10 a day

Still didn't make it over to Tim's this Wed. They end up doing some recording instead of doing some jamming. So I stayed around the parents place and jammed out to a few songs with dad. Been doing quite well with the minimum of 10 mins a day practice. I have noticed my ear getting better. I'm finding it easier to not get quite as lost as I used to. Still having lots of fun with it. :)

pop it like it's hot...

...and slap it like a red-headed step child, or whatever you feel like slapping. I was sitting at home last night, broke out my Ibanez and starting messing around for a bit. Did a few finger exercises, a couple bass runs I like to play, and started in on some pop/slap technique drills. Straight octaves, on the A and G strings, and trying the much harder E and D strings after a while. I'm starting to get the hang of it, but I often to to leave my thumb out there too long so it ends up muting the slap. It's getting much easier though, my fretting hand seems to be getting a bit faster too, which is nice. I want to be able to play super fast, when I want to. Not all the time, I'm not trying to go guitar solos on a bass. Although, that has it's time and place. :)
I'm hitting up a movie in Boston tonight, then it's off to jam night.

bailed

I ended up not jamming last night. Dad wasn't feeling too good, and I was starving, so I skipped out and went home for food. I played a little pogo, and tried to sleep. All in all a very UNproductive night. I need to get strings for all my guitars, the strat is sounding pretty dull right now. The Ibanez has the newest strings, and still sounds pretty good, but some new strings would definitely help. I'm a big fan of the DR Lowriders I've got on there. Sucks that they're $25 a set. That's the biggest drawback to playing bass over guitar. Strings are so much more expensive.

I'm still working out a plan on making a bass. It'll be a long time before it gets made, since it requires money, but I can still work on the shape I want, and figure out what pick-ups/bridge, etc. Got any advice, please drop me a comment. :) I've got a few different ideas for materials and shapes. So stay tuned.

Fright-night

Jam night tonight.. woooooooooooooooo
and Happy Halloween. :)

Last lesson-for now

I had my last lesson last night, worked on a little bit of technique stuff, Roger worked on the setup on my bass a little bit, and went over a little bit of scales. I did come to a realization though. It's really hard for me to play even simple stuff for him, without messing up, and playing VERY stiff. I don't know if I'm just nervous, or what. But trying to practice some stuff after the lesson on my 5-string was actually easier than trying to play it on my Ibanez during the lesson. I'm going to have to work on relaxing.

update... sorta

Quick update.
Haven't been practicing much this past week. I did play some pretty good stuff, and got a few compliments about my bass and rhythm guitar playing on Friday night. Ed said I'm an excellent rhythm guitar player. Which is great to hear. :) I've got my last lesson tonight, and probably heading up Tim's with Dad and Ed next Wednesday night. Jam with the big boys again for a bit. I'll have to practice playing standing up for a bit, so I embarrass myself less. I'll probably end up playing guitar for a bit too, since Ed is a much better bass player than I am.

Running out of time

Lesson 3 of 4 is down. I took the cd to the lesson, and Roger helped (okay he did all the work) me learn the bass line for most of Running Into Walls by Into Another. Fun little bassline, and sounds a lot more complicated to me, than it really is. That being said, I was VERY impressed with Rogers' ear. He listened to the song, plucked a couple strings, and then bam, started writing down the notes on the staff for me. I was more impressed with how he was able to pick out the bassline, then I was with his playing of it. Regardless, it was a lot of fun. I'm actually starting to like taking lessons. I wish I wasn't so broke, so I could keep them up. Unfortunately next week if my last lesson. :( On the plus side, I've got tons of stuff to work on, so the plan is to work on saving up some money, practice a whole bunch, then go visit Roger again, and say look what I can do now, what's next? But till then, I need to practice more, and keep working on playing a few songs really well. Oh, and of course writing my own stuff. :)