How I Learned It- Angel of Death with Stephen Becker
How I Learned It is an ongoing series we’ll be running here on TheBassChannel.net where players go through their learning process when it comes to getting cover songs under our fingers and out of our amps. Everyone learns differently and this is a great opportunity for us to talk about how we learn, what we look for, and what our processes are. In this way we can learn from each other, because there’s something to take from everyone’s way of doing something.
In this entry I talk to bass player and The Bass Channel Patreon supporter Stephen Becker about his 30 Day Challenge to learn “Angel of Death” by the mighty Slayer.
Doug Robertson- How long have you been playing and what bass were you playing during the challenge?
Stephen Becker- As of right now, about 2 years and 10 months (but who's counting?). The bass is a Squier Vintage Modified P-bass with P-J config, and is my only instrument! I replaced all the hardware with Hipshot stuff, the nut with a Tusqnut XL, and the pickups with the EMG GZR P-J set.
Just a preface here that this whole thing was part of my first real lesson with an instructor. Everything else I've done up to now has been me fiddling around teaching myself while trying to extract knowledge from random YouTube videos. Over time here, I've probably learned more useful tips and tricks for metal bass playing from Rodney McG's channel than anywhere else. Last November or so he put out a call for viewers who wanted to do an intense month of instruction with him dubbed a "Metal Bass Boot Camp" in order to level up an aspect of our playing. Along the way he provides specific instruction in response to the daily videos, a mid-point video he makes for you, and then a (virtual) face-to-face meeting at the end. I figured I couldn't miss out on an opportunity like that, so I jumped on it!
DR- What is the 30 Day Challenge? Is it 30 days straight or did you build in rest days?
Putting days aside to focus on specific parts of a song are a great way to not be overwhelmed by the whole.
SB- The 30 Day Challenge is a focused period of intense practice to build up a particular technique and/or learn a particular song that's been difficult for me to play in the past. The idea is that rather than nonchalantly wandering from song to song and bouncing away from things that are difficult, you force yourself to level up by working progressively. There are rest days built in to digest (usually a Friday), but in total I recorded 31 days worth of videos, including practice/warmup routines, and progress on the song. A big part of this challenge is also not just to max out at the performance level I'm shooting for, but to exceed it. If you can get comfortable playing something a lot faster than it's supposed to go, this makes the "regular" speed version kind of "slow down" almost like Matrix bullet-time. It also exposes holes in your playing on exactly the same part which are different at fast vs. slow speed, and helps fix those.
DR- Why did you choose "Angel of Death" by the mighty Slayer for this?
SB- So I'm essentially a self-taught player (I've played other instruments in the past though), and in the early days I was trying to find songs I thought would be easy for me to handle so I could build up some confidence and move on to harder things. I remember thinking that shit, Slayer bass lines aren't very hard, right? It's a lot of just hammering on an open string, right? What could be hard about that? Well, a few minutes later I kind of walked away with my tail between my legs. Getting precision and consistency on fast rhythmic bass lines is definitely not an easy thing to do, and takes a lot of practice. Especially since I'm a finger-style player and can't just trem-pick the fast stuff. I've tackled some more mid-tempo Slayer songs in recent times, but I'd always come back to this song periodically and get my ass kicked. Thus, it was time to kick back.
DR- What were your specific goals when setting out on this month-long exercise?
SB- As a metal player, I feel like I won't be a decent player unless I can keep up with fast songs. I mean, doom metal is cool and all, but I want to play everything. Thus, my goal was improving playing with speed, consistency, and precision.
DR- Over the 30 day, were there specific days or sets of days where you felt the most growth?
SB- Absolutely. There was a day where I felt *great* and jumped from 80% album speed to the original recorded speed, which was a huge win. There was a day where I pushed to 105%, immediately after also did a 110% for the LuLz, but then had to back off to 105% because I felt I wasn't ready. There were a few days where I had serious regressions and essentially fumbled my way through terrible playthroughs that I re-recorded like a dozen times. And then there were days where I thought I couldn't maintain the existing level, but was instructed to push up even faster anyway and found myself surprised.
DR- What was the hardest part of the challenge? Was there a point where you were worried you wouldn't make it?
SB- Maybe not the answer you're expecting, but recording! I've been making recordings of myself for the past year or so now, and it's *still* the hardest part. You hit record on the camera and in the DAW, and then shit gets real! These videos were essentially homework assignments that were due so Rodney could review them every night. Being at work until 4-5 every day, I couldn't afford trying to spend hours getting a perfect take, so I had to transition my brain from a mode of "DO IT PERFECT EVERY TIME" to more of a "the point is to demonstrate progress" thing, which helped a lot. Towards the end almost all my videos were one-shot takes, often with only having warmed up and not playing through the song at all that day prior.
DR- Are you going to continue to do 30 Day Challenges? If so, what's the next song?
SB- Most certainly. This actually wasn't the first one I've done. I spent a month working on Geezer's "Bassically" solo last year [Ed. Note- That’s the intro to “N.I.B.”], though it was informal and I didn't record videos for it. I also spent a month learning to play “Battery” at one point (though I didn't intend it to take that long...maybe I need to go back and do a 30 day on it to make it scrispy clean!). I've got a few ideas for the next song. I might do a few easy things just to decompress a bit, but Megadeth's “Hook In Mouth” is on my radar screen as the next big challenge. Another speed burner, and has some significantly trickier little licks and runs. I'm not sure if I'll make the complete video series, as I'd be back on my own again, but perhaps like one video per week sort of thing.
DR- Did you learn any lessons about your playing that you'll take forward?
SB- Yes! Probably the biggest thing I learned is that I have to pay as much attention to my finger-plucking as my fretting, as well as dynamics. This includes consistently attacking downbeats with my middle finger, thus breaking the alternating pattern at the beginning of the next bar sometimes. Which finger you pluck with on any given note is just as important as which finger you're putting on which fret. Paying attention to dynamics and accents is also important, and is something that often gets lost when you go into turbo mode on songs like this. It's important to learn those dynamics at slower speed, and then incorporate them when you go fast.
I appreciate Stephen taking the time to answer my questions and being willing to be open about his process. It cam be hard, especially as a newer player, to make public videos and talk openly about your process, but this is something a lot of us can learn from. If you would like to write about your progress or how you learned a particularly difficult song, please drop me a line at doug@thebasschannel.net.
Doug Robertson is the editor of The Bass Blog, the blog component of The Bass Channel, your one stop YouTube channel for all things bass. His number one is a Mexican Geddy Lee Signature Jazz and his boomer is a BEAD tuned T-Bird. Find books by Doug here. If you’re interested in contributing to The Bass Blog please reach out to Doug at doug@thebasschannel.net. We would love to hear from you.
