Trying the ‘Newer 50’ continues… I have a lot of thoughts on this one, because it sounds deceptively easy but it taught me a lot.
I think it’s easy to think you’re always doing ‘minimum viable pressure’ until you come across something that is ALL first position for a solid three minutes. My first few days of playing this gave me all sorts of soreness. First the fingers got tired, then my left shoulder would tense up, and I’d even find myself using my fretting hand to support the neck - all things that have never happened to me before. Improper MVP led to a chain reaction of bad habits! It seems paradoxical, but my worse instincts seemed to set in when I ‘tried harder’, funnily. By trying to keep in mind all the ‘things to do’ (am I listening to the drums? Am I fretting lightly enough? Should I stay more still? Am I thinking too much…?) I seemed to play worse. On this take, I had more success when I just let myself bob my head, listen to the drums, and just enjoy myself.
I couldn’t find a bassless track and I don’t know how to make my own (any suggestions on that front would be amazing), so I reached out to the creator of this excellent drum cover and used the more prominent percussion in the mix to follow along for my own bass.
Good stuff! Appreciate you tackling the newer 50 =) That does seem to be the strategy to get the best take.
I’ve been purchasing each song and separating the instruments into their own tracks via Moises, then importing everything into GarageBand. While recording I either roll the original bass track way lower or mute it (there are mixed opinions on this, but this is what works for me). Once I’m done recording, I then mute the original bass (if I haven’t already) and mix for a bass + everything else balance.
Nice work! I may have asked this before, but what bass is that? I’m curious.
Timing sounds good to my inexperienced ears and I’m definitely jealous of how relaxed you seem to be!
How do you mute your E when you plays your D string? I notice your thumb always stays above the pickup and never moves around. The bass is low enough in the mix I can’t hear any rumbling anyway, and it could be that you have a fretting finger taking care of it somehow but it’s juuust out of shot most of the time, haha.
i put a reminder to flip the orientation before i record next time