Try playing and monitoring yourself with headphones instead of an amp. That way you won’t pick up the instrument noises that are bothering you. Also remember we are our toughest critics, so you probably sound a hell of a lot better than you think. Since you know where all your mistakes are while you’re playing, you’ll focus on that instead of listening objectively.
A lot of times I will be dissastified with my recordings but then I listen to them again a few days later and they always sound better!
Not sure what’s up with my D string on my Rascal. When I fret on the first fret. I get a weird harmonic like the string is changing pitch. Like the A string flaw, but it’s on the string tree so it has a break angle. Not sure what the issue is. Hmmm
All the other notes on the string are fine. I just decided to play Hit The Road JAck and noticed it. I moved to the A string but need to figure this out. Brand new strings.
Hey guys this isn’t strictly technique but I’m sure it’s affecting mine, since I’m getting some nasty blisters playing near the nut and trying to get a satisfying slap out of my A string is nigh impossible.
Is my action too high? Its a terrible picture without anything for scale but I wondered if any of you lovely folk could tell by eye. I got it online in one of those Squier affinity starters so I would not be surprised at all. Enjoy the leg tease.
Thought so, I’ll take it to the local guys won’t cost too much. When I’ve got a bit more money and investment into it I’ll make sure to learn it myself.
This morning I am super tired because I needed to crash early last night but made the fatal mistake of picking up my bass for the first time in a while. Which led to learning a new riff, which I then had to try on my other bass. Whoops, I had left it detuned and cranked into a backbow months ago to fix the neck; time to check on it anyway. Set it up again, neck seems much better, happy now, jam on the riff for a bit, and notice oh shit I have to get up in five hours.
Still a bunch of technical things with my fretting hand mostly. I’m still figuring out the proper fingerings for what I’m playing to make my work a bit easier. I did learn My Own Summer by Deftones though.
I’m not in a band, I don’t have anyone to jam with so I’m just playing for myself. Sometimes that isn’t enough to keep me going because I don’t really see the growth. I know I’m better than I was but without a positive feedback outside my own head, I tend to lose steam.
I’m in a similar situation as you. One way I see my growth is I go back and pick up a song I found difficult a while ago and try it, and generally it’s easy now. Or I pick up a song I looked at and thought that was too difficult, and now if I look it’s like, I can do that.
When I started I thought the song a week thing looked difficult, getting a song down in 7 days was asking a lot. Now it seems quite doable.
Progress sneaks up on you. Affirmation though, make recordings and post it here and we’ll let you know. Well, here in the appropriate thread
This is exactly what the 50 Song Challenge and Post Your Covers threads are all about.
We all post here not to ‘show off’ but to get feedback on our progress.
Prior to my first video here, I NEVER recorded myself or videoed myself on bass.
I decided to start, and I (and many others here) can tell you that the feedback you get from the folks here is extremely helpful and motivating.
Don’t know how to go about recording yourself?
We have you ‘covered’ there too…
The braces off, however, very stiff and lots of pain. Physical therapy for a number of weeks and still have to take it easy. I still have to wear the brace doing heavy, lifting type things or yardwork, etc. Playing bass or saxophone is still a bit out there, not quite yet. Diagnosis was basically overuse.
My doctor, a big deal, hand specialist in New York City, said he’s seeing more and more and more overuse injuries. He said, for some reason people think they need to be doing some thing all the time now, and their hands just can’t…. Well… Handle it.
On a computer all day, add in your phone, add in your instrument, can lead to trouble.
Be careful out there, people, take care of those hands!
By the way, this was done using voice to text to save my hand the trouble.
