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Post subject: Best music advice you ever received
Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2010 8:36 pm
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I thought I'd start off the weekend with a new topic. Please share your best music tips you've learned, picked up or whatever. Here's three that have helped me the most:

1) If learning a piece of music, you should be able to have a reason for why you're using a certain finger/position on every single note. It's a great way to figure out where your technique may be holding you back.

2) Don't hold your breath when you play. People tend to tense up, especially in difficult parts. Figure out why you're tensing up and fix it. Always work to keep your breathing steady. You'll play better.

3) When you're practicing alone, try to keep your face relaxed, or even better smile. Why? Because if you're not relaxed and composed enough to play with a grin on your face, then there is definitely something that you need to straighten out in your technique. It might be something as simple as practicing slower. Don't dismiss this tip until you've given it a try.


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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:40 pm
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Relax when you practice, and it will reflect in your playing.

Listen to what others in the band are doing (saying).

Learn some music & chord theory & gain an understanding of why you play things (not just how to play).

Learn from other bass players, but be flexible and be yourself.

Remember that in most band situations, the bass player is in a supportive but foundational role.

Learn to play beyond what you are required, but don't overplay. Dazzling solos are great, but make solos appropriate when they are called for.

Listen to players that are better or different than you, and train yourself to think outside of your own box.


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Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 7:45 pm
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advice that i heard.. Hmm.. You dont need a really expensive instrument to sound goos..


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Post subject: Re: Best music advice you ever received
Posted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:25 pm
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fretless5 wrote:
2) Don't hold your breath when you play...


30 years on, and I'm still working on this one. At first, this sounds like a minor point, but every aspect of grinding your voice out of your axe depends largely on the ability to do this well. Most of us don't even think about breathing - it comes naturally to us, but doing it well does not.

I've gotten many tips over the years; here's one for split-second emergencies:

If you play a clearly wrong note, immediately move either up or down a half-step. Chances are, this new note will fall into the tonality - then figure out where you are at and get back to your groove.

Here's one of mine: Keep a small tool kit in your gig bag
- screw drivers to fit pickup adjustments and bridge height adjustments;
- a cutter/pliers for pulling replacement strings taught so you don't need to tune up a replacement string for the last 20 min of a 45-minute gig.
- Also, bring along a set of replacement strings - ALWAYS KEEP OLD STRINGS. Either after you take them off, or a couple of days before a gig, boil them for 5 min, then dry and wipe with rubbing alcohol. Put them back either in old individual string envelopes, or shove them all into one old envelope - keep the strings coiled and separate). No sense breaking a set by using a new string for the last 10 min of a gig. - Better yet, get a second axe, tune it up and keep it on stage.

Lastly - tune like a zealot before a gig - get everyone on board with this or find another band who will.


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Posted: Thu Mar 18, 2010 2:55 pm
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When learning a new song, listen to it being played once or twice before you jump in. This helps, me at least, see the big picture and figure out what the song needs and where it needs it.


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Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:06 pm
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Feel the music and act natural. If it causes you to dance, by all means do it you see so many musicians out there that are so robotic in the way that they feel like they are trapped by outside pressures when they are really feeling something when playing a song.

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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 5:18 am
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that's one of the best things I've heard...
"Feel the music"
notice how artists play different "fills" and variation when they go live than playing the album version?

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Posted: Sun Mar 21, 2010 7:22 am
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Don't be sharp, don't be flat, just be natural. :lol:

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