New techniques?

[Ayliffe]

Hey,



I feel like i need a new challenge in terms of technique, ive gotten slapping, double thumbing, sweeping. tapping, and combinations of the above down quite well.

Can someone PLEASE give me some new techniques to try...

thanks.

[Spfairchild]

Playing the one note samba.

[Ayliffe]

care to elaborate?

[DocBop]

Maybe time to think about the notes your playing and not how you are playing them.

[Spfairchild]

No, but seriously, man - I hate getting answers like that, I just couldn't help myself. There's nothing wrong with the pursuit of knowledge, whatever form it might take, and ability. When I'm in your boat, I look to other instruments for inspiration. I've been keeping quite busy and happy with flamenco techniques lately. There're even some instructional videos for flamenco (guitar playing, not dancing) available on Blockbuster's online deal. So, in other words, play something that's not typically bass on the bass. Good times.

[Ayliffe]

i want to learn more techniques to explore different aspects of playing, this in no way whatsoever means i dont think or listen to the notes i play.

p.s.

classical would be the teacher.

[Ayliffe]

Originally Posted by Spfairchild

No, but seriously, man - I hate getting answers like that, I just couldn't help myself. There's nothing wrong with the pursuit of knowledge, whatever form it might take, and ability. When I'm in your boat, I look to other instruments for inspiration. I've been keeping quite busy and happy with flamenco techniques lately. There're even some instructional videos for flamenco (guitar playing, not dancing) available on Blockbuster's online deal. So, in other words, play something that's not typically bass on the bass. Good times.

yeah ive been getting into that technique more aswell.

thanks man.

[Koki]

flamenco strumming?? Very important technique to me incorporating with slap..
And all kinds of harmonics, at least artificial

[Grueber]

You could try natural harmonics, artificial harmonics, and tapped harmonics. They are great for making chords sound less muddy.

I know you said slapping, but you could work on your left hand slapping if you haven't already.

Have you worked single or multiple plucks into you double-thumping?

Also there is palm muting. However, you could also try muting by extending the pinky and resting it on whichever string you are playing. I feel this frees up my hand to play more naturally than palm muting. It does take some practice to skip strings while pinky muting though.

[lowphatbass]

There are always challenges to be found if you look and hear hard enough. You could always take a page from the "Jaco" book and dedicate some time to learning some saxophone melodies, ala Donna Lee, or learning some classical melodies you may be fond of. Taking our existing techniques and pushing them to higher levels doesn't always bring the same instant gratification as learning a new technique, but can be very beneficial to our playing none the less. I once spent some time slapping out Bach bass lines and it really got me moving and thinking about slapping in different ways and was both challenging and rewarding, also good for my reading chops! I credit that experience alone with enabling me to slap productively in any key without relying on open strings. This may sound trivial but at the time it was a limitation in my playing.
Sometimes studying and mirroring other bassists work and subtleties can also be technically challenging. It can get your hands working in different ways and really gets your ears and hands connected in a musically productive way. This has been proven to me time and time again when I've been ask to learn songs that I've heard a million times and been surprises by how much work was needed to really get the feel and tone "correct". It helps to realize that sometimes the biggest challenges are about the millimeters and milliseconds.