Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Upright Citizens is the podcast where two professional bassists - Bob DeBoo and Reuben Rogers - talk music from the bottom up. Every episode breaks down a real technique, a real recording, or a real story from a career on the road and in the studio, so you walk away with something you can actually put into your hands that day.
Expect deep dives on walking bass lines, swing, groove, and tone, interviews with legendary artists, road stories that are actually funny, and straight talk on practicing and listening better. Whether you play upright, electric, or just love the low end, this is where two bass nerds figure it out.
New episodes monthly, in audio and video.
Upright Citizens — Episode 3
"Only Have 15 Minutes? What Pro Bassists Actually Practice"
Cold Open
REUBEN: So Bob, you have 15 minutes. New venue, new hall, bass du jour. Or you're at home — only got those same 15 minutes. Life is about to catch up with you. What do you practice? We're going to dive into that, and hopefully by the time you leave this episode, you'll know exactly what to practice — or what not to.
BOB: Welcome to Upright Citizens, where two bass nerds share how they think about music from the bottom up.
Intro
BOB: So Reuben, we have 15 minutes. What are we going to do in that time? Why would we need to focus in on that amount of time and really get our sound on a new instrument — you said bass du jour — or if you're at home practicing with only 15 minutes? Before we dive into that, let's listen to this, because this is a recording of an individual who I'm not going to name, but you're going to know immediately. Because they have their sound — and this is a live recording where they're probably on a bass du jour. But they still sound like themselves.
REUBEN: No doubt.
BOB: Check this out. Listen to this.
Listen to This: Ray Brown Trio — "St. Louis Blues"
REUBEN: I like that already. Of course. Undeniable... There's those long, broad notes again. Master of them.
BOB: The man himself — the great Ray Brown. Give it up, everyone.
REUBEN: Papa Ray Brown, yes indeed.
BOB: Come on, studio audience, go ahead. So that's the Ray Brown Trio with Monty Alexander on piano and the great Jeff Hamilton on drums. They're playing a little "St. Louis Blues."
REUBEN: Is that intentional? Come on, now.
BOB: Of course — we're here in St. Louis, home of openstudiojazz.com. And the reason I wanted us to listen to that is because anytime you hear Ray Brown play, you can tell immediately that it's Ray Brown. He's got such a sound and conception in his hands — and of course, in his ears — which is really what we're going to be talking about. Getting your own sound when you have those 15 minutes, when you're meeting a new bass, much like you are right now. You're here in St. Louis filming this, and you're on one of my instruments that you don't really know that well. You haven't spent a lot of time with it.
REUBEN: Nope.
BOB: So we're going to dive into what you can do in 15 minutes — whether you're on a new bass, or you've got a busy lifestyle and you're at home and you've only got 15 minutes.
A Word From Open Studio
Learning about what makes music work is one thing, but getting those ideas actually into your playing is another. At Open Studio, we have a curated bass pathway of all our bass courses to level up your playing from wherever you are on your musical journey. Head over to openstudiojazz.com for more info. That's openstudiojazz.com.
Ray Brown Stories
BOB: And let's get back to the show, y'all.
REUBEN: Now, this also comes from our own experiences with Ray Brown. I don't know if you want to touch on that really quick — your experience with bass du jour and Ray Brown.
BOB: Oh, yes. So when I was a student at the University of North Texas, Ray Brown came and did a master class. And he used a student bass — I have no idea whose bass it was, and he didn't know either. He was in front of the entire jazz audience, all the students at UNT, and this is a thing he would do: just bass and Ray, and he'd say, "Call out a standard, call out a key." "Tea for Two, B natural." And he would play it, and he would sing the melody, no matter the instrument. He'd just have people call out tunes and keys, and he'd go right into it seamlessly — because he's Ray Brown. But it sounded like Ray Brown no matter what instrument he was on. And so that's it.
REUBEN: Right. The sound is in his hands and in his ears. It's not as particular to the instrument. And really and truly, it came from all the reps he took on the instrument, right?
BOB: Absolutely, yeah.
REUBEN: Spending the time doing things over and over and over. I would hear him practicing in his room on the road when we were at festivals. You knew it was Ray Brown coming through that door. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, "Wow" — I think he was maybe in his 70s, and he was practicing every day.
BOB: That's incredible.
REUBEN: I remember vividly in Vitoria, Spain — I was there for maybe three days, and going by his door, I didn't know where he was at first, but then I knew where he was. He was practicing. And I remember listening out for it through the day, like, "Is it going to happen again?" And then the second day I heard it faintly, and I was going to have to stand by the door —
BOB: I would've been geeking out. That's incredible.
REUBEN: — stand by the door, but of course I didn't want somebody coming back like, "What are you doing here?" You know?
