Getting Back into the Groove
My Youngest on an Accugroove Cab - Meditating on bass?
Sometimes bass playing can get stale. It’s nothing to do with the role of the bass, and it’s not a pro vs amateur thing. It is just the nature of doing something for a long time. We get into a routine that becomes mundane, or we fall out of a practice routine that causes us to grow in our playing. So, how do you get back in to the groove?
I came across a great post be Peter Tambroni with suggestions to “Rejuvenate your playing” – finding your fire again. It really struck a chord with me (if you’ll excuse the pun).
It happens to all of us. We practice. We have our routine (which is good!). We have our allotted practice time and organized it into a balance diet of exercises and music for an efficient route to progress. And then after a few months, stagnation sets in. We’re zoning out, tuning out, and feeling generally flat.
He has some great suggestions for getting out of a rut:
- Take up an artistic hobby that you’ve never formally studied (Peter took up photography – I did the same).
- Learn to selectively focus on a subject – or not. Change the perspective of your study.
- Try playing a genre that you’ve never worked in before – rock, bluegrass, …
- Pickup your instrument and doodle, let your fingers wander and play anything.
- Play a different style, improvise, transcribe (especially something different!).
- Meditate with the bass [I like this one]. Just sit or stand with your bass and feel the weight of it. Notice the neck and feel the strings and wood. Connect with your instrument.
You can read his full article at mostlybass.com. As Peter says it so well:
Hopefully you’ll reconnect with your instrument and discover why you chose the bass.
Sorry to post in your comments like this, but I’ve tagged you in this Seven semi useless facts about yourself meme thingy that been doing the rounds on the blogs.
See: http://guitarz.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-dont-normally-do-these-things.html
Hope you don’t mind… you’re not under any obligation but it might be fun. (I don’t normally do these sort of things, but for some reason made an exception this time.)
GLWilson
I’m normally not a great meme fan, but actually I’d just been thinking over the idea of asking people write a little piece about themselves and their basses – or even do a video. So, my answers coming up…
[...] long time ago in Getting Back into the Groove there was mention of “meditating on your bass” but a recent discussion with Kalin in the [...]