Hey all,
Hope you’re all keeping well (and staying cool and hydrated if you’re in Europe!), I’ve had several interesting conversations about teaching and what teaches us ‘best’ and what teaches us the most. Lots of interesting stuff covered but one thing consistently came up.
Failure.
Failure is uncomfortable. It’s hard. We don’t celebrate it. We avoid it if possible. It can be humiliating if the circumstances are public. What it does do however is tell us as students, very clearly and directly, the things that we NEED to be told as opposed to what we WANT to be told.
Branford Marsalis savages a number of his students in an old interview on YouTube, talking about how they only want to be told how good they are, and some teachers/listeners do indeed tell their students what they want to hear. This can come from not wanting to upset them, not have them flounce off and leave, among others… Failure, however, is entirely matter of fact. It isn’t good or bad, it isn’t polite or abrupt, It just ‘is’. It’s how you respond to it and learn from it that really matters here.
Failing at something as a musician is never a bad thing. It tells you what you really need to be working on in order to get better and indeed get where you want to be IF you’re honest enough to confront and learn from it without getting defensive or letting it demoralise you. You might want to be work on tapping or soloing but if you’re going on stage and you can’t nail down the key and form of the songs you’re supposed to be playing? That is telling you in the most direct and unvarnished way that you need to be working on those aspect of your playing, and if you want to be a better musician you should be paying attention to this as opposed to the other (perhaps more flashy and exciting) things. The universal thing that was come out of conversations with some world class musicians i’m fortunate enough to know is that they never stop working on those basics. We shouldn’t either.
How to make use of this? Here are two things I fall back on…
Record yourself regularly. One of the fun (and instructive) things about transcribing stuff for you all is that I get to hear myself on a regular basis, and when you hear a recording of yourself…you hear what you really sound like not what you ‘think’ you sound like as you’re playing (Real vs Feel as Janek Gwizdala says). Home recording has never been easier or more affordable, indeed my own recording setup consists of my basses, a small pedalboard, an interface and a macbook, and there is a wealth of free tutorials out there on YouTube to help you get started with this if you’re new to the concept! My recommendation to get going with home recording is always one of the Focusrite Scarlet units, they are incredibly easy and intuitive to use and come with some free recording software to boot! Record yourself at least once a week and you will never run out of things to practice, which bring me to the second thing…
Listen honestly to your own playing. While I don’t advocate for absolutely shredding everything you ever record (I don’t think it’s particularly healthy or helpful), you need to listen to yourself with a critical and honest ear. Treat your own recordings with the same respect you give to your own heroes and when you hear things that aren’t good enough or you don’t like? Devise a plan for your practice routine in order to fix them until they are no longer something that sticks out to you. Rinse and repeat for the rest of your playing career and you’ll never run out of things to practice and you will never stop improving!
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That extends to gigs and rehearsals, because how you (and your bandmates) perceive things when you’re within the band and how things actually sound can be very, very different. Record them regularly and find those things that bug you, that don’t go well, that you persistently make mistakes on and get in the practice room and fix them permanently! Do these things and you will be all the better for it I promise you.
In closing, embrace your mistakes. Pay close attention to them. Learn from them!
+1 regarding Scarlett Focusrite for home studio.
Love mine, its been flawless since I picked up 10 years or so ago.
I'm also running Mac (desktop and laptop) for hosting DAW and software/streaming backing track sources. The Loopback virtual router software makes it really easy to map/route the backing track/instrument channels to the DAW, or Quicktime, with or without pass through and / monitors.
On the fiipside: I notice a lot of non-technical folks may get overwhelmed setting it up. Maybe worth a post or too to walk through yours(?)
This really hits home.
Since wrapping up the 2025 Scott's Bass Lessons Fullstack Bass bootcamp (SBL FSB), I’ve been thinking about how to best continue to structure and evolve my practice regimens.
Recording has been helpful for me, especially focus on rhythm, technique, articulation and tone.
But it can also turn into a bit of a perfection trap if not getting external feedback, which might feed fear of failure rather than reduce it.
Open jams have been the best realtime feedback for me with low stakes for making mistakes.
They've also been great to build relationships and give me ideas where I want to go next, performance, writing, producing, etc.
My practice regimen still includes an accumulation of FSB, SBL Accelerator and other lessons I've accumlating, but a larger percentage has gone to repertoire, ear training, and starting to pick up other instruments.