BOB: That's Ray Brown. Stalker. Bass stalker.
Meeting a New Bass: Finding Your Reference Notes
REUBEN: I had a very similar experience in the studio — we don't have to get into all that today. But another thing I remember: another great maestro, Ron Carter, talking about getting on an instrument for the first time. Maybe playing something familiar — or you may have certain habits you get, too. That's what I want to break into right now: getting familiar with the instrument. Whether it's a jam session — you may not be able to do that, you won't have that much time — but there are certain little things you can probably do really quick before you get into the music. I noticed for myself that I started to do certain things, like knowing where the F-sharp is. That gives me a reference somehow. And now, from the framework of —
BOB: You're just meeting a new bass.
REUBEN: I'm meeting a new bass. Right there — I just did it. That's usually what I do. I think it's a natural motion: I know where F-sharp is with my second finger. I have an idea where it is, and if it's a little off, okay, I can adjust. I know that. And the feeling — this is just what I do. So from there, I'm like, okay — and now B-flat. Then I start to go down the instrument a little bit. That's kind of what I do. You can find your own — I know some guys who, as I was saying, Ron plays a song. I think it was "You Are —"
BOB: "You Are My Sunshine."
REUBEN: "You Are My Sunshine," or something like that. I never played that before, y'all. First time. Anyway.
BOB: I wanted to cut in, because for anybody in the electric bass world, or non-bassists: every upright bass is slightly different. You're always coming to a new instrument. It's a lot like how a drummer might sit down at a drum set — they're going to need to make some adjustments. It's never the same. So finding those F-sharps is definitely a crucial part of getting to know the geography of the instrument you're dealing with — the fingerboard — which is very important to know.
Ear Training and Target Notes
REUBEN: Yeah. But also, ear training comes into this. Being able to know what the sounds of intervals are. And I think I covered this in my "Jazz Bassline Bassics" course that I did many years ago. Shameless plug.
BOB: Ding.
REUBEN: But being able to get to the instrument cold — playing, say, an open E, right? Can you sing me the third? What's a third? ... Nice. I know where that is on most basses — usually I can do that. That's from muscle memory. Let's go with something maybe even simpler — give me a fifth. It's a little sharp. It's a little sharp, but I do it again.
BOB: And this is your target note, essentially.
REUBEN: This is me targeting a note.
BOB: Targeting?
REUBEN: Targeting a note that you're trying to really nail and get into. Don't cheat on it, though. Don't just be like, "It's not quite in tune" — oh no, if it's like that, that's flat. Go back and do it. That's better.
BOB: I think it's important to say here that you're hearing. You asked me to sing that fifth and the third. It's important that you hear the notes you're targeting — you're not just looking for them with your fingers.
REUBEN: Exactly. It's not in your fingers, right? That's what makes it sound — but you have to have it inside first.
BOB: Yeah, you've got to have that internalized. John Clayton preaches this, too. Many musicians do.
REUBEN: But then I take it even farther — as far as I can take it, depending on the time — I might go...
BOB: That's cheating. The harmonic?
REUBEN: That's cheating. That was in tune, though! We're not getting into that one. So I want to do a minor third... that's a little flat. So on a new instrument, I do it more until I get it right. Until I get it right.
Hearing Ahead (Even on Electric)
BOB: Now, even on electric bass — say you've got a full family life, and you're on an electric bass — you can still play that low G and hear ahead. This is something I like to talk about when I'm talking about building bass lines: hearing ahead. Even if you're playing scales, try to hear the next note. If you're playing that low G on your electric, see if you can hear that B-flat — and then go play it, and make sure it jibes with what you're hearing. That's a good way to connect.
REUBEN: Okay — give me some stuff that you're doing. I've been talking away too much.
Bob's Warm-Up: The Melodic Triads Exercise
BOB: I love it, though. Targeting notes — that's genius, and definitely a great way to go. For me, to understand the fingerboard a little more if I'm on a new instrument, I like to go through this melodic triads exercise. The reason is I have to think about my fingering on this. Here's the idea: you play a minor triad — so E minor. Make it major. Then make it augmented. So now it sounds a little tense, right? I'm playing from low E.
REUBEN: Kind of like you? Tense? ... Go ahead, sorry.
BOB: And then I turn that into F minor, because the G-sharp and the C inside that E augmented triad can now be the A-flat and C in the F minor triad. So it sounds very fluid. That's the breakdown of the exercise. So: minor, major — and I might change up where I'm putting these fingerings, too. It helps me learn where the notes are on my own bass or another bass, and I do that going up. So I make sure I internalize it using minor first — minor triad, played up to the 10th and back down. Then major.
