Howdy Djim,

Thanks for the pdf - this validifies my personal methods of practice

When I first took up bass (as a guitarist), I played really simple stuff - "root whacker" style. I was pretty much just playing the "bass drum" part on beats 1 and 3 (no back beat for me yet). Then, about a year and a half after I started, I found out about Norm Stockton's "Grooving for Heaven" series (www.normstockton.com). It's a series of instructional videos that actually sort of echoes the tenets of this fellow's approach, only much expanded Norm gives workshops for worship teams (thus the title of the series), but the fundamentals of bass that he teaches are universal. I highly recommend his series, and his 3rd and 4th ones are great fun. The third one expounds on working with the drummer, and encompasses "band" concepts. The fourth one is more on all the "spice" of bass playing - various hand techniques and other "tasties" that are great when done with taste (and taste awful when not ;) ).

In my own situation, we don't have a drummer, and I sometimes will play doumbek rather than bass for certain songs. Doumbek is a very versatile hand drum of the "goblet" variety, similar to a djembe, but with more pronounced slap and rim-hit tones. Learning (and continuing to learn) to play doumbek has improved my bass groove, as you might expect after reading the above treatise

One of my favorite practice techniques is doing almost exactly what he talks about, only expanding on it a bit. Using Composer, and "found" drum MIDI files (a lot of them from Rob Goodwin's Midi Drum Files http://www.mididrumfiles.com/index.cfm), I play the file, and do what the fellow says in the pdf above - I practice "being" the drum kit. BUT then, I go back and practice a bass line that is not the drums, but that interweaves with the drums. This is the challenge that bassists have, but by going through first and knowing what the drums are doing, it makes it easier to do something that goes with them.

When I play with the band (with a drummer), it's amazing how much easier my job as bassist is, because now I'm a subset of the rhythmic instruments available, rather than the whole rhythm section I think this aspect is what makes playing with the band so much more fun - I like the "group" thing.

All that said, I don't want it to sound like I've "arrived", because when I listen to some of the great bass players out there, I know how far I have to go. But I figure at least I know how much room I have for improvement (a lot), and I think I have a decent idea of what I need to do to get there. Now all I need are those 36 hour days to get in all the practice .... ;)

Thanks Djim! I'm going to forward that pdf to my Church Bass list - I'm sure some of those guys would find it helpful as I did!

ttfn,
Sherry