Juggahnaught's Non-Zero Days

[juggahnaught]

2020-05-19. Wednesday.

Slow day today. Didn't do any actual training today, ear or bass.

I was thinking about the fretboard weaknesses I outlined last night, and I'd been thinking about putting together a tool for this - I've started with a dynamic fretboard diagram for the time being that will highlight the naturals and sharps/flats. I can build more functionality into this over time, but using the configuration to show a twelve-string bass in fourths (strings for all twelve notes) was a nice way of seeing the global patterns of a fretboard in regular fourths tuning.

Six strings:


Twelve strings (pattern's much more obvious than it is on a four-string):


The other thing I've realized that somehow I never really thought about is that there are, I guess, "pivot points" between the white and the black keys in fourths/fifths; they're all contiguous, so the split between the naturals and the sharps/flats will always be on the F-to-Bb/C# boundary or the F#/Gb-to-B boundary. So knowing the number of naturals on a specific fret means a quick recall of what's on the fret. That's a part of connecting the full graph of the fretboard and not just string/note recall, although that's a plus.

Not a training day, but not necessarily a zero day. I'll find a way to work this into my studies - ideally, I should be able to name the number of sharps/flats and naturals on every fret of my bass, and I should be able to at least say whether or not a specific fret contains a note. (Again, I technically know this and can figure out the twelve/thirteen positions of a pitch class on my fretboard, but only in a relative fashion).

Onward.

 

[Scot]

Nice reading your music/bass practicing blog. Didn't read every post but quite a lot of it! Did you give up on the Bruce Arnold book? I stumbled on that book a few weeks ago and have been putting in time every day. At first it was ridiculously hard and frustrating for me and I'm actually a decent sight reader. About a week in some things started to click. Firstly, I found the importance of using my ears to hear the notes based on degrees of the scale (duh!). By design (I guess) the music is about as un-melodic as you can get so you can't use tricks to start stringing things together like you might when reading a more melodic/predictable piece of music. Also, I found out that the value isn't in being able to play the music in time with a metronome. For this one I put the metronome away! (thanks, Jeff Berlin!). If I have to play rubato whole notes I do it. If I have to stop and make a correction I do it and then just continue on down. It's not a performance so it doesn't matter. Anyway, would be curious to hear about your experiences with the book. I bought vol II as well (has chromatics) but I'm not going to bust it out until I get a little more solid with book I.

 

[juggahnaught]

2020-05-21. Thursday. Looks like I got the date wrong yesterday...

I'm falling into bad habits and not picking up my bass. I don't even know why. So I'm going to make it easy on myself and move my bass amp back up onto the couch in front of the TV - it's not ideal, but if it'll make me play, it'll make me play. I feel like I'm just having some lazy, aimless days in terms of bass and bass practice.

Did:

- Perfect Pitch ear training (my app) with triads: 92%: 46 of 50 correct. Average time: 17.26s. Median time: 17.26s. Longest time: 178.96s. Shortest time: 4.92s. (Numbers are skewed - I was cooking while I was doing this and had to get up and check on the meal, hence the one really long time.)
- TonedEar functional ear training, chromatic simultaneous: You identified 42 of 50 correctly, or 84.00%.

Notes:
I did triads with the perfect pitch training today and I'm glad I did. I think I've been ready for that for a while. I got more wrong than I usually do, which means there's a good chance for improvement. (However, the four wrong questions were all a matter of inversion trouble - the notes were correct, the order was wrong.) So I'll continue in this vein. I think that using this app with triads is also helping me to internalize the chromatic circle as a visualization aid, which is a great thing. I used to think of notes on a keyboard, but that's not my main instrument, and I'm only good with the naturals on a piano anyway. I do think of my fretboard when I think about intervals, but I don't really use that for visualizing absolute pitch. Additionally, it's limited in terms of chords. But the chromatic circle is a good mental tool for sure and will help with chord spelling. So I'll continue.

A side benefit of internalizing the chromatic circle is that as I did functional ear training today, I found it easier to identify the actual notes I was hearing instead of just focusing on the intervalic training, especially things like tritones and odd intervals - and actively thinking of the chromatic circle while doing it. I personally find that perfect pitch actually makes relative pitch identification faster for me as I can say "oh, F is the fourth of C" and be done, instead of measuring intervals and comparing notes (again, most prevalent for stuff far outside of the key).

