@pauldavidson335d I look back on some posts and comments I made as a complete newbie and now a couple of months down the track some of those issues I had don’t happen anymore. Soon you’ll have things just work for you 
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This. You hafta give your mind + body some time to acclimate. I got my encouragement from remembering the brutal struggle I had learning to ride a bike at age 6. I sucked and I hated it, but it eventually clicked and I spent the rest of the decade practically living on my bike.
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Paul Wolfe is a big proponent of Deliberate Practice, he is a UK bass teacher and author. I have this book and enjoy his content.
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This^^^
It’s entirely common to have technique issues when first learning to play. It’s normal. After all, you’re new to the instrument, so why expect to be anything but awkward with it? All good stuff comes with time and practice.
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I bought this book. It is right on, but it requires serious commitment to follow through on the author’s great advice.
It’s premise is all about being honest in estimating one’s weaknesses, maintaining a daily practice plan journal, and practicing incrementally and mindfully.
That ‘s a whole lot of to-dos, but that’s the point.
There ain’t no free lunch, and actually getting significantly better at playing an instrument takes work, and lots of it.
It certainly is fun to play at playing bass. But it takes blood, sweat and tears to learn to play really, really well.
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This still happens to me after two and a half years of learning. Playing a song as recommended and all of the sudden my alternate plucking gets inverted 
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Ha! You’re welcome. I thought I’d reply again because yesterday I noticed oh I don’t have flying fingers as much. When I started My fingers were waaaay out there. I still have to watch my pinky sticking out as if I’m being posh with a cup of tea. But it’s nowhere near as ‘bad’ as it was when I started.
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I ordered the Mark Wolfe book yesterday and looking forward to working from it.
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I have this book.
It is a good reminder to keep up good habits.
I don’t find it a big committment at all, as this is essentially how I have been taught to approach sax since day one of private lessons.
I actually find writing this stuff down ultimately easier than trying to sort out what to do each time I sit down, as I forget a lot of the ‘what I am working on’ stuff.
The odd thing is I never really applied it to bass and needed this dopey book to make it a good idea. I have mostly approached bass in a more fun light, and sax in a more serious study light. But now the two are meeting somewhere in the middle.
Set a menu of things you want to work on.
I am currently highlighting octaves, a couple rich brown exercises, and talkingbass sight reading vol 2. Online courses make it easy to chart progress, as do speed exercises, and songs.
The one thing I find very helpful is to not write down any exercise that you are not going to actualy do, and to not put too many things in the rotation.
You can always add more later or swap things out as you get proficient (and should), but putting a laundry list of things is the best way to insure none of them get worked on.
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When I started I had way way too many YouTube tabs open, too many things on the go in addition to the B2B course. Also too much pressure on myself to get to a certain point. Now 2 years later I’ve come to the conclusion that focusing on a small amount of ideas / concepts / exercises works for me.
So I have a post it note/s in front of me of (currently) 14 things to choose from for my warm up before I do a lesson.
I might do a couple of things or all of the list, then lesson/s then work on whatever cover/s are up next.
I’ve also accepted that it’s OK to take a night off. I mean I rarely do, because Bass is awesome. But some days I won’t do a lesson and just noodle over jam tracks. Maybe just experimenting with root,5,8 or root, 3,5 6, Octave patterns. So It all counts I guess, as I have a bass in my hands.
If I’m really struggling I choose a preset I created in HX Stomp which uses a massive amount of Reverb and Delay. I put on a jam track, close my eyes and get lost in the echoes!
I don’t think that sitting noodling is bad for your playing just because it’s not ‘deliberate practice’. You have the instrument in your hands, you’re making music and hopefully having fun.
It’s meant to be fun isn’t it?
Also if you’re bleeding, perspiring or crying when practicing bass. I think you might be doing it wrong?
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The book’s methodology is a good way to practice. But it does require commitment in following through with constant progress assessing, practice sessions planning, and documenting everything in a journal, which can be a lot for beginners to stay motivated enough to keep up with.
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I was in my local guitar shop on Saturday looking for another bass (I have a Squier P bass and now I want to add a J). One of the guys in there put it another way; he said “What in life do we actually do that requires the left hand (or right hand in my case) to be in that position? Nothing. It’s not natural but it will come in time with practice”.
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I’m the same. I returned to the “Some Kind of Wonderful” lesson and keep getting flipped fingers. I’ve noticed that as I practice it, I can eventually spend less time trying to just keep up and spend more on paying attention to the fingering. I suspect we are “normal”. 
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Everyone talked about BJ kicking their butts in the course, but the bane of my bass playing existence was “Some Kind of Wonderful”. It still makes my fingers get ignorant from time to time.
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Hehe… this reminded me of a Rhett Shull’s video where he talks about noodling and reverb
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Great points!
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