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Practicing with Lasers by Steven Gregory
It seems obvious: if we want to truly become excellent worship bass musicians, we must practice our craft. However, how to practice (and how to do so effectively and efficiently) is one of the biggest problems in the worship bass world (and often, in the bass world in general). Many of us have had symptoms of inefficient practice:
- Spending hours and hours every day practicing, without much actual improvement.
- Not having enough time to practice regularly.
- Thinking that “cramming” to learn songs for the week is all there is to practice.
- Applying the “practice” label to rehearsals, noodling, warming up, playing the same song you learned 5 years ago…anything other than truly meaningful practice.
- Spending practice time randomly wandering from task to task, with no real direction.
Practice was absolutely a burden for me when I first arrived at Berklee. I had great intentions, but I just didn’t know what to do with my practice time. I spent hours in the practice room where I would start one thing, then move to another, then waste time on a cool lick that I already knew how to play, then snap myself back to run scales for a few minutes…until I was tired, frustrated, and not improving.
This changed when I met Jim Stinnett (http://www.jimstinnett.com), who became my teacher and mentor. Jim is an outstanding bassist and educator who has the uncanny ability to cut straight to the heart of a student’s problem. Jim saw my problem within seconds and prescribed the perfect remedy: laser practicing.
“Laser practicing” is about applying intense focus, without distraction, to your practice. This method, which Jim developed and I will simply pass along, takes care of the aforementioned problems and many, many more. To engage in laser practicing you need a timer, a notebook, items to study, and at least one hour a day to practice.
The basic outline of laser practicing is as follows:
- Determine the areas of study you will practice.
- Divide your time so that every area of study has a “slice” of your total time.
- Start the timer and practice the first area without distraction until the timer goes off.
- Make quick notes about the first area, start the timer again and practice the next area without distraction.
- Repeat until the hour is done.
By using bursts of complete focus, you can cut through problems and make amazing gains, much in the same way that the focus of a laser can cut through material that unfocused light would have no effect on.
Let’s look at an example, using a student named Fred, who has five areas he would like to practice:
- Minor arpeggios
- Walking bass lines
- Slap grooves
- Worship songs for the week
- Sight reading
We will assume that Fred has specific materials for each of these areas, as was directed by his instructor, along with his weekly worship music set. Fred outlines the day’s practice as shown in Example 1:
In Fred’s example, each of these items will get an equal “slice” of the hour, which equals 12 minutes. Fred starts his timer and begins to practice his minor arpeggios around the cycle of 4ths. Complete and total focus is given to the arpeggios – not the other tasks, not the song Fred really likes to play, just the arpeggios. When the timer goes off 12 minutes later, Fred stops immediately, writes some quick notes about the session, then restarts the timer and works on the next area. Fred does this for the remainder of the hour and finishes with a sheet that looks like Example 2:
After a single hour, Fred has truly practiced 5 areas of study and has notes on which he can build his next laser cycle. If Fred has another hour to practice that day, another cycle is started. If Fred only spends one hour a day practicing in this manner, he is absolutely going to see improvements that he would not have experienced by practicing without focus for many more hours.
Laser practicing is a radical departure for many and there are many common questions that arise. Here are few of those questions, with responses:
Q: You’re kidding, right?
A: Nope. I thought it was a nutty idea too, but I encourage you to try it for a couple of weeks. I can promise that it will feel odd and that you will want to ignore the timer, but don’t. The results are worth it!
Q. Do you have to evenly divide the hour?
A. Even divisions work best for beginning laser practice sessions, but that is not a hard and fast rule. You can adjust as needed, but I have found that creating a “slice” that is less than 7-8 minutes or more than 13-14 minutes isn’t effective. You are trying to focus with incredible intensity for each slice, so give yourself enough time to “settle” into that focus, but don’t overextend yourself.
Q. Transcription in laser practicing? That won’t work! I can’t learn the songs for the week unless I set aside a separate session for that.
A. Focus, grasshopper. Without distraction and with intense focus, you can absolutely transcribe music in short bursts.
Q. I don’t have an hour to practice!
A. I said this in front of Jim once, who simply said, “Get up an hour earlier!” We may not like to admit it, but I’m positive that 99% of us can find an hour a day to practice by getting up earlier, staying up late, turning off the television, or some other “trimming” of our schedule. Decide that excellence is worth finding that hour!
