Coordination between hands?

[facepalmmaster]

So I've been playing bass for a while now, and i've been getting into some very fast paced bass lines, my favorite being Hysteria by Muse. If i slow the song down, I can play it with relative ease, but when I try to take it at normal speed, either my left or my right hand tends to move faster than the other. So i can go as fast as it needs to be with both hands, i just can't get them to simultaneously fret and play the note. Any tips? I Understand i need to practice, but how should I practice, are there any good exercises?

 

[Fergie Fulton]

Just keep on playing it slow. Make sure you get the fingering and notes correct and speed will sneak up on you before you realise it. Playing slow and deliberate will teach your hands to work together because is gives the brain time to work out what needs to happen.

 

[stingray2112]

Just keep on playing it slow. Make sure you get the fingering and notes correct and speed will sneak up on you before you realise it. Playing slow and deliberate will teach your hands to work together because is gives the brain time to work out what needs to happen.

He hit the nail right on the head. If you keep practicing it slow eventually you will be able to pick up your speed and use both hands at the same speed.

 

[facepalmmaster]

Just keep on playing it slow. Make sure you get the fingering and notes correct and speed will sneak up on you before you realise it. Playing slow and deliberate will teach your hands to work together because is gives the brain time to work out what needs to happen.

Thanks, but do you know of any general exercises to overall make the hands more coordinated? Not just specifically for one song? I think i'll do that though, thanks

 

[Geroi Asfalta]

You can always play in the dark. That helped me a little. Also, playing little trills helps. My right is still faster than my left. Just a tad.

 

[Jay2U]

When I was a starter I didn't have this problem playing finger style, but with a pick I noticed some bad timing. It just disappeared with time. I think so called muscle memory fixes the problem.

 

[BeTheLowEnd]

You can always play in the dark. That helped me a little. Also, playing little trills helps. My right is still faster than my left. Just a tad.

I used to do this a lot to solve the same problem the op is having.

 

[facepalmmaster]

You can always play in the dark. That helped me a little. Also, playing little trills helps. My right is still faster than my left. Just a tad.

I think my parents would be a bit scared if I was sitting in my room with the door shut and blinds closed slapping the bass And are you left handed or right handed?

 

[facepalmmaster]

When I was a starter I didn't have this problem playing finger style, but with a pick I noticed some bad timing. It just disappeared with time. I think so called muscle memory fixes the problem.

Lucky I dont have a problem with most other songs, and my left hand is pretty good at fretting since I played cello for like 8 years before i got into bass, but when my hand has to keep moving continuously at a fast pace, i tend to speed up, miss beats, etc..., even in cello.

 

[Lo-E]

Practice the line you're working on slowly - and with a metronome. Bring it up a click every few days. It's torture, but it works.

"If you want to play fast, practice slow. If you want to play real fast, practice real slow." -Charlie Parker

 

[facepalmmaster]

Practice the line you're working on slowly - and with a metronome. Bring it up a click every few days. It's torture, but it works.

"If you want to play fast, practice slow. If you want to play real fast, practice real slow." -Charlie Parker

My mind is having a conflict: I love bass, but I also hate being patient

 

[MarkA]

My mind is having a conflict: I love bass, but I also hate being patient

Your love of the bass must be greater than your disdain of slow practice. (Gong strikes.)

If you go slowly and pay attention all kinds of subtle things will work themselves out (or at least present themselves for you to work out). On bowed strings, sometimes coordination issues come down to something as simple as not knowing which direction the bow is moving when you come to something tricky, like a string crossing in the middle of a fast passage. Parallels with electric bass should suggest themselves.

Syncopating straight rhythms can help (long-short, short-long, and other variations).

Practicing in overlapping chunks...

Intentionally playing with timing (moving your left hand early/late relative to the right -- which will result in hammer-ons or pull-offs -- and slowly zeroing in on the correct timing)...

Practicing one hand at a time...

Subtly varying tempo (instead of always starting at quarter note = 60, you might try starting at 56, 64...

Going over what you need to do mentally, away from the bass...

Watching and listening to someone else do it (if possible, and not necessarily so you can emulate them exactly)...

Common themes: quality of attention, approaching a thing from as many different angles as you can, patience.

To be honest, I rarely have the patience these days myself to tackle something in the above fashion, but when I've been presented with something particularly thorny in the past, the above approaches have helped, and coincided with some of my biggest technical gains.