Very little bass today, which will change, but I feel like the ear training has taken a good road. I think it may also be time to up the number of questions and time spent; although training can be fatiguing and annoying, more time spent in deep focus will yield better results in this area.

Nice reading your music/bass practicing blog. Didn't read every post but quite a lot of it! Did you give up on the Bruce Arnold book? I stumbled on that book a few weeks ago and have been putting in time every day. At first it was ridiculously hard and frustrating for me and I'm actually a decent sight reader. About a week in some things started to click. Firstly, I found the importance of using my ears to hear the notes based on degrees of the scale (duh!). By design (I guess) the music is about as un-melodic as you can get so you can't use tricks to start stringing things together like you might when reading a more melodic/predictable piece of music. Also, I found out that the value isn't in being able to play the music in time with a metronome. For this one I put the metronome away! (thanks, Jeff Berlin!). If I have to play rubato whole notes I do it. If I have to stop and make a correction I do it and then just continue on down. It's not a performance so it doesn't matter. Anyway, would be curious to hear about your experiences with the book. I bought vol II as well (has chromatics) but I'm not going to bust it out until I get a little more solid with book I.

Oh, man, good callout. I haven't given up on it.....I've just kind of.....back burnered it? Hah, you caught me! What I really wanted out of that practice method was to train my fretboard recall through my ear. So if I heard a pitch, I would be able to find it on the fretboard without hunting or second-guessing, without having to think. The problem was threefold; first - I read music incredibly slowly and can't really sight-read, second - I felt like I wasn't focusing on my ear so much as focusing on sight reading, which is a very different skill (executing a series of written commands - it's not the same headspace; I feel as though I pay less attention to the music and listen less) and third - it's hard for me not to simply memorize something like that, no matter how atonal it is. I always memorized even as a kid when my mom tried to teach me to read and play piano. I'd just remember the pieces and I'd never read.

I should go back to it, though. It's definitely good stuff. But I've got to find different goals for that practice.

Tomorrow's another day.

 

[juggahnaught]

2020-05-22. Friday.

I really wanted today to be a zero day. I was feeling aimless, unmotivated, and unenergetic all day. I didn't really want to do anything, which is commonly a symptom of not being able to do something that I actually want to do (although I don't know what). I probably just need to get outside.

But I persevered.

- Bass Fitness, Chapter 5, Part A alternating at 118 bpm in eighths.
- Bass Fitness, Chapter 1, Part A ascending at 118 bpm in eighths.
- Perfect pitch training (my app), triads: 98%: 74 of 75 correct. Average time: 11.84s. Median time: 11.84s. Longest time: 30.26s. Shortest time: 3.10s.

Came up with an instrumental idea for a song that I emailed to one of my bands. Maybe we'll do some writing. Also jammed a little bit on bass, just chilling to a metronome in D minor while watching stuff on Youtube.

I may or may not do interval training tonight (although right now, I'm erring on the side of not doing it) and I might either try to do some fretboard study or some chord/scale spelling stuff. I don't know. Neither might happen. We'll see.

Trudging onwards.

 

[juggahnaught]

2020-05-26. Tuesday.

Long weekend, took some time to relax. Nice weather on Sunday, took a long, much needed walk to get some fresh air and sunlight. No real dedicated practice - some bass playing and writing, noodling around. Played with my spider capo a bit for some cool open chords that I recorded, hopefully as band ideas. We'll see what happens.

Today - non-zero day.

- Perfect pitch training: 100%: 75 of 75 correct. Average time: 11.27s. Median time: 11.27s. Longest time: 31.27s. Shortest time: 3.47s.
- TonedEar functional ear training, simultaneous intervals: You identified 75 of 75 correctly, or 100.00%
- Bass Fitness, Chapter 1, Part A ascending at 118bpm in eighths.

Notes:

Aced the functional ear training today, which isn't a huge deal but feels good as I usually shag something up. I think 75 questions per exercise is a good place to be, even if it takes more motivation. Feel like 50 wasn't really enough to reap any benefits, but I'd been burning out a little on it and went back down.

Set up the pitch app so that it now supports testing over a subset of the 12 notes, so I can target problem notes if I wish (not sure how effective this will be with chord testing).

