Sometimes I have issues like yours. For myself, I find I tense up on stage from nerves and pressure to perform. The best I found is to try and let go of that internal tension, and really just relax and let myself play the material. If you have no problems in practice then you have the muscle memory. You just have to let your hands play the bass.
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Question to (mostly Pro's): losing dexterity playing LIVE! :(
- Thread starter LarryR
- Start date
I'm a believer 'if you can do it once you can do it a million times." Well that worked well as a young man but I made the mistake of continuing with life and getting older. Warm up practice does wonders.. can u imagine a vocalist going in cold? ... But most still do a we all suffer for it. ... Also exercise? You getting any? Exercise, I mean. ... Tai Chi and biking does it for me. It pumps up the blood and centers my being. .... the rest is warm up and practice.
Try a pick. I believe the recorded version of that song is played with a pick as well. Eighth note songs, often are much easier to do with a pick. (Once you get your technique up).
Lotsa possibilities mentioned already...
Apart from having trouble picking myself out in a muddy stage mix, I find that an uncomfortably loud overall level makes me tense up, in general. Notice it in my face muscles in particular, but I guess it might affect finger dexterity as well.
Good custom ear plugs? I like the ACS Pro 17s a lot. Easier to relax and groove when I'm not dreading the next rimshot.
Apart from having trouble picking myself out in a muddy stage mix, I find that an uncomfortably loud overall level makes me tense up, in general. Notice it in my face muscles in particular, but I guess it might affect finger dexterity as well.
Good custom ear plugs? I like the ACS Pro 17s a lot. Easier to relax and groove when I'm not dreading the next rimshot.
Welcome to TB Finaks
Interesting way of getting what you call “unconscious relaxation”. IMO, if you play with confidence, you will never have the “hard passage”. Once you got it, you got it and can do it anytime anywhere.
To OP’s situation, I think it’s a combination of hydration, stretching and warm ups.
Very interesting though Finaks, I’ll keep that in mind when trying something new.
I have been having different fingers totally freeze up. Either hand it doesn't matter, I have to stretch to make them work again.
MDBass
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- Nov 7, 2012
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Warming up and stretching are a absolute musts for every pro, especially with technical playing, both for the sake of the performance and to avoid injury in the long term...as an extreme example, the instrumentalists in Dream Theater all warm up for two full hours before every performance
Also, do you play at home standing or seated? It makes a much bigger difference for the right hand than the left, and is really like it's own set of muscle memory.
Definitely add warming up and stretching to your routine now regardless; playing a musical instrument at the professional level is a physically demanding task, and if you don't treat it accordingly all sorts of bad, potentially career ending things can happen.
Yes, indeed those are things that will affect your ability to do your best.
People also tend to do things playing live that aren't happening when practising, such as biting their lip etc. that might cause tension in the body. After all, performing is always a special situation, and I think the key to succes here would be to try to make it as "normal" as possible, so that the playing will feel exactly the same as it was in the shed.
People also tend to do things playing live that aren't happening when practising, such as biting their lip etc. that might cause tension in the body. After all, performing is always a special situation, and I think the key to succes here would be to try to make it as "normal" as possible, so that the playing will feel exactly the same as it was in the shed.
Dexterity issues will happen to all as we get older, but it is the story behind them that is the answer to minimalising there effect on us.
First off, injuries we sustained when younger may become more apparant as we get older.
As our bodies age we do not repair as fast, injuries take longer to heal.
Also if we had an injury when younger our body may continue to heal it throughout our life...until we slow down, then the rate of healing is not as fast as the damage, so it become apparant to us...usually a an ache.
For me having a daily routine to repeat that covers all range of body movement give all my musicles and joints a chance of movement that they may never get in actual day to day life.
So my warm up when i wake up is all about stretching and a varied range of stretching.
Because i use the same routine, if something is not right i can feel it, if movement is restricted or sore i can feel it. This is like a "bench mark" for me it makes me aware of wat is going on.
My playing warm up is the same, it is playing scales and execises in the same way as usual so as to inform meall is well......or if something is wrong. Only by having the same routine can i assess this, using varied or changing routines serves me no purpose.
Because my warm up has vast arrays of movement, i give my hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, and shoulders a full chance of movement, again movement i may not get when in a playing situation.
