Critique my playing. Please. Headphones are a must.

[bubinga5]

Anyway lets watch a vid of my favourite bread of dog being dxxs 😆

[Ralf1e]

23 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Bless you. Your correct. I hesitate because im not sure exactly what would groove best. I personally love playing that way. I have to think on the fly. I think thats good for any musician.

I understand you very much. I personally play for a Gospel church in Oxford. My job is to make the groove and as we are you never know what is going to happen with spontaneous worship always being around the corner. It is hard work but a great way to play. It has grown me a lot. It can be frustrating if an unexpected key change turns up but I love it.

[Ralf1e]

35 minutes ago, bubinga5 said:

Anyway lets watch a vid of my favourite bread of dog being dxxs 😆

I  never knew they were so smart

[xgsjx]

I enjoyed that.  It's a fun song to play & you did a splendid job, very nice playing.

 

My only criticism, & it's more of a personal preference, is the 2 note slide chord did nothing for me & I found it distracting.  But apart from that, it grooved nicely.

I especially liked your take on the 2nd part (The "I don't ask for much" section), with some cool grooves in there.

 

Keep up the good work.  "Skate" is a great fun track to play too.  😎

[Steve Browning]

Play your video and then immediately play the video of Rutger Gunnarsson playing along to Dancing Queen by Abba. Afterwards, take a sip of your favourite tipple and congratulate yourself on playing your song tighter than he played his. He seemed to do ok, so just do what you do and put yourself out there. Alternatively, listen to one of the many isolated bass tracks available. Generally, they are pretty sloppy, in comparison to the final track.

 

Honestly, don't worry what other people think of your playing. Just play like you play. It'll all tighten up when you're playing with real people, in real time.

 

 

[Geek99]

On 27/10/2022 at 18:28, bubinga5 said:

Im not asking anyone to blow smoke up my derrière, Im aware there are some very accomplished musicians on BC. Im just asking for some honest reviews. Its a cover from Bruno Mars/Anderson Pakk's Fly as Me of course. I never seem to play what the original bassist plays and you may be able to tell if you now the original. I tend to add my funkiness if that is possible. Im putting some vids out there to see if I can get some work as a semi pro bass player. Anyways any negatives or positives are welcome. 

 

I’m wondering if there are sufficient orders of magnitude for how far ahead of me you are. One day, maybe. I will be able to critique this. 

[Geek99]

31 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

Play your video and then immediately play the video of Rutger Gunnarsson playing along to Dancing Queen by Abba. Afterwards, take a sip of your favourite tipple and congratulate yourself on playing your song tighter than he played his. He seemed to do ok, so just do what you do and put yourself out there. Alternatively, listen to one of the many isolated bass tracks available. Generally, they are pretty sloppy, in comparison to the final track.

 

 

That is actually a favourite of mine, sloppy or not

[Old Man Riva]

31 minutes ago, Steve Browning said:

Play your video and then immediately play the video of Rutger Gunnarsson playing along to Dancing Queen by Abba. Afterwards, take a sip of your favourite tipple and congratulate yourself on playing your song tighter than he played his. He seemed to do ok, so just do what you do and put yourself out there. Alternatively, listen to one of the many isolated bass tracks available. Generally, they are pretty sloppy, in comparison to the final track.

 

Honestly, don't worry what other people think of your playing. Just play like you play. It'll all tighten up when you're playing with real people, in real time.

 

 

Great advice. Absolutely spot on… 

[Steve Browning]

5 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

That is actually a favourite of mine, sloppy or not

 

And mine. My point was that the guy who actually played it doesn't hit every note at the right time when playing along to the track. It's not really sloppy, just an illustration of how tricky it is, to play along to something.

[Steve Browning]

Here's Bohemian Rhapsody, just the DI track (there were two mic'd speaker tracks as well). You'll see what I mean. Hard to imagine this is what was on the original.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R7wh9JMaRo&ab_channel=JohnDeacon

[OliverBlackman]

12 hours ago, Steve Browning said:

Play your video and then immediately play the video of Rutger Gunnarsson playing along to Dancing Queen by Abba. Afterwards, take a sip of your favourite tipple and congratulate yourself on playing your song tighter than he played his. He seemed to do ok, so just do what you do and put yourself out there. Alternatively, listen to one of the many isolated bass tracks available. Generally, they are pretty sloppy, in comparison to the final track.

 

Honestly, don't worry what other people think of your playing. Just play like you play. It'll all tighten up when you're playing with real people, in real time.

 

 

I think this is the right idea. I don't think you would have played that way when you have the energy of live musicians and can feel the bass drum and snare as much as hear them.