My two cents.

 

[facepalmmaster]

Your love of the bass must be greater than your disdain of slow practice. (Gong strikes.)

If you go slowly and pay attention all kinds of subtle things will work themselves out (or at least present themselves for you to work out). On bowed strings, sometimes coordination issues come down to something as simple as not knowing which direction the bow is moving when you come to something tricky, like a string crossing in the middle of a fast passage. Parallels with electric bass should suggest themselves.

Syncopating straight rhythms can help (long-short, short-long, and other variations).

Practicing in overlapping chunks...

Intentionally playing with timing (moving your left hand early/late relative to the right -- which will result in hammer-ons or pull-offs -- and slowly zeroing in on the correct timing)...

Practicing one hand at a time...

Subtly varying tempo (instead of always starting at quarter note = 60, you might try starting at 56, 64...

Going over what you need to do mentally, away from the bass...

Watching and listening to someone else do it (if possible, and not necessarily so you can emulate them exactly)...

Common themes: quality of attention, approaching a thing from as many different angles as you can, patience.

To be honest, I rarely have the patience these days myself to tackle something in the above fashion, but when I've been presented with something particularly thorny in the past, the above approaches have helped, and coincided with some of my biggest technical gains.

My two cents.

Ill try some of that. Some of the things you said with rhythms, im pretty good at. Ive always been good at syncopation, figuring out rhythms, stuff like that, but when it comes to a fast, nonstop beat, i cant do it My mind is weird. But i like the "practice one hand at a time thing" for this particular song, my left hand needs to get better at hitting the notes and my right hand needs some help string crossing and stuff. Thanks a lot

 

[Lo-E]

My mind is having a conflict: I love bass, but I also hate being patient

I'm right there with you! That's what I meant when I said it's torture.

I can't say I'm any sort of zen master when it comes to good practice habits, but do as I say, not as I do. Better yet, do as Charlie says!

 

[facepalmmaster]

I'm right there with you! That's what I meant when I said it's torture.

I can't say I'm any sort of zen master when it comes to good practice habits, but do as I say, not as I do. Better yet, do as Charlie says!

Hah, ill try, I hope its better than my practicing habits for cello (nonexistent )

 

[Fergie Fulton]

Thanks, but do you know of any general exercises to overall make the hands more coordinated? Not just specifically for one song? I think i'll do that though, thanks

In developing coordination you have to let the brain get involved because it is what will coordinate all the different parts that will be used in playing.
So compound time signatures are a great place to start, so practice any of your exercises in a compound time. Most scale practice is done in simple time so by learning to think and use compound time you will increase the coordination needed to do it.

If you play with your fingers then play slow and deliberate as stated but do it in time that resembles slow motion. Move you hands and body like it is all in slow motion, even count in slow motion. See yourself playing as if in a slow motion scene, you will be amazed at how much you can improve after just on practice session when you speed it back up.

What is happening is that you are allowing all your senses to associate there interaction and so better coordinate there movement as much as they work together they also keep out of each others way.
We have to understand that the plucking hand always being led the fretting hand, it is by the smallest of margins that it leads.
Many think the hands work exactly together, you pluck and fret at the same time.
But what actually happens is we fret the note then pluck, or have the note already fretted then pluck. We do not fret and pluck at the same time, the string has to be fully and correctly fretted before it is plucked to get the true note, tone and quality we want from it.

A great exercise for this is to practice playing any scale piece like this. You pluck every other fretted note.
On the fretting hand the effect is that one note is plucked and the next is hammered on, then the next one plucked, and the next one hammered on etc etc. This alternate use of plucking let's the fretting hand feel what is involved to lead the plucking hand, the plucking hand get a feel of what the fretting hand has to do in order to fret a note.
In doing this exercise slow and over extended time, what actually happens is you learn to "hear" the string touch the fret and match the pluck to that sound..not before it or after it but at the exact same time.
So in fact the string has moved towards the fretboard first, only when it reaches the fret wire should it it plucked, so in fact the fretting hand has led the plucking hand. Try it playing chromatically on one string to start with both up and down the octave to get the feel for it.

What many fail to realise is we develop any action, then we once we have the action down, we just speed it up. Whether it be learning to type or play, the sequence is the same. Slow deliberate movement to do the task correct, then as that becomes learned we just do it faster and smoother. If you think about it most things in life follow this sequence of learning, music is no different.