Don't learn songs... understand them

I recently got in touch with some folks via craigslist about playing in a cover band. What I really want to do is play with other people regularly-- I don't particularly care if it's in front of other people or in someone's garage. This particular band, however, is looking to play shows a couple of times a month. Sounds fun to me.

I let them know where I thought I was as a player: still a novice, but not embarrassingly awful. We agreed to get together and play and see if I was a fit for their band. They sent me their setlist of 17 songs and I agreed that I would have 5-10 ready to play when we got together. That gave me just under a week and a half to get these songs under my belt.

On first glance through the list, I knew 16 of 17 songs. I pulled up the 16 I did know from my music collection (or YouTube for the songs I didn't have) and listened to them all, focusing on the bassline. I also did a quick bass tab search as I went along to get an idea for key and general difficulty level. As I listened, I immediately began to sort the songs into difficulty buckets. "Kiss Me Deadly" by Lita Ford? That's an easy one. "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morisette? That shouldn't be too hard... wait a second, that's a really busy bassline. Who played that? Flea? Oh crap, that goes in the "hard" bucket. After my initial sort, I had 12 songs I thought I would try to learn.

Here's how I went about learning "Brass in Pocket" by the Pretenders.

I started with tab.

I looked through a few different versions. There was quite a bit of variety when it came to complexity. Some people thought it was a really simple bassline. Others thought it was pretty complex, with lots of octaves and fills.

Next, I tried using my ears.

Using the tab as a rough guide, I next tried to play along with the song, using my ears. This went... okay, I suppose. I knew there was a lot happening that I wasn't playing, and there was some stuff going on that I just couldn't hear.

Step three: Chord changes.

Once I has a rough understanding of the song, as well as the parts that I knew I needed to work on, I needed to solidify my understanding of the song's arrangement. For this, I charted out the different elements of the song (the verse, the pre-chorus, the chorus, the outro), and then I wrote out the chord changes for each of those parts. I then started working through each part. After this step, I was feeling pretty good-- I could play the root notes of the chords to the entire song. But what about the fills?

To YouTube!

For polish, I started watching YouTube covers of this song; specifically, I watched bass players playing along. This helped me understand some of the tab I looked up initially. It also helped me undestand that I probably wasn't going to be playing it just like the record. The covers ranged from simple (basically the root notes I already had down) to the virtuosic-- there was no way I was going to play like some of those guys. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the recording isn't nearly as busy as some of those covers.

The YouTube videos also helped me make another discovery: the bass on the recording of "Brass in Pocket" is in drop D tuning.

Putting it all together.

Once I had all this information, it was time to synthesize it into something I could actually play. I decided I was going to keep things simple.

I decided I would play in standard tuning. This meant I didn't always get the same tone that the recording had, but it still sounded pretty good to me.

I was going to only attempt the "signature" fills and variations. I'm not good enough to get real fancy and still keep the rhythm rock-solid, so I wanted to focus on being the foundation rather than being true to the recording.

Here are the fills I decided to do:

• The slide in the intro.
• The quick fill on the end of the two bars of A in the verse.
• The fill at the end of the song.

For variations from the root, I would play the A octaves in the chorus (they're pretty prominent in the recording) and then toss in the A octave on beats 2 and 4 in the outro.

I have to say, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I started with the bare bones of the song, and then added signature lines and fills to add flavor. I used tab and YouTube videos as reference, but I never relied on them as blueprints to the song. Instead, I used them as a map to get there on my own. It's great to have a reference, but I never relied on them memorize parts. Instead, I focused on understanding the song, the structure and chords changes, how the fills worked as transitions, and how it all fit together with what the rest of the band would be playing.

The biggest lesson I learned from this process is that I don't need to learn songs, I need to understand them.

(Oh yeah, and I got the gig. We've practiced a few times now, and I'm happy to say that focusing on understanding songs has helped me get 6-8 songs ready a week. Give it a try!)

Slow down and use your metronome

Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
1 and...
2 and...
3 and...
4 and...
1 and ah...
2 and ah...
3 and ah...
4 and ah...

Practicing different rhythms to a metronome is probably the most important (and honestly, the least fun) part of my practice schedule. But just playing along to recording, even if it's a simple string of eighth notes isn't the same as practicing along to that click.

By playing to a metronome instead of a recording, you strip away all the other noise and you're left with nothing but the rhythm and your playing. There's no big drums or rhythm guitars to hide when your notes are a little off, or the attack of your plucking or picking is sloppy. You've got nothing else to listen to except your bass.

