.  (The end pin is held tightly in place by the strings, which are attached to the tailpiece, which in turn is attached to the end pin by a steel cable.)  Apparently, just about any end pin will fit just about any bass.

I love it when I am able to figure out and fix things for myself.

Serious Jamming Ahead! Off to Nevada to See Bro!

Tomorrow I am driving to a town near Reno, Nevada to see my older brother, "Bro."  It will be a welcome interruption to my daily rut.  Bro is an accomplished musician and plays lead guitar, steel guitar and keys.  He teaches guitar and gigs around the locale where he lives.  We will do some serious jamming, and yes, I am bringing my new bass guitar.

Right now I am sitting in my lovely backyard gazebo, enjoying the very mild California weather, and listening to a CD of Anat Cohen (jazz clarinet) that my friend Rick Darby (of Reflecting Light) sent me.   (Thanks Rick!)

The problem with reaching retirement age is that every significant goal in life has been achieved:  you completed your education, got your degree, started a career, found a mate, had children and grandchildren and finally retired.  Now you get to do nothing all day!  Just hang around and wait for the grim reaper.

Doing nothing is absolutely boring.  Without a major purpose in life, one can lose his zest for life, even his will to live.  So to increase my sense of purpose, I have turned to my long-deferred goal of becoming an excellent bass player.

For the past three weeks I have been studying music and practicing bass for anywhere from 3 to 5 hours a day.  I am not just practicing what I already know, but pushing myself to gain new skills, to break through to the next level.  My practice involves practicing jazz chord progressions to backing tracks, watching how-to videos (Scott Devine's are best), practicing speed and accuracy drills, playing to music and recording it for analysis, among other things.  Because so many riffs and bass lines are presented as written music (with notes and time and key signatures), I can see that I will have to renew my study of reading music, too.   And that's fine!  I want to be a real musician, one who is literate and can sight read.

From time to time I will post recordings of my progress.

Zen and the Art of Playing Bass

Finally, finally, finally, I am making a serious effort to raise myself from the ranks of amateur bass players to professional bass players.

I have a long way to go.  But I have learned, thanks to a bass teacher named Dale Titus, that it can be done with patience and repetition.

Oh, the learning regimen is fairly traditional:  learn scales, learn modes, learn arpeggios.  Absorb scale theory and how it relates to chords and keys.  Learn every inch of the neck.

However, a lot of successful bass playing (or playing any instrument) is great execution.  Getting your fingers on the right fret at the right time, without string rattle or buzz, plucking those strings accurately and quickly -- those skills are hard to attain.  You attain them by playing exercises (Titus calls them "chop builders") slowly at first, concentrating on a good sound.  You then slowly increase the speed of playing those chops until you can do it quickly as well as accurately.

So much of learning an instrument is developing the muscle memory to play it well and right.  Break it into its various parts and learn each part well, taking as much time as you need to do it.  Keep at it on a daily basis.  If you learn one small thing each day, your knowledge and skill will accumulate faster than you think.

I think this principle works for mastering just about any skill or body of knowledge.   It's like the old but useful analogy of the snowball rolling downhill.