Getting discouraged is a real bummer @LittleJackal… Sometimes it’s good to go back to and retake an earlier lesson so then you can see (and hear) just how far you have progressed. Right now you are hearing your mistakes, so with that knowledge when you go back to an earlier lesson that was easier, you might be able to pinpoint a certain technique that will help with your immediate problem. As for string ringing and the noises you’re now hearing, since you’re now playing more notes at a faster speed, you should look at working on string muting technique. The easiest way right now is to slow down you playing speed and use the fingers you use to fret with to control the sustain (or ringing) of the string. For open string muting, use the fingers of your plucking hand to lightly touch them to quit them from ringing.
Yeah, that was another challenge for me too. I gave myself a lot of room to move past it and keep going after thinking I could get through the slow workout. I’ll usually treat things like that as something to add to the ongoing practice routine and keep going anyway.
I am just now hitting the “chugging” lessons and I am playing through U2. however, my chugging doesn’t sound smooth, more pointed and sharp. Any suggestions?
Practice and patience will get this sorted out,
With it without you is straight 8s using 4 notes.
Maybe slowing your practice down will also help @Davidmhuey
Cheers Brian
You could try relaxing your plucking fingers a little bit more, and/or plucking the strings more with the pads of your fingers instead of your finger tips. Make sense? Other than that, it’s about practicing at slow speed until you nail that before moving on to the medium and fast speed. Keep chugging away!
Thanks for the advice! All very good. It’s like my fingers just don’t want to move like I want them to. Hopefully practice will sort it out. Grateful for the advice.
The two things I am struggling with are hitting the right notes across the strings, but this is improving. The other is dynamics, I didn’t realize until it came up in the lessons that I had a very quiet style of plucking. When playing louder I have trouble keeping time. I am just working on both doing drills before practice. And in the lessons playing harder and louder as some extra practice. Anyone else have the same issue?
A bit different, but in my case it’s dynamics vs fretting hand pressure: the louder I play (i.e. the harder I pluck), the harder I fret. I am finding it difficult to remain consistently gentle on the fretting hand while changing the dynamics on the plucking hand.
I saw Doug Wimbish (bassist from Living Color) playing in Lauren Hill’s band in SF. We were right up on the stage. The band KILLED. Doug was playing so intensely with his head and his body and neck… and the fingers were like whispers and baby breath. It was incredible to see him able to exude intensity and presence, but have the lightest touch on the bass.
Inspiring.
I could use some advice although I am mostly just in limbo. I am to the Billie Jean module which I get is a tough one but my issue is more long term fretting hand technique than anything. I have just enough private lessons to be using the 4 finger technique, it’s just habit by now and so when Josh goes three fingers I tend to stick to what I know because I can get by so much faster getting the basic groove down.
The Billie Jean lesson is a perfect example of just sticking with the 4 finger and wondering if I want to completely relearn using the stacked technique? Or soldier on with 4 finger as it may pay off later on? I for the life of me can not get my fingers to stack like he shows using pinky and ring and using my index and ring finger on 2nd and 4th fret make things comfortable for me. Problem is the way I am doing it is slow, I know I need to work on the rolling strings technique to get my ring finger to roll up from d string to a string. However I have been working on it for a long time and no matter how many times I practice it is just a mess. I have at least gotten to the point where I leave my index finger stationary on the d string on the second fret while I move my ring up and down on the fourth fret so that my entire hand isn’t jumping strings on every note.
I know he says it doesn’t matter and move on but given all my previous lessons and playing time I feel like I should be a bit better than I am in the way I am doing it already. Since I am not I am stuck between all kinds of ways. I also feel like I know just enough to not be doing any of it right. Lastly the only way I get through it seems it with just so much hand movement, so much wasted energy when I compare me to others playing.
I hate the feeling of being stuck!
I’d love to jump in and offer some suggestions.
Can you post a short vid so that the comments are specific to what’s going on?
Also, just to prepare you, the answer might just be practice it really slowly for 2 months… which is always the most frustrating answer to get… but sometimes that’s the best move.
Thanks Gio! Yes I can get a vid tonight maybe of how I am running the riff. I think that’s the issue I struggle with, what you said. I could go back and go slow to relearn taking that time but should I is the question I guess? I spent a long time learning the 4 finger and trying to roll, not sure I should abandon it and take the time to relearn. It’s not so much that I have to get it right this second before I move on in the modules it’s just more of a long term technique of where do I want to be in a year.
For what it’s worth (and potentially ignoring your current issue with Billie Jean), I don’t consider the one-finger-per-fret (or 4 finger technique) gospel! That doesn’t mean you should abandon it; but it is not the only way to get things done!
Personally, I can’t do the 1-finger-per-fret technique, because of an issue with my pinky - so I do what could be called a variant of the “Simandl-technique” and micro-shifting.
That said, I think it is awesome if you master the 4-finger approach. Just be open to other ways as well, which, in some cases, might prove to be advantageous for a given riff or motif.
In that spirit, there are certainly also different ways to approach (and crack) Billie Jean
Hi @Gio and @joergkutter, here you go; hopefully this explains the technique I was taught previously. Basically you can see my index kind of stays anchored while my ring jumps. At first when I really first started a year ago I would jump my entire hand up to play the A string, I then got it to where I could leave my one finger anchored to save time. I think this method is ok but I should probably really get more of a role from the F# to the C# with my ring finger rather than this huge jump. It looks smooth-ish at this speed but when the fast workout kicks in my fingers are just doing so much more movement per note that what I see @JoshFossgreen doing.
Again I get this may be over analyzing this at this point but I have come so far with this way if it’s not really a great way I need to relearn. Also clearly not to any metronome or anything or trying to keep time there, just wanted to show the pattern.
What I see is really nice technique, but it’s too clinical.
You’ve got great accuracy and approach with that ring finger, but the whole hand needs to be closer to the fretboard. The movements - any quick bass movements - need to use as little muscle/actual physical movement as possible.
I made this video showing what I mean with both ring and pinky fingers. Hopefully you can see what I’m getting at, and try and emulate it.
It’s had to play with this relaxed, close hand position until your fingers and hands are acclimated to this close, minimalist fingering work.
Play it slow, play it close!
Oh, wow, @Gio beat me to it, @lusecannon! I had planned to shoot a video of how I would do it, but… this is WAY better! Count yourself lucky that @Gio was faster
Thanks! It helps so much to see a side by side of this specific riff of how I am doing it and how you are. Makes me see how much my fingers are flying off and when everyone else seems to be effortlessly playing. This is going to take serious practice to get my fingers to stay that close outside of the note playing finger as well. It seems I fly them off to avoid some sort of fret buzz early on I guess.
Makes me see how much my fingers are flying off and when everyone else seems to be effortlessly playing.
Right there with you, I’ve been playing for several months and “flying fingers” is still the 1 major issue of fretting technique that is refusing to fall into place for me. Things like LH thumb position, fret pressure, and muting all naturally developed to where I don’t have to think about them anymore, but I’m probably going to need to take up some specific exercises to keep my fingers from flying off the fretboard so much.
Hey Mike, @Mike_NL,
It’s easy when your a professional player😎 oh and a teacher of bass as @Gio is.
It just takes practice and time and we will all get to Gino’s level👍
Cheers Brian
