Demotivating bass lessons?

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To keep from getting demotivated, I make sure to play stuff slowly enough that I can get through it successfully without mistakes, then I increase the speed ~5% and keep doing that until I can get through it cleanly at full speed. Also, I make sure to play some easier/fun stuff that I enjoy.

What does frustrate me sometimes is when it’s 2am, I’m trying to gold star something on yousician and I keep making one mistake over and over and over…COME ON!, I JUST WANT TO GET THIS DONE SO I CAN GO TO BED!!! :joy:

I just keep at it, because I’m stubborn, I apparently like to suffer and I’m always in it for the long term gains :slight_smile: Compared to the physical sport stuff I do like mtb and long paddle board trips, and my job troubleshooting problems, bass is pretty easy.

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This is exactly why I play on Yousician.

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that is a whole ass mood lol…

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107

Not even the same mistake! Like I nail the hard parts and then screw up on an easy part right at the end :neutral_face: lol

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108

Demotivating? Not in the slightest. It’s been the opposite for me in fact, as I’ve been surprised how easily I’m able to blow through most lessons or quickly overcome any walls with just a little focus and practice (I do have somewhat of musical background which has been helpful). Even outside of the B2B courses I’m able to temper with the knowledge that I’m just a beginner. There’s a lot to learn and master, and it’s going to take a lot of dedication, time, and practice to “git gud.”

+1 for noob Josh. Always reminds me to stop taking things so seriously, and to step back, laugh, and have fun.

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109

Hi @lengeta, welcome to the forums! If you have time, please tell us a little bit more about yourself in the Introduce Yourself thread.

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110

No. Certainly not with BtoB. I have learned to be very choosy about which you tube lessons I pay attention to. If I watch them, I don’t have the bass in my hands.

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111

It’s not something I’ve seen you do, but there’s at least one other online bass teacher that seems to talk down to the audience. Not in an outright mean way(that might actually be kind of entertaining!), but I get the feeling they think what they’re teaching is beneath them somehow. It doesn’t demotivate me from learning, but it demotivates me from learning from them.

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112

I get demotivated when the lesson goes to fast for me and I have to slow down to 75% or keep replaying. But that’s me and my ability to track spoken language. For instance when you go through the initial part of the lesson just telling us what notes or frets, I have to write it down or go to the printed lesson sheet to figure out what’s likely to be happening. Often I don’t play along until we get to see the tab on screen. I think I’m weird and that might not be a common problem. It does slow me down and take the eagerness away though. I can avoid the frustration if I plan for doing the lesson and have the printed music ready and practiced with it before watching the video. I also have no confidence that I will ever be able to improvise. On the other hand, I am one of those who feels better when I go back to a lesson I thought was impossible and find it easier. That is motivating for me.

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113

I can echo many of the things my fellow bass players have already said so well.

Being overwhelmed with “all you MUST know to be a bass player”. You must know the fretboard completely; the seemingly endless scales (there is not just one minor scale there are a few), but oh there are modes, too; you gotta learn jazz and music theory, and slap, and tapping, and harmonics and ear training and making up your own bass lines and…

Lack of direction. What do I study next? Where do I go? Which online trainer do I listen to, as sometimes they contradict each other as the ‘proper’ way.

Time. Meaning, how much time have I spent watching bass videos that are NOT helpful. Because you can play doesn’t mean you can teach, or even explain something well.

The lack of advanced beginner or almost intermediate training. Josh’s course is the best for a beginner. But there is nothing else out there like it.

Many of the videos out there that make claims of “easy bass chords”, or “learn to create bass lines in minutes”, don’t do that.

Many videos, frustratingly enough, are not teaching or really explaining anything, and would more appropriately titled “watch me play and see how good I am”.

I think some people are so good and so advanced, they cannot teach things on a level that beginners, or advanced beginners, would understand or be able to encorporate into their playing. For example: modes. Countless videos will say, using the C major scale, you just then go D to D, then E to E, etc. Umm…that just doesn’t translate into how and when and where to use them, or why and have made me like modes as much as I like math word problems.

Many free videos are really " buy my product".

Whew!

