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My struggle today is with rounds. I have a set of DR Pure Blues n my TBass, and it really sounds good, however, it’s tearing up my plucking hand to the point I bleed when I practice. I really don’t want to slap on flats, and my picking is atrocious (but I pick fine on my guitar). I’m just fighting it. Ugh
Sorry to hear about your rounds-plucking problem.
I’m a lifelong rounds guy when fingerpicking guitar, and a finger plucker on bass. Not sure why rounds are tearing you up.
Maybe just backing off on your attack and turning up your amp might help?
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Yeah - this does not seem normal. I never even got callouses from bass, much less bled.
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Hi … my struggle is that playing live is SO different to practicing at home, it feels like all my technique goes out the window. The small practice amp speaker - so controllable and articulate. Once on a stage with more power, bigger speakers, lively room more adrenaline and perhaps nerves etc, I tend to over - play, ie put too much energy in. Its a different world. Ive been doing it a while, and still looking for good technique on stage
Follow up: Since posting this, I was watching a video on youtube by Ivanbass, on improving live sound, and got me thinking about how I am rarely in the PA on gigs, as they are not usually huge places, but I would probably benefit from DI to the PA, and lower stage volume.
Hi @2ideas!
I know what you mean, a loud amp or setup makes you hear all those small things much better. On my practice amp, I play so quietly that the neighbours don’t get bothered… which is far too quiet to hear resonating strings or check my muting.
Maybe you can try to play more with headphones or in ears to check for that. And please watch your stage volume to avoid hearing damage 
Cheers,
Antonio
PS: have a look at the threads “Introduce yourself” and “Show us your basses”
Just keep it simple.
Check out the video of @travis.thepadre.reed at an open mic session in the An Adventure thread on the forum. He’s doing it the right way to start, and having a blast by the looks of it. IMHO.
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Today’s struggle is recording/ Spent about 3 hours trying to record my bass and have little to show for it, just one wav file where the bass is so low you can barely hear it. The software is not intuitive, and yes I look at the helpful videos here and elsewhere
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We’re all here to help. Give us some insight as to how you have things set up.
Nope, PC, thanks for offering
Pretty simple setup. Bass plugged directly into s Scarlett 2i2 which is connected to Presonus Studio 1 6 on my laptop. I was trying to catch the sound of the bass with as little sound modification as possible.
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I use the Scarlett Solo. Similar controls.
So troubleshooting then. The inst / gain knob controls how hot the signal is going into your DAW. When you play a note the ring around the knob displays a colour. Green is good, orange is starting to break up / clip and Red is too hot and it’ll be distorted.
You’re aiming to have the gain set to when it’s mainly green when you play but if you pluck a string really hard it’ll go orange.
That ensures you have enough signal going into your DAW that you can work with.
The monitor knob controls the overall volume in your headphones / monitors. It has nothing to do with how loud the signal is going to the DAW.
If you know all of this then move on
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Hi @tgross,
Welcome to the forum! I hear you with that struggle, sometimes I get lost and the kickdrum would be a nice marker. Have you considered counting bars or how many bars you play to find more guidance?
Also, post here to introduce yourself to the forum in general: Introduce Yourself! (2023)
Cheers,
Antonio
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I didn’t try last night. Didn’t get past looking at my bass in fact. I was a slacker. I’ll try again tonight
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Ok, I think this is the best spot for me to tell my issue.
I’m getting a second bass that will arrive next week, I moved from Brazil to Portugal so my first one had to stay. I’m exited and worried about it at the same time, all the few months I had my bass I struggled with the “one finger per fret” technique as I had to study by myself with free content, now I want to find a course and that will be another investment.
I see that all teachers recommend using the technique and I agree with all of them, but the thing is that all exercises happens around it and I simply can’t practice them due to the anatomy of my hand. I don’t have small hands, but my little finger is way smaller then the others, I can see that usual bass players have longer little fingers than I do.
That said, is physically impossible to me to keep the 4 fingers in the string (I can do it only at the G string and barely at the D string) and it’s not about ‘floating fingers’ I’m talking about, I would have to break a few bones to do so… lol
So, my concern is that I’m going to invest money (BassBuzz obviously) and might not proceed with the exercises due to this limitation, so I would love to know about any workarounds for it and how I can turnaround the issue to practice the exercises I’m going to get if I start to study with a course or with a teacher…
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Hi @kenny,
Welcome to the forum!
The Bassbuzz course actually works without the “one finger per fret” method, so feel free to try it. Also, you can return the online subscription, see this page. So it’s worth trying! 
Personally, I understand your struggle - I find it difficult to play big stretches for a long time. A few lessons might be difficult - but the advice for this course is to move past these and come back later. You might know this already: all you need to play is one note! (Victor Wooten)
Cheers,
Antonio
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Welcome, @kenny. Definitely sign up for the Beginner to Badass (B2B) course. It will be the best money you ever spend for anything bass-related.
The single-finger-per-fret method is not required to play bass well, as you will learn in B2B.
If you want to learn to play bass properly, let Josh show you how.
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And the lessons seem intentionally structured from the beginning to develop strength and dexterity in your fretting pinky without you realizing it. Very sneaky, @JoshFossgreen
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Cool cool, thanks guy, I always felt like I was supposed to use the pinky all the time for these exercises, as I said, depending on the string and position it is physically impossible for me, even if I get pro or whatever…
So that was my concern, how to improve getting around of this issue…but hopefully I’ll get there…
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