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Finding My Voice

Just started working on the Silent Night solo arrangement by Alun Vaughan. What an exciting process. I am playing things that I have never played in the past and using harmonics that I have only noodled around with. As there is no recording, I am trying different aproaches and finding what sounds good to me. This is leading to a lot of repetition, fumbling, mistakes, and frustration, in short, FUN! I have decided to push myself on this and try to play this at church for Christmas eve service. Also, I am going to record it and post it here. This is a challenge to myself and the gauntlet has been picked up.

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Silent Night

Very enjoyable shed. Played the melody sheet from Alun Vaughan's learnthelowend.com Silent Night lesson. It is a very fun arrangement. The solo sheet, however, is a different story. Chords and tapping are definitely out side of my comfort zone, but were really fun to fumble my way through. Had a lousy day at work after a terrible night's sleep, but practice made it all go away.
That, my friends, is what it is all about!

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New Lessons

Well, actually they are songs to learn. Christmas songs to be exact. 10 of them with 2 PDFs each. Great stuff from Alun Vaughan that I purchased for a song (pun intended) from Learnthelowend.com. I am not a big fan of Christmas music, but my wife is and this will be perfect for the 2 of us to work on together.

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Sheds

Practice going well. Finding the time, however, is becoming difficult. Also, recording and then listening to myself is a great benefit, but it doubles my shed time. I need to find a balance.

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Not Really a Shed

Not much practicing last night. Spent many hours working out bugs with laptop recording. Almost there, but still have some things to work out.

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Learning a Song

After much thought, I have decided to take the easy road on my first song and learn/study Autumn Leaves. It is a bit cliche, but so am I. :-) I have a Real Book file for Band in a Box (purchased used from a guy trying to return it at the music store, score!) I will also be using Dave Marks' Walking Bass Lesson. This will work nicely as I will try to work this into Adam Neely's Walking Bass 101 at learnthelowend.com. I think I am ready to put it all together.

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Shed

Too much drama right now. Finally got to shed and laugh. It felt long over due. Humor seems to be playing a big role in my progress. If I can not laugh with something, why bother with it?

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New Lesson/Right Time

I am always amazed at how things work out. I am working on my dexterity and ,BAM! This article at notreble.com falls from heaven like fresh manna.

Building Dexterity on the Bass

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Good Shed

Felt good. I really am making a conscious effort to focus on everything, but in a very relaxed and comfortable way. Not easy, but it will pay off.

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Becoming the Bass Monk

It is so unpredictable how events seem to unfold. I named this blog "Bass Monk" as just a sort of tongue-in-cheek descriptive title. However, I find myself drawn to that title, literally. Right now, I want nothing more then to succeed at becoming a competent musician whose instrument of choice is the bass guitar. In order to succeed on my own, I must become that monk.
I am literally alone. As stated before, I have books, DVDs, and the Internet, but no personal instructors (I know that there are people who will give lessons over Skype/Google Talk, but at $75 and up, that is about $4000 a year.). My only alternative,as I see it, is to become not only the student, but the teacher as well. This is dangerous ground. I must be very careful, or I will fail.
The monk will need to be focused, single minded, self critical, determined, yet flexible. I am both excited and intimidated, but it is what it is. This journal has just become a lot more important to me. I will need to be more diligent at chronicling my progress as well as reviewing it to monitor my progress and direction.
Guess I need to go robe shopping :-)

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