Feedback on Money cover (newbie)

[fossegrim]

Good evening bass players.

I have recorded a video of me playing Money by Pink Floyd and I would appreciate some feedback on it. My playing is not perfect. I made many bad mistakes, but since I have been procrastinating posting a video for a while I decided to post it anyhow.

I'm would be very glad to get some advice on how to improve my technique and my playing. Not so much the audio quality and so on. The audio is recorded with the built in microphone on my laptop so needless to say it is quite poor.

I hope we can keep the responses constructive and in a friendly tone.

Thanks in advance for the feedback.

Recording with studio recording:
Recording with just bass:

 

[Lagado]

Time feels alright. Start using the E string as the rest instead of the pickup for this, you'll keep the E muted when you're not playing it. The first couple of minutes, the main theme, you should be able to play in one position without shifting including the rake. Bring your thumb to a more vertical and lower position on the back of the neck, you'll get a better stretch. Look at that rake as a chord but obviously don't play it like one. Keep the root of it in place, forget the shift.

If you have something to play over four frets, assign the fingers to it, don't shift. Take 2.55, that chromatic rundown from D, use your four fingers: Pinky, ring, middle, index.

You are doing well, but a good teacher can make a big difference. Learn more on positioning and assigning fingers more than shifting, and practice more of a floating thumb on the plucking hand, invaluable for muting strings.

The biggest problem with the left hand, is the thumb is too horizontal and too high, it's robbing you of the stretch need to keep the stuff you can play in one position, in one position. Also try to lift your fingers just enough to release the note, keep the fingers closer to the fretboard ready to fret the next note.

 

[Lagado]

Your fingers look the same length as mine, quite long, they bury a Jazz neck. They will be great for arching and the bottom end scale, shouldn't be a problem. I would recommend that you pay particular attention to learning proper right and left hand technique at this point, it's far more difficult to iron these things out later. Try and look at the most efficient way of playing, the least amount of effort for the most amount of gain. There is a wealth of stuff out there concerning technique. Scott Devine's YT channel is quite popular.

 

[fossegrim]

Thanks a lot for the advice @Lagado. I will implement your suggestions in my practice tomorrow.

 

[AboutSweetSue]

It looks like you’re using your thumb to essentially drag your fingers across the strings as if you were strumming in an upwards motion. Those notes are played strongly, and a sweep isn’t going to cut it. This goes into what I think has already been mentioned, work on technique.

Your timing is off, it is inconsistent. That should come with time and practice. The feel will come with time as well. So, keep practicing. It takes a lot of practice. People don’t realize that.

 

[Lagado]

Just a quick tip that should improve things straight away. Internalise how much finger pressure it takes to cleanly play a note. Put a finger on a string above the fret you are going to play, play 8th's on the string with your right hand. Depress the string slowly until it frets cleanly. It doesn't take as much pressure as you think at all. Do this and avoid the 'death grip.' Light, flighty touch is v.good.

 

[Malcolm35]

You are doing fine. Keep at it and remember it's called playing, because it is supposed to be fun.