need tips...

[LimDidit]

hey guys
I'm wondering if there any tips, any wize words of help or experience...
any of u guys can give on working on speed and precision
I mean besides practice =P cause ive been practicing every day and i see much improvement but im just wondering what else i can do.. if there is anything

ive been trying to master this lick
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOUsADCgLvE&mode=related&search="]YouTube - Tenni's Bass Blog "Salvation is Here"[/ame]

 

[LimDidit]

oh i didnt make it clear... i meant the right /rhythm hand

 

[midopa]

Yeah that one's a killer. I always flub it up. Practice practice practice? I know Stanky can pull it off

 

[Psycho Ward]

Right hand?

 

[Aussie Mark]

Try practising genres of music you don't always play. If you practice the same stuff all the time it's very easy to get sloppy and complacent in terms of technique. If you're a punk type of guy, play along to some Beatles, Motown or 70's disco.

 

[asianjeff]

Switching genre def. helps. That rift can be tough. I like what Victor Wooten suggested about practicing rhythm. What you do with your plucking/slapping hand has nothing to do with the hand that you use to hit the frets with. I would try to get that rhythm first, but playing scales or something simple, then I would learn the actual rift. Main thing is to get your right hand up to speed then you can concentrate on your left hand on which frets you should be hitting.

 

[syciprider]

Play guitar. Seriously. Like flamenco and folksy finger plucked stuff.

 

[Big Poppa]

are you in a band? the best way I got faster besides priactiving alone was with the band Playing a song with a band kind of forces you to get it ......There have been times where playing with Albert Lee (who has a tendancie to get pumped and start songs about 40% faster that usual) where there was no way that I could play some of that stuff at the tempe but I just focused on the drummer and hung on for dear life.

 

[adouglas]

At the desert bash Dave LaRue pulled out an old tip, but a good one:

Play a line slowly, over and over and over, and the speed will come by itself. It's all about muscle memory.

Both LaRue and Steve Morse were constantly (I mean CONSTANTLY) playing something whenever they had an instrument in their hands. Over and over and over and over and over.......

I read or heard somewhere that a really effective way to learn to play cleanly and fast is to pick a line and play it ten times slowly without mistakes. Once you can do that, play it faster. If you make even one mistake, start over.

 

[roburado]

You've got to play it well too at those slow speeds. Paul Gilbert has said you have to be able to play well before you can play fast. I think what he means is that it'll sound like a blurry mess if you play messily at a slow tempo and try to speed it up. A violin teacher I had once told me if you play something very cleanly at a somewhat slower tempo it sounds faster than if you play it quickly and crappily. I think those are two sides of the same coin. I'm perpetually working on the play-it-well part. I haven't quite gotten to the play-it-fast part. I don't know when I'll be able to work on that play-it-fast part.

 

[strummer]

All I can think is: You're a bass player, stick to the root
BUt apart from that, unless you already do, get the ringfinger into action too. All the other advice is of course great too, I learnt a lot when I suddenly went into soul and disco stuff

 

[WillPlay4Food]

You've got to play it well too at those slow speeds. Paul Gilbert has said you have to be able to play well before you can play fast. I think what he means is that it'll sound like a blurry mess if you play messily at a slow tempo and try to speed it up. A violin teacher I had once told me if you play something very cleanly at a somewhat slower tempo it sounds faster than if you play it quickly and crappily. I think those are two sides of the same coin. I'm perpetually working on the play-it-well part. I haven't quite gotten to the play-it-fast part. I don't know when I'll be able to work on that play-it-fast part.

As part of getting faster I've also been working on playing things really slow. At my last lesson my teacher used a program where he could click the beat I was playing at with his mouse and the computer reported the bpm as well as whether or not there was differences between the beats (lagging or rushing). I was nailing a 40 bpm beat, which happens to be the slowest speed I can set my metronome to.

I've noticed by spending beaucoup amounts of time cleaning up my playing at 40 bpm (plus I've been sight reading some crazy stuff out of my Chuck Rainey etude book) that I've increased my top end speed. I used to hang on for dear life above 90 bpm (yes I know, pretty sad, luckily for me I like the blues ). Now I can play cleanly at 115 bpm.

A great article I read when I was looking to improve speed was written by a guitarist named Tom Hess. I don't know who this guy is or what kind of music he plays, but he has excellent articles on all kinds of aspects of playing. Obviously the articles are focused on guitar but I'd say 99% can be transferred to bass playing. I happened upon this site when searching on how to increase speed and after reading a few articles added this site to my bookmark list.

Tom's first of two speed articles can be found here. A list of all articles can be found here.

 

[oli@bass]

If it is about the mere speed of the right (picking) hand, then going slowly will not help alone. You'll also need to build up your endurance, i.e. the ability to keep on playing consecutive notes fluently at top speed without getting slower or becoming inaccurate.

Great lines to try that is RHCP "Parallel Universe" and Tower Of Power "What is hip?".

You don't even have to fret anything, just try to keep up with playing muted notes...


...no need to say I completely suck at the first one, but got the second one working

 

[LimDidit]

thanks guys for the great advice.... ive got alot to think about...

 

[tkarter]

Lots of good advice here. If you really want to learn to play fast.

TAKE LESSONS FROM. Dave LaRue.

tk

 

[Slapfest]

I saw an interesting technique used by Bill Dickens for speed and endurance, done slowly.
Cant say that I've tried it, but he swears by it, and he can play as fast as any.
Go to Youtube, search Bill Dickens, and Look for the clip about the "Buddha rope".
But everyone gave great advice here......muscle memory is the thing.
Good luck with it

 

[tkarter]

Ear memory is how it all gets done. Soon as you hear it you are at the right speed.

imho

tk