MP3 versions of scales for bass (250 MB)

Hello–
Great website. Awesome to see so much info dedicated to the DB.

I have taken lesson before in BG and DB (short time many years ago). Neither of my teachers had me do anything like this. How does it work? Why type of things go into a plan? Thanks.
Tom

I’ve always thought that the very act of trying to write down a sequence of elements in your practicing helps lead to better practicing. I usually guide students through this even from early lessons. An early plan might look like something like this (perhaps a 4th or 5th grade student):

• C major 2 Octave Scale – play through 2x, 4x on each note (Lower Half!)
• Perpetual Motion mm. 12-13 – add a note
• PM last 2 lines – slow with metronome (qtr = 60) – (Straight Bow! Thumb in Center of Neck!)
• Bourree – play through & review

That way, the student is working a little technique (the scale), diving into some new material (Perpetual Motion), and reviewing the last song (Bourree). I also make sure that our lessons follow the same order and format that I want their practice session to go, and I practice with them through the lesson, not only to serve as a model for them, but to get them comfortable with what practicing actually is.

By the time they’re in middle school (7th or 8th grade), I try to encourage them to come up with their own written plan. It all depends on the type of learner the student is–some really benefit from this, while it just glazes over the eyes of others. For those who really get into it (and these are the more serious ones), I also encourage them to track how long they practice and what pieces they cover, in order to get an idea of how they are using their time and if they’re devoting their resources in an efficient manner. A more advanced plan will vary more depending on the nature of the student, but for a very organized it might look something like this:

• CM/cm 3 Oct scales/arp – 2,3,4,6,8,12/bow – senza vib
• CM shifting drills – A string – vib, cresc/decresc
• Rabbath Thumb Position exercises – 10 min
• Sevcik p. 36 #153-162 – qtr=70-132
• Bottesini mvt 1 mm.1-12 – non-vib fermata practice w/ drone
• Bott. mm 32-34 – qtr=50-90 4x/level
• Mozart 40 mvt 4 – warm-up exercise qtr=60-138
• M40 mvt 4 lick 2 – build lick backwards – 4 reps/build

That is too intense for some, so a list for a different student might look like this:

• CM 3 oct
• LH warmups
• Sevcik
• Bott – slow pg 1
• M40 – warmup & build

Some students will click with the former, some with the latter… and some just don’t seem to benefit from any written structure at all. For most, however, I find that at least guiding them through this process helps them to figure out how to break something down and practice it.

Thoughts?

As the new year rolls around I’m beginning to plan for my school’s annual solo festival.  I’m always looking to improve the quality of my student’s playing as well as their learning and how they learn their solo. I make practice CDs for them with their solos at different speeds using Amadeus.

This year I’m also adding a worksheet for them. I designed it with middle school students in mind but feel free to try it with different ages. Check out the sample pictures below. It gives simple instructions for checking out the music and then playing it very slowly – a technique described by Edgar Meyer in the book The Mastery of Music by Barry Green.

Click here to download them as a single PDF file.

If you have ideas of suggestions please email me at tambroni AT hotmail DOT com.

Thanks and happy practicing & teaching.

This week I had a student working on a solo that had a somewhat complex ornament at a cadence. We worked on breaking it down and separating the components of it. I decided to write it up in Sibelius with the steps to learning it. Here’s a JPG of it. I wanted to share as I think some students may find this useful.

When practicing fast / scalar passages, play them in groups of odd numbers. Although notation generally beams notes in even groups, the actual music is usually in an odd group.

For example, if you have 4 sixteenth notes, practice them with the next note – they lead to that note. There’s a group of 5. To help get the velocity on the sixteenths, practice the first 3. After you repeated that many times, play the last 2 with the destination note – another group of 3.

Another example can be found in the trio from Beethoven’s 5th – third movement. When practicing the measures that are all eighth notes, practice them with the following downbeat – that’s the landing point.

And in any running note passage, isolate groups of odd numbers to practice – even if they cross beams or barlines. This will even out your playing and give your lines direction.

Happy practicing and for more tips visit MostlyBass.com.

But what if you ARE a young person (or not so young) and you still don’t have time to practice? What now? Well, first – MAKE TIME! I find it hard to believe that a student can’t find FIVE MINUTES to practice. Ok ok… What if you really only have five minutes? This was the topic of discussion at a recent lesson with a student and his parents. I thought he could lighten his class load by not taking so many advanced classes, dropping an elective, or not playing a sport. As it turns out there was an ill family member and he really didn’t have time to practice.

So, how about some practical solutions for the 21st century.

1. Each day, FIX SOMETHING. It could be one note, one shift, one rhythm, but improve something.

2. Do more listening. Most students have an iPod or other music player. Use travel time, chores, or laundry time to really get to know the piece you’re working on.

3. Study the score. Again, there are little times throughout the day that playing the bass is not practical (ie lunch) but you could be studying a score or sheet music.

4. Do counting exercises, air bowing, or visualization. Really! It may look a little silly, but the alternative (sounding bad) is even worse. As long as your brain is involved you can get better.

5. Don’t give up! Schedules go through cycles. Just try to have a better practice schedule next week, next month, or next semester.

