Help me get my enthusiasm back

[Oscar South]

I've completely lost any passion for playing bass, I've gotten to the stage where I can easily play everything I frequently come into contact with technically and theoretically, have all the gear I want/need and whenever I get called to play something out of my comfort zone I can get by with an hours work on it. I'm far from being 'professional level' and I want to get there but nothing seems to be challenging me enough to work hard towards it, I can't see where I'm going or what I'm working towards.

I still play bass regularly at band practices and will be playing it more in a few weeks when I go back to uni (music course), but that's the only time I do play it, I can't bring myself to practice and I can't form a vision of what I want to get out from practising, I really want to progress further but I have no idea how or where to.

I got a new nylon electro-acoustic recently too and to make matters worse I've been into Nick Drake a lot, all I really do is play acoustic guitar and sometimes piano, I'm enjoying playing those but I'm doing bass as a career so I really want to get the drive to play that again, I used to practice and play for 5-8 hours a day. I don't listen to any music at the moment with the bass as a central role, Soliloquy is the only solo repertoire I occasionally listen to.

What I really want is for some suggestions of new avenues I can expand down that will give me some hard goals to work towards, I started a jazz band at uni last year to push me but after the initial learning curve I can get through most of our repertoire with not too much difficulty. I'm learning bass parts at the moment for a lot of pretty technically difficult songs in a metal type band I'm gigging with next year so I don't really just want *more* songs to learn, plus when I get back to uni I'll be bombarded by multiple new songs to learn every week. This is all well and good and keeping me in good practice but I want something to make me really *want* to play.

On the plus side though, I'm saving a fortune on string budget.

Thanks,
Oscar.

Edited September 1, 2008 by Oscar South

[alexclaber]

You haven't mentioned composition at any point - why not focus on that?

Alex

[The Funk]

[quote name='Oscar South' post='274255' date='Sep 1 2008, 09:32 AM']I don't listen to any music at the moment with the bass as a central role[/quote]

Good. Write some songs, form a band, take an active role as a leader.

EDIT: Reading your post again, I see you've done that. In which case, I'd suggest laying off bass for a while and playing guitar and keyboards for a while. What's more fun though, is playing the drums.

Ask yourself this question: the music that you want to create and leave the world with after you die - how does it sound?

Edited September 1, 2008 by The Funk

[Bilbo]

How is your reading? That is a skill that is particularly rare and VERY marketable. Needs hours a day to get it up to professional speed. If you can get to the point of sight reading stuff, you can access 1,000s of pieces of music that will stretch you and help you find that spark.

Try transcribing some solos by other instruments: baritone sax and trombone are generally easy to start with but sax/trumpet can be demanding. Look closely at the phrasing; I was transcribing a Steve Swallow solo last night ('Wrong Together' off his 'Real Book' cd). Simple little solo until you try to write it down. His phrasing is sublime. Look beyond the notes and examine the music. Get a book on orchestration and learn some stuff. Get some orchestral scores (libraries often have them) and read them along with a performance.

Buy some world music compilations; nuevo flamenco, Astor Piazolla, Cuban, African, - broaden you horizons.

There is a lovely quote from Death in Terry Pratchetts 'Hogfather'; 'HUman beings are remarkable creatures. All the fascinating things in the world and they still manage to invent boredom'.

You have just reached a plateau and need to look beyond it.

[Viajero]

I've had a bit of this recently. Unemployed, gigs thinner than they were because I've moved, it would have been easy not to practise much.

My solution so far has been to:

1) buy a fretless (arriving soon, I hope) - it should make everything I already knew harder, and means I'll have to re-tread everything for a bit.

2) quest for genuine perfection in something -I'm trying to play all of Bach's 1st Cello Suite, start to finish. I'm still having to read it (I don't think I'll ever learn it completely), and that alone for 30-60 mins a day is sharpening my reading and technique.

I guess my suggestion would be that if it's getting easy, make it harder. You'll never be so good you can't improve. However, if you don't think you really want to, then your answer is just to give up. But do you really want to do [i]that[/i]?

[chris_b]

[quote name='Oscar South' post='274255' date='Sep 1 2008, 09:32 AM']....I've been into Nick Drake a lot....[/quote]
There's your problem. What a dismal, gloomy, joyless, depressing bore. No wonder your not feeling good. Start listening to some "fun" music and, if you can play everything with an hour of starting, you've obviously got bass playing down, learn the piano.

