Jeff Dodd on Bass

Making the best of your practice

Hey all!  Just been recovering from a fractured radius on my fretting hand and trying to get in any playing I can.  This has brought great new perspective to a real inconvenient situation as I was trying to do some tracking for a new CD.  As of 3 days ago I was finally able supinate my left hand enough to fret some single note stuff, but chords and harmonics while maintaining the ‘chord’, eludes me still.  So, unwilling to set down my bass, I have resorted to new altered tunings and incorporating different right hand picking patterns (with my fingers) to try to keep it interesting.   I have been laying down chords via stacking on my loop station and then using an unfamiliar altered tuning trying to figure my way around the neck while keeping it melodic.  For those of you that have not tried this I highly recommend it.  It is great for ear training, gets you out of your comfort zone for ‘known’ finger positions/scales and challenges your melodic abilities while incorporating your theory.  When you start to get comfortable in the chords, try adding new key changes or time signatures to keep you on your fingers (not your toes).   If this doesn’t challenge you enough, try to switch one of your lower strings with a tenor or piccolo string and then tune it up an octave and go the the fifth, seventh or ninth or whatever sounds good to you.  This will make you have to string jump in new ways to allow for good sonic flow, and changes how you approach playing chords.  Most of all have fun and don’t take light of your practice time, it can all change in an instant!