Q. Why should I keep notes?
A. Notes are very important to this process. The notes keep you focused and create a record so you can track improvement.
Q. Isn’t stopping one section when the timer goes off incredibly frustrating?
A. It can be, but you can always practice that section again…in the next cycle.
Q. Have you ever used this for a time other than an hour?
A. Yes, but an hour is best. If you have multiple hours, do multiple cycles. When I’ve had an “odd time”, such as 90 minutes, I’ve often done one cycle and then repeated a few of the “slices” for the last 30 minutes. I have used laser practicing to make the very best use of a 30-minute window, as well. Refer to the above question about how you divide the time to make sure you don’t cheat yourself from meaningful “slices”.
Laser practicing truly revolutionized my playing and I hope you will give it a try also. Take your worship, musicianship, and bass playing to the next level with the focus of a laser! Make sure you let me know how it goes by catching me on Twitter (@sgregorybass) or in the Bass Musician Magazine Community.
Until next time, I hope that your bass playing is blessed and that you can bless others through your bass playing!
Bass Videos
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes…
It is always great to meet a super busy bassist who simply exudes a love for music and his instrument. Erick “Jesus” Coomes fits this description exactly. Hailing from Southern California, “Jesus” co-founded and plays bass for Lettuce and has found his groove playing with numerous other musicians.
Join us as we hear of his musical journey, how he gets his sound, his ongoing projects, and his plans for the future.
Photo, Bob Forte
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Visit Online
www.lettucefunk.com
IG @jesuscsuperstar
FB@jesuscoomes
FB @lettucefunk
Bass Videos
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
“These stories from the front are with real-life, day-to-day musicians who deal with work life and gigging and how they make it work out. Each month, topics may include… the kind of gigs you get, the money, dealing with less-than-ideal rooms, as well as the gear you need to get the job done… and the list goes on from there.” – Steve the Bass Guy and Shawn Cav
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This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
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Bass CDs
New Album: Jake Leckie, Planter of Seeds
Bassist Jake Leckie and The Guide Trio Unveil New Album Planter of Seeds,
to be released on June 7, 2024
Planter of Seeds is bassist/composer Jake Leckie’s third release as a bandleader and explores what beauty can come tomorrow from the seeds we plant today.
What are we putting in the ground? What are we building? What is the village we want to bring our children up in? At the core of the ensemble is The Guide Trio, his working band with guitarist Nadav Peled and drummer Beth Goodfellow, who played on Leckie’s second album, The Guide, a rootsy funky acoustic analog folk-jazz recording released on Ropeadope records in 2022. For Planter of Seeds, the ensemble is augmented by Cathlene Pineda (piano), Randal Fisher (tenor saxophone), and Darius Christian (trombone), who infuse freedom and soul into the already tightly established ensemble.
Eight original compositions were pristinely recorded live off the floor of Studio 3 at East West Studios in Hollywood CA, and mastered by A.T. Michael MacDonald. The cover art is by internationally acclaimed visual artist Wayne White. Whereas his previous work has been compared to Charles Mingus, and Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet with Charlie Haden, Leckie’s new collection sits comfortably between the funky odd time signatures of the Dave Holland Quintet and the modern folk-jazz of the Brian Blade Fellowship Band with a respectful nod towards the late 1950s classic recordings of Ahmad Jamal and Miles Davis.
The title track, “Planter of Seeds,” is dedicated to a close family friend, who was originally from Trinidad, and whenever she visited family or friends at their homes, without anyone knowing, she would plant seeds she kept in her pocket in their gardens, so the next season beautiful flowers would pop up. It was a small altruistic anonymous act of kindness that brought just a little more beauty into the world. The rhythm is a tribute to Ahmad Jamal, who we also lost around the same time, and whose theme song Poinciana is about a tree from the Caribbean.
“Big Sur Jade” was written on a trip Leckie took with his wife to Big Sur, CA, and is a celebration of his family and community. This swinging 5/4 blues opens with an unaccompanied bass solo, and gives an opportunity for each of the musicians to share their improvisational voices. “Clear Skies” is a cathartic up-tempo release of collective creative energies in fiery improvisational freedom. “The Aquatic Uncle” features Randal Fisher’s saxophone and is named after an Italo Calvino short story which contemplates if one can embrace the new ways while being in tune with tradition. In ancient times, before a rudder, the Starboard side of the ship was where it was steered from with a steering oar. In this meditative quartet performance, the bass is like the steering oar of the ensemble: it can control the direction of the music, and when things begin to unravel or become unhinged, a simple pedal note keeps everything grounded.
