Reining in your too-heavy attack

[cassius987]

I have a real problem technique-wise. When I practice I play with a soft attack and I set my bass up like I practice it. But when I play with the band, I always start really pounding the bass. I'd like to go from this heavy-handedness to a more medium level. My first instinct is just to turn the amp up but I find that actually limits my dynamics. How are you able to keep your plucking hand attack from being too hard?

Maybe I should just play pickstyle!

[m_bisson]

it's normal. I do the same thing on drums. Once you get used to playing with them and in front of an audience it goes away.

It's all in your head

[Billnc]

Crank the amp and control the volume with your fingers. You should be able to play with the sensitiviy of a good acoustic instrument.

[mambo4]

Conscious awareness is the key. Like any musical aspect, practice is the key.

I like to consciously assign a "level" to how hard I'm plucking, mentally thinking of it as a 1,2, or 3, form soft to hard. If I am making no conscious choice about dynamics, I should be at a "2" most of the time. and when the song calls for it, I switch to a "1" or a "3" as needed. You have to develop a habit of checking your self every few bars and asking "am I at 1,2, or 3? which do I want?"

I started doing this a few years ago and now I probably have developed a more granular level of dynamics by now. In notated music,there's generally six levels of note volume from "very soft" to "very loud" (pp, p, mp, mf, f, and ff) tho some composers will go even further.

another thing I do is vary my right hand position: close to the neck for softer parts, close to the bridge for harder parts. The string moves less closer to the bridge, so there is a bit less volume when plucked there.

Also good to practice is varying how you pluck without varying the volume...plucking quickly and sharply without plucking loudly, or plucking slowly but with strength and volume...

If the rest of your band isn't also being conscious of dynamics, however, you may have a struggle.

[neurotictim]

+1 to what mambo4 said.

IMO, I prefer the sound of me attacking the strings with a heavy hand. It's part of "my" sound. I can play dynamically, and if the situation calls for it I will, but my default playing style is heavy.

I practiced for quite some time, playing softer and letting the amp do the work, thinking that many of my favorite bassists play so lightly they appear to barely be moving the strings... ...And they're some of my favorites...

But it isn't my sound. :shrug:

[sonic assassin]

i crush it regardless of where i am. thats my tone. clank and sharp attack. i can play soft, but if its a rock section, i decimate stuff.

[Nashrakh]

I say it's all in your head.

Turn up the amp, and try to go easier on the strings. If you generally struggle with hearing yourself in the first place, you should take other measures though.

And I can't relate to your comment about dynamics. I play with a soft touch and there's tons of dynamics, even down to lower volumes. At the end of some songs, my band fades out. Yeah, without moving any knobs on the soundboard. You can go down to barely touching your strings and still get a very quiet sound out of it.

Technique-wise, it's all in your hands and you can practice on that.

I can relate though, somehow being at band rehearsal makes you play harder than at home, but I think you can train yourself to do otherwise.

[pejsaboy]

I've recently found that it's been helpful (for me) to increase the gain on my amp. Doing this forces me to play with a lighter touch because if I don't my tone goes to garbage and my (mildly set) limiter kills any dynamics I might be going for. I actually feel I have far better tone with high gain and light touch than with lower gain and a heavier attack. Plus, it's way easier to pick up a little volume by attacking just a tad more from a light touch than plucking even harder from a heavy attack My plucking hand didn't really get tired very often before, but now it never does because it's hardly working.

It HAS been more of a challenge to play quietly though... I don't much like lowering the volume knobs on my bass.