Can't keep up.
 

What do you do if your band wants to. play a cover that's just out of your skill level? Or, if you join a band that has a few song recorded and you can't play the bass lines they have written or what they want you to play.

Practice like an animal!

Ya, that's about all you can do...practice like an animal.

Practice to the music. It can be the most rewarding experience for you to force yourself upon the material. The songs I used to doubt myself on usually became the most fun to play.






Get to it.

You CAN play it. Slowly. So do that, over and over until it seems easy. Then speed up a little. Use a metronome so you don't start playing faster until you're ready.

As the others have said. PRACTICE it. Do NOT give up on it.

Download Audacity (it's freeware) and slow down the song (it doesn't affect the pitch), and start at 25%. When you realize it's already too easy go to 35%. Then to 50%. That's how I learn all my most difficult covers.

What's REALLY rewarding is putting in the time to get a song, riff,passage that you struggled with - and playing it months later, thinking back how hard it seemed, and now its easy:D

This is excellent advice.
Use the metronome to slow you down.

Simplify. Roots on "one" at first. Learn some music theory so you understand which are the "important" notes, and make sure you always hit those, even if you are forced to omit some of the "decorative" notes. Learn to play through mistakes, so even if you get crossed up in one measure, you hit the downbeat of the next measure.

If you are keeping good time and supporting the harmony and structure of the song, then any band should consider themselves lucky to have you, in my opinion. :)

Muscle memory is key. Everyone's muscle memory develops at different rates. I play some Mighty Mighty Bosstones to build up my stamina and speed. For me it's fun and enjoyable music to play with. Good luck.

Push yourself.

I also recommend audacity for training. (I use transcribe, it isn't free)

Get Transcribe, it's well worth it and then some.

Use it.

Practice.

Slower.

"Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast."

+1, all this is great stuff.

Practice, practice, practice. I once had a cover song that had five, eighteen note solos - all sixteenth notes, all on the 14th through the 21 st fret - and on an already up-tempo song. I think I'm a fairly "OK" bassist, and got most covers that I have needed to learn.

This one, however, kicked my tail . . . it took about a week of constant practice on that solo to get it . . . persistence is what it takes! Learn the song, practice it until it is muscle memory!

Practice is always a simple answer to give someone. But sometimes it's not enough. Like someone said, you can start slow and speed up over time. You can also change technique, like instead of using your fingers, try a pick and vice versa. You can also not play it exactly and try to add your own cool parts that sound just as good.

As others have mentioned, Transcribe! Software is incredibly useful.

You can loop those tricky licks, select playback speed, and even isolate the lower frequencies.

Couldn't believe how perfect it was for practice.

Is it a mental or physical holdup?

On physically hard passages, I make sure I start with the same fingering pattern and gradually increase speed until I can't mess it up. Stamina will come with time. Not sure if there is much else you can do for that.

If its a Mental issue, get your theory up. (Assuming you can count in the time signature, If you're timing is off, that is where you need to start)

Songs are easier to learn when you understand why they do what they do. Knowing chords in a key, chord patterns and so on helps here.

Sound quality of your practice gear could be a factor. I spent about a few months trying to play along to the crap speakers on my computer. My Bass drowned it out when it was low and I got lost often and couldn't even tell what the original bass was supposed to do because I couldn't hear what was going on clearly.

So whats the song your struggling with??

Just play it live at 30bpm.

i used to sing on the songs i couldn't play:)

with all of the tech available today you should be able to figure something out, don't give up