That would have been cool to see, love all those tunes !
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Yeah I’ll refresh those. I know all of the notes, I just don’t know the order they come, 
Talk about crashed and burned, we did Disco Ulysses I switched from 3 finger plugging to 2 finger plugging in the middle of the song, don’t ask me why, and I just did and equivalent of a Kamikaze dive. 
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The Bangles - Hazy Shade of Winter - Practice 1/6/24
Hey everybody, looking for some help/advice here. We are doing a couple of songs this Wednesday for an open mic. I was wondering if you guys could check this out and let me know your thoughts. I’m not really happy with the timing especially around the scale runs.
You can skip to :30 when I come in.
I know I probably can’t completely fix the timing issues in a day but if anyone has thoughts about good ways to approach it I’m all ears. (and thanks!)
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I was just speaking with @faydout in another thread who has done a spot on cover of this song, Cherry Colored Funk by the Cocteau Twins but it gave my inspiration to post my practice version.
Gear: Epiphone Goth Thunderbird IV 2007, Boss CEB-3 Chorus, Rumble 100 with Vintage setting on.
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That T bird is great. I know Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth is a big Thunderbird fan. it’s coming along great. I think you just need to put some reps in and get some more confidence playing it. One critique to work on, you seem to be pausing in between measures at points where the bassline just flows through the entire song. That’s where the reps and confidence comes in though. You got this.
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Thanks man! I was noticing that too. I have a tendency to do that.
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That’s awesome man, there are some moment where you just gave in and let it flow and you just connected. Just remember that and try hard not to try hard, it’s a golf motto I know but it really works.
You know the notes, if you care less about it it will happen as it should, just don’t get in the way.
Another good way to put in to practice is to play through the change. so you are playing 8th notes in a bar. Practice the note change a few times. It’s natural to play your one note then pause and pick the next notes, the key is to repeat that change and transition until you are comfortable.
In addition, you already know the notes, so try playing a few times without the sheet music, you’d be surprised how much you remember and how well you play when you don’t have to multitask. 
If it helps play one take with the music track and turn your volume down and “pretend” that you are playing what you are hearing. Yes, you are hitting all of the notes at the right time. In golf term, it’s not being ball bound,
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This is great advice, thank you!
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To me, it sounds like your chugging eights are uneven (probably between index and middle finger) and that translates into a slightly “stuttering” rhythmical feel.
This is probably no easy fix, but you need to work on more consistent two-finger chugging. In order to get better, you actually need to emphasize/accentuate certain strokes deliberately - this will make the chugging more deliberate and less random. So, say, you accentuate every 1 out of 4 strokes (starting on index finger) and then the same, but starting with the middle finger. Like: î - m - i - m - î - m- i - m - and so on (and then the same starting on m). Then, accentuate the third out of 4, i.e., i - m - î - m - and so on (again starting on either i or m). Again, later you want to typically play very even, but if you can accentuate them when you want, you can also play them even when you want.
Also, generally, practice those chugging lines slowly first, but make sure every stroke is even (in volume/loudness) and on the grid. Then, increase the bpm by 5-10 bpm and do it again.
There is an interesting metronome exercise that quickly shows you your current limit and you can adjust some of the parameters in the exercise to your needs (if you have a metronome that can be “programmed” like this). Julia shows the exercise at 2:50 in this video:
As for the scale runs: to my ears, it seems you are already “intimidated” when you start them - you are “exposed”, there is almost no one playing but you, and so that puts a lot of stress on you. Here, you have to “own” these runs; you have to mean it, from the first to the last note. Because, even when you start strong, you seem to doubt yourself a bit half way through and then you lose confidence (and timing). Own that sh!t and play like you mean business 
Oh, and make sure you know where to land AFTER the runs, such that you get back into the chugging groove.
Final piece of advice: skip that initial slide in for now - focus on starting the chugging on time and get a good beginning of your line. If your timing is already thrown off by the slide in, it’s much harder to establish a solid chugging.
Hope this helps a bit! Good luck!
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Oh brother, you hit all of that square on the head. THANK YOU!
100% nerves on the scales I just need to play from my balls there
The slide in I just started yesterday (and is a dumb move right now)
I was practicing later last night with a drum machine at 74 and 150. The song is very obvious with the snare and cymbal hits. I think I can hear it now.
Luckily I have a recording of my band at rehearsal so I can hear how my drummer plays it.
The slides in that song are awkward too everything is so driving and then the beat stops 
Anyway thank you so much for your ideas I’m going to check out that video.
We are playing sex on fire by kings of Leon as our 2nd song so your feedback will also apply there.
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So…
What I hear is that this song is too fast / not enough practice time. Timing is off pretty much throughout, even on single note bits.
Generally I find that this means I’m not fully comfortable with the song baked into my thick skull. This is a great song and part of its greatness is how exacting the bass is punctuating the rhythm.
My only advice is something you don’t have - lots more time practicing, at a slower bpm until the song is owned by you and you can focus on owning it rather than when to come in.
You’re getting there though. You know the notes, and placing them close. The rest is everyone’s favorite answer - practice.
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It’s also the answer nobody wants to hear 
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I ran into a pretty good, well toured bass player at the grocery store.
I asked if he would give me some lessons, he asked if I had a metronome, yes I replied, he said slow it down to where you can follow the tabs no matter how slow it has to be, from there build the speed, there you go that’s your lesson. 
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Read “well toured” as “well tortured”
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Messing around and recording my new bass just yamming over this kesha track…was going so well I popped on the laptop cam and recorded a take…old song but newly relevant 
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I haven’t heard that one in quite a while 
Nice work on the bass!
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nice job, do you regularly strum up to start a phrase?
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yes…my picking is either all upstrokes or alternate picking but starting on an upstroke
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Man, that sounded great!
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