108 Days of Practice: 10 Weeks In...

Excuses, excuses...

As I've written about before, it's been really tough to practice on a daily basis and there have been spells of non-practice.  

Such as it was during the last few weeks.  We are in the middle of a remodeling project on our home, and it has consumed most of my time.

The time I did spend practicing were mostly in preparation for our Sunday morning worship the last few weekends.  Two weeks ago I took along my new G&L 5-string for its first time on stage.  Having used it in my practice sessions prior to that Sunday, I was feeling pretty comfortable with that additional string and significantly wider neck.  It turned out that I wasn't quite ready.  

A's become E's... practice, practice, practice

Being a visual learner, that 5th string kept tripping me up.  This problem was not about me actually looking at the fingerboard, rather I have a mental image of the fingerboard and that guides where my fingers rest.  There were several times I was thinking "A" (5th fret, E-string) but ended up playing the "E" on the B-string.  That disconnect between my brain and fingers continued throughout our set, but not enough to be a distraction.  It was however, enough for me to sideline the hotrod 5-string for a while longer-- just until I can reprogram my mental visualization to include separate "maps" for each type of bass.  

Sunday morning rehearsal with the Roadrunner

For last Sunday's worship set I used my Plum-Crazy G&L LB-100, which is a P-bass type four-string.  Having missed several days of practice-- including our weekday rehearsal due to the work on our house-- I was far less prepared than usual, so having a four-string that I'm comfortable on was exactly what I needed.  Unlike the week before, I could now focus my attention on making music and timing.  Now, I still enjoy my five-string-- I just need to spend a little more time with it before bringing it out again on Sunday morning.  

My Plum Crazy G&L Roadrunner

Last time I mentioned that Queen had been on my radio quite a bit lately, and that I wanted to add a few of their songs to my repertoire.  Because their 1980 classic "Dragon Attach" had been stuck in my head for days, I squeezed some practice time into my schedule to work on the song.  So far I have down the main riff and the baseline during the guitar solo.  The bass solo is very close to the main riff, so I'm not far from having it down.

Duck Dunn remains at the top of my practice routine.  Having the notes of Green Onions down, I have since been working on his approach to the song.  Listen to the recording, then the 1962 live version and you will notice there is more "bounce" to the live version.  That bounce is still there in the recording, but less noticeable.   There is also an interesting timing which I noticed missing in my playing, though I am getting better at it as I keep chipping away at the tune.

Moving forward with my 108 Days of Practice, I am going to try changing my approach a bit.  In a recent Q&A video with Jeff Kiesel (the first from Kiesel's new factory), Jeff mentions that  Greg Howe suggests practicing for shorter times, and more often, opposed to long practice sessions once or twice a week.  For example, 15-minutes in the morning, 15-minutes in the afternoon, and another 15-minutes in the evening.  By adopting this to those days where I am busier than normal, my hope is that I will be able to be more consistent with my daily practicing.  To find out if this approach works for me...

...stay tuned & in tune!