Bad habits you had to unlearn

[Art Araya]

Came from a guitar background so I used to wrap my thumb around the top of the neck and really clamped on the neck. I played the bass like this for a few years.

Had to learn to position my thumb in the middle of the neck and create more of a cupped shaped with with my fretting hand to allow easier movement around the notes and neck.

[Ewo]

I learned good left hand technique, with arched fingers and minimal pressure.

Then I had to unlearn it to play slap, since the left hand pats need flat fingers across the strings!

Now I just hafta use the appropriate technique for the particular style...

[Atoz]

Flying pinky syndrome. Much better than it used to be, but was a real bear to fix.

Digging in too much. When I first started, the guitarist I was playing with didn't know any better and would crank up the lows on his amp, and I had to play really hard in order to hear myself. We've resolved that issue now, but I still have to police myself, especially during gigs.

[DeadHeadSF]

Currently working on left-hand position as I'm starting to get pain there again. I must've gotten lazy. It seems I'm developing the habit of not playing from the tips of the fingers - they lay almost flat, and this is causing me to kink up my wrist a bit, especially when working around the lower strings.

One thing I have never managed to get the hang of is keeping my fretting wrist straight (or at least as close to it as possible) when playing the 2 lowest strings - I'm not even sure it's possible.

[conqr]

fretting/plucking too hard - mostly because I like the tone. I try hard to 'let the amp do the work' but still fall back into it when the band is blowing full tilt and I want to get more aggressive on the fly.

[SkylineFiver]

Originally Posted by PhatRon

+++ on several previous comments.
For me one that I'm still not totally rid of is using my right hand as a drummer or timing mechanism. tick-tick-tick. when I was younger and overplaying it wasn't such an issue. Now, especially when tracking I really have to make a conscious effort to "be still" with the right hand when not actually striking the strings.

I still have to beware of this.

[cire113]

Terrible right and left hand technique....

Bad posture..

Playing too hard and not relaxing and breathing while playing..

Turn UP the AMP and play relaxed/softer with right hand


STILL working on alot of these issues.....

[packhowitzer]

tapping my foot.

[Nickfarnworth]

Wearing your bass low will bring your wrist too far down, and can effect the speed in which you move around the neck. That's my opinion on having a bass sitting low, others will prefer that way of playing though.

[klyph]

Looking at her cleavage while she's talking to me.

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by packhowitzer

tapping my foot.

Are you being serious? Or pulling our legs?

Nothing wrong with that. Some of the most accomplished pros do that. I was taught to do that - in fifth grade band class...

MM

[papilgee4evaeva]

Wearing my bass over the wrong shoulder. In my defense, though, I hate getting my hair stuck in the strap...

[MysticMichael]

Originally Posted by catcauphonic

It got me wondering about the habits of others regarding bad form when you were a noob - what issues were they? and were you able to correct it or just continue going with your own flow??

Not trying to brag here, but as far as I know, I never developed any seriously bad technique in the first place. That's because I made a point of studying the technique of some of the most accomplished pro bassists - i.e. on television, via concert videos, at live shows, etc. - while I was in process of learning the instrument. I then emulated their technique as best I could (i.e. thumb of the fretting hand centered on the back of the neck, fretting the strings right on the fingertips, fretting just slightly in front of the frets - not in the middle of the space between the frets, fingers of the plucking hand perpendicular to the strings, elbow slightly raised, playing with a light, relaxed, yet consistent touch, etc.).

I'm sure my technique isn't perfect. But it's probably better than 90% of the players out there...

Part of that benefit is that, while I started on guitar as most of you probably did, I made a conscious point of conceiving of the electric bass as a distinct instrument...so I did NOT carry over many of my guitar-centric techniques or habits to the bass.

MM

[stratovani]

Not a technique thing, but I did have to learn to not play so many notes.

[rtslinger]

On rocking song I would dig in so hard I would be snapping strings playing with a little lighter touch.

[C.Linton]

Pretty much it's stuff I haven't done for years, but I had to work on using my pinky more, and the proper placement of my thumb on the back of the neck. Other than that, the only bad habit I still have is not practicing.

[charliebrown]

Bass is different than guitar. I had to think of my technique as if I had never touched a stringed instrument before. Once I did that and had a great bassist show me the basics, life became tolerable with the bass.

[billgwx]

Originally Posted by packhowitzer

tapping my foot.

Not necessarily all bad. I recently had a drummer tell me she was watching my foot tapping to pick up the tempo for a song we had never played together before.

[LuckyPants]

I have the worst habits, genuinely. I've been playing 9 years but I'm self-thought and I tended to learn via just playing songs I liked. Now I'm in a proper band, I'm noticing a lot of things.

-I don't use the whole finger per fret technique. I tend to only use 3 of my fingers on my left hand.
-Thumb too high on the back of the neck
-I don't know how to play to a metronome, luckily I have excellent timing (drummer's words, not mine)
-I create too much string noise which is not good for recording

the list is endless. But if I didn't have things to work on or improve, I'd get bored.

[Nashrakh]

Originally Posted by cire113

not relaxing and breathing while playing..

Something I gotta work on too... I'm so tense when playing that I sometimes forget to breathe lol.