My 6 months Bass guitar progress - what do you think?

Hi, I started to play bass guitar 6 months ago. I would really appreciate if you watch my video and leave some comments with your opinions and advices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXI1La9R0XY

8 Likes

Great to see your progress - keep it up and keep recording yourself to see your progress in this way!!

I can see there are already some comments on your YT page. A few comments from my side:

  • I would suggest that you almost always (or as much as possible) practice with a metronome - not necessarily in the original tempo, but in order to have something that forces you to not just pay attention to the notes, but even more so on the rhythm and on timing
  • your fretting hand has clearly become more relaxed since you started, but you could focus some more on that hand. One thing I would suggest is to use your pinky more, even and especially for these classic box shapes that extend over three frets (e.g., for the Deep Purple song). I find it easier to use index and pinky for those shapes - less spread, more relaxed, potentially faster.
  • overall, while I am sure you can do 1-finger-per-fret (and your most recent examples show it), you don’t need to use it all the time. Your pinky seems underused and I don’t think there is an anatomic/medical reason for that - so, let it join the fun some more :smile:
  • you could also work on not moving your fingers so far away from the fingerboard when they are not fretting. Try to keep them closer to the strings, more relaxed and less arched (there were one or two of the more recent examples in your video where you were already close to what I suggest here)

Keep it up and have fun!

5 Likes

Thank You so much for all advices. I really appreciate it. :smile:

3 Likes

Your improvements over that time period were/are impressive. The joys of youth I suppose. It took me much longer to reach even a semblance of that level of proficiency. I will add that at some point, all of this started coming together for me and it started to get so much easier to follow along with music. I think you have hit that point and will improve by leaps and bounds as you progress. Congrats on your bass journey.

2 Likes

Hi @Aleksandra,

Great to see you play, that’s a cool way to record your progress. I can see how you moved the bass up a bit from starting out, and I think that it gave you a better fret hand angle.

You should try to experiment with your thumb position, you’re blocking your hand and making the fingers flat this way. I do this too and am trying to change it! One of your good examples is My Friend of Misery at 6:47, and a bad one would be Holy Diver at 6:12~ Of course, only for your hand, not the playing!

Your goal should be a more curled and relaxed hand, with the thumb and fingertips working together, not against each other. Try to find a relaxed hand position and then release the pressure on the fretted notes until it is too little/ the sound is crappy.

Have a look at this: Developing Safe Left Hand Technique for Bass Guitar - YouTube

Best wishes and keep rocking,
Antonio

PS: You already know great songs, so if you practice technique a bit, you should be great!
PPS: You can just paste youtube links into your post without using the quote feature.

3 Likes

@Aleksandra : you can see we are also not always agreeing on everything… there is quite a bit of personal preference involved.

The same for the plucking fingers. Someone on your YT channels urges you to always use alternate fingering. But, that is also not any religious thing. It probably helps with faster lines, but you might want to choose to pluck certain motifs or passages with only one finger in order to get a certain tone (e.g., emulate a double bass).

The most important thing is probably to be aware of what your hand/fingers are doing and try to get a feel/understanding for what works best for you.

3 Likes

@Aleksandra great progress.

It’s time to train your ears and the feel of music by playing along with music. I usually break it down into 2 sections learning and practicing.

When you are learning time doesn’t matter it’s all about getting on the right notes and feeling comfortable with them. Next when you practice now it’s about hitting the dot so if you have the ability to slow down the song you can do it but the objective is to be on time. You can start at 50% and work all the way up slowly to about 110%-120% then you are gig ready on that song, lol.

2 Likes

Maybe we mean the same thing after all, but who knows… you put it well: it’s not a religious thing, especially physical body things. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Thanks :slight_smile:

1 Like

Thank You so much for your advices. :slight_smile:
I am new here and I couldn’t just paste Youtube link here. Using the quote feature was the only way to add a link.

1 Like

I really appreciate all tips. The more the better :wink: It’s good to see it from different point of views. So, all opinions matters because it helps me to see some elements that I didn’t see before. And yeah, I have to be more relaxed when I’m playing. And with my pinky finger and arched of my left hand - it is a challenge because I have very small hands. But no exceuses hah… I like challenges :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Thanks for Your advice!

1 Like

That’s what we all need to strive for :wink:

You could also “study” professional players to see what they do and how they do it. Never mind the music in the example below (unless you like it), but check out Rich Brown’s fingers when he holds down the groove.

When he goes over to soloing, he uses different approaches (partly to mute some of the strings of that 6-string beast, partly to play a bit faster/freer in the higher registers). In any case, you can see how he uses different approaches - there is no one approach that is the only one “allowed”. And even Rich Brown isn’t completely free of a high-flying pinky now and then :grin:

PS: The action of your strings are also important in this. I am pretty sure that Rich Brown’s action is quite a bit lower than yours :wink:

2 Likes

Hi Aleksandra! Welcome to BassBuzz!

When you have time go here… Introduce Yourself! (2023) and tell us a little about youself.

I’m a little late to this thread, but here goes… I think you’re doing great!
I went through a bunch of videos on your YouTube site.
Was that you also playing drums or was that your twin?
If it’s your twin, you two are ready to rock. I miss getting to play with my brother (he plays drums).
Also, the shooting and diving! Dang, I love both of those things! Your parents have given y’all some great opportunities.

2 Likes

Thanks :slight_smile: My twin sister plays drums. She was actually my motivation to start playing bass guitar. After 1,5 year of watching her journey with drums, I wanted to be able to play with her. Besides music we share many others passion. There is no better buddies than twins. :sweat_smile:

2 Likes

That’s really cool. I have heard that twins are able to synchronize their actions more easily than non-twins. Have you found this to be true with music?

For me and my brother (not twins) it was about knowing each other so well we could anticipate each others actions.

1 Like

When it comes to “synchronize our actions” it is quite easy for me and my sister in many different things in our everyday live, but in music we didn’t have many chance to play together so far, but that’s the goal to play together more. :slight_smile:

1 Like