Tuesday March 14
Tried to nail the 11/8 rhythm by breaking it down into smaller groupings. During the commercials (I sometimes practice in front of the TV) I tapped out two distinct patterns that add up to 11. Three 3's and a 2, or two 4's and a 3. They each have their own flavor and feel, and the next step is to come up with a cool bass line and see if the guys can hang with the eleven feel. Two songs come to mind "Y2K by Dapp Theory and "The Eleven" by Grateful Dead. I think there is some Mahavishnu or McLaughlin stuff that has parts in 11 as well.
I was checking out a bassist named Tony Grey who started playing at the age of 19 and is about 30 years old now. I was inspired by his story, the fact that at the age of 19 while in Her Majesties Royal Military Service (British for ARMY) he suffered a broken back from an auto injury. During his long recovery, his stepdad brought him a bass and told him that playing it would make him feel better. Check out this interview here.

I started when I was 20 and am 35 now but do not have a jazz fusion master for an uncle nor did I attend a prestigious music school in Boston but still have the same dedication as Mr Grey. He has a 4 hour DAILY practice schedule broken up into 8 half hour lessons that he somehow manages to do even while on tour. MAN! What discipline! I was so inspired that I now want to come up with a 4 hour bass lesson plan to propel my playing into the stratosphere! Just 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours after work should do it....hahahaha. I can barely get up to leave the house to get to work on time let alone get up to play the bass. Maybe if I start with just a half hour in the morning and 2 hours at night. Even when I have tons of stuff to do I know I can (and do) find time to practice, even for a half an hour.

A great way to get started is to "Say Hello" to the bass. Play all the notes one at a time on each string (open strings included) and fret. For example, open B string, B on 12th fret (B String), E string 7th fret and 19th fret, A string 2nd fret and 14th fret, D String 9th fret and 21st fret, G string 4th fret and 16th fret (whew). Now repeat for remaining 12 keys.
I wonder how long it would take to play the interval study head to toe? All the intervals in all 12 keys and all subdivided rhythyms (2,3,4,6 and 12)? Five rhythms, 12 intervals, 12 keys....

Monday March 13
Bass lesson with Kai. I recorded part of the lesson on my digital camera so I can refer back to the cool stuff we do. This time Kai played student and I played teacher. His question was: Can the bass marathon rhythm pattern be used with the interval study and if so, how? I immediately said yes and we sort of worked it out together. We set the marathon patter to 40 bpm on the drum machine and broke it down as follows. Starting with the Major 7ths (good thing I have been 'sheding that one ^_^) and playing one note per beat, then Minor 7ths 2 notes per beat and so on. I started to flail when we reached 7's and 8's. He started to flail on 11's which made me feel a bit better. We both have challenges to overcome in our playing and know that our goals can be met with patience and time. Cool.

Sunday March 12
Jam with Paul. We played some more tricky stuff out of the Real Book. Drop the needle or pick a random song, if you will. We sound great together and have a blast learning the songs as we go. Neato