Interview: How polfkuste uses tuneUPGRADE

To start, tell me a little about yourself and what you play?

I am from Germany, I play bass and keyboard. Keyboard for almost a year now, bass since April, seriously since august. I started learning instruments because I picked up djing at some point as a hobby (mostly funk and disco house) and wanted to take it further with some production :) If you are so inclined, you can check out my mixcloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/Disconysus/

What are your musical goals - are you a hobbyist and just playing music for fun, are you looking to be a professional?

As stated above, ultimately I would like to produce my own tracks. I wouldn't mind playing bass in a band, too :) I have always liked listening to music, as it always evoked emotions in me. Unfortunately, I never picked up an instrument when I was younger (I am 29 now) and hated music education in school (I just couldn't make sense of musical notation and was easily frustrated back then).

What are some of your favorite tunes to play?

Haha, just very basic beginner's stuff right now. As for Keyboard: Love Theme by Nino Rota (The Godfather O.S.T.) and 1ère Gymnopédie by Erik Satie. For bass: Rockabilly Blues, Prince - Pop Life and Jimi Hendrix - Red House.

Before you used tuneUPGRADE, were you tracking your practice? What was your practice like?

I was writing some things down on paper... but i lost track fast haha.

What is your routine like within tuneUPGRADE?

I try to practice one hour every day at least . Most of the time it's 90 minutes to two hours though. I really really like that you can set times for each exercise and then just cycle through them.. really helps with setting up a routine. I use the youtube feature a lot and the link to different materials. I write down how to practice the exercise and then daily at which BPM i was able to do it and some comments, like what needs to be worked on and stuff. I learn about 2-3 songs at a time per instrument. It would be really cool if keeping the routines more dynamic would be easier. For example it would be helpful to copy existing routines and just change some exercises in order to have different routines for different days. Now I just put all the exercises in one routine and then skip over certain ones. Something like that. Also reminders, like the last time you practiced this was one week ago - time to do it again.

What are your favorite features of tuneUPGRADE?

The practice notes and integration of different materials by far.

Any general practice tips you can give others that you've found helpful for yourself?

Look for the little improvements. Being able to do one thing 5 BPM faster each day is a huge improvement per week. Keep track how things felt and see how it changes. This motivates to keep going. Do not compare to others, which are likely to be faster learners, all that matters is that you are improving compared to your last performance.

Anything else you'd like to share?

tuneUPGRADE is a really cool project and super useful for me! I found it through a reddit thread and I am super thankful! Cool of you to reach out, keep it up. Peace