Difficult (for me) line

[mjnyc]

Hi,

Playing bass for about half a year. No spring chicken (70).

Working on the bass line for "I Wonder" by Sixto Rodriguez.



(Bob Babbitt on bass).

So after a few weeks I can now, with some effort, play it at the speed on the recording (which seems pretty fast to me), but at that speed I have a lot of trouble making all the notes sound clean. The line goes up for 5 notes and down for 3, and the most trouble I have is going from the top note to the next one down (from note number 5 to 6 in the line, from the G string to the D string).

My question: if I just keep practicing over and over is a clean line likely to emerge? Can this take weeks and weeks? Any technique tips? Have I reached the limits of my dexterity?

Thx

Michael

 

[el murdoque]

My question: if I just keep practicing over and over is a clean line likely to emerge? Can this take weeks and weeks? Any technique tips?

Yes and yes.
Play it only as fast as you can play it cleanly, with solid technique and every note ringing true, while feeling comfortable doing so.
If you have a metronome, figure out what tempo that is. If not, get one.
Start your practice session about 10 bpm below that tempo and play for a bit.
Increase the tempo by 5 bpm and repeat.
Increase the tempo again, and you're at the limit of your comfort zone.
Now take it up another five and play until it feels good.
Try another increase but stop when you're getting sloppy.

Take notes of where you started and where you stopped. Keep those with the metronome.
Try and play each tempo long enough to get used to it and actually train you, but not so long that it wears you out. Your goal should be that you're warmed up but not worn out when you hit your maximum tempo.

For the next session, take a look at your notes. Did you manage to push your limit? Start higher this time. Take notes again.

It's better to keep these sessions short - 5 to 20 minutes - but do several a day (if you like).

 

[mjnyc]

Great advice, thanks!

 

[FatStringer52]

I'd go one step further than what el murdoque recommended. I would say remove ALL time constraints. That's only more pressure to perform. Get the notes under your fingers cleanly, no matter how slow you have to play them. Then find out where the point is (speed wise) that you can no longer play the line cleanly. Then you can introduce the metronome (plenty of free ones online for your computer and your mobile device -- ProMetronome is a popular one for your mobile device) and begin on working to bring the line up to speed. Best of luck . . .

 

[mjnyc]

Thanks.
The song is at about 110 bpm.
At around 65 or 70 I can play it essentially without errors and without much stress.
An occasional bad note creeps in, but I think I can get rid of those with a little more practice..
Will crank it up slowly from there.

It's funny, I read stuff about how you're supposed to practice, and I go "yeah, yeah" and forget it until I find out it's really true. Thanks again.

Michael

 

[WrapRough]

I've been using this technique from Adam Nitti to increase speed and I think it works really well...

 

[Thrakkar]

Thanks.
The song is at about 110 bpm.
At around 65 or 70 I can play it essentially without errors and without much stress.
An occasional bad note creeps in, but I think I can get rid of those with a little more practice..
Will crank it up slowly from there.

It's funny, I read stuff about how you're supposed to practice, and I go "yeah, yeah" and forget it until I find out it's really true. Thanks again.

Michael

Another option you might try is slowing the tempo down below where you are comfortable and making sure you can play it perfectly in every way. Hold every note for as long as possible before making the transition to the next. This part is crucial. It will give you time to consider where and how to precisely move your fingers, which you'll still be doing as quickly as you are able. If your finger movements across the fretboard are smooth then the speed will come.

Typically when I'm doing this I'll advance the tempo by a few BPM only if I can perform the section I'm working on perfectly ten consecutive times. It's brutal but effective if you reset the counter to zero after making any mistake.

This is just an option that's working for me as I attempt to reinvent my playing. I've come to the conclusion (thirty years too late) that my technique is horrendously bad in just about every meaningful way, so I'm aiming for perfect at very slow tempos before I try fast any more.

 

[WrapRough]

Typically when I'm doing this I'll advance the tempo by a few BPM only if I can perform the section I'm working on perfectly ten consecutive times. It's brutal but effective if you reset the counter to zero after making any mistake.

Mozart used this technique. Supposedly he had ten marbles in his left pocket. Each time he played the passage perfectly he would move a marble to his right pocket. If he messed up, all the marbles went back to the left pocket.

Speed is a by-product of accuracy...but accuracy is not a by-product of speed

 

[Thrakkar]

Mozart used this technique. Supposedly he had ten marbles in his left pocket. Each time he played the passage perfectly he would move a marble to his right pocket. If he messed up, all the marbles went back to the left pocket.

Speed is a by-product of accuracy...but accuracy is not a by-product of speed

I heard that particular anecdote a few years ago, and it might have been here on TB now that I think about it.

Here's a video which explains the concept of playing glacially slow far better than I can.

 

[mjnyc]

Again, these are all great pointers.
Gradually speeding up, play several phrases slow than one really fast, play slow with very fast switch between notes...
Thanks!

 

[Old Fart]

Absolutely. Do not play the song at speed, missing notes and getting the timing wrong on just about every note. Slow it WAY down so that you are hitting the notes comfortably and correctly/accurately. Do that for a while before you move to the next faster speed. Muscle memory will be your friend. Bass players cannot be sloppy in their timing, IMHO. As the saying goes:

If you want to play fast, practice slow. If you want to play real fast, then practice real slow.