Jeff Berlin says - Learning Well Doesn't Replace Anything You Love About Bass

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JeffBerlin

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#1
I mentioned this in a couple of other posts, but this might be a good thing to repeat here.

Nothing whatsoever that you practice in an academic setting is meant to replace anything about playing the bass that makes you happy. Learning well is an addition to your musical lives, not a replacement for anything. Only if you decide to change something will this take place.

Playing what pleases you is why we decided to be bass players. Doing this fits into a self taught philosophy which also fits perfectly with academic learning of music. They aren't conflicting principles as one is based in facts and the other is based in musical love and inspiration.

Literally, every aspect of learning how to play the bass is covered. You teach yourselves rock or slap (so to speak) and also study perfect written music that gives you improved bass playing skills. You won't find any other two approaches that can offer you as close to a 100% guarantee that you will surely improve your bass playing as studying written music and getting deeply into your own musical thing. Literally, this covers the whole spectrum of learning. You are playing and learning based on emotion and you are learning and practice based on facts. What else is required in learning how to play except playing itself.

Please ask your questions as I would be pleased to answer them for you.
 
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#3
Here's a question regarding practice I asked on TalkBass yesterday, I feel like it can help chime in on some points you're making here: "Like many people here, I enjoy playing both upright and electric bass (the latter being my better of the two). I'm quite new to upright, so I've been vigorously working on getting my intonation right (practicing with drones) and trying to smoothen up my bowing technique. I typically start my mornings with this, practicing until I've felt I've reached an acceptable mark for the day. I then turn my attention to electric, but by this time (which can range anywhere from noon to sometime in the evening) I tend to quite worn down from practicing with the upright. It tends to be a mental tiring more so than that of a physical one even. Not to mention, some days it's rather late in the afternoon to fully and adequately practice everything I'd like to on my electric (E.G.; arpeggios (horizontal and vertical), melodies, sight reading, improv, walking, etc.).
I suppose once a person has attained a moderate technical ability on the upright, a lot of practices (music theory practices anyway) could crossover between electric and upright, but I'm not quite there yet sadly. I'd love to hear any pointers or experiences anyone may have (or had) trying to balance practicing between the two instruments!"
My main reason for sharing this is to ask, how may one find time to play "music that makes them happy", when they can't even find time to fully practice everything they would like to improve upon? I know many have suggested to me that a break in practice, from time to time, is necessary. To me, however, I get a sort of disheartening when I try and withhold myself from practicing either music or my instrument of choice. I'll often find myself questioning why I'm not practicing, and noodling or taking a break when I should be learning. I was wondering what suggestions you might have for better evening out a practice schedule, and also finding the time to "enjoy" playing music, while still having improvement as a musician be the first goal in mind.
 
#4
Quinn Roberts said:
I was wondering what suggestions you might have for better evening out a practice schedule, and also finding the time to "enjoy" playing music, while still having improvement as a musician be the first goal in mind.
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Quite honestly, I don't have any. If attention to a playing deficit or just the practice of musical principles are being attended to, you are doing well. Whenever you have free time to listen to the music you love and enjoy it or learn something from it doesn't require a schedule in my view.
 
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#5
Quinn Roberts said:
Here's a question regarding practice I asked on TalkBass yesterday, I feel like it can help chime in on some points you're making here: "Like many people here, I enjoy playing both upright and electric bass (the latter being my better of the two). I'm quite new to upright, so I've been vigorously working on getting my intonation right (practicing with drones) and trying to smoothen up my bowing technique. I typically start my mornings with this, practicing until I've felt I've reached an acceptable mark for the day. I then turn my attention to electric, but by this time (which can range anywhere from noon to sometime in the evening) I tend to quite worn down from practicing with the upright. It tends to be a mental tiring more so than that of a physical one even. Not to mention, some days it's rather late in the afternoon to fully and adequately practice everything I'd like to on my electric (E.G.; arpeggios (horizontal and vertical), melodies, sight reading, improv, walking, etc.).
I suppose once a person has attained a moderate technical ability on the upright, a lot of practices (music theory practices anyway) could crossover between electric and upright, but I'm not quite there yet sadly. I'd love to hear any pointers or experiences anyone may have (or had) trying to balance practicing between the two instruments!"
My main reason for sharing this is to ask, how may one find time to play "music that makes them happy", when they can't even find time to fully practice everything they would like to improve upon? I know many have suggested to me that a break in practice, from time to time, is necessary. To me, however, I get a sort of disheartening when I try and withhold myself from practicing either music or my instrument of choice. I'll often find myself questioning why I'm not practicing, and noodling or taking a break when I should be learning. I was wondering what suggestions you might have for better evening out a practice schedule, and also finding the time to "enjoy" playing music, while still having improvement as a musician be the first goal in mind.
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Schedule:

Day 1 - Eb slap
Day 2 - Tap lessons
Day 3 - Groove lessons
Day 4 - Some theory
Day 5 - Rest
 
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#9
JeffBerlin said:
I mentioned this in a couple of other posts, but this might be a good thing to repeat here.
...