Thanks and happy practicing!

When it’s time to hit the woodshed and do some serious practicing, there are a handful of no-brainer items that everyone needs–instrument, music, and music stand. Adding a few extra tools into the mix can make for much more productive and enjoyable practice sessions, however.

This list starts off with some obvious tools, but the ones further down the list may spark some ideas for creative practicing:

1. Metronome - This is critical–if possible, get one with a tempo tap function and subsivision playback like the Dr. Beat models that Boss makes. While it’s not necessary to spend 100% of your practice time with a metronome, I find that it’s on for at least 50% of my typical practice session.

2. Tuner - A tuner that also emits drone pitches on all twelve tones is a must for me. As a string player, I find that practicing along with a drone set to the fifth scale degree of the key I’m working in really helps to solidify my pitch center.

3. Legal pad or notebook - I’m a fan of writing down an outline of what I’m trying to accomplish in a given practice session. Putting a practice plan down on paper makes you more likely to stuck to your plan and get all the goals for the session accomplished, and having a practice journal that you can look back on really helps to show areas in your playing that you’ve been neglecting. If you ever wonder why a particular piece or passage didn’t go so well in a performance, a written practice record can come in very handy for troubleshooting the cause.

4. Audio recording device - I have recorded my practice sessions for years–it’s the most effective way I’ve found to diagnose problems and get an accurate assessment of where my playing needs work. It can be somewhat demoralizing to record yourself too much, but if you can get over the stark reality of hearing yourself on tape, you’ll find that you can really act as your own teacher and solve most problems on your own.

5. Video recording device - Video recording is audio recording on steroids in terms of garnering valuable feedback. The visual feedback that video provides can reveal the causes of technical problems that audio cannot. It’s a much bigger pain to set up a camera than to just press record on an audio device, but it’s definitely worth it!

6. Finale or Sibelius - Though using Finale or Sibelius as a practice tool is not quite common practice yet, I’m a big fan of it. I use these programs as practice aids, entering repertoire into the computer and playing along with it. Playing along with your part and trying to sync your rhythm and pitch with the computer is incredibly valuable, but don’t just stop there! Download a MIDI version of a piece you’re working on from classicalmusicarchive.org or another such site. You can then, at any tempo you choose, play along with the entire orchestra or a particular section. Feel like working with just the strings? How about basses and bassoons? No problem–this is a great way to fully experience the orchestration and how your part fits into the overall context.

7. iPod - Mass storage music devices are a godsend to musicians. Being able to carry your entire music library in an easily searchable and accessible form is a huge thing. Creative use of playlists takes things to the next level. Make a playlist with different versions of the same piece for research purposes, put all your most inspiring recordings on a playlist and listen to it before an audition for inspiration, or–best of all–make a playlist of the music you’re doing on your next recital or audition. That way you can listen to it, practice along with it, or even put it on random shuffle and play things in whatever order they happen to come up. It’s great for audition preparation–getting used to playing excerpts in every concievable order is very helpful in building audition chops of steel.

8. Audio editing software - Use a program like Audacity or GarageBand to make excerpts out of complete recordings for the above exercise. Programs like Amadeus or The Amazing Slow Downer can adjust recordings of a piece to match the exact speed you want to play them. Create multiple versions that increase in speed for practicing purposes. This is a tool that you’ll find to be surprisingly useful.

9. Laptop - This is the ultimate modern practice accessory, combining all of the aforementioned tools (and then some!) into one package. While I wouldn’t expect a younger student to be running around with a MacBook Pro for practicing, the serious-minded older (college age) student should consider incorporating a laptop into his or her practice arsenal. With a laptop, integrating listening, audio and video recording, Finale play-along,

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1. Practicing too little

OK–this is an obvious one to start out the list with, but I can’t tell you how many students of mine, after expressing frustration and confusion on why their playing hasn’t improved, admit to me that they practiced little or none at all the previous week.

Many of the following points on this list are about increasing practicing efficiency or changing what you focus on during your practice session, but if you’re not putting in the time, you’re simply not going to get results. Doors open and the impossible becomes a walk in the park with practice, and no shortcut or quick fix can replace good old fashioned hard work.

2. Practicing the wrong things

While many problems can be solved by simply putting in the time, major roadblocks can just as easily arise by choosing the wrong thing to practice. Does your vibrato stink? Then playing fast scales probably won’t address that weakness. Having trouble with string crossings. Shifting drills aren’t likely to spiff them up. Understanding one’s technical and musical weaknesses and addressing them in a consistent fashion over time is key.

3. Not using a metronome

Most students, unless prepped very carefully, seem to really dislike the metronome. Though many students quickly figure out the benefits of using a mentronome (reinforcing steady rhythm, notching up passages, and helping to structure practice sessions), some just never seem to pick up the habit. Most teachers, after listening to a student for about five seconds, will be able to pretty easily identify the metronome practicers from the non-metronome practicers!

4. Not using a drone

I’ve always tried to introduce practicing with a drone as quickly as possible. While this is probably more benefical to string players, having a reference pitch the background really helps students to identify the particular sound of different intervals and to hear what in-tune playing really sounds like. Many students suffering from dodgy intonation ate able to clean it up in a hurry by regularly using a drone.

