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What is your most difficult challenge in playing bass.

#121
Since I play both fretless and upright, I focus on intonation. I find that intonation is a decent indicator of my overall technique, and a way to identify specific problem areas to work on. Also, it's the one thing that will make me cringe if I listen to a recording of myself.

In close second place, tone.

I'm lucky to play in a big-band, so I get lots of reading practice.
 
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#123
baileyboy said:
Speed. My index finger can become lethargic and irritated during gigs... playing songs with straight 8th notes has become difficult the last few years.
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I hear you on that one man. I came across a technique that Steve Harris uses. Volume/Gain up, and just barely tap the strings with your plucking fingers. Allows you to play faster and without straining yourself at all. Good Stuff.
 
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#124
Neil Folkard said:
Just wondering what everyone struggles with the most in bass world. Speed, theory, fills, gear?

Don't get me wrong, I'm always working on improving my technique, but for me, a relatively new player, the biggest challenge by far, has been understanding gear, effects pedals and order in the chain, especially in live situations. It almost seems like you have to be a scientist to get all your amp settings and effects pedals and levels and being heard but not being too loud all integrated well, especially in live situations.

How about y'all?
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Tapping, especially while trying to play a separate low end line with the left hand. It's rubbing your belly and patting your head type stuff. Why I could never pick up drums or keys! The other thing I get frustrated with is using the same fills and motiff's just naturally. I have to think to do something different. Finally I would say writing bridges/breakdowns... I can do verses and chorus all day long, its the breaking them up that is a pain. Though diving into theory has helped with this a lot.
 
#125
Neil Folkard said:
Just wondering what everyone struggles with the most in bass world. Speed, theory, fills, gear?

Don't get me wrong, I'm always working on improving my technique, but for me, a relatively new player, the biggest challenge by far, has been understanding gear, effects pedals and order in the chain, especially in live situations. It almost seems like you have to be a scientist to get all your amp settings and effects pedals and levels and being heard but not being too loud all integrated well, especially in live situations.

How about y'all?
Click to expand...
Time to bass

everything else is easy
 
#127
Claymore said:
I have "comfort zone" rhythms and note selection and whenever I try to steer away from it, I can feel myself veering towards these familiar shapes. I would like to not have any comfort zone whatsoever and just play more freely.
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Yup that is super frustrating. As creative as I can be, going back to the same stuff is just annoying. I figure I need to start learning some chords and how to integrate them better.
 
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#128
Good thread.

I have a lot of challenges in terms of knowledge, technique, execution, all this stuff. I can play decently well, but I can't play the way I'd like to be able to.

The most difficult challenge for me on bass is truly expressing myself on the instrument. I can play songs by ear, I can fall into a groove, I can do a lot of stuff - but at the end of the day, I just don't sound the way I'd truly like to sound, and often, I can't seem to translate what's in my head to the instrument in real time. (Sure, sometimes it works, but I've been put on the spot to solo and I can't express a line I want - or worse, I just don't have any ideas and the solo just sucks. Or sometimes you want to be able to nail that slick two-bar gospel fill - and you do, but you miss the landing! Ouch.) I'm decently proficient, I understand theory, I have a good ear and I'm playing out....but I dunno, I just feel like I'm not all that good.

I think there are things that I can practice that will definitely help me get better - better fretboard knowledge, deepening my understanding of theory (especially jazz-related theory, like chord extensions and "exotic scales"), acquiring new techniques (integrating chords into my regular playing more, using tapping as part of fundamental lines), improving fundamentals (bought Bass Fitness; used to do exercises like these but I stopped a while back, time to start again), and just playing a lot more. Those are challenges in themselves. But I feel as though making the instrument my voice is going to be a lifetime goal, and I don't know if I'll ever be as good as the other bassists that I hear. It's definitely difficult.

That's my struggle.
 
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#129
BassChuck said:
I play a lot of big band and musical theater pits. While the bass is necessary, few people realize the negative impact if it was absent. It's been years since I've played any church gigs, but the same was pretty much true there also.
Rock, blues and R+B fair a little better, but while you might be peeling paint with the volume, chances are the guitar and even the drums are louder.
How about solos? You get as many as the guitar player? Do they last as long? You ever have to explain to someone just what a bass is? I know there are some bands that tolerate a bass player as a showboat, but are there more than the bands that have a showboat guitarist? And just why was that movie called, "Standing In The Shadows of Motown"? (but I guess that was the whole band). Speaking of Motown Macca often mentions the bass in all the songs as being something he admired, but it was years later that he actually knew the name Jamerson, and eve then, he was a little surprised that all those tunes came from the same player.
It goes back even further. It was Benny Goodman that said that the whole band was built from the bass up. He knew, like many musicians know... but not the general public. Do you know the name of Benny Goodmans bass player? (hint: it was his brother mostly)
And then there's the meme, "you aren't really a fan of the band unless you know the bass players name".
Check out your own memory (no fair Googling). From 1951 to 1964 name the bass players in the major acts. Macca was one of the first names known to the public.
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So switch to guitar or singer if you want to be in the limelight. It is what it is.
 
#130
juggahnaught said:
Good thread.

I have a lot of challenges in terms of knowledge, technique, execution, all this stuff. I can play decently well, but I can't play the way I'd like to be able to.