REUBEN: And then augmented?
BOB: And then augmented — so raise the fifth by a half step. That B, in this case, turns to a C. And now change the root.
REUBEN: To F?
BOB: F. But I'm thinking low to high. So if I'm going from that E augmented — E, G-sharp, C, E, G-sharp, coming back down — then I play F and keep those higher notes, the third and the fifth.
REUBEN: You're coming back down and then going back up. Okay, I get it.
BOB: So I like to do that and keep it moving. And as I'm doing this, it's not only the left hand, right? As you get to know this exercise and these melodic triads, you think about your fingerings in different ways, because you know you're heading to a different triad coming up. So sometimes you need to be creative. That's a left-hand exercise, but you're also crossing a lot of strings, so it's going across the instrument. When I'm getting to a new bass, I'll either do this with just my index finger, moving that way, or I'll think about alternation. Because not only is the fingerboard different on every upright — the string distance a lot of times is going to be a little different as well. So you want to get that internalized and make it feel natural. So I'll work this up — I'm in C now — D minor, D major — and I start to feel where the fingerboard is, especially in the cash register, in the lower position.
REUBEN: Do you ever change the fingerings as you go up or down? Because a lot of times I tend to go up with one fingering —
BOB: Yes, and you can change your fingering coming down.
REUBEN: — and come down, or whatever it is.
BOB: Absolutely. Same with scales, too — it's a great thing to do, because you learn the fingerboard in a different way. Even thinking about where you're starting from — I started C minor right here this time, but you could of course think about going across the neck, and that gives you a different fingering. By design, it has to be that way. So anyway, it's a fun thing to work out, and it gets my brain thinking melodically and thinking about these triads from the get-go. It's also a good technical warm-up to greet the bass.
REUBEN: We nerded out here today. Two bass nerds share how they think about music.
The Takeaway
BOB: Okay, so that's what I like to do. Reuben, maybe we should break it down. What's the takeaway from this bass du jour, 15-minutes-to-practice session?
REUBEN: Well, I think it's being intentional. We say this a lot. Be intentional about your 15 minutes. Whether it's trying to figure out those target notes, or getting a little more familiar with the fingerboard in general — whatever that looks like, from the exercises you were talking about — but really focusing on the smaller parts of the whole. The sound. And the intonation. Those are probably the biggest things you want in your practice routine, whatever that is.
The Bow Is Its Own Instrument
REUBEN: Another thing I didn't say before: my 15 minutes usually definitely includes some bowing. Especially on a new instrument — and a lot of times, it's a new bow. I just told this to someone the other day. I just did a tour: 25 cities, 25 basses, 25 bows.
BOB: That's deep.
REUBEN: So what I would do a lot of times — I'm usually a German player —
BOB: Me too.
REUBEN: — and every once in a while they have a French one, and I'm like, "Okay, am I even going to use this tonight? Let me see." Because on this tour there were a couple songs where I actually played some bow. And sometimes I'd be like, "All right, I'm not feeling good with this," because the bow, I feel like, is another instrument.
BOB: It's its own instrument, absolutely.
REUBEN: I'm like, "I am not going to use that one tonight." You know what I mean? But it also gave me more confidence in playing the instrument in general. That's another thing we didn't touch on — or we kind of did: the more you do it, the more it just becomes natural and fluid. Just doing it, even those 15 minutes, goes a long, long way.
BOB: That's how Ray Brown got to that.
REUBEN: By putting in so much time — very little time, over a long period of time.
BOB: We're constraining ourselves to 15 minutes right now, but clearly there's been a lot of work done before that. And that's very important as well. You have to put in the reps, you have to put in that practice time to get to where you can focus in for those 15 minutes. And it's also going to help you know what it is for that focused intention. You know before you go — you know what you're going to work on before you pick up the instrument.
REUBEN: This is a whole other episode that we've probably talked about before: knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Once you know those, the sky's the limit with those 15 minutes. Can I drop this mic?
Three Rules for 15 Minutes
BOB: Yeah, absolutely. So, takeaway: focused intention — focus on what you're going to do before you get there. Number two: focus on your sound, because that's really what matters, especially on a new instrument. Number three: be realistic. You have 15 minutes. You're not going to get to do everything you might want to do. But you can use that constraint as a way to focus in on what you're doing. So 15 minutes is enough — if you know what you're doing with it before you pick up the bass. Focused intention, your sound, being realistic about what's actually possible in the time you have. That's it. Everything else can wait.
Close
REUBEN: I like it. So now I'm going to try and just do those exercises.
BOB: Focus, Reuben. Focus.
REUBEN: I got it.
BOB: We're Upright Citizens — we'll see you next time.
BOB & REUBEN: Peace.