This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he shares why awareness beats repetition for these 3 common bass technique struggles.
Contents
The Question I Hear All the Time in Lessons
There are a few questions I get asked constantly in lessons:
“My left hand keeps flying around — what’s a good way to practice this?”
“I can’t seem to get my muting right — any good exercises for that?”
Repetition is important, of course. But before jumping into more practice, I’ve found that identifying exactly where the problem is happening makes a much bigger difference.
For example, I might say:
“In your next practice, focus specifically on bars 9 — make sure you’re muting cleanly on beats 3 and 4.”
And more often than not, the player comes back noticeably improved.
Of course, how quickly someone improves depends on their experience level. But the core principle is simple:
Identify exactly what’s going wrong — then play with full awareness of fixing it.
That’s usually enough to make real progress.
These 3 Things Are 90% About Awareness, Not Repetition
In particular, these three common issues tend to respond far better to focused awareness than to blind repetition:
- Left hand tension / unnecessary movement
- Inconsistent note length
- Muting control
The tricky part? When you’re practicing alone, it’s hard to notice these things yourself. A great solution is to record yourself playing and watch it back with fresh eyes. You’ll often spot things you never noticed while playing.
If there’s a spot in your bass lines or phrases that just isn’t coming together, try this approach before adding more repetitions. Awareness first — practice second.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.