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Practice Guide For The Jazz Bassist

The document provides a practice guide for jazz bassists, emphasizing the importance of focused practice through 'Practice Bursts' to optimize limited practice time. It outlines a structured 90-minute regimen divided into five segments, each targeting different skills such as bowing, bass lines, soloing, scales, and learning new tunes. The guide encourages consistent practice and tracking progress to enhance musical abilities over time.

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Perry Wortman
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171 views2 pages

Practice Guide For The Jazz Bassist

The document provides a practice guide for jazz bassists, emphasizing the importance of focused practice through 'Practice Bursts' to optimize limited practice time. It outlines a structured 90-minute regimen divided into five segments, each targeting different skills such as bowing, bass lines, soloing, scales, and learning new tunes. The guide encourages consistent practice and tracking progress to enhance musical abilities over time.

Uploaded by

Perry Wortman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LORIN COHEN-BASSIST NEWS WWW.LORINCOHEN.

COM

Practice Guide
for the Jazz Bassist
Using “Practice Bursts”

Always Practice
what you CAN’T do
currently

Optimizing Your Limited Practice Time


The great Leonard Bernstein said “To achieve great things,
two things are needed; a plan and not enough time”
Even a genius like Leonard Bernstein needed deadlines to make all the masterful Practice is
music he made. about repetition
of perfection

1 2 3
SECRET #1 SECRET #2 SECRET #3
Using a Digital Audio Use a timer. Don’t take Use a notebook to log
Workstation (DAW) your hands off the bass your daily practice
such as Pro Tools, until the timer goes off. schedule and assess
practice as if you are your progress.
Slow practice is
in a recording session.
effective
Set up a mic, use head-
practice
phones and record into
your DAW.
LORIN COHEN-BASSIST NEWS WWW.LORINCOHEN.COM

What I have achieved by industry and practice,


anyone else with tolerable natural gift and ability
can also achieve.
- Johann Sebastian Bach

Here’s the outline of a 90-minute


Practicing in short bursts
practice regimen I use aligns with our nature –
I call each segment a “Practice Burst” we have a limited amount
Think of a Practice Burst as a short chunk of
of mental energy at our
“High Voltage” practice time disposal each day

Practice Burst #1: Bowing Practice Burst #3: Soloing


Time: 10 minutes Time: 20 minutes
• Play long tones to open up the • Transcribe two bars of a solo a day
instrument, develop your sound and • Using a music slow-down program, play
along with these two bars until you’ve
warm up and strengthen left hand
memorized them
• Play along with drones to match pitch • Transcribe the next two bars the
Electric Bass: Hand Coordination following day
• Play chromatic scale on all strings and
across strings
Practice Burst #4:
• With right hand, vary pizzicato
Scales & Arpeggios
combinations – one finger, two/three
Time: 30 minutes
fingers • Create a 2-4 bar etude for a particular scale
or arpeggio shape you’re working on
• Record the etude on your digital audio
Practice Burst #2: workstation (ProTools, Logic) and use this
Bass Lines & Groove as your play-a-long.
Time: 20 minutes • Allocate two days per key for each exercise
• Transcribe two bars of a bass line
• Using a music slow-down program, play
along with these two bars until you’ve Practice Burst #5: Learn a new tune
memorized them Time: 10 minutes
• Once you’ve memorized this music, play it • Ideally, do this at the piano
with and without a metronome • As before, focus on 2-4 bars per day

The power of this regimen is the compounding


nature of sticking to it over time.
Trust the Process: two bars of a solo and bass line six days
a week is a 32 bar solo and bass line every 16 days – if you
keep it up, that’s 22 solos and bass lines a year!

To take your playing to the next level, click here

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