The two trio tunes on the album are proof that the establishment of his consistent working band The Guide Trio has been a fruitful collaboration. “Santa Teresa”, a bouncy samba-blues in ? time, embodies the winding streets and stairways of the bohemian neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro it is named for. The swampy drum feel on “String Song” pays homage to Levon Helm of The Band, a group where you can’t always tell who wrote the song or who the bandleader is, proving that the sum is greater than the individual parts. Early jazz reflected egalitarianism in collective improvisation, and this group dynamic is an expression of that kind of inclusivity and democracy.
“The Daughters of the Moon” rounds out the album, putting book ends on the naturalist themes. This composition is named after magical surrealist Italo Calvino’s short story about consumerism, in which a mythical modern society that values only buying shiny new things throws away the moon like it is a piece of garbage and the daughters of the moon save it and resurrect it. It’s an eco-feminist take on how women are going to save the world. Pineda’s piano outro is a hauntingly beautiful lunar voyage, blinding us with love. Leckie dedicates this song to his daughter: “My hope is that my daughter becomes a daughter of the moon, helping to make the world a more beautiful and verdant place to live.”
Bass CDs
Debut Album: Nate Sabat, Bass Fiddler
In a thrilling solo debut, bassist Nate Sabat combines instrumental virtuosity with a songwriter’s heart on Bass Fiddler…
The upright bass and the human voice. Two essential musical instruments, one with roots in 15th century Europe, the other as old as humanity itself.
On Bass Fiddler (Adhyâropa Records ÂR00057), the debut album from Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and bass virtuoso Nate Sabat, the scope is narrowed down a bit. Drawing from the rich and thriving tradition of American folk music, Sabat delivers expertly crafted original songs and choice covers with the upright bass as his lone tool for accompaniment.
The concept was born a decade ago when Sabat began studying with the legendary old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky at Berklee College of Music. “One of Bruce’s specialties is singing and playing fiddle at the same time. The second I heard it I was hooked,” recalls Sabat. “I thought, how can I do this on the bass?” From there, he was off to the races, arranging original and traditional material with Molsky as his guide. “Fast forward to 2020, and I — like so many other musicians — was thinking of how to best spend my time. I sat down with the goal of writing some new songs and arranging some new covers, and an entire record came out.” When the time came to make the album, it was evident that Molsky would be the ideal producer. Sabat asked him if he’d be interested, and luckily he was. “What an inspiration to work with an artist like Nate,” says Molsky. “Right at the beginning, he came to this project with a strong, personal and unique vision. Plus he had the guts to try for a complete and compelling cycle of music with nothing but a bass and a voice. You’ll hear right away that it’s engaging, sometimes serious, sometimes fun, and beautifully thought out from top to bottom.”
While this record is, at its core, a folk music album, Sabat uses the term broadly. Some tracks lean more rock (‘In the Shade’), some more pop (‘White Marble’, ‘Rabid Thoughts’), some more jazz (‘Fade Away’), but the setting ties them all together. “There’s something inherently folksy about a musician singing songs with their instrument, no matter the influences behind the compositions themselves,” Sabat notes. To be sure, there are plenty of folk songs (‘Louise’ ‘Sometimes’, ‘Eli’) and fiddling (‘Year of the Ox’) to be had here — the folk music fan won’t go hungry. There’s a healthy dose of bluegrass too (‘Orphan Annie’, ‘Lonesome Night’), clean and simple, the way Mr. Bill Monroe intended.
All in all, this album shines a light on an instrument that often goes overlooked in the folk music world, enveloping the listener in its myriad sounds, textures, and colors. “There’s nothing I love more than playing the upright bass,” exclaims Sabat. “My hope is that listeners take the time to sit with this album front to back — I want them to take in the full scope of the work. I have a feeling they’ll hear something they haven’t heard before.”
Available online at natesabat.bandcamp.com/album/walking-away
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Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Tour Touch Base (Bass) with Ian Allison
New Gear: Spector Woodstock Custom Collection Volume II
New Gear: The Dingwall John Taylor Signature Model
This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
New Gear: Esopus Guitars Launches New Acoustic/Electric Bass
Debut Album: Nate Sabat, Bass Fiddler