Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim11895  Hello TB'ers. I'm a beginner bass player and need to build up speed plucking steady eighth notes. I've found that I can do OK up to about 180 BPM when it's just me and a metronome, but when I play along with a song, I start out OK, but then seem to get lost eventually. I try to concentrate, but I think the lyrics and rest of the instruments throw off my concentration somehow (I know, that sounds weird). I try silent counting, but at that speed, it's kind of hard to not get tongue-tied with the count after a few measures. I have noticed that if I play a quarter note on beat one of a measure from time to time, then I don't get lost as quickly, but if it's steady eighth notes through all the measures, eventually I'm losing it. Do I just need more practice, or is there something I'm doing incorrectly?
Thanks for looking at this, and best wishes to all for a happy and successful New Year.
-Jim |
Heya Jim.
I noticed you said "plucking steady eighth notes."
How many fingers are you using to pluck, and which ones?
When I'm playing extremely fast 8ths, I play with 3 fingers (first, second, third or index, middle, ring). Otherwise, I just use 2.
One of the best pieces of advice for increasing speed is to try and prevent your fingers from "kicking" up and down with exaggerated motion. A good bass teacher told me to find a thin rubber band and wrap it around my plucking fingers so they're "bundled" together...but not very tight. What this does is it restricts the motion so that the fingers don't "kick" wildly. The less the finger has to travel, the faster it will move! Minimal motion is the only way to achieve higher speeds.
Also, the
depth of each pluck has to be shallow. "Digging" too deep will slow you down. Make sure that only the tip of your finger pad is plucking the string. Don't dig deeper than the thickness of the string gauge. In essence, your finger grazes the top of the string instead of hooking underneath it.
You're good with a m-nome up to 180 BPM, but have you tried to play 16th notes at 90 BPM? It's essentially the same thing, but the feel is different. Instead of accenting the first note of every two 8th notes, you're accenting the first of every four 16th notes.
I think
accenting is the key to accurate subdividing.
Until I was able to play accents on the first note of each group:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
...I couldn't make it smooth without accents...and I would get lost constantly.
Then, once I increased my speed playing 16th notes, I added the accents to play fast 8ths:
1 - 2 -
3 - 4 -
1 - 2 -
3 - 4
1 - & -
2 - & -
3 - & -
4 - &
After adding accents, I could "feel" it and eventually didn't need to count anything.
EDIT: the rubber band thing is only for practicing...I wouldn't use it playing live!