 

If it was me, I'd tighten up by learning the groove with a metronome and then once I had that down learn the arrangement, using fills to articulate certain moments. IMO the fills you used didn't add to the song or performance but that's often a preference thing.

[Fishfacefour]

This is one of my favourites to play. I find it really hard to do similar fills to the original.

 

Agree with the comments about intention above. This is always my downfall when playing alone. Always better when playing with others.

 

[itu]

Come on, Rutger was originally a g-word player. And he did his work and arrangements really well.

 

To the topic, as there are a few delays in the system, your playing is probably in time. Here we hear a bit laidback version, although a good one.

 

My drummer friend told me once that I should not overplay. The less the better. And it is true. Every time we record something, I have to leave half of the notes I try to play. It always sounds better with less than more. Don't get me wrong, I did not find too many extras. If I did the same, there would be my stupid choices in the first version.

 

Usually the legato is complicated, but here you can play shorter notes with harder attack, as someone commented earlier. It becomes slightly harsher and that happens to fit this song.

 

All in all, well done.

[Burns-bass]

I guess it all depends on what work you want to get. Semi-pro to me says cover band or tribute band, and I’m sure given a bit of time you could nail anything. 
 

Felt a bit mechanical to me. But that’s precision bass playing (no pun intended!).

 

As for rocking up at a studio and being pain to create parts or read charts for recordings, assuming this is still a job, it’s often about who you know, your attitude and approach.

 

 

[Barking Spiders]

Ballcocks to criticisms is what I say. If it feels right for you that's all that matters other than keeping in time and staying in tune. Imagine someone telling James Jamerson his playing might benefit if he'd used a couple more fingers . You sound absolutely fine to me and nowt wrong with your right hand action or fretting.

[OliverBlackman]

1 hour ago, Barking Spiders said:

Ballcocks to criticisms is what I say. If it feels right for you that's all that matters other than keeping in time and staying in tune. Imagine someone telling James Jamerson his playing might benefit if he'd used a couple more fingers . You sound absolutely fine to me and nowt wrong with your right hand action or fretting.

He asked for critique though? 🤷‍♂️ 

[Burns-bass]

3 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Ballcocks to criticisms is what I say. If it feels right for you that's all that matters other than keeping in time and staying in tune. Imagine someone telling James Jamerson his playing might benefit if he'd used a couple more fingers . You sound absolutely fine to me and nowt wrong with your right hand action or fretting.

Jamerson was paid to sound like Jamereon. A pro is paid to sound like whoever the person paying the bills wants them to sound like!

 

Guy can obviously play, sounds tight and about as good as any other semi-pro I’ve heard. 
 

Give it a go!

Edited October 30, 2022 by Burns-bass

[bassbloke]

Some suggestions.

 

Alternate your hand technique a little to demonstrate the different feel you can achieve.

 

E.g. digging in harder near the bridge, busier style with more ghost notes or slap.  Any one of those styles would still have suited the song and allowed you to demonstrate a different interpretation.

[Misdee]

I'm always reluctant to critique other people's playing, partly because I am acutely aware of my own shortcomings, and also because it's difficult to be complimentary without sounding patronising.

 

Suffice to say then that there is nothing wrong with your playing in my estimation (with the addendum that even the best players can always find room for improvement), and you could easily get some work playing bass. 

 

 On the advice of a big name bass player I once met socially, I used to record all my practice sessions and then listen back to them while I was doing housework ect. That probably sounds quite strange but it was very helpful in defining my shortcomings as a player. A guitarist I used to play with who had studied at Berklee was taught to do the same thing by his tutor while he was there,too. The tape doesn't lie, and if you are serious about playing for other people then you have to be as brutally honest about your own playing as the outside world will be.

Edited October 31, 2022 by Misdee

[Dad3353]

I'd add to the above to declare that rare are those that enjoy listening to their own recordings, more so still in their raw, unprocessed, solo state. We are our own worst critic, never satisfied with what we hear. Ask anyone to sing something (anything...) and then listen back to it; it will pretty certainly be with much cringing and pulling of sour grimaces on their part. As the player, we can only hear the 'errors', whereas an independent auditor will absorb the whole. It's not really all that helpful to wallow in past performances, especially home practice. The (enlightened...) opinion of trustworthy friends, colleagues, or even family, at a push, is far more fruitful, and liable to be more accurate. Just sayin'. 

[Barking Spiders]

In general I'm more interested in players of any instrument that have an unorthodox approach i.e. that may look to some like incorrect technique. I don't have big hands and long fingers and when standing it's more comfortable to fret the bottom string with my thumb rather than index finger, whether on bass or guitar. I never critique other players approaches because they do what they like doing or are required to do whether it's just playing 8ths on the root note or 'Clutterbucking'.