Practice makes you better? Who'da thunk?

 One good result of having to have my bass worked on and rendered fretless, and of having my Portflex Ampeg amp decide to die is that I have a new Aguilar Tone Hammer 500 amp that sounds fantastic, and between getting used to the new amp and the fretless neck, I've been practicing bass pretty much every day for the last two weeks.

I'm starting to feel comfortable with placing my fingers right over where the frets used to be (and not having too look TOO much when I do it). I love being able to slide into and off notes with that wonderful fretless growl. Watching and listening to Nick play my bass a couple weeks ago taught me how to set it up so that it has the "Jaco-like" midrange sound -- and the new amp's tone controls make that even more possible. I've been trying to play more percussively and with a lighter touch than before (it remains to be seen if that will translate to live playing...)

And I've been learning some new stuff! I can now manage to do pinch harmonics. (Pinch harmonics? Listen to Jaco's opening bass riffs in Weather Report's "Birdland" -- those are pinch harmonics). I'm not very good with them yet, but they're getting there... And I want to learn how to slap and pop better than I currently do.

I've been practicing enough that I won't need to put NuSkin on my plucking fingers to avoid blisters: my calluses are back! Maybe I'll turn into a half-decent bassist if I keep this up...