Being even MORE vulnerable...
Added 2025-07-07 15:00:13 +0000 UTCNOTE: I lowered the track so you can hear me better, and the track is also slowed down slightly from it's original tempo for practice purposes!
I couldn't stand sitting anymore, so I asked my friend again for a strap. Standing feels SO much better.
I like plucking, but I found that if I relax my pinky, I can pick much better. Thanks for the tips from my first post of performing/practicing! I do plan on getting better at plucking as well. I'll try that in the next recording I do
Hopefully I can have it learned in another month?
Comments
My beginner brain + your message = π€― I promise to try and work on as much of these as possible! I did restring my bass last night with some help from the friend I am borrowing EVERYTHING from. Lol. I am trying my best to approach learning like I teach my students. One thing at a time. Although, trust me...as I play, I can feel the awkwardness of my strumming patterns and the loudness from one string to another. It bothers me. Lol. ...meanwhile, my friend told me to give it time and just "be okay with sounding...bad" right now. Which is true for most beginners. I swear we will get there! It's a long road. Especially since this instrument feels sooooo awkward. Lol
NittPicc
2025-07-10 17:00:10 +0000 UTCNittPicc, if you want to improve your playing ability, make you sure you are playing barefoot. Misa would approve Po!
Charles Coleman
2025-07-10 00:39:05 +0000 UTCSo with this one we're gonna focus on your picking hand technique; there's nothing essentially wrong with your fretting hand other than a couple of moments of stiffness in terms of when rhythmic patterns changed or got more intricate. I would say this is a song that lends itself more naturally towards fingerstyle, but both approaches are valid. Are you playing with a standard guitar sized plectrum or a larger triangular bass pick? The latter is more forgiving and can have a little more of the tip of the plectrum exposed without causing grip issues. Your dynamics when picking were somewhat inconsistent in places, having even note attack & volume outside of accents is even more essential on bass than guitar. Some this was down to control, you often swung wider when playing on the low E, which made the inner strings seem cramped because you had to adjust your technique to compensate rather than stay the same. The other aspect was that you were switching between alternate picking & downpicking in places almost at random, this impacted the fluidity of some phrases and transitioning between strings. There's three approaches you can take for this kind of picking technique where every note is being played without legato involved. The first is strict downpicking (aka. the James Hetfield/Metallica rhythm guitar approach) which I would not recommend in this instance, you gain a consistent aggressive note attack envelope but it won't really bounce & groove and so doesn't fit the typical Flea style of playing bass. The second is strict alternate picking, where you maintain the up-down motion regardless, this only gets tricky sometimes with odd note groupings or transitioning between strings in the opposite direction to what is next in the pattern. This ends up causing you to have to jump over the new string first to then pick through it correctly, which results in inefficiency of your hand movement. The final approach is what's called economy picking. In this you maintain regular alternate picking unless you're switching strings, at which point you move/sweep the pick in whichever direction gets you to the next string quickest. So you use downstrokes when crossing to a higher string and upstrokes when crossing to a lower string, minimising unnecessary pick strokes. The economy in the name refers to economy of motion with your picking hand. This technique takes a little longer to get under fingers subconsciously but once you do so it's probably the easiest to maintain in terms of stamina. Not directly related to the playing, it does bug the former guitar tech/OCD side of me slightly that the strings are wrapped the wrong way around the tuning pegs though. The logic behind this concept is that you want to have the straightest string pull through the nut to minimise any addition of friction or potential binding that could in turn cause tuning stability issues (long term it can gradually damage the nut slots as well). It's most pronounced with the low E and if you ever started playing higher tempo thrash metal plectrum bass you'd risk the string actually leaping out of the nut.
Andrew Hellebrand
2025-07-09 23:36:35 +0000 UTC