[mcgraham]

Transcription is good! Broadening your horizons is great too!

+1 to trying doing guitar/keys for a bit. Do you want to be a excellent bass player or an excellent musician? I'd rather be the latter rather than solely the former. I go through phases where I focus primarily on bass, others where I focus on guitar, others where I'm caught up in writing, and others where I'm working on my ear without any instrument other than my voice and my mind (if that can be called an instrument). It's fab!

Mark

P.S. Since posting about classical instruments in another thread, I'm feeling a violin phase coming on. I'm itching to get home at lunch and practice.

[Alastair]

Go off and focus on your other instruments for a while. Just play what you feel like, you shouldnt have to force yourself to play (unless youre being paid!).

I'm the same. Sometimes I can go a week just playing guitar and not touching my bass.

[Bilbo]

[quote name='mcgraham' post='274395' date='Sep 1 2008, 12:28 PM']and others where I'm working on my ear without any instrument other than my voice and my mind (if that can be called an instrument).[/quote]

Its everyone's first and main one!!

[Bilbo]

As awful as it sounds, I actually don't practice on the bass at all. With 97 gigs so far this year, I don't really have to worry about my 'chops'. My 'thing' is composing (badly as it happens but I am learning) and, in order to progress in this I study other stuff; transcriptions, scores, chord sequences, orchestration etc. There are a million things out there to get your juices flowing. I can NEVER find the time I wish I had to study all of this stuff properly. Get out there and LEARN!!!!

This music stuff is just BRILLIANT!!

[mcgraham]

Though some are blunter than others

Mark

[ruztiwarren]

I've been playing off and on for sometime now. If you want a challenge try slapping and popping, different technique and you might end up enjoying it.

[thumbo]

When I feel like that I take a step back from my bass playing, I'll still be at practice twice a week but in between I won't play at all. I think it's about getting that perspective on where you are with your playing and how you feel about music right now. Also, remember why you started playing bass.
I used to practice for up to 6 hours a day but now I don't practice at all, I just write tunes and a lot of the time I do that without a bass in my hands, I'll just figure out things in my head. It suits me perfectly to work like that right now, but in 6 months time I might start practicing again. It's important to stay open minded and don't pressure yourself. Just take it easy.

[dangerboy]

You need to find someone who'll be really impressed. Preferably of whichever sex you prefer to date. Preferably single. And preferably a few of 'em so they can fight it out for your affections.

That's what makes most musicians I know get up on-stage when they otherwise can't be bothered.

[guyl]

Get a different gig. Something totally different than you're used to. Maybe on a different instrument. Or learn to sing and play.
Play everything left handed
Tune your bass a different way.
Take a string off - anything to make the bass a bit new or challenging.
Get into some new stuff that has nothing to do with music
Good Luck!

[hatori]

Check out Trip Wamsley's 'Rut Buster' exercise. Works fer me. I find his playing truly inspiring.

[doctor_of_the_bass]

Strongbow often does it for me!!!

Lots of good comments thus far - some days I wake up and feel like giving all my basses away (!) and then, 24 hours later, my mood and feelings have been refreshed by a trip to the beautiful north Norfolk coast etc. Be part of nature, let the energy of the cosmos fill your soul! I sometimes play stuff that seems to arrive in my head from elsewhere - my body becomes a conduit for this expression (and yet at a fully conscious level, I am the worst jazz player in christendom!) - if you meditate and relax, you can find new energy and refreshment! Step outside of you and realise that all energy exists in you - you are the universe!

I'm not mad, honest! Where's me tinny!

Nick

[teen t-shirt]

by your self a ridiculasly large like 14 string bass and see what happens...

[mike257]

Time spent understanding and appreciating other instruments is time well spent indeed. It's a long time since I've [i]practiced[/i] bass with a view to actually learning new things. I spend more time writing now, and playing with arrangements and sounds.

I actually took almost a year out from serious gigging to get to grips with how I wanted to write music, and have now hit the point where I'm putting a band together on my own terms, and can call myself a songwriter for the first time in 10 years of playing music. Producing and arranging is an endlessly satisfying and surprising thing to dig in to, and it can open you up to new ideas and new avenues of opportunity. You never run out of things to learn from.

