warm up tip!!!

[nik]

whenever i would practice, it would take a while for me to be able to play fast licks with ease, and for the bass to feel good.
soo, yesterday i had the idea of stretching the strings a bit before i played and wow! its soo much easier.
i then took this a step further and started rubbing the strings and that improved it again.
my sloppyness in the fast licks i played was pretty much gone!

im not sure if this will help you guys, but for my style of playing it woked wonders! try it out!

 

[IncX]

i tend to play better when i do the major scale over and over again, doing it front ways, back ways, and then scrambling it as i go faster and faster ... after that, i just go over some riffs and play them as fast as i can ... then i take a break and after 10 minutes, i rehearse/take the stage and its always a better experience

 

[Lewis]

to warm up i practice the 2 octave mixolydian starting on the low G, then i shred it up on a diminished arpeggio starting on D on the A string, then i go all the way up the fret board and back up again, works great.

 

[Echo]

I do a few finger exercises and always use Fast Fret before I practice. It makes a big difference in getting up to speed faster.

 

[Callum]

i normally run through a few of my slower licks and play genearlly just arse about a bit.

I've taken to really having a semi slap warm up starting slow then buiting up to very fast 16th to warm up my wrist and the strings. I noticed that this helps me tp relax a lot more an loosen up my whole style helping my to play and sound better.

 

[flipper_gv]

I do a few finger exercises and always use Fast Fret before I practice. It makes a big difference in getting up to speed faster.

sorry but what is fast fret?

 

[warwickhunt]

whenever i would practice, it would take a while for me to be able to play fast licks with ease, and for the bass to feel good.
soo, yesterday i had the idea of stretching the strings a bit before i played and wow! its soo much easier.
i then took this a step further and started rubbing the strings and that improved it again.
my sloppyness in the fast licks i played was pretty much gone!

im not sure if this will help you guys, but for my style of playing it woked wonders! try it out!

Stretching the strings makes the bass easier to play and if you also rub them you play faster... 8) Is someone yanking my chain here?

I'm not trying to diss you here but this is just... rubbish for want of a better word.

You may well have seen someone stretching their strings a bit when putting on fresh strings or to help when tuning up but it can not make the bass physically easier to play. At gigs I do this AND I also rub the neck of my bass (front and back) with a cloth but this is purely because there may be a 'slight' amount of condensation that I can detect as my bass has come from a warm house via a case/gigbag in a car to a (normally) humid venue. Ideally your bass should stand in the ambient air at a gig so that any changes in humidty/temperature can settle the bass and alleviate any tuning problems.

The speed at which you play has much more to do with your finger/hand/wrist muscles and muscle memory. Rubbing the strings prior to playing is no bad thing as our fingertips are very sensitive and this rub down may take any surface build up of oxidants off the strings thereby making the strings feel a fraction better but TBH if you are going to these lengths to improve your chops than your strings should be wiped down before AND after you play. 5 minutes of normal warm-up exercises would have wiped the strings free of any build up of crud and you would have 'lubricated' the strings with the grease from your hands/fingers.

The ambient temperature of the surrounding air would have more impact on your strings than a few seconds of stretching and rubbing added to which a few minutes of gentle warm up playing is going to raise the string temperature far better than all of the other stuff mentioned.

 

[Phoenix]

I do a few finger exercises and always use Fast Fret before I practice. It makes a big difference in getting up to speed faster.

sorry but what is fast fret?

It's a cleaner for your strings and frets. Gets all the crap off them so they're more like new. The difference is such that if you slide into a note without thinking much on it, you'll go straight past it! That's happened to my guitarists a couple of times!

 

[Callum]

I tried fast fret but its really a love/hate thing. For me putting something on my strings really doesn't do it for me.

Bit of lemon oil in the fret board every few weeks, and using the swipe card cleaning kit after i play does the job for me.

 

[flipper_gv]

I do a few finger exercises and always use Fast Fret before I practice. It makes a big difference in getting up to speed faster.

sorry but what is fast fret?

It's a cleaner for your strings and frets. Gets all the crap off them so they're more like new. The difference is such that if you slide into a note without thinking much on it, you'll go straight past it! That's happened to my guitarists a couple of times!

ahaha thought it was a kind a precise exercise or something like this. Still interesting tho.

 

[Boyitz]

When I need to warm up, I sit on my hands.

:twisted:

 

[nik]

whenever i would practice, it would take a while for me to be able to play fast licks with ease, and for the bass to feel good.
soo, yesterday i had the idea of stretching the strings a bit before i played and wow! its soo much easier.
i then took this a step further and started rubbing the strings and that improved it again.
my sloppyness in the fast licks i played was pretty much gone!

im not sure if this will help you guys, but for my style of playing it woked wonders! try it out!

Stretching the strings makes the bass easier to play and if you also rub them you play faster... 8) Is someone yanking my chain here?

I'm not trying to diss you here but this is just... rubbish for want of a better word.

You may well have seen someone stretching their strings a bit when putting on fresh strings or to help when tuning up but it can not make the bass physically easier to play. At gigs I do this AND I also rub the neck of my bass (front and back) with a cloth but this is purely because there may be a 'slight' amount of condensation that I can detect as my bass has come from a warm house via a case/gigbag in a car to a (normally) humid venue. Ideally your bass should stand in the ambient air at a gig so that any changes in humidty/temperature can settle the bass and alleviate any tuning problems.

The speed at which you play has much more to do with your finger/hand/wrist muscles and muscle memory. Rubbing the strings prior to playing is no bad thing as our fingertips are very sensitive and this rub down may take any surface build up of oxidants off the strings thereby making the strings feel a fraction better but TBH if you are going to these lengths to improve your chops than your strings should be wiped down before AND after you play. 5 minutes of normal warm-up exercises would have wiped the strings free of any build up of crud and you would have 'lubricated' the strings with the grease from your hands/fingers.