When working i may have the same score, or songs to play night after night, so my movements will develop a routine, a routine of movement that may favour some movement, but not others. So my warm up gives me a full range of movements or which only some may reflect what i am about to play......but it does not neglect what my body can do in favour of what i play.
This along with better diet, staying better hydrated, less longer practice times in favour of short ones with lots more breaks helps me stay where i need to be, rather than where i want to be.
Accepting change as we get older is not a lose of skills, more over a different way of using what we have.
I suffered the worse thing of all, a sudden and complte lose of function through a car crash in which i broke my neck. The immediate effect was paralysis on the right upper body, and weakness to the left side resulting in complete loss of all movement in the right arm.
That was 7 years ago and although i have my skills back they are greatly depleted in the "headroom" i have when playing. before the accident i used less than 50% of my skills to play 100%, (100% is to play mistake free, 50% is the effort used to do so) so in playing terms i had 50% in the tank if i needed it.
So if un-well, tired or run-down i could still give 100% but using maybe 75% effort.
In practice, or rehearsal, learning material was faster or slower depending on the amount of effort i had to use was another example of headroom, some days learning required just listening and no playing, so learning songs was just learning arrangments, not physical playing.
In the end we have to use what we have, not what we had, and that requires a change of attitude more than anything.....My grandfather once told me "when you are young you can work from the neck down, but in later life at some point it pays to start working from the neck up."
First off, injuries we sustained when younger may become more apparant as we get older.
As our bodies age we do not repair as fast, injuries take longer to heal.
Also if we had an injury when younger our body may continue to heal it throughout our life...until we slow down, then the rate of healing is not as fast as the damage, so it become apparant to us...usually a an ache.
For me having a daily routine to repeat that covers all range of body movement give all my musicles and joints a chance of movement that they may never get in actual day to day life.
So my warm up when i wake up is all about stretching and a varied range of stretching.
Because i use the same routine, if something is not right i can feel it, if movement is restricted or sore i can feel it. This is like a "bench mark" for me it makes me aware of wat is going on.
My playing warm up is the same, it is playing scales and execises in the same way as usual so as to inform meall is well......or if something is wrong. Only by having the same routine can i assess this, using varied or changing routines serves me no purpose.
Because my warm up has vast arrays of movement, i give my hands, wrists, forearms, elbows, and shoulders a full chance of movement, again movement i may not get when in a playing situation.
When working i may have the same score, or songs to play night after night, so my movements will develop a routine, a routine of movement that may favour some movement, but not others. So my warm up gives me a full range of movements or which only some may reflect what i am about to play......but it does not neglect what my body can do in favour of what i play.
This along with better diet, staying better hydrated, less longer practice times in favour of short ones with lots more breaks helps me stay where i need to be, rather than where i want to be.
Accepting change as we get older is not a lose of skills, more over a different way of using what we have.
I suffered the worse thing of all, a sudden and complte lose of function through a car crash in which i broke my neck. The immediate effect was paralysis on the right upper body, and weakness to the left side resulting in complete loss of all movement in the right arm.
That was 7 years ago and although i have my skills back they are greatly depleted in the "headroom" i have when playing. before the accident i used less than 50% of my skills to play 100%, (100% is to play mistake free, 50% is the effort used to do so) so in playing terms i had 50% in the tank if i needed it.
So if un-well, tired or run-down i could still give 100% but using maybe 75% effort.
In practice, or rehearsal, learning material was faster or slower depending on the amount of effort i had to use was another example of headroom, some days learning required just listening and no playing, so learning songs was just learning arrangments, not physical playing.
In the end we have to use what we have, not what we had, and that requires a change of attitude more than anything.....My grandfather once told me "when you are young you can work from the neck down, but in later life at some point it pays to start working from the neck up."
- Sep 4, 2010
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I''ll just tell you what I have been doing. Up to you to decide in what way it relates to you. I just turned 50 and have 30+ years under my belt. I recently had a shoulder pain that wasn't going away and that I attributed to bad positioning at work, and I never lasted longer than 45 minutes on a show (I usually do 1 set shows anyway, but still).
