Progress?

[wishface]

Do you ever feel you are going backwards as you progress?

Is that natural?

[paul_5]

Not so much backwards - I'll have periods where I'm 'on it', and then periods where I just plateau - not creative or inspired to do new things. That can feel like I'm going backwards, especially when I'm used to moving forwards.

Sometimes it's necessary to slow everything right down and analyze technique in the minutae, just to be 100% sure that you're doing everything correctly. That can feel like starting over again, especially when you're at a level where most things fall quite easily under your fingers.

What you need to do in this situation is to keep focussed on the long term goal - journey of a 1000 miles and all that.

[Guest bassman7755]

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1343934362' post='1757632']
Do you ever feel you are going backwards as you progress?

Is that natural?
[/quote]

Completely. At the risk of repeating what I said in another thread, learning is not a linear process of continuous gradual improvement and people need to stop beating themselves up over it. Rather its a procession of memorise->analyse->breakdown->reconstruct cycles. You (usually) have to get worse in the short term to get better in the long term.

[Hector]

I heard a brilliant phrase from a clever friend of mine the other day, which I think sums progress-related thinking up perfectly: "Adde parvum parvo magnus acervus erit" - add a little to a little and there will be a great heap!

That and this: [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog[/url] (your heap might not appear to be changing, but that's just the way it seems to someone who has only seen it change gradually).

[Coilte]

See the clip in this thread :




[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/182670-the-most-important-lesson-i-ever-teach-with-scott-devine/page__p__1758062#entry1758062"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/182670-the-most-important-lesson-i-ever-teach-with-scott-devine/page__p__1758062#entry1758062[/url]

[wishface]

well i have my own practice methodology. I hope it works.

[wishface]

good video though

[Wylie]

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1343934362' post='1757632']
Do you ever feel you are going backwards as you progress?

Is that natural?
[/quote]

Not backwards, really, but I do get to feeling I'm in a rut. I take lessons (about one a month, due to expense) and if I push myself, I can learn enough new material -- on theory, on technique, etc. -- to keep a feeling of forward motion. Recently I began working on varying the use of scale patterns in jazz tunes, e.g., instead of following the outline of the basic chord or scale, going 1-3, 2-4, 3-5, and so on, then back. (This is elementary stuff, but I didn't know that.) By varying the duration of notes, and by practicing this and other patterns over major and minor scales in 4/4 and 3/4 time, I find I can really make the movement over the scales musical; the possibilities for improvisation open up.

Ted