I just can't seem to stop making mistakes...

[pcake]

when practicing, slow it down enough to think about what you're playing, no matter how slow that has to be. then practice it perfectly slow, and when you can do it right every time, speed it up a little more, rinse and repeat.

btw, i would do that 3x, play some other stuff, play it 3 more times. then before bed, 3 times.

 

[jamro217]

when practicing, slow it down enough to think about what you're playing, no matter how slow that has to be. then practice it perfectly slow, and when you can do it right every time, speed it up a little more, rinse and repeat.

btw, i would do that 3x, play some other stuff, play it 3 more times. then before bed, 3 times.

Rinse and repeat. Is that like boiling old strings?

 

[Pirate Captain]

the first mistake I made was "learning the bass"

 

[pcake]

Rinse and repeat. Is that like boiling old strings?

 

[JazzbassArt]

The replies to transcribe it, works for me. Also, an hour or so before I go to bed, I visualize playing the song several times, so my subconscious brain, deems the information worthy of committing to memory, and won't delete it during the rem reboot. I'm currently revisiting many songs, using this methodology.

 

[Pbassmanca]

Was listening back to a couple of recent recordings we made from shows...

Bottom line is a lot of stuff I'm playing really well on, but I can't seem to stop making some mistakes more often than I'd like to, and this is even on tunes that I've spent a considerable amount of time practicing.

Tips for getting some of this stuff more ingrained?

Bonnie Raitt once said that "she never heard James "Hutch" Hutchinson play a bad note for her in 20+ years. None of us are Hutch Hutchinson. It happens. It will likely keep happening. Just practice diligently and don't sweat it too hard.

 

[Spidey2112]

Bonnie Raitt once said that "she never heard James "Hutch" Hutchinson play a bad note for her in 20+ years. None of us are Hutch Hutchinson. It happens. It will likely keep happening. Just practice diligently and don't sweat it too hard.

Do what I do... smile, play, make mistake, wink and nod like I meant to do it, and keep on smiling and playing...

... works every time.

 

[saabfender]

“.spent about 15 minutes a day repeating that same part for several days in a row and I still messed it up..”

I’d recommend against practicing that way. Play songs all the way through. Don’t work on them piecemeal. You need to know the song as a whole. Let the conception of the song pull you through all the sections. Internalize the form of the song. You (the bass player) need to know what’s coming next.

That is many times more important to the band than worrying about playing some riff correctly.

 

[JeffC23]

Was listening back to a couple of recent recordings we made from shows...

Bottom line is a lot of stuff I'm playing really well on, but I can't seem to stop making some mistakes more often than I'd like to, and this is even on tunes that I've spent a considerable amount of time practicing.

Tips for getting some of this stuff more ingrained?

I had a friend tell me to practice a hard part 10 times in a row without making a mistake. If you make a mistake start over. Until you can do it 10 times mistake free. That way your brain will lock in the mistake free version. It helps me.

 

[Hambone70]

Basic theory. Scales, chord tones, passing notes especially. It helped me immensely when I saw WHY and HOW bass lines worked with the song key, chord progressions, etc. For me, it was SO much easier than rote memorization. It also helped me to improvise when I didn't know the exact bass line.

 

[SactoBass]

I had a friend tell me to practice a hard part 10 times in a row without making a mistake. If you make a mistake start over. Until you can do it 10 times mistake free. That way your brain will lock in the mistake free version. It helps me.

Yep! Repetition. It's like wearing a path down in your brain until you get to the point where that path is so worn down that your brain just automatically takes that path.

 

[SactoBass]

It’s not mistakes, it’s just the jazz version.

LOL!!!

 

[OogieWaWa]

An alternative thought; do you get it right in practice but have trouble with these passages live? Are you doing a cover or using a recording instead of sheet music? Maybe the drummer is screwing up the timing consistently and you try to play it the way you practiced it, and they don't match. That will definitely throw you off, you'll think you screwed up even if you were OK. I've had that happen a number of times.

For instance, our drummer is great, but honestly his Texas shuffle leaves something to be desired. He plays it too complex when it should be simple. It was easier just to match his timing. We still sound good and only a musician might notice that we "made the song ours." It's still not the way I'd prefer, but at east I am used to accommodating for it and we're in his groove.

