(this is a guest post from bassist and redditor, Ryan Taylor)
“The best way to waste your life, … is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don’t participate.” – Chuck Palahniuk
It’s far too easy when starting a new hobby (or fueling an old one) to find yourself stuck in a rut, trying to piece together theories and exercises into something coherent and original.
With music in particular, there is a strong emphasis on learning scales and arpeggios, doing rhythm and counting exercises, and memorizing the circle of fifths.
All of these things are absolutely crucial to becoming fluent in the language of music and effectively communicating those ideas to others; you need to pour a foundation before you can build a house.
But all of that study work and lesson planning is only half of the equation.
If we extend our construction metaphor just a little further and look back over human history, we can learn some lessons from our ancestors.
After all, during the Neolithic Revolution (which, by the way, is a fascinating period of time) when humanity made the transition from hunting and gathering for survival to establishing villages and towns, the first homes consisted of little more than mud-brick and plaster. It was through trial-and-error that these methods were replaced with hardier, more sophisticated dwellings.
What on Earth does this have to do with music? Bear with me just a little bit more. It’s about to get personal.
I’ve been playing bass off-and-on for nearly a decade. Through high school and college, a lot of my time was spent learning scale patterns and learning Pink Floyd and Rush songs using tabs (downloaded from a soul-crushingly slow dial-up connection, no less).
Aside from playing French horn in the school orchestra, only my parents heard the growl from my J-bass.
Looking back, it was no wonder that during the first time jammed with some friends during my sophomore year in college, the bass was a total disaster. I had gotten so used to reading the tab for a bass line and playing it along with the recorded track that I had never honed the ability to listen to what the other players were doing and creating a line that complemented and highlighted them. I had never jammed with a drummer over a blues progression.
I had never failed in a live setting and learned from my mistakes.
I was still living in a mud brick hovel because I had never pushed myself to invent something better. So, what am I getting at?
On one level, I am suggesting that playing with other musicians and improvising over drum loops are going to help you grow in directions you probably wouldn’t expect.
I’ve been playing in a band now for nearly two years with musicians that are incredibly talented, and that experience alone has redefined my bass playing. More than that, though, what I am suggesting is that you develop yourself as a musician, rather than strictly as a bass player.
Inject yourself into music using your bass as a tool, rather than the goal. Listen to great bass players and understand why they’re great, but also listen to great drummers and great keyboard players, and so on. Doing this will carry you places that theory can’t always go on its own.
Balance is key in life, and I’ve found it to be just as important in music.
Complement time spent woodshedding with experimentation and participation. You just might find yourself building greater and greater things, just like our ancestors did so many times before us. -Ryan Taylor
[chimpy_lite_form]
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