Many questions, one answer

Many students' questions have one simple answer: Acceptance.

Many times a student will ask a question when he or she really already knows the real answer. I think most of the time this is in the hope that the teacher can show them an easier way.

Here's some examples:

"How do I work on playing faster?"
"How do I learn better sight reading skills?"
"How do I correct my left-hand technique so my fingers don't come off the board?"
"What do I do to learn to solo over chord changes?"
"How do I figure out the note combinations I can get with harmonics?"
"How do I improve my fretless intonation?"

The answer sought is along these lines:
"Just do X, Y and Z for a specific amount of time and your problem will be solved."

But an observant student who is honest with him/herself knows such answers really don't exist.

The answer to the above set of questions is _acceptance_.

Specifically, it is acceptance that it will take however much time it takes to learn whatever you want to learn. You cannot accelerate the process of your own learning. You cannot get there any faster than you can get there.

The better you internalize this philosphy, the less time you will waste in not learning the material at all.

Trying to speed through the material, whether it is a reading exercise, a scale study, a piece for performance, or anything else, is time wasted not learning. If you are making mistakes or wild guesses, you are outrunning your learning rate. Why else would you have to keep going back to "try it again"?

Let each attempt tell you more about your learning rate. If you hit the glitch and can't play it perfectly, or you start guessing, you need to slow it down to the point where you play the trouble spot perfectly. When you find that point, gradually perfect it and speed it up. You have fallen in line with your learning rate and now your practice time will be spent with maximum efficiency.

PATIENCE GETS YOU THERE THE QUICKEST!!

Expected to "make stuff up" -- what to do? (FREE BEGINNER LESSON)

To: ALL (1 of 1)
1414.1 I play bass, and I'm having troubling making up stuff to go with
pre-made guitar stuff. My friends made up a lot of songs with no bass,
and now they expect me to come in and make stuff up...I can't! I can play
any tab, and I can make up stuff alright on my own...but I have a lot of
trouble making up stuff to go with guitar, I just can't seem to hear it right, I
have to go by trial and error (and that takes forever). Help me!
(from an About.com Musicians Exchange post)

Dear Musicians Exchange poster,
Hello, and sorry for the delay in responding!
Here are some facts which may help. The four-string electric bass is
tuned E-A-D-G, from the thickest and lowest pitched string to the thinnest and
highest pitched. The six-string guitar is tuned E-A-D-G-B-E. Your four
strings are exactly one octave below the guitarist's E-A-D-G.

What are the implications of this? Well, if your guitar player is
playing any kind of single-note line or melody (meaning NOT chords) and it's on
those four strings, then you can watch the guitarist and play the exact
same line with the exact same fingering. Doubling the guitar line may be the
answer for a particular tune or part of a tune, but if not, at least
it's a place to start.

Further, if the music for which you're being asked to compose a bass
line has "power chords" in the guitar part, meaning those chunky sounding two
or three note chords played on the E, A and D strings or the A, D and G
strings, if you play the root note of that chord, you are guaranteed to
sound right on! What do I mean by the root note? It's the note that
gives the chord its name. For instance, if your guitar player is playing a G
at the third fret of his low E string, a D at the fifth fret of his A
string, and a G at the fifth fret of his D string, he's playing a G power chord.
If you play a G on the third fret of YOUR E string, or on the fifth fret of
your D string, you are going to sound good.
All of the above assumes that both you and the guitarist are tuning your
instruments to standard tuning -- the rules change otherwise!

There's one other important thing I haven't mentioned. Making parts
that compliment a song and sound like they belong there is something that
gets easier with time. As a kid, I learned all the parts for every tune my
band covered by listening to the records OVER AND OVER AGAIN until the
grooves were worn out. In the beginning it was very, very hard! But over time,
my ears improved from all the practice at figuring out parts from recordings.
Your experience with "trial and error" is not unique. After enough
trial and error, it gets easier. So hang in there!

Thanks for writing and good luck,
Andrew Pfaff

http://www.andrewpfaff.net

Is bass easier than guitar?

I hear this question disturbingly often. As a professional bass player I find it kind of insulting, even though most folks who ask this aren't trying to be disrespectful. Here's how I answered this query in an About.com forum:

If you already play guitar, you do have some advantages when it comes to bass guitar. The strings on a 4-string bass correspond to the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th strings on the guitar (G, D, A and E) but one octave lower. If you can find individual notes on a guitar fretboard, you can find them on a bass.
Beyond that, playing technique on a bass can differ A LOT from guitar.
Playing bass badly is easier than playing guitar well.
Playing bass well is as hard as playing guitar well.

For more, see my site:
http://www.andrewpfaff.com

Should I learn to read?

M.W. writes:

>I am 42 years old now.  Have been playing bass since the late
>seventies.  I have a lot of dexterity, and have good chops in most styles
>but are an expert in none.  I have learned by ear throughout all the
>years.  What is really turning me on lately is swing bass, jazz style
>walking.  Asleep at the Wheel style.  My question is, now that I have
>a "real job" and I don't play out any more, would it be in my best
>interest to learn how to read music.  At least on a basic level so that I
>can utilize the Bass Builder series books.  Or should I continue to go with
>the ear? 
> 
>Also, if I learn these great walking styles wont this help my ability to
>solo?  This is also a week point.
> 
> 
>M.W.



Dear M,
Regardless of your musical activity or goals, it is always a good idea to learn to read music. Music is a language. Why would we want to speak a language but not know how to read and write it at least a little?
I am not suggesting that you must become a killer sight reader who can walk in off the street and instantly play anything put in front of you. But you should know how rhythms and pitches are organized on paper.
If you don't learn the written language, you won't be able to benefit from what the books can show you. Tablature is a poor alternative because it does not give you nearly as much information as standard notation.

Don't be intimidated by what you don't yet understand. There are lots of good resources for learning to read music. Check out musictheory.net for good music reading trainers. Also, let me suggest the book I use to teach reading, Sight Reading for Bass by Ron Velosky.

As to your other question, the answer is yes. Good walking bass is built on a solid knowledge of harmony (chords). Walking lines and solos are both improvised over a set of chord changes, so the skill is the same -- coherently linking one chord to the next with a single-note line.
For more, check out http://www.andrewpfaff.com.

Hope this helps,
Andrew Pfaff