I've also been putting work into the fretboard visualizer app I've been building - I think I'll easily be able to set it up to highlight notes and show any patterns that I want it to. For my own training purposes, I'm hoping to set it up as a tool that I can use to quiz myself (similar to the perfect pitch thing), but I'm actually also kind of hoping to make it a tool that others can use. It has a feature that I haven't seen anywhere else - the ability to not only configure an infinite number of strings with individual tuning and fret numbers, but also to specify a string offset for each string. This means that the app can support something like a five-string banjo, where the lowest string actually starts at the fifth fret, or a double bass with a low C extension, where the lowest string extends past the nut by four positions. Due to individual fret configurations, it can also support a configuration where the higher strings have more frets than the lower ones, like some guitars and basses. This means that the app is somewhat universal, supporting any single-necked instrument with frets - so if someone wanted to, they could study theorbo or archlute tuning using my app.

I suppose that's a little bit outside of my personal training goals, but it could be nice to create a tool that could have benefits for all stringed musicians, and I wouldn't mind if it could generate a little side income as well. Who knows. We'll see.

Got nothing else. Onward.

 

[juggahnaught]

2020-05-27. Wednesday.

Today was a zero day. I played my bass, but didn't really do anything concrete or make progress in any way.

My TV has died and my sleep schedule has gotten messed up (here in Seattle, nighttimes tend to be loud affairs with random people making noise on the street) and as a result, my practice habits have faltered. However, I'm also really lacking motivation and I feel like everything I'm doing is a trudge forward. The most successful people can use discipline to push themselves indefinitely; I'm not one of those people - I can use discipline to move forward, but it won't last indefinitely.

I've got to change it up somehow and do something different. I've got the gear but I have to bootstrap myself back into playing bass and actively trying to improve. I think the ear training and other study is good, as well as the dexterity stuff, but....truthfully, I'm just not happy playing at the moment and I'm just lacking inspiration. Normally, this wouldn't be a big problem - I'd go out to a jam session or play with other people and automatically get inspired and motivated, but working in a musical vacuum seems to be sapping that at the moment.

Blegh. I've got to keep trudging forward.

 

[juggahnaught]

2020-05-29. Friday.

Didn't really do anything productive on Thursday. (I did play my bass, but didn't do any targeted training.)

Woke up in the morning and did ear training.
- Perfect Pitch, triads: 98%: 74 of 75 correct. Average time: 12.34s. Median time: 12.34s. Longest time: 29.19s. Shortest time: 3.76s.
- TonedEar: You identified 66 of 75 correctly, or 88.00%. Wasn't super focused for this one.

Planned to do bass practice but ended up doing a zoom meeting with some friends - my usual music crowd. Time well spent in my estimation.

 

[juggahnaught]

2020-05-31. Sunday.

No real practice. But I realize that at the beginning of this thread, I said I'd log stuff other than rote practice, so I suppose it's worth doing.

Yesterday, I started working on a recording in Ableton that's somewhat inspired by videogame music. It's a fun little thing in Ableton, but I realize that I could definitely improve my composition skills in a lot of ways - starting to compose from a melody-first perspective, and perhaps using classical methods of composition to avoid falling into regular compositional routings or "writing into a corner", so to speak. It's interesting because this is something outside of just playing bass as an instrumentalist that I think could really improve my musicianship.

Today, I continued working on that recording in Ableton, and I starting playing around a bit with Dorico - starting to create a quick study composition for piano. I've started in E major with a simple melodic phrase with a left hand counterpoint, and I want to play with themes and embellishment in a classical sense and see where that takes me; I also want to play with changing the tonal center and even moving outside of the key. (I watch a lot of Star Trek and the opening themes are incredible compositions from this standpoint. Sometimes I feel like I know what I want to hear, but I don't know how to compose stuff like that - the difference between being a good reader and good author. I'd like to develop those skills, partly to start breaking out of the patterns I regularly use.)

I've also been playing a bit of piano over the past few weeks, and I was messing around with subdivisions today. I realize that I've always known what I've liked to hear in music, but I've never necessarily known how to articulate it or create it. Playing piano has helped me realize that I really love quartal chords (and by extension, sus2 and sus4 chords, the inversions) as a general sound, and due to the piano I've also been playing around with more chord inversions since it's much easier to do close voiced chords on piano than on a standard stringed instrument in fourths. I also realize that I love syncopation, but I also specifically love triplet cadences over duple time. Knowing this, I'm going to actively try to work these into my compositions. I think it might also be time to start academically studying time and subdivisions to maybe find new patterns (and find some old ones that I really like, but never use) and break away from the standard path.

