The Next Level

I've been trying to think of ways to take my playing "to the next level." I've been trying to memorize more difficult songs (it is slow going) as part of this effort. But this week I started trying not to look at my left hand when playing bass. I didn't realize how much I look at it. It's hard to play and not look at it. There's a sweet spot between looking at the music too much (solved my memorizing) and looking at your hand too much (ok sometimes, but best not to be a crutch). I find that in certain live performance situations you can't see the dots on your fingerboard...and you can't see your notes or sheet music. So getting away as much as possible from either thing is a big confidence booster. Plus, if you aren't focusing on those things you can focus on other stuff...like phrasing or dynamics or right hand technique. I'm splitting my time on bass now between playing with a pick (Pixies) and playing without (ska). It has been a real challenge to learn how to stop strings from vibrating when playing with a pick and also to cross strings and also to decide "picking direction" (like bowing or sticking...when to do up strokes and when to do down and when to alternate).  Anyway...there's a lot going on lately.

I've also been starting to go back and listen to the original versions of songs that I've been playing for years now to find things that I missed the first time around. Extra vocal harmonies or inflections...grace notes...or things I just flat out got wrong the first time around. That's slow going too...but rewarding to add something new to a song I've been playing forever. Cases in point:

Added a slide pickup from 9th fret to 4th fret right before the last chorus (just after the bridge) in Rascal King (2:38 to 2:41 in video below)


Added backing vocals on the chorus in No 13 Baby (starts 0:34 in video below)


Working to add the breath noise between the first and second verses in Subbacultcha (hard to hear but at 0:38-0:41 in video below)