Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

[NecroPolo]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

- Polyarthritis. It allows me to play the guitar but cripples my legs and spine many times. Because of that I sold all my heavy stuff: amps, cabs, racks etc.

- Synchronising left and right hands

- Crap noisy in-house power of different clubs

- Lyrics live (I forget / replace verses a lot of times)

- Losing motivation

- Total lack of self discipline (anyway it comes handy when thinking out of the box)

- Self promotion. I am motivated in writing, recording and mixing my stuff but after the song is finished... Viral posts, creating news when nothing happens, collecting likes, promoting stuff, being trendy and hyped etc - man I TOTALLY hate doing it. Even if I know that in the present Facebook / Youtube times it means a straight suicide of the actual music / act.

 

[MkIII Renegade]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Lead singers. :no:

 

[Johtosotku]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

I'm bad. I haven't ever had the perseverance to practice and I never will. I also have bad ears and can't really play anything more complicated by ear.

 

[B2D]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Aside from bandmates?

Probably getting good "cranked-amp" tones at controllable volume levels. Took me a long time to crack that one.

 

[Archer250]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Maybe try a thinner pick and see if it helps. Other than that, my advice is simply love your fingers the way they are. They are just minions, so don't blame them, train them.







Super low action and violent picking don't go well together. I've found my sweet spot setting, so you can too.







Been there. I spent a while doing four-finger exercises which taught obedience to my pinky. It wasn't really anything much fancier Kirk Hammett's warm-ups, you know - the usual boring 1-2-3-4s and chromatics. I just put a bit of time and effort into disciplining my left hand while training synchronization as a bonus. As of present, the little finger gives me no problems anymore, even though I discontinued these exercises years ago.

My pinky has no problems with chromatics lol. It's the legato stuff that makes it flail

 

[FuseG4]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

finding that 99% of tabs that say "100% complete and correct" are not.
Finding a good tone that's balanced, I used to not get how to cut highs without turning to mud.
Finding a place where I can crank up (except for a few years I've been a lifelong apartment dweller! Oh the shame of coming from a background of commoners!!! )
Sorting out the huge amount of guitar lessons available on the web.
Overcoming GAS.
Finding buddies to jam with who share similar taste in music.
#1: Building the discipline to practice, esp. with a metronome!

 

[ItsaBass]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

My biggest issue is completely mental: I just don't ****ing care all that much how good or bad I am. I'm apathetic and lazy as a musical technician. I'm thrilled with the musical power that nature gave me, and I have no desire whatsoever to further hone it. I lack the desire to become a great technician; I have no real interest in it. I have the raw musical ability to do anything I want to do, but I just don't care enough to maximize it, because I see no point. I already have more than enough technical ability to do anything I'll ever need to do and to say anything I'll ever need to say musically. What I need in order to do those things is not all that technically demanding. I have all the fun I want to have just being a mediocre technician with a great ear and feel. I'd be making no more or less money doing it if I was a technical wizard, and it would require me to spend a huge portion of my waking life doing something I hate doing: sitting alone and "practicing." I'd rather do some ****ed up, awful jam session with some friends than sit alone "getting good" just to impress a bunch of people about whom I don't care one bit. Life is short, and I don't want to waste it in pursuit of some useless technical goal. I want to relax and enjoy my natural talents, and leave it at that. So, I guess my issue is my near-total complacency about the whole thing.

 

[elelpe]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Everytime I make a progress, people just play better.

 

[tubecrunch]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Drummers, drummers, drummers. I can't bad mouth them on Facebook without getting their panties in a bunch. But here? I'll say it. Again. Drummers.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Sound men.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

...other players

 

[Letus]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

I've had a hard time getting the cleanliness and articulation my fast runs require. My sweeps come out of the amp as one big boom.

 

[Archer250]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

I've had a hard time getting the cleanliness and articulation my fast runs require. My sweeps come out of the amp as one big boom.

Tried lightly muting at the saddles at all times?

 

[uOpt]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Aside from bandmates?

Probably getting good "cranked-amp" tones at controllable volume levels. Took me a long time to crack that one.

What did you end up doing?

 

[Robbiedbee]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

- Not putting myself out there when I reached decent level in my playing. I've played some gigs, but not many, and I've been in some bands. The times when I have played with other musicians I felt like I have improved a lot. I've just not done enough of it.

- Other hobbies, ie gym. Trying to do some fine intricate lead work after a heavy deadlifting session is very challenging indeed.

 

[Letus]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Tried lightly muting at the saddles at all times?

Yes, but I don't pick like that.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

I hate it when you're playing on stage and there are so many girls throwing their panties at you that they get caught in your picking hand and ruin your solo. It's like "Geeze ladies, would you tone it down a bit? I'm trying to solo here . . . "

 

[Letus]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

I hate it when you're playing on stage and there are so many girls throwing their panties at you that they get caught in your picking hand and ruin your solo. It's like "Geeze ladies, would you tone it down a bit? I'm trying to solo here . . . "

I hate it when they cheer. Throws off my pitch.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Biggest issues for me is lack of finger coordination.And coordinatation over all. Im very uncoordinated and hard of hearing, so I cant pick things up by ear either. Complete uphill battle for me

 

[Falloffthebonetone]

Re: Biggest issues you've faced as a guitar/bass player?

Either singing while playing bass with fingers (I have no idea why, but singing while strumming a guitar or bass with a pick or thumb or something is just waaaaaay easier to me.) Or relearning how to use my right hand when I found out my technique was improper for the music I wanna play.

Love me some Heavy Metal fingerstyle bass. Always used to play with my index finger leading. Like in terms of 1+2+3+4+ my index would always play the numbers. Decided to learn some Iron Maiden cause I wanted to increase my general speed but could never quite cut it until I realized how Steve is using his fingers. He basically lightly scratches the strings with his finger tips while using the momentum of moving his hand up and down to get the strings to clack against the fretboard and he LED WITH HIS MIDDLE FINGER and kept the other fingers on his hand loose and relaxed while I tucked everything other than my index and middle in. So basically the opposite of what I was already doing and in addition to taking months to get the technique down right, I now had to recondition my hand to be able to keep up with that speed because those muscles weren't used to it.

Now I can play both styles and it was really rewarding but it still led to 3 months of just sitting there playing the Trooper over and fricking over again until I could do it at will and then Run to the Hills, Caught Somewhere in Time, and finally only the Good Die Young (not to be confused with Billy Joel). My bandmates say my right hand looks like a tarantula with Parkinson's but it really opened up a lot of different tunes we could play and write.