The ambient temperature of the surrounding air would have more impact on your strings than a few seconds of stretching and rubbing added to which a few minutes of gentle warm up playing is going to raise the string temperature far better than all of the other stuff mentioned.

it just loosenes up the strings , and for me this works wonders.

but yea strange theory of mine

 

[warwickhunt]

whenever i would practice, it would take a while for me to be able to play fast licks with ease, and for the bass to feel good.
soo, yesterday i had the idea of stretching the strings a bit before i played and wow! its soo much easier.
i then took this a step further and started rubbing the strings and that improved it again.
my sloppyness in the fast licks i played was pretty much gone!

im not sure if this will help you guys, but for my style of playing it woked wonders! try it out!

Stretching the strings makes the bass easier to play and if you also rub them you play faster... 8) Is someone yanking my chain here?

I'm not trying to diss you here but this is just... rubbish for want of a better word.

You may well have seen someone stretching their strings a bit when putting on fresh strings or to help when tuning up but it can not make the bass physically easier to play. At gigs I do this AND I also rub the neck of my bass (front and back) with a cloth but this is purely because there may be a 'slight' amount of condensation that I can detect as my bass has come from a warm house via a case/gigbag in a car to a (normally) humid venue. Ideally your bass should stand in the ambient air at a gig so that any changes in humidty/temperature can settle the bass and alleviate any tuning problems.

The speed at which you play has much more to do with your finger/hand/wrist muscles and muscle memory. Rubbing the strings prior to playing is no bad thing as our fingertips are very sensitive and this rub down may take any surface build up of oxidants off the strings thereby making the strings feel a fraction better but TBH if you are going to these lengths to improve your chops than your strings should be wiped down before AND after you play. 5 minutes of normal warm-up exercises would have wiped the strings free of any build up of crud and you would have 'lubricated' the strings with the grease from your hands/fingers.

The ambient temperature of the surrounding air would have more impact on your strings than a few seconds of stretching and rubbing added to which a few minutes of gentle warm up playing is going to raise the string temperature far better than all of the other stuff mentioned.

it just loosenes up the strings , and for me this works wonders.

but yea strange theory of mine

The strings are at a fixed tension dependent upon their gauge/brand and the tuning you wish to play at (altered or concert). If you tune to whatever you normally tune to and then start stretching/pulling them this can only make them loose if they are then not at the pitch you started at... which is self defeating as you may as well play in a detuned pitch :wink:

 

[nik]

yea i know, i retune afterwards but usually it isnt nessasary (if they are relatively new strings)

you cant say that it doesnt work, because i felt the difference myself

 

[warwickhunt]

yea i know, i retune afterwards but usually it isnt nessasary (if they are relatively new strings)

you cant say that it doesnt work, because i felt the difference myself

I 'can' say that it doesn't work as it is defying the laws of physics! Honestly you may 'think' that there is a difference, which is a different thing altogether but this is physically impossible :wink:

 

[nik]

yea i know, i retune afterwards but usually it isnt nessasary (if they are relatively new strings)

you cant say that it doesnt work, because i felt the difference myself

I 'can' say that it doesn't work as it is defying the laws of physics! Honestly you may 'think' that there is a difference, which is a different thing altogether but this is physically impossible :wink:

not with warwick!

 

[warwickhunt]

yea i know, i retune afterwards but usually it isnt nessasary (if they are relatively new strings)

you cant say that it doesnt work, because i felt the difference myself

I 'can' say that it doesn't work as it is defying the laws of physics! Honestly you may 'think' that there is a difference, which is a different thing altogether but this is physically impossible :wink:

not with warwick!

WHAT! :shock:

Have Warwick discovered a new Law of Physics? They make pretty good basses but altering reality... phew that's big. The Thumb has always struck me as a very heavy bass for it's diminutive side but I always joked that it had some form of 'Black Hole' technology built in to make it so dense. So you reckon they may have alien technology :lol:

 

[nik]

haha, or im just making stuff up because i dont really know or care too much about physics haha

your probably right and im just confused.
i dunno what it was but after a good stretch it did feel like i had been playing for the last 10 minutes, even though i only just started jammin.


no idea......

 

[warwickhunt]

haha, or im just making stuff up because i dont really know or care too much about physics haha

your probably right and im just confused.
i dunno what it was but after a good stretch it did feel like i had been playing for the last 10 minutes, even though i only just started jammin.


no idea......

The mind is a lot more flexible than your strings or the Laws of Physics!

If you 'believe' that they are more flexible that is all that counts; whether stretching the string gives you a placebo effect that it is less tense or it has developed into a state of the mind whereby not doing it makes you uneasy is immaterial.

The thing to learn from this is that you can play your bass with the same degree of flexibility/speed regardless of whether the strings have been stretched or not because it is a state of mind not a physical affect on the string.

 

[flipper_gv]

haha, or im just making stuff up because i dont really know or care too much about physics haha

your probably right and im just confused.
i dunno what it was but after a good stretch it did feel like i had been playing for the last 10 minutes, even though i only just started jammin.


no idea......

The mind is a lot more flexible than your strings or the Laws of Physics!

If you 'believe' that they are more flexible that is all that counts; whether stretching the string gives you a placebo effect that it is less tense or it has developed into a state of the mind whereby not doing it makes you uneasy is immaterial.

The thing to learn from this is that you can play your bass with the same degree of flexibility/speed regardless of whether the strings have been stretched or not because it is a state of mind not a physical affect on the string.

placebo effect ftw