What I found out it was that I had been playing with my left hand wrist in a bent fashion all my life and now that age caught up with me, I couldn't do it anymore. Also, my heavy touch, which I always had, on my progressing age got me to cramp up on shows to a point of rigidity that everybody basically always thought I was "too loud"
This prompted me to become humble (the hardest part), work with a teacher, and completely review and overhaul my technique, top to bottom - left hand: positioning, curving fingers, position shifting, hammer osn and poulloffs and sliding, keeping underarm at all times in a straight line with the hand; right hand: curving fingers, move the thumb along with the strings, what finger to pluck with when moving from string to string, postioning along the string, and most importantly: from a heavy to a LIGHT touch, and practicing that light touch (evenness between notes) relentlessly in any tempos, especially slow ones.
It was really tough at first, but now, half a year later, it slowly starts to emerge: better tone, better phrasing, but most importantly from the people I play with I can sense that my playing gives off a different vibe now, one they find more convivial to play with; and i can do multiple sets again now, no problem.
Good luck!
What I found out it was that I had been playing with my left hand wrist in a bent fashion all my life and now that age caught up with me, I couldn't do it anymore. Also, my heavy touch, which I always had, on my progressing age got me to cramp up on shows to a point of rigidity that everybody basically always thought I was "too loud"
This prompted me to become humble (the hardest part), work with a teacher, and completely review and overhaul my technique, top to bottom - left hand: positioning, curving fingers, position shifting, hammer osn and poulloffs and sliding, keeping underarm at all times in a straight line with the hand; right hand: curving fingers, move the thumb along with the strings, what finger to pluck with when moving from string to string, postioning along the string, and most importantly: from a heavy to a LIGHT touch, and practicing that light touch (evenness between notes) relentlessly in any tempos, especially slow ones.
It was really tough at first, but now, half a year later, it slowly starts to emerge: better tone, better phrasing, but most importantly from the people I play with I can sense that my playing gives off a different vibe now, one they find more convivial to play with; and i can do multiple sets again now, no problem.
Good luck!
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Generally practicing standing up is a good idea. Most people practice at home sitting down and expect to play the same at a gig standing up. That could have something to do with it. I personally practice standing up with the bass high. Same live. Maybe your issue?
Strap needs to be adjusted.. Try sitting in the position that you can "Fly" through the riffs at home with your strap on.. Adjust your strap till it is snug to your shoulder .. Stand up and try to "Fly" through the same riffs.. Worked for me....
good idea to find a good teacher, have them watch you play live, and practicing, there could be something going on in your form that causes this.
either that or maybe just a good band pow wow before the set to bring everyone into the same head space.
go into the green room, shut everyone out except band members. talk shop, hold guitars and warm up together, that kind of stuff.
then when it is showtime, put on the show everyone wants to see !
either that or maybe just a good band pow wow before the set to bring everyone into the same head space.
go into the green room, shut everyone out except band members. talk shop, hold guitars and warm up together, that kind of stuff.
then when it is showtime, put on the show everyone wants to see !
Not warming up properly, and not playing relaxed is usually the culprit in these situations. Its easy to be relaxed at home as you are comfortable, there is no anxiety or nervous tension. You need to really work at it for live playing. Develope a stretching routine and really focus on playing relaxed without muscle tension that can rob you of strength. That is what has helped me the most(especially on upright gigs, or high pressure situations).
Do you feel like people are looking at you when you play? It's a weird feeling and uncomfortable for some. My vote is nerves - just a little bit of self-consciousness.
I disagree with playing lighter. Play with whatever amount of force the material requires. But do it with authority. Your job is to be in the moment and become a physical manifestation of that perfect song. Project it proudly to every single person in the room. Look around. Make eye contact with every person you can. Don't just scan the audience - connect with them. Be confident. You are a great bass player. Make amazing music.
I disagree with playing lighter. Play with whatever amount of force the material requires. But do it with authority. Your job is to be in the moment and become a physical manifestation of that perfect song. Project it proudly to every single person in the room. Look around. Make eye contact with every person you can. Don't just scan the audience - connect with them. Be confident. You are a great bass player. Make amazing music.
I've definitely experienced this - less dynamics available in a live, loud setting with noise and a crowd, have to play harder sometimes to get through, which means less dexterity.
Warm up certainly can help as well, stretches and scales and such, maybe review a difficult passage.