A couple of non-structured days, but even if I don't necessarily count them as practice time, I'm going to start logging them.

 

[juggahnaught]

So it's been close to a month that I haven't posted here. I dunno - I've kept on playing, kind of, but I definitely fel hard and lost motivation at one point. External factors changed my habits and I didn't really manage to put them back on track.

At the same time, I realize that what I might need is not necessarily a practice log, but an accountability buddy. I generally stand alone in most things, but specifically during this time, I'm finding it hard to continue without a real connection to other people. I wouldn't say that I have close friends or anything - my circles generally consist of work colleagues, activity partners, and acquaintances - but I guess at least there's usually something to do and someone to interact with.

Bass is an instrument that needs partnership and interaction with other people and musicians. It's been difficult to stay motivated, and it's been difficult to find inspiration at all. I realize that I tend to find inspiration by talking to others about a shared passion, and I definitely don't have that right now.

This is an introspective post - I'm just barfing out my thoughts here because it's helping me realize what I need.

At any rate, I'm still playing bass, although I'm not doing any rigorous practice. My fingers and wrist have been weird lately - I wouldn't say they've been acting up, but it just feels like there's a lot of slop in the mechanisms, if that makes sense. I've been messing around with the looper on the Helix, which has kickstarted some inspiration while playing alone, which is good. (Had some fun loops over the past week or two and I recorded a couple of them into Audacity tonight.) I also watched a video course on Skillshare about crafting better melodies through the use of motif and motion, and as a result I've gained a new appreciation for composition and existing music. (I'm blown away by the use of motif in Super Mario World, of all things, and I've really gained a whole new appreciation for the Star Trek themes.) I've been messing about on the piano, finding inspiration there, and through meldoy I think I'm starting to find ways to break out of the compositional patterns I tend to fall into.

I dunno. This is a weird time. I miss playing with people and having goals to strive for. I miss connecting with people through a shared passion, and I miss communicating with people through music. Blegh.

 

[JimmyM]

2020-03-18 - Wednesday

Today....I dunno. Picked up the bass and tried to jam with some backing tracks and I just felt like I sucked. I did find this awesome jam track - - and it basically kicked my ass

Just wanted to point out to you three months later that this is not your fault. The chords pop up right as they change, giving you no time to react.

BTW, we're all feeling the drag. We just got the rug ripped out from us again because of dopes in this state who refuse to wear masks and stay out of each other's faces. From here on out, I'm not pursuing music for money anymore. I'm going back to college at 59, getting my bachelor's in making money, and I'm going to make as much money as I can.

 

[juggahnaught]

Over the quarantine I've fallen into a lot of bad habits that I'd managed to kick before. Maybe it's time to pick this thread back up.

Quarantine's gone on longer that most people have anticipated. One of the bands I'm in may be imploding due to this fact. The other, which was turning into a working band, lost its monthly gig (with good side pay) and so it's been a while since we've all collaborated.

I haven't been "practicing", and I haven't been diligent. Some days are okay and other days I find it hard to motivate myself to do anything at all - I just want to go into hibernation or something. But I've been playing my bass and I've been making stuff like this, and I've been considering getting the Aeros Looper to take the loop game to a new level.



I played the piano for a little while but I haven't really been touching it lately. I feel like it's a great way to explore motif, melody, and chord voicings - I've been taking the latter to bass, where I've been stacking interesting intervals that would be impossible to play on bass without a loop or another person (generally close intervals in the higher ranges). I'd started kind of composing something nice, but the truth is, I don't really have the technical skill on piano to express the ideas I have.

I realize that I've been spending a lot of time online (one of the bad habits I'd been able to kick by simply denying myself home internet; with the quarantine, that isn't really an option) and so I guess if I'm going to spend time in an online community, it should be the one that's related to the thing in my life that I actively find rewarding. But more importantly - I guess I forgot the point of this thread in the first place; I might be lacking motivation and I might not be diligent about practice, and I actually might be getting worse....but the important aspect is a non-zero day, and actively logging that so that there's a reason to continue. I guess I got caught up in the regime - I just need to focus on the process of having non-zero days, whatever that looks like.