You won't find any other two approaches that can offer you as close to a 100% guarantee that you will surely improve your bass playing as studying written music ...

Please ask your questions as I would be pleased to answer them for you.
Click to expand...

This is not a troll but a genuine question that I've been struggling with for a while and I ask this with all due respect....

I'm sure studying written music will help with reading written music, and probably I'm just too dense to see it but how exactly does studying written music improve bass playing?

Wouldn't - say - transcribing music and playing that also improve bass playing?
 
#10
oldrocker said:
This is not a troll but a genuine question that I've been struggling with for a while and I ask this with all due respect....

I'm sure studying written music will help with reading written music, and probably I'm just too dense to see it but how exactly does studying written music improve bass playing?

Wouldn't - say - transcribing music and playing that also improve bass playing?
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It improves your playing by practicing it. Exercises and etudes are written with specific lessons to be shared. Practicing these things on your bass will triple your capability to play. And while transcribing doesn't directly help your bass playing, practicing what you've written out does. But the music that you transcribed and practiced should be based in solid harmonic principles. This is why practicing reading out of certain books that are regarded as educational such as the James Jamerson book isn't that helpful to bass players to improve their reading or bass playing although they believe that it is.
 
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#12
prooftheory said:
What written music should an aspiring bassist practice from? Is there a default curriculum that you would recommend?
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It depends on your present skill as a reader. Remember that reading ties together every primary physical reaction required to play the bass. This makes it THE best straight line from point A to point B to practice for improvement of playing skills. Can you describe where are you at in your reading ability?
 
#13
My reading comes from 5 years of piano as a kid. I'm pretty good at reading single note lines in key. I'm still better at reading stuff in treble and transposing it down. Overall, I haven't made much effort at reading for bass thus far. I guess I'm just wondering whether someone who wants to play jazz or rock bass should be trying to read from the Bach Cello Suite or the Charlie Parker Omnibus or what?
 
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#14
prooftheory said:
My reading comes from 5 years of piano as a kid. I'm pretty good at reading single note lines in key. I'm still better at reading stuff in treble and transposing it down. Overall, I haven't made much effort at reading for bass thus far. I guess I'm just wondering whether someone who wants to play jazz or rock bass should be trying to read from the Bach Cello Suite or the Charlie Parker Omnibus or what?
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Well, ironically, these are two sources of reading that I never recommend. These sources are electric bass cliche reading sources because they don't address the academic needs of reading. These are artful works, not reading methodologies.

If you want to pursue a reading program, I wrote one specifically for non-readers to modest readers to practice from. I wrote out five musical packages that attend to musical principles starting with the pure "Learning how to read: package. Things get interesting starting around etude 8 or 9. If this interests you, go to jeffberlinmusicgroup.com and you can find out how to acquire the reading material.
 
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#16
Quinn Roberts said:
Here's a question regarding practice I asked on TalkBass yesterday, I feel like it can help chime in on some points you're making here: "Like many people here, I enjoy playing both upright and electric bass (the latter being my better of the two). I'm quite new to upright, so I've been vigorously working on getting my intonation right (practicing with drones) and trying to smoothen up my bowing technique. I typically start my mornings with this, practicing until I've felt I've reached an acceptable mark for the day. I then turn my attention to electric, but by this time (which can range anywhere from noon to sometime in the evening) I tend to quite worn down from practicing with the upright. It tends to be a mental tiring more so than that of a physical one even. Not to mention, some days it's rather late in the afternoon to fully and adequately practice everything I'd like to on my electric (E.G.; arpeggios (horizontal and vertical), melodies, sight reading, improv, walking, etc.).
I suppose once a person has attained a moderate technical ability on the upright, a lot of practices (music theory practices anyway) could crossover between electric and upright, but I'm not quite there yet sadly. I'd love to hear any pointers or experiences anyone may have (or had) trying to balance practicing between the two instruments!"
My main reason for sharing this is to ask, how may one find time to play "music that makes them happy", when they can't even find time to fully practice everything they would like to improve upon? I know many have suggested to me that a break in practice, from time to time, is necessary. To me, however, I get a sort of disheartening when I try and withhold myself from practicing either music or my instrument of choice. I'll often find myself questioning why I'm not practicing, and noodling or taking a break when I should be learning. I was wondering what suggestions you might have for better evening out a practice schedule, and also finding the time to "enjoy" playing music, while still having improvement as a musician be the first goal in mind.
Click to expand...
There are several things I like to add.
My opinion: Concentrate on one thing, one thing only and practice this for 25 minutes (lookup the pomodoro technique). Focusing on improving many things at once doesn't work that well. After the 25 minutes take a 5 minute break, where you step away from the instrument and do something else.
If you have practiced more than 1 1/2 hours I suggest taking half an hour break. Personally when learning or studying, I am really exhausted when I still want to practice bass. One thing that helps me is running with earbuds, but without any music or any other distractions, just to block the sound out. The fresh air, exercise, quiet surrounding and the shower afterwards make it easy for me to continue learning.
 
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