Double bass
Was out for a week plus in Switzerland with family earlier this month, and I had the chance to attend lessons with Lucila Barragan during my stay in Zurich. She helped me rework my hold/grip on the bow, and walked me through applying and releasing pressure on the bow at the different contact points of the various strings. This was really a great juncture to work on my bowing now that I feel more comfortable on the left hand. I came back after the trip just spending time bowing open strings in order to "reprogram" and lock in what I've learnt. I actually heard a big difference in the sound, which makes me very happy!
I feel like after a month's work, I've finally made enough progress on the Tao of Bass exercises 1.1 to 1.4 to continue on with the next few exercises. The increased confidence in intonation is most obviously heard to me when playing Simandl's Bb study. I'm going to work more on feeling the strings when playing/drilling slurs, especially between the G and D strings, which require much less pressure/strength and is more nuanced in how much control to place/yield.
I am finally being more consistent in adding pizz into my daily routine - the tendency in the past was to just skip them; this also because I felt tired after arco, a sign of bad posture, technique and tension. I've been starting off after arco and a short break, then going over the major and minor arpeggios, then playing Bb blues (2 variations) over a backing track. My teacher wants to start us on tunes (finally!) now that he feels I'm ready for it. We're beginning with Footprints by Wayne Shorter. I'm also seeing my skin peel and pave the way for the first signs of a callous on my right index finger!
Goals for June
- Get started with Tao of Bass exercises 1.5 to 1.7
- More slurs practice with the metronome
- Add staccato practice to my routine
- Practice more variations in my scales
- Work on section 1 of Norwegian Dance
- Play Bb blues at full speed (120BPM) over the full length of the backing track
- Walking Wayne Shorter's Footprints
Electric bass
The neglected child gets some love finally! I've been neglecting to pick up and practice on this instrument and I'm finally reversing the situation. Going to ensure that I practice every other day (at the least) and my goal to this is to have a less ambitious practice routine.
Practice routine for June
For at least every other day:
- Practice the modal scales in 2 keys daily
- Follow as before but play the chords instead (1-3-5-7)
- Practice So What melody and walking bass for 10 minutes
- Bonus: play through F blues progression (with a backing track)
Guitar
I moved Sonando and Feierabend Blues out of my practice after playing them for Steph over our monthly meet, and decided to focus on Carcassi's Etude along with practice pieces from CGC (where I'm currently on grade 3, unit 6). I've added more time for scales (playing them in triplets), exercises (finger independence - this is really hard; my little pinky does not want to stay still) and right hand exercises.
I didn't get to my intended goals for the month, but I still hit 55BPM for page 1 of Carcassi, which is more than what I would have expect. Things break down quickly when I attempt 60BPM, so that's the new ceiling for the time being. For Giuliani's exercises, I managed to get to exercise 25, and the ceiling is around 55BPM for the 1st 10 exercises and things lean downward to around 40BPM for the newer ones.
Finally, I only managed to memorize the first 3 pages of Grace, and I'm struggling at the moment with page 4 which has a fair bit of stretches and pinch harmonics.
Goals for June
- Work through and memorise first 4 pages of Grace, and consistently at 65 to 80 BPM
- Continue working through Carcassi's etude and consistently at 55 to 65 BPM
- Work on the first 25 studies of Giuliani's 120 right hand studies until I can hit 60BPM
Gear update
And finally, some gear talk!
My order of Moov Travel Guitar is finally in the works. I'm on the thread of this batch where they're sharing some great in-progress photographs. During my trip to Switzerland this month, I really missed guitar practice and I hope this will allow me to always have a practice companion from now on. My next trip to Japan in September should be a good test bed for this.
And in other news, my birthday comes early this year - my wife has granted my wish for a new bow and I decided to go with the Coda Infinity, which should be making its way to me later this week. Definitely above my current level, but aspirationally I'm going to work hard to eventually be worthy of it!