Chord change, oh. Would it be appropriate to consider it a string change?
Itās a change of chords.
For example, the second chord in the BJ progression is built on a different root note than the songās key signature root note. And that root note can occur on the same string or on other strings, in various places on the neck, dependent upon where a player chooses to play its chord tones on the fretboard.
I am determined to get this BJ thing. I canāt even get the slow version. And so far I have spent 2 complete afternoons trying. 6 hours. I canāt even play the two individual halves of it.
So binned it completely and moved on. I just cannot get my head round the fretting or the plucking cross strings.
Let it go for now and revisit it later. Slow it waaaaaay down, slower than the slow workout. And give it no more than a few minutes at a time. As has been said here many, many times, it will come. Just donāt stress and remember to smile big when you get even a little of it to fall into place. It will happen. You got this.
I binned it and went ahead to the next lesson, but I canāt make any progress on that either now, as Inseem to have lost the total ability to do anything but play on one string.So I went back to the previous string crossing lessons, which I had done easily, and could do the fast workouts flawlessly, and I canāt do those now either at all. Not even the slow versions. I have gone through them both twice again, and I am completely flummoxed. I think the only solution is to put the bass away for a week and then start again
While a short break can do you good, Iād advise that you donāt leave it for a week. Play something thatās less challenging, but more fun. Forget about learning and just enjoy yourself.
The last 3 days have been very rough for me bass wise. The song Iām rehearsing now, sounds worse than it did last week. Itās aggravating, but I keep telling myself it happens to everyone. Hang in there!
I agree. For me, and others have said this too, sometimes what happens is we get in a rut where the ālogicalā side of our brain, is telling us āYou know this, DO IT! Finger here, there, hand here, now move, etc.ā. But for me, when I get in that frame, I HAVE to sit the bass down, listen to some music and reengage my creative brain again. Iāll come back to the lesson in a day or two, but until then I might just practice chugging, or sliding, or scales, a really easy song, or just something that reminds me, this instrument is AWESOME!
Josh said somewhere, if this was easy everyone would do it. I think we easily can forget (and I am the WORST at this), learning music and an instrument are very rewarding, but partially because for most of us mortal humans, it takes many years (and tears) of hard work.
DONāT give up - Iām there with you, and this community is awesome for support!!
Itās massively frustrating, since I have real difficulty with the coordination of my hands on the bass. Doubly frustrating as I play piano, and have no left/right hand coordination issues, likewise I play drums and can play polyrhythms and differing time signatures.
And I Sing in choirs and can sight read and sing bass parts. And play them on the piano by sight reading.Music theory is no problem. I have been doing music theory for 50 years. I just cannot coordinate on a string instrument.
But yes, if I stop now, I will probably never restart. I have to go right back to almost the beginning of the course and start again I think.
Itās worth pointing out that piano and drums youāre independently using each hand to make a different sound, which is sort of the opposite of string instruments using both hands together to make one sound.
I never played drums, but Iām not sure anything on bass is as big a brain twister as playing left hand eighth notes and right hand triplets on piano. Maybe singing and playing bass, I havenāt tried that.
āpiano and drums youāre independently using each hand to make a different sound, which is sort of the opposite of string instruments using both hands together to make one sound.ā
Yes, one of the reason I want to learn a stringed instrument . Drums/piano you do learn to do completely different things with each hand (or hands /feet ). But with strings, you are doing Completely different things with each hand to produce one sound. The other thing that fries my brain is that with piano. Every note is next to each other, and you can see a 3rd or 5th or 7th because it is in front of you ( though you donāt actually look at your hands) but with a string instrument, the the next note is somewhere else and onna different string, and thirds and 5ths etc are really somewhere else in a different dimension.to find a 3rd for instance you have to remember which fret it is on and which string and then find it, fret it, and then remember to pluck the right string as well.
On drums it is comparatively easy to play 4/4 and 3/4 at the same time. Or play 5/4-7/4-5/4-7/4 bars (thatās a weird jazz thing)
What if: All knowledge already exists in the quantum realm and our access seemingly through practice is really the acceptance of what already is?
Is it not sometimes obvious that we are in the way of ourselves?
Wavelengths tuning? Is this what really happens through practice?
With your decades of experience what and how would you teach others to bring them up to your level of understanding?
Take your understanding of what it took you to get where you are now with piano and put those motions in further action towards bass.
Let it go for now and revisit it later may be an organizing time within the brain to tune in the internal antenna.
Bass is hard, until one day its not.
I found that to be so true.
Its amazing how much improvement comes after doing songs that at the time seem so hard then become totally doable after ten slow practice runs at it, sometimes it may take 20 practice runs. But if thatās what takes so be it.
Youāre not the only one I had to stop at the U2 āchuggingā lesson - aside from the plucking, I could not get fretting right ⦠and I havenāt even got to Billie Jean!
I get confused between whether I should play with my fingers flat across the neck, or with more of a curve to the fingers?
Right now Iām in a āwill I ever get this?ā place, so have gone right back to the start of the course again. Still struggling with basic technique, but Iām hoping perseverance will pay off and Iāll start hearing better notes (and preferably less ringing/buzz too ). So I guess thatād be my recommendation for anyone struggling at any stage - go back, and build back up again ⦠I canāt say itās worked for me yet, but it makes sense and hope springs eternal
Phil
I got over all that and I am now about 3/4 of the way through. But then sort of went to a plateau.
And I wanted to actually play some stuff all the way through an learn some actual songs properly
So , firstly, I decided to pause the course, and go back to about Module 3 and āreviseā them. Thatās great, as I could feel I was doing better than when I did them first time round.
And then I used it to really learn some stuff all the way through. So I took Sweet child in Time from Module 3, found the entire bass tab and learned the whole thing.
Then a few other easy ones like some ZZTop. Nice satisfying Blues chugging.
Now I am flying back through the course.
This^^^
Youāre new to the instrument, so things should naturally feel foreign and hard to do. It is the way.
Slow down, relax (breathe), and give yourself the grace and permission to suck. Everyone does in the beginning, even the best of players. Sucking gives us information, clues, about which techniques we should focus on. Embrace the suck and recognize it for what it is: opportunities to improve.
Isolate a problem area with your technique. It can be a single measure or a riff. Or even a single note. Whatever. Then slowly and calmly play it once and listen. With this process, youāll be able to hear and see exactly what youāre doing so you can address the issue. Then try it again. And again. And again until you can play it pretty cleanly. Then repeat thatāslowly and deliberately. You got this.
Also, curve your fingers when you fret.
I found the same. A friend who has played for many years shared a trick Iāve found very helpful. Aside from my regular practice he told me to pick up my bass whenever Iām sitting around (watching TV, chilling, etc) and work a fingering Iām struggling with. Bass does not need to be plugged in. You can pluck or not. Just work the fingering to help strengthen fingers and muscle memory. That coupled with practice has made a big difference improving my fretting.
Could be worse; Iām stuck on the mod 4 lesson 5 reggae tune. Iāve read enough here about Billie Jean that Iām gonna close my eyes and keep tapping ānextā until the following lesson
Just doing the simplest chromatic āspider walkā variant and one position of minor pentatonic at random places on the neck has helped me a lot with the flying fingers. I was doing it in a Zoom meeting that dragged on for 3 hours the other day.
Love it! Boring Zoom saved by Bass playing.
Assume the camera was off!!