Do you play "better" after your holidays?

[skankdelvar]

After a break of a couple of weeks, I come back to the bass and my digits are flying round the frets faster than before. I also seem to be playing quite different basslines.

Am I just imagining this, or is there some physical or mental reason for this apparent improvement?

[Jase]

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='269880' date='Aug 25 2008, 10:00 PM']After a break of a couple of weeks, I come back to the bass and my digits are flying round the frets faster than before. I also seem to be playing quite different basslines.

Am I just imagining this, or is there some physical or mental reason for this apparent improvement?[/quote]

It's nice to have a break, it all feels fresh and new when you start playing again, maybe it's when all the stuff you practise is actually absorbed and it just comes out

[Mr Fudge]

Yes in a word. Also the same applies to Pool but not the spanish guitar or piano.

[bnt]

Absolutely - it happened to me after I came back from a 3-week trip, a couple of years ago. Don't just take my word for it, I'm sure I remember one of Stu Hamm's Bass Player columns recommending a break, too.

[Sarah5string]

Well I had a gap this weekend of 2 days without practicing (normally 1/2 an hour a day min) and I was hopeless... so I guess for me it's the opposite! lol

[simondee]

yes totally.

However I really hate the way that drummers can forget the ENTIRE setlist after a break, often within hours!

[mathewsanchez]

[size=7]YES![/size]

[phil_the_bassist]

[quote name='simondee' post='270025' date='Aug 26 2008, 09:42 AM']I really hate the way that drummers [size=4]and guitarists[/size] can forget the ENTIRE setlist after a break, often within hours![/quote]

[G-77]

[quote name='simondee' post='270025' date='Aug 26 2008, 09:42 AM']yes totally.

However I really hate the way that drummers can forget the ENTIRE setlist after a break, often within hours![/quote]

in my experience that can be after a 10min Tea Break.

[Machines]

If I forget about music for a few days I definitely come back to the bass with new ideas, technically i'm no better but I find my only real limitation is in thinking of something to play badly in the first place .

[WalMan]

Certainly on a gigging front we normally find that after the summer break the first gig back seems better than before (there that's put the kybosh on the next one )

I think it is a mix of freshness and everyone concentrating that bit harder - rather than it geting loose because everyone knows how the set goes and starys adding little fills

[Delberthot]

Its funny but I very rarely pick up the bass at home and haven't practiced regularly at home for maybe 8 years but I am playing at the best I have ever played in my life and enjoying it more than I have ever done as well.

My wedding band doesn't practice. We have 3 songs to learn for this weekend so the usual format is that I will listen to them for the first time on Saturday afternoon, write out the chords and go to the gig. We'll then play them at the gig. If we like any of them then they will be added to our setlist, if not they'll be filed away until such time as we are asked to play them again.

This is a big diference to when I was first learning. I drove the neighbours nuts for years practicing every minute of the day that I could.

I find that if I take a break from a song for long enough I will play it completely differently when I play it again and its almost like playing a new song.

[teen t-shirt]

[quote name='Delberthot' post='270644' date='Aug 26 2008, 11:09 PM']This is a big diference to when I was first learning. I drove the neighbours nuts for years practicing every minute of the day that I could.[/quote]

This is the phase i'm going through at the minute hehehe... how ever i'm personally against having a brake cos i find if i don't play for a few days then i become really clumsy with simple lines and find my self getting rusty so i play everyday for half an hour to an hour...

morning neighbors!

[Delberthot]

I've just realised that I may have come across as a smart a$$ which I'm not. I just don't feel the need to practice.

I used to remember reading magazies and you'd get these guys who'd been playing for years saying that the maybe picked their bass up once or twice a week. At the time I couldn't believe that if you loved doing something so much you would only do it now and again.

Buddy Rich never practiced but then again he was $h!t hot.

[lowhand_mike]

i really hope that this break thing is true as we have a gig in about two and a half weeks and only one practice before it.
and i'm very similar to delberthot as i dont really pick my bass up during the week, just at practices. though if we have new songs to learn i will go through them a bit before the next practice to get my head round it but thats about it. and without wanting to sound big headed i normally have the sound down before the rest of the band.