This our first recording of our band practicing the song “Where is my mind?” by the famous band “The Pixies” I play bass for this song which is fairly simple with only 4 notes to pluck 4 bars each and only 2 more different notes during a switch-up 3 times throughout the song.
In this video I play the bass pretty mediocre I am not adding anything of my own into it and I am not exactly playing it in the same rhythm as the original the bass sounds a bit static and almost frozen my picking skills aren’t good either with the range of the volume on the bass constantly changing. I play the wrong notes at the wrong time as I do not know the structure of the song well enough yet. It is almost like I am mindlessly playing bass not doing anything right apart from playing the 4 note progression.
In order for me to improve I need to listen to the original song in my spare time and specifically listen to the way the bass is played once i master the original way of playing it I will be able to add something of my own to it. Whilst listening to the original I will also need to pay a lot of my attention to the drums and electric guitar as in rehearsal I am sometimes not playing in time with the drums nor the electric guitar. I also need to listen to the original more to remember the structure as I do not know the structure of the song at all.
This is our second recorded video of our rehearsal in this video I play the bass much better than in the first I practised playing the bass in my spare time I now know the full structure of the song by heart I also added a bit of a different bass line but I am not 100% sure that I will continue using it I may create a new and better bass-line in my spare time whilst rehearsing on my own.
My plucking skills have slightly gotten better as the range of the volume of my bass doesn’t constantly change as much anymore I haven’t been able to better my lucking skills on bass as I do not have a bass at home and instead practice with a guitar to improve my plucking skills on bass I will need to come into college and practice there instead.
I need to practice more during the solo as I am not playing it well at all it doesn’t sound good. I also need to practice the part from 1:10 to 1:13 with the drummer as the bass and the crashes on the drums need to be in sync together which we did not do here at all and completely messed it up we did however do a little bit better at 2:00 to 2:03. I could also practice that part whilst listening to the original.
In this rehearsal everything that went wrong in our last rehearsal went right in this one.
The crashes on drums from 1:32 to 1:36 and 2:19 to 2:23 are completely in time with no mistakes my plucking skills on bass now are much better I just need to practice it a bit more and I think I will be close to perfecting it. My bass playing during the guitarist solo is now much better I believe in order to really improve my bass playing skill is by playing it like a real bass player would instead of using my thumb to play I should try using my index and middle finger to play.
I remember the song structure by heart but whilst performing this I was just slightly not focused so when the transition occurred at 1:36 I didn’t play my note at the right time whenever I am performing I need to put in 100% focus to listening to the band and me and try not to wonder off and daydream whilst playing.
I have also decided to not use the new bass-line that I have created in the last rehearsal video as I didn’t really like the way it sounded. I will try to look at the scale in which this song is played in to try and see if I can create my own unique bass-line.
I also need to have a bit more of a stage presence maybe smiling a bit more or looking at other band member more nodding, looking like I am enjoying playing the music would help with my stage presence drastically.
There isn’t much to be said bout this video we just listened to some of our feedback I didn’t get any negative feedback luckily claiming my bass gels together very well with the electric guitar.
Although all I got was positive feedback I know my weaknesses and what I need to work on which I mentioned in my previous rehearsal videos.
This was by far our best rehearsal everyone was in sync everyone was focused and all of us knew our parts almost perfectly. We finished the song without making any mistakes this time the drummers crashes with my bass line were in complete sync again without any problems.
I said in my last rehearsal in order to improve my bass playing skills I should play it more like a real bass player by using my index and middle finger but at the time of this recording I completely forgot about it and played the same way I did before.
Although I did practice at home with my index and middle finger I stopped after a couple of minutes of practicing because I do not own a bass guitar so I would practice on an electric guitar which felt really awkward so I stopped and decided I would practice bass in college.
Overall I didn’t play bass bad at all in this video I would say I improved from playing very mediocre to good or maybe just a bit more than that but I am still not satisfied with the way I’m playing bass for this song I want to improve more.
You can barely hear my bass in this video as bass amp was really bad.
I don’t have much to say about this rehearsal nothing much has changed I didn’t improve drastically or playing the bass differently it was just a warm up rehearsal lesson.
This rehearsal is pretty much the same theres not much to say not much progression or improvement in my bass playing.
I am still however not playing the bass with my fingers which I need to start to doing as it will drastically help my playing with the bass.
My bass playing through this rehearsal was pretty good but I made a huge mistake at 1:00 as I started playing the notes for the chorus of the song I got confused and forgot the structure. I was listening to the singer and confused me when the chorus starts. After that I did not make another mistake and my bass playing was OK.
I should listen to the studio versions more to remember the structure
During the beginning of this rehearsal me and the guitarist were out of timing with each other to prevent this I should let the guitarist play his chords a good 4 times so I can get a good grip of the tempo he is playing in.
I made no mistakes during this performance I was playing relatively well the major problem during this rehearsal is the fact that everyone is standing up and I am not weakening our stage presence I need to prepare myself with a strap whilst rehearsing so I am fully ready for the real performance.
My face is also glued to looking at my instrument most of the time I need to look up more so it looks like I have at least some confidence whilst performing.
This video helped me out a lot with my bass playing. I understood how to move my fingers better and also how to pluck better.
This video made me enjoy just generally playing bass more as I felt like I havr improved and want to see how far I can go!
This video also helped me out a lot.
During this topping and tailing rehearsal I am wearing a strap and actually look prepared for a performance. I also finally use my fingers to plat the bass for this rehearsal it sounds much better and I look much more professional and look like an experienced bass player.
In this rehearsal we are rehearing our full set. Song after song In this rehearsal me and the band make no mistakes and play every song fluently.
We play every song on our set one after the other we also perform it as we are on stage so then when we are on stage we know what to say and do. It was during this rehearsal the singer planned our introductions and what she is going to say in between songs. We decided just before our last song on our set our singer would introduce us all. She would give the crowd our names and then we would play a lick on our instrument we all thought this was a brilliant idea and decided we would use it for our real performance. The singer forgot to introduce herself but we told her after this rehearsal to not forgot to mention herself during the real performance.
\What we did the best during this rehearsal is that we all look like we are enjoying ourselves we want to pull this off during our real performance hopefully the guitarists, keyboard player and singer are all dancing to the music and swinging around looking like they are enjoying themselves I unfortunately did not have a strap for this performance as we did not have enough time for me to get a strap and needed to rehearse. So when I do have a strap during the performance I will want to make myself look like I am enjoying it but I do not want to force it and want it to look natural so it does not look weird.
This was our last rehearsal and think it perfectly prepared us for the real performance.