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So much of this thread could be summarized as “Why I didn’t gel with SBL” :rofl:

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115

:joy::joy::joy:

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116

I totally get what you mean. I am very much a visual learner. I also can learn much better if I see the tabs. There are a very few lessons in B2B where the tab is only shown for a short time, sometimes disappears a bit later on, and I am kinda like: “No, why did you do that!”.

For us, the lesson material is absolutely helpful.
As I really like to be able to see a riff in total, so multiple bars at once, I use the lesson material for that anyway.

Sometimes people get annoyed on how visual I am with understanding things. If they tell me: This is on the menu today and list 3 things, I still need the menu to look at it.

And don’t worry, you will be able to improvise. Josh does an excellent job on that, I think.

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117

Very relevant question. I get demotivated when I face reality - I simply have not put in enought time with the bass, my fingers don’t want to coordinate, my sense of rythm (already very shaky in the best times) doesn’t clock, my tone is terrible, …

and I get the feeling that the sensible thing would be to sell my bass/ampli, recoup some lost money and revert to listening music played by the people who actually put the work into it.

For your question “how do you get back in the saddle”"… do I?

It’s supposed to be fun, and I have the luxury of not having to do it for job, so I can take my time. But maybe I am too old. It seems that everybody is playing reasonably after two days, it’s one year and I am still so bad!

Sorry for the whiny rant :slight_smile:

B2B was actually great at not demotivating me, it was the first course ever (on any instrument) that I was able to progress from start to finish. And it’s full of nuggets and musical insights, which have vastly enlarged my appreciation for music and also for genres which I didn’t use to like. But I feel stuck with the harsh reality.

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118

This is a tough one but there’s a few things I have come to realize.

This is not the case. But even if it were the case, it’s important to remember this is not a contest. Don’t let the success of others demotivate you! Rather, let it motivate you - they did it, so can you. Talent is a myth, but skill can be built.

This, however, there is no alternative for. Like most things worth doing, with music, you get out of it in proportion to what you put in to it. You just need to decide if this is valuable for you. If that time is necessarily more spread out for you than someone in a different life situation, that’s fine; matters not at all. All that matters is what you personally get out of it.

There’s always a bigger fish. Comparing to others in terms of skill progress will always end in tears, in my experience. The only person you need to surpass is yourself.

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119

This :point_up:

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120

I didn’t mean to disparage the efforts of other people, rather the opposite! But maybe, just maybe, if many people do obtain some good/acceptable results (*) and I do not, once, twice or thrice… maybe I should swallow the pill and accept the fact that - entirely due to my limitations (work commitments, family commitments, lack of exercise, you name it I got it!) - there are some things that I will not end up doing. And playing music, I fear, could be one of those.

(*): what I mean, basically everybody is “noodling” / learning even a simple song / jamming with somebody in a short time. Instead, after one year I am still trying to keep my fingers down on the fretboard and to coordinate left and right hand to keep a resemblance of rythm…Maybe it’s time to accept the truth!

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121

It’s definitely not a matter of age, many of us are 50+, 60+,70+.

Earlier in this thread someone said: ‘Embrace the suck’. We all fight bad tone, miss strings with the pick, struggle to mute a string or mess up a break. Keep working with a smile and you’ll make it!

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I am only 40+, but the old saying that you are as old as you feel must be true because the facts prove that I am much older (but without the wisdom!) than those 50, 60 and 70+ bass players :slight_smile:

I will try to “embrace the suck” (if I weren’t afraid of needles, that motto could be the basis for a good tattoo :smiley:) but sometimes I am … demotivated (hence my post in this thread!)

Thanks for the encouragement!

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123

So I get this. I’m a traveling worker. I live in hotels. I don’t have a printer, multiple computers or space for any and every thing I could write down. Most times I don’t even know where my pen is.
I recall posting a question once to Josh as to what I had missed because I didn’t understand how to define a key, and I felt really dumb.
Everyone learns at their own pace, and in their own way. Nobody had all the answers.
For me. This is the answer. Lessons at a pace I set, without shame or the two 14 year olds at guitar center who came in with a friggin set list.

Someone once told me here, " if you can’t play it fast, play it slow"
Lot of value in that. Don’t get discouraged. This can be done. Nothing worth it Comes easy.

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