Recording my practice (specifically recording myself playing along with tracks) and listening back to it made a massive difference to my timing.
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Timing issues
- Thread starter Bass Boy J
- Start date
The more you play with some sort of fixed meter, the better your time will become. Most timing problems come from people worrying too much about getting all the notes correct that they forget about the timing.
As long as you keep going you'll look back in a year or so and wonder why it seemed so hard. I remember when I couldn't stand up and play or sing and play at the same time. Now I don't even think about it. Patience is your friend and frustration just makes it harder.
How you feel time and rhythm is totally something that is a result of what you are exposed to.
If you don’t immerse yourself into music that has the timing that you seek to replicate, you won’t develop it.
Grow up listening to music that has swing or syncopation, and you’ll have a great internal sense of that. Grow up listening to baroque music and you’ll have a great sense of that as well. Same with folk music.
That being said, different people have different levels of coordination potential, and there are indeed people that are the rhythmic equivalent of tone deaf.
To your question OP, if you are playing the right notes but jumping out ahead of the beat it's a common problem (just guessing based on your post). I don't know if there is an exercise per se that will correct that type of timing issue beyond playing with a metronome or a drummer and getting comfortable with where the beat falls and what to accent. It might be more about relaxing and managing your anxiety when thinking ahead to what is next.
Know the part you are playing so that it is automatic and you are not thinking about how to play the part. Simplify your part so you are not over-complicating the situation and work on locking in with the kick drum. Once you get comfortable with playing a simplified bass part you can start building out fills that fit within the pocket.
Know the part you are playing so that it is automatic and you are not thinking about how to play the part. Simplify your part so you are not over-complicating the situation and work on locking in with the kick drum. Once you get comfortable with playing a simplified bass part you can start building out fills that fit within the pocket.
In my opinion, you should be able to play exactly on tempo. Metronome can help there. I equate this to locking in with the kick drum. You should also be able to play ahead or behind or a bass line that is syncopated to the drums.
Good luck on your journey.
Good luck on your journey.
I always found if you can hear the metronome around your notes then your not In time with it, lose the sound of it in your playing and your there.
Same with a click. When that click disappears, you're golden.
Without reading through the thread, have you tried recording yourself with a metronome, as well as with tracks, and then listening back? Analyzing your own playing regularly, through listening, is by far the best way. It can be challenging to listen back to your own playing at first, but then you'll improve a great deal faster
Lots of good advice in this thread. I agree with most of the techincal and metronome suggestions. You need to have good enough basic technical chops to execute what you can hear and feel. I'll add a less technical proposal that may be a rephrase and perhaps expansion of some earlier posts.
Listen to, hear, understand the drumbeat, and learn to feel the pulse. Find a medium slow tune with a basic rock or pop drumbeat - e.g. kick on 1 and 3, snare on two and four. Regardless of whether you do metronome practice, do this with real music that has a feel. Maybe some old school hip hop with a simple beat. You want something with a solid, visceral feel so you can feel it in your body. Before you touch your bass, go through the song doing the musician-standing-at-someone-else's-gig dance. Make one body move with the one and three, and another with the backbeat. You can sway your hips, nod your head, or tap your foot on one and three. Clap, snap, or do a litte shimmy on the backbeats. No flashy moves - you're just internalizing the rhythm. Make your movements one with the drums. Keep going through the whole song. Don't get bored. Get zen. Feel it deep until you aren't thinking about it and you're just one with the music. Then do it again, and again, and again. You'll probably end up vocalizing the pulse as well.
Only when you're full zen with just your body, pick up your bass and make dead notes with the kick and snare. It can be fingered or slapped, but either way you're just following the rhythm and not making any tones. Do the same thing - stop thinking and repeat until it's all feel. You might consider watching TV while you do this to make sure it happens by reflex. Shoot, recite poetry. Read the Wall Street Journal. Just make the feel completely automatic and deep. Like someone else said with the metronome, you and the record should setlle into one entity. No thinking, no anxiety, no second guessing, no striving. Be one with the pulse.
Then and only then should you start thinking about adding tones. But just roots. Keep them as short as the kick and snare so they continue to be a single note together. It's like you're playing the drums.
Once you internalize the pulso of the music, the notes you play will start falling into that pulse. And when you're playing with people, if you start to get a little lost, simplify and fall back into the pulse.
Ultimately, this is what you're going to be doing live, developing ornamentation but ultimately powering the pulse of the music with everything you do. With 99% of the gigs a regular guy is going to get, this is your most important job.
