Getting burnout from bass. What to do?

[jvanoort]

I’ve had the same with another instrument. Basically I was always in Study mode and never allowed myself to just play and have fun. Years on end just being critical and always judging yourself can squeeze all the fun out of something.

Also: try to take lessons, if only online (if you can’t find a teacher you like nearby). You’ll learn new things but more importantly he/she can help you find structure in your routine.
You can find everything on youtube nowadays, but it’ so easy to find something new to dive into every day and that way you won’t improve, which becomes frustrating.
A teacher can also help with that.

 

[BlueTalon]

For the last month, I've been obsessed with improving in bass and it was my number one occupation of all my free time. I still want to play and improve still but thinking of picking up my bass guitar gives me a sense of dread. Is this burnout? What steps can I take moving forward from here?

Nothing should take up all of your free time. Take some time to do something else, preferably something fun. Maybe take a break from the bass for a week or so. Listen to music, something that makes you want to learn how to play it. Then after a week, start learning those songs. But don't occupy all your free time with it.

 

[EngrSorenson]

obsessed and now you don’t want to at all? idk man

for sure- there’s all types of people and one type really gets jazzed and enthusiastic- dives all in. Then lots of things can happen, but most of the time these people hit a wall of one sort or another. Like eating a bag full of a favorite candy.

I think it’s easy for some people, particularly young people and new players, to conclude that some dedication of time is good, so complete dedication of time is more gooder. I think that way can be fraught with problems.

just like with audiences, we should leave room for ourselves to want more, too.

 

[Lostgallifreyan]

Nothing should take up all of your free time. Take some time to do something else, preferably something fun. Maybe take a break from the bass for a week or so. Listen to music, something that makes you want to learn how to play it. Then after a week, start learning those songs. But don't occupy all your free time with it.

That's the best way to renew interest, probably.

An earlier post I couldn't understand was the suggestion that he should just keep pushing, as if he had a gig to do. First, if he had I think he'd have said so. Second, lack of push isn't the problem. I can understand pushing carefully to enable the ability to cope with adverse conditions, but it's a question of which adverse condition is the highest priority!

It's likely that even if he had a gig, as with an exam, it's best to rest entirely, for a short period (a day or two), until warming up immediately before the event, assuming that adequate effort to prepare has already been done in previous weeks.

If I have to ask why I'm doing something because there's no obvious reason, I do whatever else is bugging me to get it done. And if I have a really bad day on a bass I'll give up. There's less shame in that than in wasting time learning bad technique. The trick is not to stay away too long. 'Giving up' may be a period just three hours long. Last time this happened to me, the second session in the day was so good I wished that one had been played live... But these moments ARE a form of giving up. It has to be unconditional, or the bad period just gets drawn out and lasts longer.

Listening to the sort of music that made you want to play will make that period shorter, especially if you haven't done it for a while.

I had to spell that out in full, no other way to do it. As I do nearly everything I do, alone, I had to discover these ways to cope. They work.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Buy one of these.

 

[salmon256]

I had this to, and still kind of. Working on DB helped me personally because it was structure lessons and I had a teacher to ask questions, maybe taking a break but taking bass guitar lessons can help, it helped me A LOT as well when I took bass guitar lessons. I also focus on other hobbies like swimming and kendo, I find sports are like instruments but for me repetitions and quality practice is easier for them Idk why for me. I wish you best of luck, I'm still in a burnt out phase and I think sometimes maybe getting GAS will solve it but in reality it's just a way to force myself to use something expensive which is not a good idea! Another thing that helped me were method books or books that work on particular songs and just learning them slowly and only working on that, I did that with some jazz solos for DB but learnt them on my bass guitar. Good luck!

 

[beaglesandbass]

Taking a break isn’t a bad thing.

Hell I haven’t picked up any of my basses in over a month.

 

[g-dude]

thinking of picking up my bass guitar gives me a sense of dread. Is this burnout? What steps can I take moving forward from here?

How much does your bass weigh?

Perhaps you should buy a new bass that weighs less.

 

[EngrSorenson]

Taking a break isn’t a bad thing.

Hell I haven’t picked up any of my basses in over a month.

You don’t pick them up… they pick you up, ammirite?

 

[Lostgallifreyan]

I also focus on other hobbies like swimming and kendo, I find sports are like instruments but for me repetitions and quality practice is easier for them Idk why for me.

That's very interesting, it's something I've seen too, and didn't mention in my posts. Probably should have..

