About Daily Practice For Bass Series
The biggest challenge for players who do practice is deciding what to work on. This is a normal problem. How can we guide ourselves where we have never been? Confucius say, "Man who is self taught has fool for teacher." I figured this out fairly early, probably because I had a teacher from day one, my Dad.
With an over abundance of material and advice on the web about studying music, this white noise can be paralyzing. I answer most questions about learning how to play the bass with the same advice, "Get a GOOD teacher."
I created the new series of books, Daily Practice For Bass, because we need a guide. We need a routine to help us be consistent with our practice. I envisioned a book with specific, limited, daily practice lessons for one month. It made sense to develop a curriculum for an entire year of daily practice. That resulted in Daily Practice For Bass Levels 1 through 12.
Before I had finished releasing Daily Practice For Bass Level 12, I knew I needed to do more. I took a nine month break from this series and formulated the curriculum for three additional years of daily practice books. The task of writing a total of forty-eight volumes looked daunting to say the least. But, I began to realized that I had been teaching this same material, leveled for my students, for fifty years. And, I have students who practiced for many more than four years. Piece o' cake! I just needed to see the steps, one by one, and get into it.
Today, as I write this, the first book from year two, Daily Practice For Bass Level 13 was ordered! That means someone has been seriously practicing for twelve months and completed levels 1-12, or they just decided to jump in at year two of the program. Actually, the order came from a man in Coonabarabran, Australia who has ordered the first twelve levels over the past year. "Keep it up Brett."
Each book is based on forty-five minutes of practice each day. The daily session is divided into three, fifteen minute lessons. Each month contains six or seven different topics. The topics rotate in an out of the different levels. See monthly topics grids.
I advise all students irregardless of ability to start with the level 1 book. We are not just teaching the musical topics, we are learning how to build and get comfortable with a focused, directed, limited, daily practice routine. Obviously the lower level books will be easy for a more advanced player, but it is always good practice to hone your skills working with basics.
All assignments covered in all forty-eight levels will be material all good bassists need to be able to play. You can think of it as a serious four-year degree in building success habits. Every highly successful person in any field of endeavor has a daily routine whether for maintenance or growth.
The audio play-along tracks are key to success in your daily practice. They make it fun and keep you going. The ear needs to be involved in your musical studies.
Happy Practicing!
