Melodic

Going off the interpretation wave, my noodling has become alot more melody like. I'm not sure if it has to do with all the Paul McCartney listening I've been doing [guitarist turned bassist have a more melodic approach to basslines, I think it has something to do with the different head space].

I guess it's just hit me that I'm just playing with myself, and I have space to fill, so why not? No one is here to hear. It's taken a load of my shoulders, it's good to have some no pressure fun. I need to remind myself that.       

For the Birds

In honor of the birds that made me aware of my ability to tell pitch, I decided to listen to The Beatles' Blackbird obsessively. Farther inspired by chat with my uncle, I decided to not look up sheet music [or the how-to videos, that youtube keeps suggesting for me] and just go by my ear.

The result was me finding two of the notes on the fretboard. Like what I said before, the note duration is clear in my head, but the actual notes were a crap shoot. But I relaxed and I'm 90% sure I got at least two notes right.

[I should point out here that Blackbird doesn't have a bassline, so by doing this, by dissecting the song, and interpreting.]     

Interpretation

The best lesson I got from my uncle was when he said he would practice what he heard on the radio. I've heard this comment a hundred times before, but where most bassists say they copy what they hear on the radio, my uncle said it interpreted what he heard [too redundant?].

I don't know if there is a level of musical freedom that drums get over bass or not, but I found this phrase inspiring.       

Hitting Things are Fun

At my last doctor's appointment the physician got on me about doing some form of exercise. Since I refuse to work out for the sake of working out I decided to hit up the drummer in the family.  It took him awhile to find the throne [no really, that's the real name for the seat] but once he did it was fun.

Add about six more Toms.

The drum kit is modeled after some kit Neal Pert had [probably in the 70s] and my uncle swears it was used by some famous Scandinavian band. He's got about five inches on me, so I had to reach abit to use the kit, but it was good.

I love toms, they are like the bass in drum form, [but not like the bass/kick drum, in some way]. The expensive pedal on the bass drum [chain drive] was amazing for my range of motion on my right ankle, when it was all said and done I was sweaty, but I didn't feel gross about it. When I finished I felt that muscles sore high that was awesome.