That’s the last thing a bassist wants to be, lol. If yo are on time you’d get buried under the drums on both up and down beats. That said, it takes extra kung fu to be able to be ahead or behind the beat because then you need to know where the beat lies, lol.
When you play enough and especially if you play with other instrument in the band, you’d want to stand out and turning up the treble is not enough you need to find your way to cut through the mix and be heard or recognized.
He’s right that a bassist needs to have absolutely good rhythm sense. A bassist with bad time sense will ruin a band almost as much as a drummer that can’t count
Playing onthe beat and fighting with the kick is infinitely better than dragging badly or inconsistently IMO. So yes you want some swing but that doesn’t take away from the importance of remembering that you’re not as much a slave to the rhytm as much as you are the groove. Good time sense is crucial.
Papa is a Rolling Stone
Simple bass line, couple notes are syncopated, repeats endlessly. Learn the song, play it, record it, listen to when you come in.
Sounds like you got the idea down then - like any other new piece, start slowly and get it under your fingers, then slowly come up to actual tempo. If youre having trouble at “song tempo”, slow down until that slower tempo feels comfortable, then move up…
You have two things here, the beat and the rhythm. I know it sounds obvious. You absolutely need to work on keeping the beat, whether by tapping your foot, nodding your head, or counting out loud. The rhythm follows and drops into that.
I used to try to learn (syncopated) rhythms and what not, without getting that. It flies under the radar. So, your goal should be to keep the beat (1, 2, 3, 4, …) while playing a rhythm. It’s all about independence.
To encourage you, drummers do this five, six or seven ways, and some of them even sing over that. So it is doable, and it is actually a lot of fun when you “lock in” with yourself.
Thanks all for your insightful replies! I assumed i would get some practice tips, instead i got whole new perspectives.
I never even considered that. I guess ill still have to practice playing on time for a while until I’m more confident and able to keep track of the subdivisions more easily.
So yeah this will probably by my next goal. And yes slowing down will probably be for the best, i will force myself to do that more
I’ve not been at it that long so take it with a pinch of salt!
I find that when I’m first learning a line I count pretty much everything. As I get better with it I seem to progressively drop the counting without really being conscious of it but still maintain it on harder sections or sections with a slightly different rhythm. There are some lines that it seems, no matter how long I practice them I always need to count one or two bars that tend to trip me up.
Thanks for the recommendation. I guess you mean Papa Was A Rolling Stone? I only was able to find that…
It seems it got covered quite a bit, do you have a specific version in mind?
I also really like your username.
I very very rarely count when I play. When I’m learning a song I’ll count the notes so I know how many to play, but I don’t really count after that.
I think most pieces require you to have an intricate knowledge of them to be able to play them. There’s so many musical cues from the other instruments that help you keep time and track the progression of the song, it’s mostly memorization.
I think counting while playing just clogs up the brain with too much thinking
Lool I don’t count like that! Mostly if there’s a run of 16th notes or a complicated fill I will count each note so that I know what to play. Usually I can just feel the rhythm
Next module after slap sounds like it’s for you then. Module 14 is “Ultimate Groove Workout”. It really helped me with timing in general. I then did as suggested and programmed some more difficult stuff in EZDrummer.
You could practice by the groove workout using just syncopated notes
Thanks for letting me know. I’m not really motivated to learn slap right now, because i feel I should work on some more fundamental things first. I did put the course on a back burner because of that. Maybe i will just skip the slap section for now.
If you search for “counting” in the forum you’ll find a good batch of threads.
I like this one where I chimed in pretty much the same thing I’d say here.
How many notes are in your favourite song? (I’m trying to be funny, 
)
