But I like the idea of trying to do it.
Even if I'm not successful.
See, there's this thing about saying you'll do something, and then doing it every day for a month.
This month I'm going to kind of change it up.
This month, I want to get better at both guitar and bass. My logic is that if I touch the instrument once a day, I"ll be better than if I didn't do anything at all.
See, my only friend in this city is moving, and I'm scared to death of being stuck here alone.
And I really like playing music with people.
And I think I'm good enough. I really do. I have gear I'm not ashamed of (this was a problem in the past). I have a solid ear for intervals, and a good backing in theory, and I can improv basslines in various styles, and I can write basslines based on chord progressions.
I'm passable at acoustic guitar. I'm okay at rhythm guitar.
But who cares. No big deal. I want more.
I want to be better at the actual playing. Build up the muscles. Build up the intuitive skills and the sense of where the strings are.
So here's the list of things that I can do for practicing when I don't feel like doing actual music.
You know, the stuff that you can be doing lying down in bed while you're not thinking about it.
So here goes
As for strumming, up, down, updown for guitar. Up. down, updown, fingerpicking for bass.
Eventually work in 8th notes and shit,.
The rest
- Chromatic scales: Always chromatic scales. Bass and guitar. Up and down. Super fun.
- The stretchy one. 1, skip a fret, 2, skip a fret, 3, skip a fret, 4. So your pinky's on the 7th fret when your done. Then up a fret and again. And again. Till you hit 12.
- Hammers and pulls. Once with 1-3, once with 1-2, once with 2-4, once with 2-3. Until you're sick and want to kill pull-offs.
- Metronome training. Just everythign but with a metronome. I'm kind of shit with teh metronome, but I'm okay with a drummer. It's weird.
