Momentary fretboard blindness?

[Jogobass]

So I was playing on a jazz jam last night. And I got to do a bass solo. All went right until some measures in and I hit a F# chord and for the life of me I didn't know how to find an F#. For a few moments. Then I suddenly saw the notes on the fretboard again.

What causes this and how can I prevent it, or practice something that helps with this.?

I have to mention, I was reading and we played a song that I didn't actually know until we started playing it.

 

[bassGtar]

Huh?
Does switching from rosewood to maple visually throw you off?

 

[Jogobass]

Huh?
Does switching from rosewood to maple visually throw you off?

I don't see how those comments relate? I'm asking about a momentary lapse of knowing where notes are on the bass. As if I'm suddenly blind. I am a visual thinker and I see patterns on the fingerboard. But they don't always have labels attached as in which note they are.

 

[FullumMusic]

We all have brain-farts in all aspects of life, not just notes on a fretboard:
- Forgetting the word for something.
- Forgetting why you walked into a room.
- Forgetting how the song starts.
- Forgetting the name of a song or a book or a movie.
- Forgetting someone's name that you've known for years. (My mother sometimes used to call me my brother's name, my father's name, and then the name of every pet we've ever had before she lands on my actual name, even though she didn't actually "forget" my name.)
- The really obvious place you put something so you wouldn't forget where you put it, and now you have no idea where you could have put it...

And then moments/minutes/hours later, for whatever reason, you can access that memory again. No idea why.

 

[Jogobass]

yeah makes sense. I'm too much of a perfectionist. perhaps I should learn to accept it and just enjoy the fact that the rest of the notes were right

 

[bassGtar]

I don't see how those comments relate? I'm asking about a momentary lapse of knowing where notes are on the bass. As if I'm suddenly blind. I am a visual thinker and I see patterns on the fingerboard. But they don't always have labels attached as in which note they are.

I misunderstood your earlier post. I thought you said you didn’t look at the fretboard while playing, and then above you said you couldn’t find the note on your fretboard. Perhaps you had a moment of panic. If you already know where the notes are, I don’t have any specific practice ideas, except variations on exercises and repetition for embedding it deeper in your brain. Hopefully someone else whose gone through this can help you out.

You and I must be wired very differently. I view patterns as a way to find notes without actually knowing the note names, rather the scale position. I think of the root note to find where to play the pattern and then I rely on the pattern to go from there. I like to practice by breaking out or changing the pattern and trying to hear where I am. But I get lost. Gook luck.

 

[mambo4]

practice until your hands do what they ought to even if your brain farts
OR
slide up until you hit the highest note on your bass
and wheedle wheedle wheedle until you mind comes back online

In general the goal is not to be 100% mistake free
but to be so fast and stylish at recovering from mistakes that no one detects anything awry.

You can practice that. Solo over some backing tracks and deliberately jump to an unfamiliar place (or close your eyes and pick a fret) and challenge yourself to recover gracefully.

 

[Dadum]

I change notes on the music sheet to the number of the scale. “5” is the fifth of the scale. The poster above also thinks in terms of notes relative to the scale and playing a finger position.

It’s easier to read in bad light and I can change the key and use the same numbers but play the notes relative to the hand position. I remember the relative finger positions easily and don’t need to think about note names.

I don’t know your specifics but the Nashville number system articles explain the topic. For me, going through beforehand and changing the notes to numbers helps to understand the music structure better. The number could be used simply to reinforce what you already know but temporarily forgot.

The system is used normally for chords but I use it for individual notes.

Search talkbass for Nashville system or NNS for some comments.

 

[Jogobass]

...
You and I must be wired very differently. I view patterns as a way to find notes without actually knowing the note names, rather the scale position. I think of the root note to find where to play the pattern and then I rely on the pattern to go from there. I like to practice by breaking out or changing the pattern and trying to hear where I am. But I get lost. Gook luck.

not so differently it's just that finding that root note escaped me in a moment and then it all came back.

 

[BadSanta1281]

Temporary short circuit.

"It goes along like this for a while... and then it gets worse."

That's what my dad would say about pretty much any subject.

 

[Dadum]

27334082[/URL], member: 237161"]not so differently it's just that finding that root note escaped me in a moment and then it all came back.

If the key of the music was G, F# is 7. For some of us, thinking in numbers is helpful. The fingering for the 7 in the key of G is known in parallel to the fretboard position of F#.

 

[J Wilson]

Don't know if this answers your question, but I would often be just blazing along and get all worked up and then, whoops!, hit a blank spot mentally just long enough to derail myself. Over time, I've taught myself to think of whatever I'm playing right this second is done and past, and I'm thinking a bar or two ahead to get lined up for where I'm going. In other words, while I'm playing the verse, I'm thinking ahead to the chorus.

 

[Killing Floor]

Punishment for attempting a bass solo?​

 

[BassPilot]

Ha - brain farts are a component of being human. Everyone has them once in a while....especially as we get older....no necessary reflection on you, but if you're my age, well, welcome to brain-fart city.

 

[brianrost]

for the life of me I didn't know how to find an F#. For a few moments. how can I prevent it, or practice something that helps with this.?

I find that keys I don't play in often (or ever...noone's called Cbb yet) trip me up on the DB, but not on BG. That's because I can always take advantage of movable patterns on the BG neck but not as easily on the DB neck. Playing the DB the use of open strings helps a lot, especially playing down near the nut. With BG, open strings tend to be used much less often.

The keys that are the worst are the ones that contain no open strings. F# major is one of them:

F# G# A# B C# D# E#

Compare that to F major and C major where all the open strings are notes within the key:

F G A Bb C D E

C D E F G A B

As far as what to practice...practice everything in all 12 keys: scales, arpeggios, even entire songs.

 

[Lardass5000]

One night, after twenty years of marriage, I inexplicably forgot my wife's name. I worried for a second or two that I may be getting Alzheimer's. Then suddenly, I was all like...
...wait a minute... you're not my wife...
...I'll take another Crown & Coke.

 

[Lardass5000]

So, don't worry. Perfectly normal.

 

[micguy]

What causes this and how can I prevent it, or practice something that helps with this.?

It's a senior moment. Welcome to advancing age. It only gets worse. Sorry. OK, on to more productive discussion....

Actually, I had a couple of those when transitioning from 4's to 5's. Luckily it wasn't on a gig. I remember looking at my fretboard and thinking "I have a middle string?". The solution to my version of this problem (and probably yours) is just a lot more practice. Practice doesn't make perfect, it stops you from thinking - making things instinctual means you play the right note without having your brain consciously aware of what's happening, which neatly sides steps brain farts like that.

 

[micguy]

One night, after twenty years of marriage, I inexplicably forgot my wife's name. I worried for a second or two that I may be getting Alzheimer's. Then suddenly, I was all like...
...wait a minute... you're not my wife...
...I'll take another Crown & Coke.

My wife is a twin (indentical). My first wife has the same first name as my current (2nd wife's) sister. In an odd twist, I have the same first name as her first husband. So when I called my wife by my first wife's name (ONCE) she was OK with it - she'd been called that name her whole childhood. Of course, I have no idea if she's confused about which husband I am.

 

[Lardass5000]

My wife is a twin (indentical). My first wife has the same first name as my current (2nd wife's) sister. In an odd twist, I have the same first name as her first husband. So when I called my wife by my first wife's name (ONCE) she was OK with it - she'd been called that name her whole childhood. Of course, I have no idea if she's confused about which husband I am.