Listen to, hear, understand the drumbeat, and learn to feel the pulse. Find a medium slow tune with a basic rock or pop drumbeat - e.g. kick on 1 and 3, snare on two and four. Regardless of whether you do metronome practice, do this with real music that has a feel. Maybe some old school hip hop with a simple beat. You want something with a solid, visceral feel so you can feel it in your body. Before you touch your bass, go through the song doing the musician-standing-at-someone-else's-gig dance. Make one body move with the one and three, and another with the backbeat. You can sway your hips, nod your head, or tap your foot on one and three. Clap, snap, or do a litte shimmy on the backbeats. No flashy moves - you're just internalizing the rhythm. Make your movements one with the drums. Keep going through the whole song. Don't get bored. Get zen. Feel it deep until you aren't thinking about it and you're just one with the music. Then do it again, and again, and again. You'll probably end up vocalizing the pulse as well.
Only when you're full zen with just your body, pick up your bass and make dead notes with the kick and snare. It can be fingered or slapped, but either way you're just following the rhythm and not making any tones. Do the same thing - stop thinking and repeat until it's all feel. You might consider watching TV while you do this to make sure it happens by reflex. Shoot, recite poetry. Read the Wall Street Journal. Just make the feel completely automatic and deep. Like someone else said with the metronome, you and the record should setlle into one entity. No thinking, no anxiety, no second guessing, no striving. Be one with the pulse.
Then and only then should you start thinking about adding tones. But just roots. Keep them as short as the kick and snare so they continue to be a single note together. It's like you're playing the drums.
Once you internalize the pulso of the music, the notes you play will start falling into that pulse. And when you're playing with people, if you start to get a little lost, simplify and fall back into the pulse.
Ultimately, this is what you're going to be doing live, developing ornamentation but ultimately powering the pulse of the music with everything you do. With 99% of the gigs a regular guy is going to get, this is your most important job.
Feel and timing are two related but different issues. I take timing to mean the mechanics of music, and the ability to execute rhythms easily at will. Feel is all about the application and is best learned through imitation. Listening closely to players you wish to emulate, then transcribing and playing along with recordings is an excellent way to develop your rhythmic “feel”.
Agreed, I should have said "You don't got it until you do", some people just need to put in so much work that they never do.
Yes, looking at the actual sheet music, or rhythm chart can help visualize the song in your head.
To feel the rhythm, something that may help is just listening to a song and trying to tap the quarters (then progress to eighths...etc) on the table or your leg...whatever. specifically pay attention to when there's a pause, break, or change in feel of the beat (half time, double time, swing, shuffle, etc). If you keep your beat going, the song should rejoin your taps, barring any weird syncopations. There are some timing excersises that do just that, they'll click you in, but after a bar or two, it'll start to randomly cut the click out for a bit, then reinsert the click. It's fun but can get frustrating at times.
To feel the rhythm, something that may help is just listening to a song and trying to tap the quarters (then progress to eighths...etc) on the table or your leg...whatever. specifically pay attention to when there's a pause, break, or change in feel of the beat (half time, double time, swing, shuffle, etc). If you keep your beat going, the song should rejoin your taps, barring any weird syncopations. There are some timing excersises that do just that, they'll click you in, but after a bar or two, it'll start to randomly cut the click out for a bit, then reinsert the click. It's fun but can get frustrating at times.
Learn from them.First thing to do in dealing with the timing issue is to realize you have that problem. Many people I've played with don't even realize their shortcomings, so you wind up playing backup or catchup all nite. No fun. Many don't like to be told either, and will throw a stinkeye on you if you bring it up to them. No hope for them in that case.
My timing sucks, speed right up, but I have no problem playing with recorded material or live with a drummer. I have no interest in spending whatever time it would take to get good at it, I just don't need to. 
Salud!
Maybe it's a technique issue in your picking hand. You could books some classes with a teacher so they can look at your playing.
Maybe it's a technique issue in your picking hand. You could books some classes with a teacher so they can look at your playing.
Exactly right. Thank you Mom, for playing guitar around me as a lil kid, playing all the records you did when I was so little. I would sit and stare, with enormous envy, at 2 years old watching my mom play and sing little original tunes she made with the hopes of one day being able to do that myself. Once I found her crappy metronome at like 5 years old it was over, I used to just play with metronomes and bang on pots and pans. 30 years later I pride myself on having at least a good ear for time. My guitar player has to put more effort to be in time, as he wasn't exposed to the same level of immersion as a kid that I was, but of course he can still play great. You can still get there, but he has to put more work into it.
But if you dont have one yet, get a looper.
Navin R. Johnson used to have the same problem...
The Jerk | Getting The Rhythm | Steve Martin on Make a GIF
A bassist without good time is not a bassist. Bob Glaub told me years ago that when you are playing, just keep the note solid and in time even if it is the wrong note. The bass is even more about the rhythm than it is the notes. Some people have the gift, and others don't. I am sure you can improve your timing by paying attention to the tempo and a lot of practice, but that won't mean you and the drummer will ever lock in. You may have a steep hill to climb amigo.
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