5. Not tuning well

Good intonation starts at the source. If a student only gets their instrument “pretty close” and not dead-on in-tune before they start to play, they are at a tremendous disadvantage. Learning to not accept approximation in tuning leads to a higher standard of pitch in general.

It’s the “bad smell” theory in action–over time, sour intonation (our sonic bad smells) wears down your senses and you actually develop a tolerance for sour intonation. Don’t let this happen in your own playing! Tune very carefully and re-check regularly throughout your practice session.

6. Starting at the beginning every time

A student pulls out her music. She starts practicing her latest piece–page one, measure one, beat one. She plays a few bars. Boink! She hits a clam. Back to the top…

This is a trap that is extremely easy to fall into. Drilling a piece from the beginning every time and playing until you make a mistake often leads to a student knowing the first few bars very well and barely even recognizing what comes later. In addition to producing a decline in musical quality as the piece progresses, it often leads to frustration as the student bangs their head against the same stumbling block repeatedly without solving the problem.

Sometimes simply starting from the end of the piece and working backwards is all that us necessary to break through the practicing obstacle. By playing, for example, the final four bars, followed by the four bars before that, and progressing in this fashion, the student is always going from the unfamiliar to the familiar. Applying this principle to sections within a piece can solve a whole host of problems, and combining these sections together in a similar reverse fashion (coda, recap, development, exposition, intro) can make for a much more polished product. This method is psychologically comforting since the material is actually becoming more familiar as the piece progresses.

7. Inconsistent practice

For most people, practicing five hours one day and not at all the next is not an ideal setup. Music (like many things in life) benefits greatly from shorter but more frequent practice sessions. Burnout quickly sets in during practice, lowering productivity and increasing frustration, and too much time off between sessions makes retention more difficult. Getting a solid hour of work in every day will produce much better results and lead to less frustration and stagnation.

8. Inattentive practice

Practicing on autopilot, while certainly less mentally taxing, can lead to pretty disappointing results. Better to do 20 minutes of attentive and focused practice than two hours of unfocused and lackadasical noodling. Even better–how about 20 to 30 minutes of good work, then going for a run or doing somethin non-instrumental, followed by another shorter but more focused session?

9. Obsessive practicing

What exactly is “obsessive practicing”? Well, over time many musicians develop certain mental phobias, blocks, or obsessions over certain issues, many of which may have little or no basis in reality. Maybe it’s a certain technique or maybe it’s a specific technique, but it is disturbingly easy to make mountains out of molehills and hamper overall progress and musical maturity for the sake of one very specific technique or excerpt.

10. Not taking breaks

Take breaks! If you’re practicing correctly, you should be be feeling a little mentally (and perhaps physically) winded after 30 to 45 minutes of practicing. Try to take, at a minimum, 10 to 15 minutes an hour for a real break. Get up, walk around, get a drink of water, a cup of coffee, or a power snack, and then head back to the practice room refreshed and ready to put in another 30 to 45 minutes.

11. No practice plan

While you can go too far with this (don’t get so obsessed with your practice plan that you forget to actually play!), writing down an outline of what you want to accomplish in a practice session can be an indespensible tool in making progress. Writing down your plan makes you more likely to stick with it, and having a written record of past practice sessions allows you to track progress and catch inconsistencies in your preparation.

12. Getting stuck in a bubble

Believe it or not, too much practicing without balancing it out by attending concerts, playing chamber music, and even sitting under a tree and reading a book leads to stunted musical growth. Why, after all, did we become musicians? To spend all day every day locked in a practice room, isolated and antisocial? I sure didn’t! Better to spend some time out in the world, going to concerts, museums, art galleries, libraries, and in nature. You obviously have to put in regular and consistent practice time to make progress, but don’t forget to live life along the way! You’ll have much more to express and will be a deeper musician for it.

13. Getting frustrated too easily

Some people have a very low tolerance for frustration, throwing in the towel when the going gets tough. I’ve frequently heard from top-tier musicians that if practicing feels easy then you’re probably not doing it right! Don’t get discouraged too easily Give yourself a reward (eat some pizza, go to a movie, etc.) after a good practice session. This will help you to tough it out through the frustrating times, and you’ll be a better player for it.

14. Ignoring your frustrations

On the other hand, getting frustrated can also be seen as a signal that your body or your subonscious is sending to your active mind. If you find yourself getting perpetually frustrated by the same passage every time put work on it, take a step back and think about how you’re approaching the problematic passage. Is there another way to solve this puzzle? Be creative! If one approach doesn’t work, keep searching for one that does.

15. Overpracticing

This one kind of ties in to number 12. Just as practicing too little causes problems, getting too hardcore with your practice schedule can backfire and cause just as many problems as it solves. Everyone has a different reaction to heavy practicing–some swear by it and others never do more than a couple of hours in a day. Both approaches (hardcore and moderate) seem to produce successful results, so experiment and see what works for you. Just don’t forget to come up for air once in a while and reevaluate how you’re approaching your practice sessions.