Step by step - day by day

 What is the biggest challenge before most musicians, particularly those in earlier stages of honing their craft? Judging by most indications I have seen so far, it is the organization and adherence to daily practice. It is understandable - first, you have to figure out what needs to be done, then decide on how to schedule those topics, how long to say with them etc. With so many variables, no wonder a lot of people end up noodling instead of running a specific and targeted practice sessions. 

Well, fortunately for us bassists there is a great way to overcome those obstacles. Jim Stinnett comes to rescue! Jim is a professor at Berklee College of Music, with decades of teaching practice and dozens of respectable alumni, who can attest to the success of his methodology. To get a glimpse of his approach to teaching bass you just need to visit his excellent Youtube channel Real Bass Lessons and peruse a couple hundred (!!!) tutorials he has there. 

However, the main subject of this post is a phenomenal series of books Jim published, titled Daily Practice For Bass. As the title suggests, what we have here is an actual practice plan, laid out and organized for all those who are willing to dedicate 45 minuted of their day to follow the instruction. Stinnett has already done all the hard work, mentioned above, all you have to do it is follow the plan...simple as that! 

Each book opens with a succinct explanation of how to use the material, then covers four weeks of practice, and includes all the main ingredients: technique, reading, harmony, ear training, fingerboard knowledge. And the brilliant thing is that all of them are presented through actual musical content - technique and fingerboard command are built via scales and arpeggios, ear training via transcription of music phrases, harmony via walking lines and basic chordal shapes, rhythm via Motown-type and funk grooves etc. To make everything even more fun and enjoyable, there are backing tracks to be downloaded from Stinnetts website, so you can hear the musical context for what you are doing. 

Since the work is packed in daily sessions of 45 minutes, there is enough time left for other things you may wish to do on your instruments, whether it is jamming with your favorite songs, learning new ones, working on your tapping and slapping, or... In short - perfect solution!

OK, I would actually like if Jim had some sort of reading practice set for every single day, because in my opinion that segment cannot be skipped if one truly wants to have it down cold. But, let that be a subject for a later post. 

Now, the nicest part is the price. At $18 per book/volume (plus shipping), it means you are only paying less than 65 cents per lesson! At the moment, Jim has 13 books out, so you have more than a year's worth of material, with guided practice method - step by step, day by day. What more can you ask for?

Private practice

Let's face it - the process of practice isn't always exciting for the player, but for his or her family members it can be outright torture. Fortunately, unlike wind or percussion instruments (heck, my kid plays accordion!), we electric bass and guitar exponents have several options of making the woodshed process unobtrusive for the environment, without sacrificing the quality of tone (enjoyment) for ourselves. 

Nowadays a lot of amps have the headphone option, so if you are a person with a busy daily life (like I am) and forced to practice mostly at night, when kids and/or significant others are asleep, that is a life saver. Nevertheless, I like and use even more portable options, and here they are, from the most to least frequent use in the 'shed.

The one I use

Vox Amplug is a very convenient little preamp, whose main advantage is that it plugs straight into your instrument. It is also very small, easily fitting into pockets, so I sometimes carry it to work, if I can grab some time to practice there. The only additional thing you need is a set of preferred headphones, and you're all set to go! I have been using the first-generation acoustic model for years now, although the new bass model also features multi-positional option for plugging, as well as drum rhythms to play with.

New one

However, since the older model also has the AUX input jack, the ability to connect you phone or mp3 player makes the drum beat option pretty much redundant. Besides, if I want to add more spice to the practice session, there is the next option...

Korg Pandora mini is an actual sound processor with the whole bunch of sound effects (overdrive, distortion, envelope filters, octave effect...plus amp and cabinet modeling), along with tuner and couple dozen drum beats in various styles. Like the above piece, it also uses 1.5 volt batteries, but in contrast to Vox, Pandora has the battery level indicator. 

Being conceived as a full-fledged processor (albeit a very small one), it can be connected to a computer via USB for additional tone shaping options, and there is a full-size output jack to use it with your amp, as I did on several live gigs. That, however, raises the issue of having it connected to your instrument in a practical manner. And here is my solution:

The above option (double jack) essentially makes it plug directly into the guitar, and it works especially well with front mounted input jacks on instruments, although it worked fine for me with the lower edge jacks, too. The patch cable enables you to have it hanging on your strap or on the belt, i.e. still very mobile. 

Phil Jones Bighead HA-1 is a step into top echelon options. The HA stands for headphone amplifier, but the unit is actually a hi-fi bass preamp with excellent connectivity. Besides the headphone jack, there is also the AUX one and USB port that has a dual function: used to charge the device (yes, it has an internal battery) as well as to connect it to your computer DAW for recording! The headphone jack can also be used to connect it to a power amplifier, active loudspeaker or mixer, so it can act as a DI box, too. 

 

Compared to the first two pieces featured, this one is considerably larger and heavier (reflected in the price as well), so it won't just hang from your instrument, but the sound quality and other options for use make it a great option, especially if you don't move around much while practicing. Since I got mine a few years back, Phil Jones has put out a new model, HA-2, and other manufacturers have their contestants for the same position, so you may check them out to find one that best suits your needs. 

To recap, here are my reasons for keeping all three at hand. For sheer ease of use and small size - Vox; for fun with effects and tonal options, plus gig flexibility - Korg; for quality of sound, both live and recording - Phil Jones.

The bottom line is, all of them will serve you very well for the original purpose espoused by this post, which is keeping your practice sessions quite to all those not partaking in it, while still offering you enough sound volume to fully expose any mistakes you make in practice, so you don't overlook anything that needs to be worked on.... Win-win situation!