JJ Burnel does karate, as well as bass. Theo DeRaadt, coder of OpenBSD, climbs mountains. I liked running a lot, cross country, also swimming in a reservoir when arthritis didn't limit my ability to travel on foot. I still go on long walks. It helps core strength and coordination, my bass playing improves after doing this (and resting for a few hours first).

I think the key to these things working is that they use enough of the same mechanisms in brain and body, while being different enough to be interesting and motivating in their own right. By switching between such activities, time spent on each of them improves our ability at the other, so we waste much less time in total.

(It occurs to me that trying to see how karate and bass can relate is easier than seeing how coding and climbing relate. I've done a lot of coding, much less climbing, but enough to see that they do. It's something to do with the reorienting of spatial relations in how we see structures and navigate them. Coding, like climbing, is a constant sustained motion, if we stall, we're in trouble. It's surprising how much in they have in common. A good coding session actually improves muscle tone even if we're sitting down! (Standing up becomes as easy as if we had been walking, not sitting, for hours). I assume the brain is acting to maintain muscles in a similar way because it's trying to solve the problem in similar ways, but it could be interesting to see if medical researchers have explored that..)

Anyway, it all implies we can gain a lot by careful choices of what we do when we're not playing a bass.

 

[Danny O Danny]

I walked away from bass for a couple of years and got into ukuleles. I had a blast and learned a lot about music from a different perspective. It's hard to be overly serious with a ukulele. Plus ukes are relatively cheap. Eventually I circled back around to bass and was reinvigorated and found it easier to just play for enjoyment (which, ironically, caused me to improve as a bassist).

 

[matdras]

There’s a lot of good advice here. I have personally tried both schools of thought: taking a break and doubling down. They both have their own merits.

The important thing to remember is the learning an instrument/playing music is a journey. There really is no end goal. If the journey isn’t fun, then take a few steps off the path, but it doesn’t mean you have to lose sight of the path.

At least in my case, I have found more musical inspiration from non-musical sources than I thought was possible.

 

[E2942]

If I'm being completely honest, things like that make me want to quit playing altogether.
Ironically however, the opposing side of the spectrum makes me feel similar.
Players who think p-bass is the be all end all & that bass players should never play chords or above the 5th fret.
Just the general attitude of people in this forum is enough to put me off, if I'm being brutally honest.

 

[mambo4]

I have dedicated nearly every minute of free time to practicing bass last month and most of this month,

in that case burn out seems inevitable. Far better to cultivate a regular scheduled practice routine. Train yourself to play when it’s time to play. Then Pursue the rest of life with the rest of your time.

 

[Space Pickle]

switch to accordion

 

[Chrisk-K]

Walk away. Life is way more than playing the bass. You may want to play again in the future.

 

[roller]

Listen to new music. Throw yourself into stuff you don't regularly listen to, even if the bass isn't played by an actual bassist.

Find new players to research and delve into. It helps if the players are featured in online videos in which they discuss the instrument and how they approach it.

Don't knee-jerk and sell your gear -- chances are you'll regret it later.

For the last month, I've been obsessed with improving in bass and it was my number one occupation of all my free time. I still want to play and improve still but thinking of picking up my bass guitar gives me a sense of dread. Is this burnout? What steps can I take moving forward from here?

 

[bassGtar]

For the last month, I've been obsessed with improving in bass and it was my number one occupation of all my free time. I still want to play and improve still but thinking of picking up my bass guitar gives me a sense of dread. Is this burnout? What steps can I take moving forward from here?

If you can do it, spend time singing and transcribing new bass lines (without the bass). After doing that for a while you will want to pick up your bass and play them.

 

[EngrSorenson]

If I'm being completely honest, things like that make me want to quit playing altogether.
Ironically however, the opposing side of the spectrum makes me feel similar.
Players who think p-bass is the be all end all & that bass players should never play chords or above the 5th fret.
Just the general attitude of people in this forum is enough to put me off, if I'm being brutally honest.

What excellent feedback. I’m guessing somewhere between a ZZ Top bass line and a Chapman Stick we can find common ground. If only that line wasn’t so damn fine.

 

[Ric5]

For the last month, I've been obsessed with improving in bass and it was my number one occupation of all my free time. I still want to play and improve still but thinking of picking up my bass guitar gives me a sense of dread. Is this burnout? What steps can I take moving forward from here?

buy one of these