The other thing that's great about playing with a metronome is how slow you can go. Playing along to a rock song at 110 beats per minute is great, but that speed can hide sloppiness. Crank your metronome down 60 beats per minute and see how your tone is. Are you clearly fretting each note? Are you holding it long enough, and releasing clearly when you're done? How is your right hand doing? Are you alternating your plucking fingers properly? If you slow down and really nail your tone slow, when you speed it up you'll be playing cleaner and sounding better.

I know the temptation is to jump straight from warm-up exercises to playing songs (especially after a long day at work, when bass playing is serving as my wind-down and relaxation time), but in the long run, spending the time and playing it slow will make you a better bass player.

Developing a practice regimen: it's hard

(More or less copied from a post I made on reddit.com/r/bass)

So, one thing I've always struggled with is putting together a practice regimen. Even when I get a good two hour practice schedule in, I dont know how to maximize that time. I'm trying to focus in on basic theory, strong rhythm in the pocket, and good tone.

While I'm able to find advice or even lessons on particular topics, what I'm really looking for is something more specific. "On Tuesday, spend 15 minutes doing these warm ups at 80, 100, 120, and 140 bpm. Then do these exercises for twenty minutes for scale practice..." ...and so on, with a changing schedule to maximize learning and muscle development.

How many times do you run through each scale? Do you work from positions? Do you say the note names aloud as you play them?

I think I'm dense or something, but I really do better with specifics. I'm highly coachable, but I've never been able to spontaneously practice stuff. I need to give myself a structure, and once I have it, I'm able to push myself to success. Without it though, I just kind of flail around.

Am I crazy in thinking that there should be a system of lessons that novice bass players should be able to use to quickly develop basic skills and musical theory knowledge? I've been really disappointed in what I've found so far.

(I should note that while it isn't exactly what I'm looking for, I've been learning a lot from scottsbasslessons.com. I've been able to take what I'm learning there and using that to try to structure my practice. Scott Devine's lessons are great for understanding the conceptual stuff behind practice. If you're on the hunt for video lessons, give his a try. There are lots of people making great stuff these days, but his are my favorite.)

Finding the rhythm

I'm starting to think I've got a bum set of ears. I've been working on tabbing out some bass lines for a couple of Lucero songs based (pun!) on the guitar tabs found on the ones found on this magnificent Lucero tab blog. I haven't had much trouble identifying notes, but I'll be damned if I can work out some of the rhythms.

At first I thought the bass just copied the rhythm guitar, but with a little volume, I was able to tell that wasn't the case. A few live videos (which had horrible phone camera sound quality, which conveniently butchers the bass) also had me convinced that something else was going on. From the few glimpses of Lucero's bassist, John Stubblefield, I was able to get, I realized a few things.

First off, he doesn't play it the same way every time. What am I supposed to do with that? How can I be playing it "right" if there's more than one way to do it? Is the way it's done on the record canonical? What about how it's done live? The important thing, I think, is to play a version that sounds good and supports the song. That might be eighth notes sometimes and other times it might be big fat whole notes.

Second, less can be more. In this live video, I noticed that a whole note filled up space while the rhythm guitar and drums drove the rhythm of the song. It's not always up to the bass to own that rhythm, especially when there's already a lot going on. Sometimes you just need big fat root notes to support the rest of the band.

Finally, I've learned I'm still pretty uncomfortable winging it. If I were to take one of the songs I was working on to a group of people to play, I feel like I need to have a more definitive answer for the rhythm than I do now. Either way, I do know that I want to start playing with other people ASAP.

A little easy to go with that hard

In my weekly lessons, I've been getting a "tough" song to work on for the week to push one aspect or another of my playing. It's also been neat to get assigned a song that I probably never would have learned on my own. That, in turn, has meant learning a bunch of skills I probably wouldn't have learned on my own.

The technique this exposed me to most recently was ghost notes. I could hear them, that little thud before a beat in funk songs, but I couldn't do them. I was trying to play them by muting the string with just one finger on my left hand. This kept producing harmonics-- the trick is to use two fingers on your left hand to mute the string. BAM-- ghost notes.

Only working on one song a week isn't enough though. I've found that I'm able to learn two or three simpler alt rock songs at the same time I'm working on a tougher song. And to be honest, playing simple roots and fifths is damn fun. I've got a nice little playlist of songs to play along to; I'm getting close to 30 minutes of material to work through almost every night.

This way I'm learning the tough stuff and building up my endurance at the same time.

On picking it back up

Sometimes, for one reason or another, you put down your bass for a few days, and before you know it, a week has passed. This past weekend, I helped my sister move to Washington, D.C. and as a result, I haven't played my bass since last Wednesday. Tonight (a Monday), isn't looking good either.