Alternative 2: Could it be that you should be using some hammer-ons or some other technique rather than playing each note? Listen really close and make sure you're trying to do the right thing. Make sure they are all bass notes and you don't have a couple of low tom or kick hits that sound like a bass.

 

[pomegranesis]

+100000 to all the responses telling you to go slow over the passage several times (~10 times) without making a mistake. Then, go back a bar and play through the passage several more times; after that, add a bar after the passage; after that, play it faster; etc. It's not easy to unlearn and relearn something.

Incidentally, I once complained to my teacher that my ring finger kept hitting the wrong note in a particularly difficult passage. She told me to make it hit the right note instead. It was confoundedly simple mind-over-fingers stuff - not sure if that's helpful to you, but it worked for me...

 

[Hambone70]

I find Guitar Pro 7 to be an excellent helper. You can loop sections, starting with a slow tempo, and GP7 will increase the tempo on each loop. On a difficult section, I set the initial tempo to 80%, and have GP7 increase by 1% each time around until reaching 100%. Helps burn it into my aging gray matter!

 

[HamOnTheCob]

one tune in particular i knew would give me a problem, theres one section that always trips me up...spent about 15 minutes a day repeating that same part for several days in a row and I still messed it up..Its not even like it's all that hard of a tune and there are certainly much more challenging things I play that I don't screw up.

also, its actually a tune ive been playing for "years" and I always just kind of ghost noted that section because I was just too lazy to learn it and also because I could get away with playing it like that with the people I was in a band with at the time...That doesnt fly with the guys Im in a band with now, and I honestly want to put real effort into making this stuff sound the best it can.

I feel you!

There's one song we played with my last band... some boring cover I didn't like that always came near the end of our last set. So by then, not only is it a boring tune, but I'm tired and losing focus. Really simple song with only 3 parts. But for some reason, every time it got to the chorus, I would transition to the wrong note, every single time around. This happened (no exaggeration) about a hundred shows in a row playing shows with that band from 2015-2017. On my very last show with the band, I made it a point to do it right, and I did. That was the first and last time I didn't mess it up, and the happiest part about it was knowing I'd never have to play that turd again. LoL

Best of luck!

 

[Pulverizor]

Try relearning it in a different position on the fretboard and substitute open strings for fretted notes and vice versa.
That way the fingering will be different and it might feel like learning something new rather than repeating the same problems/mental blocks.

 

[xnewyorka]

Was listening back to a couple of recent recordings we made from shows...

Bottom line is a lot of stuff I'm playing really well on, but I can't seem to stop making some mistakes more often than I'd like to, and this is even on tunes that I've spent a considerable amount of time practicing.

Tips for getting some of this stuff more ingrained?

When you make a mistake, is it because you forgot what note you were supposed to play, or you knew what note to play but your fingers didn't get there in time?

If you are forgetting the chord changes or forgetting the song structure or forgetting what note you are supposed to be playing at a certain point in a song, then my first questions are:
How much sleep are you getting?
Are you consuming any alcohol or other mind-altering substances on the day of the show?
If given plenty of time and no stage pressure, can you play the song perfectly (e.g. home alone)?

If you know the song by heart and know what you want to play but your fingers aren't getting there, then practice the song at an extremely slow tempo so that you can play it 100% accurately with absolute perfection, then gradually speed up the tempo, playing it 100% perfectly a whole bunch of times, and don't ever let yourself make even the slightest mistake. (Slow it back down if you start making mistakes.) Make sure you have a good, efficient fingering, and use the same fingering every single time you play it.

Playing fast but sloppy is extremely detrimental in the long run because you are training yourself to make mistakes. Concentrate instead on playing the correct notes with the correct timing and clean execution, at whatever speed you can achieve perfection. Speed will come automatically with repetition.

 

[2cooltoolz]

I use Audacity.

Audacity

You can slow the tempo without changing pitch, you can loop difficult passages, you can change the pitch for detuned songs. My true salvation...

 

[bass71]

Find a song that is quite hard but which your not that mad about..then learn it until its perfect...doing that will take ur playing to a whole new level and will make you a much more accurate musician...less mistakes.