Top 3 Things That Keep You From Playing Your Bass

I had loaned out my Bass VI (strung and tuned like a 6 string guitar, but one octave lower! Very cool thing!) to a friend. Then I listened to Hermanos Gutierrez for a week, and then asked for it back so I could make cool Western, Mexican-inspired jams.

Now I’m just staring at it. I’m not playing it. And I can’t help but wonder why.
I’ve got some of my most common reasons here - legit or otherwise.
I’m so curious what obstacles y’all face/create in your bass lives!

  1. It’s not setup/in good working order. It’s not fun to play. So I need the time to set it up before I play it. And I’m not setting aside that time.

  2. Not enough time. I say, just before I scroll through comic artists work for 10 minutes.

  3. Not sure what to do on the thing other than copy Hermanos Gutierrez.

Strings, a set up, a new input jack some time and a plan. That’s what I need, apparently.
How bout y’all?

9 Likes

Only one determining factor for me: very little time.

I’ve been buried with work for quite a long while now, much more than previously. That has either eaten all practice-able time or left me brain dead.

6 Likes

Time. Worst enemy, lol.

6 Likes

Time is number one for me too.
A close #2 is my own high expectations. I build up what I want to do so much that I procrastinate doing anything because I want to “hit it out of the park” immediately. Then, I’m afraid I’m going to fail at that. Next thing I know, I’m putting time into a totally different pursuit.

9 Likes

Time-work from 8:30am until 7pm 6 days a week. Try to spend time with wife after getting home for a bit. Bass playing generally happens between 10pm-11pm if at all lately.

5 Likes

Yep yep yep. I echo the time difficulties of all!!!

This for sure with everything also.

7 Likes

Well, all of you who put time as #1… I think this is too easy! We all have too little time (at least that is what we constantly tell ourselves, and others, and what we hear from others).

And, sure, it would be nice to have more time. But, if we are honest, would we be doing what we claim to be doing if only we had more time??? @Gio hinted to that in his #2 and I think that time alone is not the main thing keeping us from practicing… it is probably that something else is “easier” at the moment; perhaps more convenient. Like watching a YT video… Or browsing the BassBuzz forum…

I think Gio’s #1 is a real threat to practicising. A bass that doesn’t “feel right”, for whatever reasons, gets put down quickly again, and is less likely to be picked up next time. (If you only have one or two basses, that soon becomes critical).

As for your VI, Gio: I just think it is a bass for special occasions and not an allrounder like your P. It probably doesn’t lend itself to all kinds of music and if you don’t feel your inner Gutierrez, you won’t pick it up. That’s not as bad as not picking up ANY bass :wink:

7 Likes

After time, it’s … how do I describe it… creative motivational interest?

I never force playing anything, I play what I feel will move me and don’t force something cause I feel like I have to or should play it.

Listen for something else to call your name and play that.

I’m too old and busy to do things that have to be forced.

5 Likes

Energy. I get home in the evening and I’m exhausted, I pick up my bass and play and I fumble finger the strings.

I do try to get some time in, 10-15 minutes before bed, and when I wake up, but right now just maintaining

6 Likes

For me at least it’s also the kids.

We waited so long to have kid(s) to be more financially ready and stable. It turned out, it doesn’t really matter. I’m 52 and my youngest son is 1 and a half, plus a 4 and a half year old middle daughter is also out of school til summer. I’m just exhausted trying to keep up with their activities schedule, golf, judo, music, swimming, and playgrounds, lol.

8 Likes

I’d love to say it was being really busy at work (which is true), but in reality it’s Elden Ring, Jedi Survivor, and Sekiro.

And then it’s also stacked behind guitar practice as well for the moment.

6 Likes

This would be my major item. I have however promised myself that I will stop procrastinating tomorrow

8 Likes

Although I try ( and generally succeed) to practice around an hour a day going back to learning stuff online to prepare for the upcoming fire season and struggling with my hands due to helping my neighbours fence their property for new cattle does take its toll on enthusiasm and proficiency

5 Likes
  1. Reading/posting on music forums

  2. Watching bass/music videos on YT or SBL

  3. Setting up what I’m going to play and never getting to playing.

“I don’t have time” is not a good excuse; we all have lots of time, most of us “waste” time on other things that we enjoy. I stopped using that as an excuse a long time ago, it makes me think more about how I use my time; it’s all about priorities. :slightly_smiling_face:

One of the biggest reasons I love Yousician is I can just sit down and play with a minimum of time wasted trying to figure out what to play… I just start it up, plug in and start playing. If I put in 30 mins of playing it’s a real 30 mins, not 20 mins of screwing around and 10 mins of playing :laughing:

3 Likes

I think if most people here look at their summary of how much time they’ve spent here on the forums, it’s hard to claim they don’t have enough time to play :thinking:

6 Likes
  1. sore hands (I have poor circulation) -can usually do warm ups that get over this but it adds an extra step before playing
  2. cat is sitting on me
  3. eating
8 Likes

Ain’t that the truth :slightly_smiling_face: :upside_down_face: :slightly_smiling_face:

5 Likes

That is exactly my time problem. I want to feel like playing to start. But the reality is that playing makes me feel better.

6 Likes

I love the way you worded that, I don’t love how well it fits with me too… It’s certainly a mixture of the expectations, confidence (even if I’m just playing in my room to no one else) and often feeling easily overwhelmed. The latter is a much more general problem for me so I’m learning all the time how to break that down and work through it, but it does get in the way of good practise more often recently. It’s something that you don’t tend to really notice the impact until after the fact :melting_face:

I have a rough practise plan to work on, which I’ve kept as realistic and attainable as possible, knowing that anything more advanced will come in time, I just need a gentle-to-moderate prod every now and then to say “so just give it a go then!”

2 Likes

Lately, it’s been motivation. I just cant seem to muster up the drive and energy I once had.

5 Likes