When I start practicing tomorrow, it'll have been 6 days. That's the longest I'd gone without playing since I started taking lessons in January. I plan on using this time for a little bit of retrospection on how I practice.

From week to week, I find that I work on the things I learned in the last week's lesson, work a song or two for next week's lesson, and then play through a list of songs that's slowly been getting longer.

I've reached the point where I've got more to practice than I can fit into one session though. Instead of doing the same session every day for a week, maybe I ought to be planning out a whole week's worth of practice. This way, I can go back and make sure I'm touching on old songs and skills that I'm not currently working on.

The tricky thing about practice isn't doing it-- it's planning it. There's a saying that "perfect practice makes perfect." Getting perfect practice involves putting the time in to planning perfect practice. There's not much point in learning new skills or songs if they just fall away after a few weeks. In the coming weeks, I'm going to work on outlining my practice for the entire week to make sure I'm rotating old skills and exercises in with the new.

No news is no news

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to schedule a lesson this week. I was hoping to do weekly lessons, but the scheduling system at the music store confuses the hell out of me so I wasn't able to schedule anything.

Practice continues (almost) daily. So far I went light one night last week (20 minutes) and skipped another entirely. I don't feel guilty, as I was pretty sure that would happen, but I'm trying to make sure it doesn't become a habit.

My current practice regimen consists of:

• Right hand warm ups with quarter and eighth notes to a metronome
• Left hand warm ups with quarter notes to a metronome (I'll do a run or two of eighth notes if I'm feeling sassy)
• E minor blues scale in two octaves to the metronome
• Browned Eyed Girl run throughs
• Play some other songs

The first two items I think I have down, although I should probably vary the tempo on the metronome a bit more. I did some of them at 100 bpm last night instead of 120 and I noticed the difference. I also need to figure out some rhythm patterns to use with that blues scale. I've got the fingerings down, I just don't know what to do with it.

The Van Morrison song is another problem. I need to start treating it as a song instead of a bassline that repeats for a long time. One of the ways I'm hoping to do that is through the use of Capo-- software that (among other things) lets me slow down a song without changing its pitch. Once I'm a bit more familiar with it, I think a review is probably in order.

For the moment, I think I'm going to try to learn a couple of other (simpler) songs this week well enough that I can play them all the way through without mistakes. The first is going to be The Misfits' Where Eagles Dare. It's faster than I can play without errors, but slowed down to 3/4 speed I think I can handle it (and it's dead simple). The other is still up in the air, but something slow and more difficult for my left hand is probably in order.

Lesson #1 - Cast your memory back there, Lord

Last night I had my first lesson. I went in a little early, both because I was a little nervous and because the roads were icy. I ended up getting there about ten minutes before my lesson. I sat in the waiting area and had a nice conversation with a little girl there for a violin lesson who was surprised adults were there for lessons too. Everybody's got to start some time, kid.

The 30 minute lesson went by quickly; we started out going over where I was at and what I was interested in learning. I think I did a lousy job of communicating that, so I plan on going into my next lesson with a few things written down (bands I like, what I'm looking to learn, a few basslines I'd like to focus on). After some quick basics that were mostly review (except for a map of notes on the neck... I need to spend some time with that; I'm no good past the fifth fret), we jumped into some exercises to get started.

These exercises confirmed what I suspected: I need to focus on fundamentals if I want to be a better player. Simple right and left hand exercises, done repeatedly, would build muscle memory. Accuracy and tone now, speed later.

I was also shown a basic E minor blues pattern. I had learned the minor pentatonic box pattern on guitar years ago and still remembered that, but this pattern moved a bit more up and down the next and gave me access to two octaves. I think I need to work it into my practice a bit better (right now I'm just playing quarter notes at 120 beats per minute on the metronome), but I've got the pattern memorized. It hasn't quite sunk all the way into my fingers yet, but it's getting there.

To round things out, I was asked if I had a particular bassline I wanted to learn. Naturally, I blanked. I'm not sure how I wasn't prepared with at least a few answers to that, but I had nothing off the top of my head. Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison was suggested, and it sounded good to me. The song is pretty simple, overall, but it's got a moving riff for the chorus and verse that actually exposes one of the things I'm having trouble with-- looping. I can't quite seem to smoothly loop the four bar line together more than a couple of times without screwing up the rhythm or losing myself in the turn-around.

So, practice this week consists of basic right and left hand exercises with the metronome, E minor blues scale runs in two octaves, and then Brown Eyed Girl. I'm hoping to get a longer practice session in on Saturday in order to start working on the pre-chorus and bass solo sections.

I suspect I'll want to take on an additional bass line project or two in the future, but for now I'm going to focus on this one until I can nail it. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was a recap of my first lesson.