How do you remember changes?

[Thor]

Originally Posted by Mr_Sore_Fingerz

you can always try and ask the drummer to synch up some kind of roll or deviation to let you guys know its the 12th time or not.

What I usually do (since our drummer is a bit of a rookie), is do a variation every other time I play the bar or maybe every 4th time i play the bar depending on how many times we repeat. Instead of counting 12 times over, do a variation every 4 times you play the same bar, you'll be counting to 3 instead of to 12 which is much easier =)

I wouldn't feel too bad about not staying together well when there isn't a singer, the point of a band is holding each other up and helping each other stay constant and fluid through the song. It's nothing to be ashamed of, if you ask me.

If you were trying to be a session artist and had the same problem, that'd be a bit different lol

That is always a great way to work witht the drummer.

[tomvelsor]

after you mess it up enough times in rehearsal, your guitar player says what a f(&(*up you are a couple times, then you should start remembering it.

[bassplayertom77]

Just do what I do. Wait until the drummer throws a stick at you, then change.

Maybe try to turn your brain off, that's what can get me into trouble sometimes. Easier said than done.

[T-MOST]

Originally Posted by Honk'n_down-low

Practice feeling it.

I hope he means the song! LOL

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by Stumbo
Same with counting....1234, 2234,3234,4234,5234, etc.

Originally Posted by bullshark

Hey, that works
I could count the beat, but was always losing track of the bars unless I concentrated enough on counting that I lost the feel, but counting that way is easy. Thanks.

Glad it worked for you.

[winstonthecat]

A lot of listening and getting the feel of the song. I call it "internalizing" the song, so that you know it inside and out. A lot of the standard rock songs I play have simple structures, so it isn't that difficult. On some of the longer passages, I tend to count, just so I don't get lost.

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by jsingles

seriously I just FEEL it out... I should probably count more when I play, but honestly I find it easy to just develop a natural sense of "time" i suppose... just try to feel it out.. I cannot explain it. just KEEP practicing the song.

Same here, especially when the drummer helps me "feel it" with a little leading fill to the next section.

[mingustoo]

"practice feeling it"...haha hilarious...
I like the idea of listening to old blues records to get a feel for twelve bars. Might I suggest focusing on John Lee Hooker records in particular. This ought to help.

[mrokern]

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

Same here, especially when the drummer helps me "feel it" with a little leading fill to the next section.

+1

Once you get to know your drummer well-enough, you'll pick up on stuff that nobody else will...it's a cool part of the bassist / drummer relationship, and it drives the guitarists nuts.

I can just tell when my drummer is about to change it up, with or without a formal fill. Call it "feeling it", call it a change in the energy, whatever you want. It'll come, it just takes time.

As you progress, you'll be able to pick up on it with more and more drummers in a shorter amount of time. Once you're there and you're playing with a drummer who is on the same wavelength, you can take any song and drive it wherever you want it to go.

-Mark

[Munjibunga]

Originally Posted by mrokern

+1

Once you get to know your drummer well-enough, you'll pick up on stuff that nobody else will...it's a cool part of the bassist / drummer relationship, and it drives the guitarists nuts.

I can just tell when my drummer is about to change it up, with or without a formal fill. Call it "feeling it", call it a change in the energy, whatever you want. It'll come, it just takes time.

As you progress, you'll be able to pick up on it with more and more drummers in a shorter amount of time. Once you're there and you're playing with a drummer who is on the same wavelength, you can take any song and drive it wherever you want it to go.

-Mark

Yeah, the "fill" may be just a single syncopated beat in the last measure before the change.

[TheBass]

I need to start counting first. After playing the song some times I develop a feeling for the change and don't need to count any more. The opposite way doesn't work for me: if I start just feeling the change without counting first, I'm often wrong and don't develop the feel for the right time. I guess develop the feeling is just another word for "getting used to it", at least for me.

[Dave Muscato]

Practice!

Counting works for me. It's a habit from my school days of playing clarinet in big band and sometimes subbing in the percussion section... LOTS of 12- or 16-measure stretches of rests, over and over and over. I don't really think in actual numbers anymore; I just have a feel for the number of measures and while I do count in my head, it's more in mental foot-taps than cardinal numbers, if that makes sense. Just practice until it's second nature.

I'd recommend against using cues; you can't count on them and they're not a substitute for counting anyway, although they can serve as a good double-check. Hope this helps!

[perogato02]

Practice, practice and practice ... and counting down helps for me: hum/sing/think the number while playing the specific bar. okay, it doesn't look great on stage (you will look like a fish on the dry when mouting the numbers ) but musically you won't mess up

[basmartin]

If its 12 bars on the same chord and not a blues, I would "feel" 4 bars three times.

[Deacon_Blues]

Learn to follow the music and feel where the changes will come (as others have said).

I once had to play some very monotone bass parts in a classical/latin composition of 5 songs. In one of the songs, I had to play the same simple bass pattern for around 100 bars IIRC, and then change. To manage it, I had to carefully listen to the rest of the music for cues. Soon it came automatically.

[BillMason]

Listen to the melody.

[magickbass]

Originally Posted by Stumbo

Maybe the drummer can do a simple fill before the change. And do it that way each time.

+1, lots of bands do this for a reason.... it works so well

[marcopalla]

feel it, practice, other players, play so what 1.000 times,
all very, very true,

but ssshhhh there is a very secret system I used when I was young:

for example if you have A | B | C | D x 10
try to end last D bar every time with something different: a different pattern, than a vibrato, than a cromatich thing, than a little slide etc,
do that special things always in the same sequence, so you always know where you are from waht you have done on the last bar....
(in the example you find 5 things and do 2 times)

I hope It could Help and Ii was clear...
...for me it worked....

peace,
m.

[E2daGGurl]

You're getting both sides of the advice, but only YOU know your own brain.

It was years ago that I learned to count 12 bars, and certainly don't count anything that short these days (years of counting though). It only interfered with the "feel" for the first few times I did it, then it just happened automatically - like my typing is, right now. People are different though.

I come from a family of musicians where nearly everyone could "feel" the changes, but as a youngster I sure couldn't, so I counted. Now, I know so many songs that it looks as though I feel my way through them - but yeah, I'm playing them in my head. If I don't know the song already, good luck to the band - I need the chart in front of me. I too had years of high school practice, counting out 12 or 16's until they became intuitive. I still use counting to figure out unusual songs not based on 12 or 16.

Some people find the right-brained approach easy - for others, it's impossible. You're probably going to make a few mistakes either way - but find the way that produces the best results and practice.

[ihassiphilus]

Learn to hear the circle of foruths in your head. E to A etc...it helps because you get used to hearing one chord to another.