tfarny said:
What I'm starting to realize with bass is that really, really solid timing comes first and technique a bit later - I play with a pick at practices and work on fingerstyle by my lonesome, at least for now.
This is something that all my students struggle with to a degree, and I disagree with you. Here's why: Unlearning bad habits takes ten times longer than learning it correctly in the first place. When you consider how much more difficult it is to learn something new as an adult, bad habits are extra bad. Technique, sense of pulse, tambre, expressiveness, music reading, sight reading, etc... should all be learned at the same time. Shortchanging one of those things with any of the myriad of reasonable excuses (and there are many) ultimately hampers the new bassist for years.
I always find songs/exercises that emphasize the aspect that the new bassist is struggling with, and then continue to emphasize other important aspects of playing. Growth needs to be whole, and reasonably slow. Every guitarist learns to slap because it's flashy. The reality is that it's pointless unless played tastefully and incorporated with other techniques. Bass is not an instrument that can be "half-assed" like electric guitar can be in many modern styles of music. Bass is part harmonic support, part rhythm, part style, and all SOLID. The human ear leans toward the low end first, and if that's unsure or out of the "groove," the music sounds horrid.
I don't mean this as an attack or judgment of anyone's ability or progress. I'm just sharing my experiences as a lifelong bass player and music educator of 15 years with a wife who teaches music, a brother who teaches music and a sister in law who teaches music. I will leave you with one last set of thoughts, and that is how best to make use of your practice time:
1) Start out with warm ups. I run scales, two octaves of thirds, chordal arpeggios over more than one position, and often will sightread rhythms out of the book "127 original exercises."
2) Spend 10-15 minutes working on some part of your skill set that you feel needs work. If you're not getting it, SLOW DOWN and gradually bring it back up to tempo. Try to find pieces of music that highlight this area to be improved upon. DO NOT spend more than 30 minutes on what you're working on.
3) Reflect on what you're doing well, what you need to work on, and where you've been (so to speak) as a musician.
4) Play something for a few minutes that reminds you why you wanted to play bass (or whatever instrument) in the first place. Fall in love with your musicianship all over again. Don't EVER, EVER end your practice session on a note of frustration or insecurity.
Lastly, 20 minutes of practice every day is VASTLY more effective than 3 hours twice a week. If you don't listen to anything else I've said, believe this.
-Mark