The most difficult challenge for me on bass is truly expressing myself on the instrument. I can play songs by ear, I can fall into a groove, I can do a lot of stuff - but at the end of the day, I just don't sound the way I'd truly like to sound, and often, I can't seem to translate what's in my head to the instrument in real time. (Sure, sometimes it works, but I've been put on the spot to solo and I can't express a line I want - or worse, I just don't have any ideas and the solo just sucks. Or sometimes you want to be able to nail that slick two-bar gospel fill - and you do, but you miss the landing! Ouch.) I'm decently proficient, I understand theory, I have a good ear and I'm playing out....but I dunno, I just feel like I'm not all that good.

I think there are things that I can practice that will definitely help me get better - better fretboard knowledge, deepening my understanding of theory (especially jazz-related theory, like chord extensions and "exotic scales"), acquiring new techniques (integrating chords into my regular playing more, using tapping as part of fundamental lines), improving fundamentals (bought Bass Fitness; used to do exercises like these but I stopped a while back, time to start again), and just playing a lot more. Those are challenges in themselves. But I feel as though making the instrument my voice is going to be a lifetime goal, and I don't know if I'll ever be as good as the other bassists that I hear. It's definitely difficult.

That's my struggle.
Click to expand...

I'm with you on all of this stuff, except I am not great at copying by ear. Playing what I hear in my head, definitely struggle with that. Sometimes it comes out, other times it doesn't. Sometimes it doesn't come out, but it is still something workable, and I use it anyway. I think all players (at least those with any degree of modesty) don't think they are as good as they can be. Comparing yourself to others is a hard too. I totally get that. When I saw Victor Wooten in concert in San Francisco I kind of thought about quitting bass! I was like, "ok, I'll never be able to do that, so what is the point?" But there is a point. While I can't think of a bassist example very well (Maybe Nikki Sixx) what about people like Dave Grohl? He isn't by any means the most skilled singer, guitarist, or drummer, but he still brings a LOT to the music world. Just because the songs he writes aren't the most technically impressive pieces doesn't mean they aren't really good. While I am not comparing my ability to Grohl, I am a riff factory, and make tons of lines that groove well and are interesting. Lots of the songs my band plays came off of bass riffs I came up with. There are different types of ability I guess I am trying to say. That said, I still strive to improve my technical playing.
 
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#135
Frans688 said:
keeping inspired and having fun, not make a big deal, for a beginner like me & lead with the frustration
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Just find a style you like and try to learn it. Nothing keeps you going like finally pulling of that song, riff, or technique you were trying to learn. For me it was double thumb. Practiced it like crazy but could NEVER pull it off. Then one day it just clicked. While I am not a master at it, I can utilize it well enough to even put it into songs I write. Just find that thing and keep at it till you get it.
 
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#137
Finding an actual band where I can play bass... I’ve done so many gigs on drums that it’s taken me forever to find the confidence to say I can play the bass well enough to join a quality band on something other than drums. And while I get positive feedback from bands when I audition, I’m finding it hard to find one where the fit is right. It’ll happen.... eventually.
 
#138
My biggest challenge is that I don't have nearly the same "playbook" that so many other guitarists and bassists I know have.

My musical background is kind of odd; when I started playing bass at 13 (in the early 1990's), I joined a band right away; and while we played covers for a year (learned out of guitar magazine transcriptions), we started writing our own music right away. I spent my teen years writing and playing original music, then went to college for jazz, and post college, started playing in bands writing and playing original music. I missed out on years of playing along to music, which so many other people I know did in their formative years. I've got a pretty good ear, and can create a bass line on the spot for pretty much anything, but unless it's in my relatively small book of tunes that I know, it's not going to be the bass line people are expecting.

I've been working over the past few years on transcribing bass lines from my iTunes library at random, and so that's helped expand my knowledge and skill set, but if i'm at an audition or jam session and somebody calls out something that is a rock standard for everybody else, I'm learning it on the fly.
 
#139
Tnavis said:
My biggest challenge is that I don't have nearly the same "playbook" that so many other guitarists and bassists I know have.

My musical background is kind of odd; when I started playing bass at 13 (in the early 1990's), I joined a band right away; and while we played covers for a year (learned out of guitar magazine transcriptions), we started writing our own music right away. I spent my teen years writing and playing original music, then went to college for jazz, and post college, started playing in bands writing and playing original music. I missed out on years of playing along to music, which so many other people I know did in their formative years. I've got a pretty good ear, and can create a bass line on the spot for pretty much anything, but unless it's in my relatively small book of tunes that I know, it's not going to be the bass line people are expecting.

I've been working over the past few years on transcribing bass lines from my iTunes library at random, and so that's helped expand my knowledge and skill set, but if i'm at an audition or jam session and somebody calls out something that is a rock standard for everybody else, I'm learning it on the fly.
Click to expand...

That is a cool skill though. I mean, there are two schools of thought on it I guess. Personally, I don't like traditional bass lines. I like the unconventional. I will play what is conventional, but nothing wrong with pushing the envelope. In some cases though, it just doesn't work. I can't for the life of me play classic country (like Johnny Cash) or rockabilly, but I also tend to find the bass lines kind of boring.
 
#140
As a singer (lead&backup) as well as a co- frontman I must really work hard to sing lead and play bass lines to more difficult songs like I’m Your Captain/ closer to my home it is a challenge and that song we did last night for the first time in my trio there were a few bumps but not a train wreck by any means
So to answer your question
Singing and playing bass is my biggest challenge
Duke
 

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