Over excited practising

[bonnp]

Hi, i have had half a dozen lessons so far which has improved my playing and rhythm no end. learning loads scales, appegios and all the other stuff to get a much better understanding. this has allowed me to understand a bit of theory and i can pick up tabs a thousand times quicker, Tonight i looked up sail away, deep purple, and manged to learn the bass tab fairly quickly and play it (not at full speed). after about 20 minutes i think i got over excited with my progress and suddenly my right arm was not moving to each string, i was plucking the wrong strings, missing notes etc and went to pot? i think i played it at about 3/4 speed and practiced for about 1.5 hours, no improvement?
does anyone else ever have or had problems like this ever?, am i trying to play it too fast etc?

[Subbeh]

I think you should take a break, come back to it fresh, really nail the part and then up the BPM until your comfortable at full pace. It's very easy to get stuck on something and become frustrated at a lack of progress, come back to it with a focused mind and rested hands and I bet you'll see progress.

[LayDownThaFunk]

I thought over excited was when you skip dinner, head to practice and neck a can of Carling. You feel it then, that's for sure.

[seashell]

Great to hear that you've been getting such a lot out of your lessons .

I find a similar thing with practising..if you are working on a particular thing you get to a point where you find yourself actually getting worse instead of better. That's the time to stop and try practising something else.
If you go back to it the next day, you can start moving forward from where you left off.
That's been my experience anyway.

[The Badderer]

when you practice your brain will actually make you make mistakes when you are repeating a task over and over. it is important to keep repeating small sections of music even if you keep making some mistakes. Your brain is learning and finding the most efficient set of nerve impulses to achieve the desired result. Remember your brain has two sides, left side and right side. they both learn differently. One side is for short term memory, so you can repeat a phrase 5-10 times getting better each time as one side of your brain memorises and corrects the mistakes in the short term. But this information then needs to pass in to your long term memory. As you repeat past 6-10 approx times, you will naturally start to make mistakes. Keep trying for a few more goes. This is where taking a break after your fingers have really started messing with you is important. Play something else like a scale etc., then come back to the phrase repeat it again 5-15 times and then see how it's going. Now it may be worth leaving until tomorrow but make sure you practice the next day and keep repeating it. you should see a massive improvement.

Also you have to start slow. if you try to play full speed it will be messy and you'll develop a load of fudging work arounds that you will then practice in and find it hard to unlearn. Start at 50% speed and get it 100% right. only step up in speed once it is guaranteed right at 50%. then 65% then 75-80%, 90% then finally 100%. By the time you get to 100% speed the muscle memory should be so good you can play it without even needing to worry it's going to be right. It's then just about fluidity and not being tense.

Hope this helps.

[Dad3353]

I'd repeat most of the above, and say that the fastest way to achieve speed is by taking it slowly. I would recommend, if a mistake is made (and recognised as such...) to plough on and keep going. Don't stop in the middle. Ignore and continue (as one would have to in performing, of course..!). It is not necessary to learn a whole piece all in one go from start to finish, either; in fact it is often helpful to 'break down' a piece into smaller sections. I often suggest, for longer pieces, learning the end section first, then 'tacking on' the preceding section and playing through; rinse and repeat until one is playing from start to finish. In doing this, one is always playing into the parts that are more and more familiar, rather than the contrary.
If you're using tab, that's fine, but it may be interesting to have a look at some beginner-level standard notation exercises, too. They are not difficult, and will help in absolutely all aspects of your bass playing.
Lastly, I'd take this opportunity to give my usual cheery encouragement...
It's the first forty years that are the hardest, after which things start to get (slightly...) easier.

[dmccombe7]

Aha ! brain working faster than your hands is a common failing with bassists.
We just love what we do that much we get carried away and become very unco-ordinated.
Seriously tho same as previous comments.
Start slow and do bits at a time until correct speed is achieved.
Don't over-focus on one song. Move on and come back to it.

The comment by Dad3353 I like a lot and is a sore point with me at rehearsals. If you make a mistake carry on till the end like a proper gig.
You then become accustomed to adapting and i'm sorry to say this but you learn to cover your mistakes.
It becomes more natural to simply keep the song flowing while you correct or catch up with whatever the band.

And like all great professional bassists and the majority of people on BC you will learn every song perfectly to the "N"th degree and never make a mistake at a live gig.

And then wake up and come into the real world


Dave

[KevB]

It may not work for everyone and it won't necessarily work for all types of songs but I often look at the song structure first - if the bass player is playing much the same thing over each verse then I'll work on that as a 'unit' then I'll look at the choruses, probably playing something different to the verses but each chorus much the same with maybe occasional variations. Then I'll look at what the line is under any solos plus intro/outros. I'll get to a point where I'm fairly happy with each 'unit' then put it together as a whole. Playing to the point where you can't physically do what you need to becomes counter productive, take a break and come back to it later. It's not a race.

Edited May 19, 2015 by KevB

[Guest bassman7755]

[quote name='bonnp' timestamp='1431984063' post='2777059']
practiced for about 1.5 hours, no improvement?
[/quote]

With most physical and mental activities, improvement happens mostly in the breaks between practice sessions, the old adage "little and often" applies here. According to various studies I've seen on learning behaviour, cycles of 5 mins intensive practice/study and 10 or 15 mins break is optimal. The breaks dont have to be doing nothing but apparently the more unrelated the break activity to the practice activity the better, so I dunno maybe 5 mins music and 15 minutes lifting weights, playing chess or programming - who knows

Edited May 19, 2015 by bassman7755

[bonnp]

thanks guys, some brilliant advice, gonna take it all on.....knew i would get some good feedback

[JapanAxe]

Best to change activity after about 20 minutes - take a break or move onto a different type of practice.