[Oscar South]

Thanks for the replies everyone, after reading them I think I do need to focus on other stuff for a while until I feel like playing bass again, plus I'll be back having to play in different settings every day soon, getting so much time to show off what you can do is quite a nice incentive to put more time into doing it better . I also think I need to adjust my approach to practising, I've gotten into a bit of a comfort zone.

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='274276' date='Sep 1 2008, 10:00 AM']How is your reading? That is a skill that is particularly rare and VERY marketable. Needs hours a day to get it up to professional speed. If you can get to the point of sight reading stuff, you can access 1,000s of pieces of music that will stretch you and help you find that spark.

Try transcribing some solos by other instruments: baritone sax and trombone are generally easy to start with but sax/trumpet can be demanding. Look closely at the phrasing; I was transcribing a Steve Swallow solo last night ('Wrong Together' off his 'Real Book' cd). Simple little solo until you try to write it down. His phrasing is sublime. Look beyond the notes and examine the music. Get a book on orchestration and learn some stuff. Get some orchestral scores (libraries often have them) and read them along with a performance.

Buy some world music compilations; nuevo flamenco, Astor Piazolla, Cuban, African, - broaden you horizons.

There is a lovely quote from Death in Terry Pratchetts 'Hogfather'; 'HUman beings are remarkable creatures. All the fascinating things in the world and they still manage to invent boredom'.

You have just reached a plateau and need to look beyond it.[/quote]

You've hit two aspects that I've had on my 'to do' list for a long time and should start on asap, I can pick through stuff by ear and I can pick through sheet music but I'd really like to be more fluent on both, I'll definitely shift focus to working on these more and technique/academic theory less over the next year.


[quote name='chris_b' post='274350' date='Sep 1 2008, 11:51 AM']There's your problem. What a dismal, gloomy, joyless, depressing bore. No wonder your not feeling good. Start listening to some "fun" music and, if you can play everything with an hour of starting, you've obviously got bass playing down, learn the piano.[/quote]

Get lost.


[quote name='bilbo230763' post='274456' date='Sep 1 2008, 01:15 PM']As awful as it sounds, I actually don't practice on the bass at all. With 97 gigs so far this year, I don't really have to worry about my 'chops'. My 'thing' is composing (badly as it happens but I am learning) and, in order to progress in this I study other stuff; transcriptions, scores, chord sequences, orchestration etc. There are a million things out there to get your juices flowing. I can NEVER find the time I wish I had to study all of this stuff properly. Get out there and LEARN!!!!

This music stuff is just BRILLIANT!![/quote]

Yeah, I got into composition a LOT over the last few years and wrote quite a bit of stuff, this year since I've gotten more into songwriting since becoming more fluent on guitar, I'm getting more into analysing pieces of music I really love so I think I'll do that more over the next year too.


[quote name='ruztiwarren' post='274468' date='Sep 1 2008, 01:27 PM']I've been playing off and on for sometime now. If you want a challenge try slapping and popping, different technique and you might end up enjoying it.[/quote]

Thanks for the suggestion, I was into a lot of more funky stuff when I was younger though and am quite adept at slap/pop technique, I'm going to revisit it at some point from a stylistic viewpoint but I'm happy with it for now.


[quote name='hatori' post='274728' date='Sep 1 2008, 04:49 PM']Check out Trip Wamsley's 'Rut Buster' exercise. Works fer me. I find his playing truly inspiring.[/quote]

This sounds interesting, I'll look it up.


[quote name='teen t-shirt' post='274986' date='Sep 1 2008, 09:47 PM']by your self a ridiculasly large like 14 string bass and see what happens...
[/quote]

I applied for a bank loan to have one built, they said "solo bass isn't commercially viable". f***ers.

[E_MaN]

Listen to music you don't normally listen to. May inspire you.

[johnnylager]

Just look at [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=25843&hl="]this[/url] - if that doesn't work than I would suggest professional medical help.

[bluesparky]

I "suffer" from a similar problem.
I spend a lot of time touring and away from home (unfortunately not playing!) so the limited time i do get to play is mainly spent looking at the fretboard and stressing over what i should and shouldn't be practicing.
So by the time i put the beast to bed and go and do something else, I walk away disheartened and feel like maybe playing isn't for me anymore.
When i do get to play in a band, it all comes back to me and reminds me exactly why i love playing.
Unfortunately i seem to be more into playing when i don't have a bass in my hands, maybe 'cos i can't do it at that particular time!!