The Bassist
Senior Member
I really hope this is a problem I can get over quickly, but I guess I'm also wondering if this is something that happens that is common. As of the last half hour-ish of last band practice (Sunday) my double bass abilities died for some reason. I don't use double bass too much in our music, and the speed that I play can be done on one foot, though much more quietly, so our upcoming shows are safe even if I can't regain the skills, but this is so frustrating for me. It's like my technique just vanished.
Early that practice I was doing triplet 8th notes at 125 bpm fairly comfortably, and then all of a sudden my legs stopped working right the next time we played the song. They kept trying to go faster, and would start to speed up and go completely out of tempo. I'm not certain why this happened, maybe someone else who's gone through something similar can share some insight. I feel like this is more of a mental issue where I stopped believing I could play right, and thus can't. I'm just having a lot of trouble telling myself I can do this just fine.
I also at first thought, hey maybe it's just because I'm not used to doing three hits every beat, but I tried playing another of our songs which I've been rather comfortable with for months with some double bass doing 16ths at 95 bpm (which I found to be the exact same speed as the 125 bpm 8th triplets - go figure!) and I just couldn't, and can't, do it. Maybe if I keep practicing something will click and I'll be able to play again!
Any advice or similar stories are welcome.
Early that practice I was doing triplet 8th notes at 125 bpm fairly comfortably, and then all of a sudden my legs stopped working right the next time we played the song. They kept trying to go faster, and would start to speed up and go completely out of tempo. I'm not certain why this happened, maybe someone else who's gone through something similar can share some insight. I feel like this is more of a mental issue where I stopped believing I could play right, and thus can't. I'm just having a lot of trouble telling myself I can do this just fine.
I also at first thought, hey maybe it's just because I'm not used to doing three hits every beat, but I tried playing another of our songs which I've been rather comfortable with for months with some double bass doing 16ths at 95 bpm (which I found to be the exact same speed as the 125 bpm 8th triplets - go figure!) and I just couldn't, and can't, do it. Maybe if I keep practicing something will click and I'll be able to play again!
Any advice or similar stories are welcome.
