Have you seen the vid?
Yes. The pedalling is fine. Its the fast 3-5-7-9 transitions that kill me and the split second slides and those goofy 16th note fills.
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For me it helps to really think about the plucking hand as a tone knob. If you are intentional about your sound moving up towards the neck is more fat juicy sound and moving back cuts through more and has more punch.
The easy answer is to anchor over your pickup but the best answer for me has been to practice sticking the side of my thumb to the pick guard and playing with tone.
I have stickier skin so your milage may very. I also have been playing with how much my wrist curls. Lots of curl = pulling across the strings, less nail clack and better tone, straightening the wrist gets almost a downward /diagonal stroke that sounds weaker but also seems faster to play right now.
Anyway just my thoughts.
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The beginning is hard and lasts FOREVER. But try playing after that. It’s got some really great runs that are a lot of fun to play.
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I can play the beginning riff fine with a pick. What I am having trouble with (like I always do) is the speedy shifts across 5 frets.
On a related note, does anyone know if Livin on a Prayer is played with a pick or fingers. The music video has the bassist using both. Most internet covers I see use a pick, but I am not hearing a real sharp attack on the notes when I listen.
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That video Josh did he had a pick right? He doesn’t seem like a cat who takes his plectrum lightly.
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My biggest struggle is still flying fingers. I’ve gotten better since starting BtBA, but I still have a ways to go until I stop flipping off the listeners. My other struggle right now is strict alternating of my plucking fingers. This is something I never paid much attention to before BtBA, so I have years of bad habits to break.
This video has been posted several times before, but it bears mentioning again. Josh tames flying fingers.
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Oh yes, that is definitely on my to practice list once I finish BtBA. That and the video Josh just released. I plan to practice both daily once I finish the course. Maybe even sooner if I get especially motivated. But once I finish the course, I plan to learn the 50 songs, so I’ll want some rudiments to practice at that point.
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Sounds good. But you can easily practice this exercise at the same time you go through your B2B lessons. It can only help with anything you play, now and in the future.
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Question: How does one “shift” and avoid flying fingers. My span is not long enough to do 1fpf. But when I shift my upper fingers lift up. ???
The answer to “How can I do this…?” most often comes down to one perpetually true answer: Slow down.
I realize that can sound glib, simplistic or even dismissive, but such is definitely not the case.
Seriously.
Virtually any technique is possible to physically achieve when playing bass, if you just slow it down.
Take it slow — down to a stupid-slow pace. Forget performance tempo or anything near it. This is working stuff out, to create muscle memory that you can perform cleanly. Because when you isolate the specific issue you’re experiencing, you can slow it down and do it cleanly. That’s the key: When you can play something cleanly, regardless of how slowly you do it, you can then speed it up, incrementally, until you eventually can play it at performance tempo.
Take it slow and absorb the suck. It’s OK not to be able to do something…until you can. You got this.
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Josh covers the flying fingers in the course and on YT.
Sure there are specific exercises, but the bottom line is more practice…
You gotta pile those hours of practice on.
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Yeah, I’ve done the course. I am pretty good with flying fingers playing in a single position. Its when I have to shift. So in the exercise linked above, its when I shift up to the G# and then back down to the the F.
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Honestly, slow it down to glacial-level slow to see what your fingers are doing and, most importantly, why they’re doing it. Then practice doing it slowly, in uber-relaxed motion to train your brain what you actually want to do instead. Then repeat that process a whole lot. It works.
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My nut to crack this week is the beginning of Our lips are sealed by the gogos. That octives and then sliding up to play the next 3 notes just kills me. The tempo of the song doesn’t help either. Last night I just played the first few bars of that riff over and over and over with only my drum machine.
I find the more I hate songs technically, the more fun I have playing them. And music I didn’t like at all seems to become better when I get to play it.
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So I am starting on the Top 5 Technique Fails vid, going slow, and noticing something straight off the bat with level 1. When I am taking my pinkie and index off as I play through the first exercise, I notice that they are trembling as I try to keep them near the fret board/original position and then they slowly rise up and my fingers move back “in”. I then have to re-stretch and re-orient them as I begin the pattern again.
Anyone else have this?
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So not particularly struggling with anything but I did struggle! TLDR: I’ve been playing long enough I should have known better!
So confession time! Yesterday, I plugged everything together for my practice and…it sounded dreadful. Initially I thought I’d torn the paper in one of my speakers or something. But no and playing the backing track loud sounded fine. Tried plugging into my Spark mini. Dreadful; all clipped, like heavily overdriven and fuzzed to death. (the experienced amongst you have probably already figured it out). So I don’t have my main amp with me currently just using a Zoom B3n preamp. So fiddled with the settings. No good. Turned off preamp/compressor. Still no good. Tried different cables. No good.
Sat and thought for a while then, even though I’m alone here, went bright red with embarrassment…battery!
Of Course! I know about this issue with active instruments. But the thing is although I’ve been playing for 18 months this is the first time I’ve had a battery run down. I’ve literally never left any of my basses plugged in. But my first was a Fender “electro acoustic” that I mostly played that unplugged. My second was an Ibanez Mezzo I got 12 months ago, but I was splitting playing that with my acoustic so not really heavy usage and then 6 months ago I bought my Ibanez EHB and have been mainly playing that since. So despite 18months playing this is the first time I’ve heard what a dead battery on an active bass sounds like…horrible. I’ll not be forgetting that in a hurry! 
I mean, damn, how could I have been so stupid! I’ve even suggested that as a possible solution to some other beginners’ problems!
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Good reminder for all of us to check out batteries. I have a battery meter but I don’t know if I should replace on red or before red.
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Just always have a spare with you! I’ll not forget the sound in a hurry!
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