I woke up this morning thinking, why not just have a ripper bass line that I want to work on everyday as if I was a bass player only.

By extension, one can think of that in terms of melody and harmony, as being a saxophone player and a pianist. Working on these roles independently and in their fullness, as opposed to getting stuck on the idea, "gee I suck at independent playing."

Independence is something to be practiced of course, perhaps not at the expense of getting good at playing in different sectors and role play on the touch board.

Agreed, Stick brother. It all depends on which role you want the instrument to take. Lately I've been trying to get tracks played on my original stuff, and in doing so I'm taking the dual-instrument tack. And I'm learning some very different things in the process.
Michael Bernier is such a cool exemplar of this approach...my hero of it, really.

Excellent reflexion.

The independence<—>interdependence continuum is a vast field of play.

Explore all its corners
Make grand statements
and impossibly subtle gestures

I tend to see hand independence as a true blessing. It is a challenge that can be almost like a game or puzzle. I have noticed, in the past, that it helped sometimes to put a little distance between my brain and my hands. By this I mean cracking 3 -4 tubes before spending a lot of time practicing independence. And I don't mean the ones in your old amp head! Not a suggestion for performance time though. I think it helped me not be so uptight and just get both arms/hands/and all fingers moving.

But, please, feel free to set up your own experiment. And cheers.

Mike

im lucky i can chew gum without tripping...

It's easy to forget that many of the more celebrated tapping Stick and Teflon musicians, are not known for their performance of independent parts. If that was a criteria by which greatness was measured, many would be ineligible. It's all about the music, hey?

Cheers,
Andy

Good point, Andy. There are many ways to approach any instrument to play the music desired.

@Andy and carvingcode--very correct! Not a measuring stick to be judged among fellow musicians, but rather a worthy goal to shoot for and a vehicle for personal growth. You could conceivably get such independence between hands and voice, if you sing as well, that you would sound like many different musicians playing many different songs simultaneously. I imagine there is a small market for that sort of acrobatics. And it would be appropriate music for a circus, come to think of it.

Mike

Dang, I thought this was gonna be a fun political thread…

k