@JimmyM Really late response, but I hope everything is going well you way. Always a pleasure to read your posts on Talkbass. Education is always a great thing and from what I know about you, you're gonna knock it out of the park.

 

[JimmyM]

Over the quarantine I've fallen into a lot of bad habits that I'd managed to kick before. Maybe it's time to pick this thread back up.

Quarantine's gone on longer that most people have anticipated. One of the bands I'm in may be imploding due to this fact. The other, which was turning into a working band, lost its monthly gig (with good side pay) and so it's been a while since we've all collaborated.

I haven't been "practicing", and I haven't been diligent. Some days are okay and other days I find it hard to motivate myself to do anything at all - I just want to go into hibernation or something. But I've been playing my bass and I've been making stuff like this, and I've been considering getting the Aeros Looper to take the loop game to a new level.



I played the piano for a little while but I haven't really been touching it lately. I feel like it's a great way to explore motif, melody, and chord voicings - I've been taking the latter to bass, where I've been stacking interesting intervals that would be impossible to play on bass without a loop or another person (generally close intervals in the higher ranges). I'd started kind of composing something nice, but the truth is, I don't really have the technical skill on piano to express the ideas I have.

I realize that I've been spending a lot of time online (one of the bad habits I'd been able to kick by simply denying myself home internet; with the quarantine, that isn't really an option) and so I guess if I'm going to spend time in an online community, it should be the one that's related to the thing in my life that I actively find rewarding. But more importantly - I guess I forgot the point of this thread in the first place; I might be lacking motivation and I might not be diligent about practice, and I actually might be getting worse....but the important aspect is a non-zero day, and actively logging that so that there's a reason to continue. I guess I got caught up in the regime - I just need to focus on the process of having non-zero days, whatever that looks like.

@JimmyM Really late response, but I hope everything is going well you way. Always a pleasure to read your posts on Talkbass. Education is always a great thing and from what I know about you, you're gonna knock it out of the park.

Thanks man! I'm going to have to wait a few months for college, though. I just got a new job doing sales for a cable/internet company, I'm in training, and there's a huge learning curve with product knowledge, learning the tons of software involved, etc. But they've got great benefits, I'll mostly be working from home, and apparently lots of room for advancement. But when time comes for college, they also have a college reimbursement program...nice!

BTW, your looper tune there was kickass! Quite impressive, not only from a playing standpoint, but a melodic/chordal standpoint.

 

[juggahnaught]

It's been quite a while, hasn't it? What a year 2020 was.

I haven't really been around these parts in a while but I thought I'd drop in. I haven't "practiced" bass in a very, very long time, but I play almost all the time. I did end up buying a Singular Sound Aeros Looper, and I bought a used Beatbuddy from someone in my city (got a great deal on it - the pedal, the midi cables, and the extension footswitch all for a bundled price, and I made a new contact as well), and I've been having a lot of fun with those so far. The Aeros isn't without its idiosyncracies, but it's a beast, and I'm definitely happy that I bought it. The Beatbuddy is fun to play with as well.

During quarantine, my old band buddies were getting stir-crazy (as I was), and so after a round of COVID tests to make sure that all was well, we managed to do a professional audio and video recording in the last quarter of 2020 - Youtube video at the bottom of the post. It's not quite the same as gigging, but it was a really fun project and I'd like to do something like that again, given the chance.

I'm starting to run low on space on my Soundcloud - I've made a lot of new loops with the Aeros and Beatbuddy, but I haven't been recording anything into my computer lately. I've been GASing for a Behringer XR18, but somehow I haven't really been able to justify the purchase, so I haven't picked one up yet...but that would allow me to capture my loops alongside the output from the Beatbuddy, and I could step into stereo recording, which would be cool. Between a powerful mixer and the compositional power of the Aeros, there's a lot that I could do, even possibly in a live situation.

I moved out of my city to another location a little farther south - it's cheaper - and it remains to be seen what the music scene is like here. I have managed to find a drummer who might be interested in starting something up soon, depending on how the situation pans out (we'll be vaccinated and probably still social distancing, but there might not be an audience for a band).

I guess we'll see what the second half of 2021 brings.