It’s all good, whatever it takes to keep the bass where it should be, on the strap, over your shoulder and playing it…
Everyone looks at the board sometimes, however I more often look at the tabs or sheet music.
Many people can remember more easily than myself where thier supposed to go next, but I find reading music gets me doing way more songs much faster.
I’m finding it easier to occasionally muddle through and miss the right place to be on the board, but %'s of the right place grow daily.
Yeah, for sure. It’s a LOT easier once you memorize the part, so you don’t have to look at the tab. Also, regular music notation is a LOT easier to read while playing than tab. Once you learn it of course. I’m still working on getting proficient reading bass clef.
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Well, when performing it’s best to look at the exit sign, if you’re uncomfortable looking at the audience. Watching a bass player who only stares at their fretboard is pretty dull. But that’s when you’re doing a performance. 
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Don’t worry about it now, but as you get more proficient on bass, you’ll find it’s actually quite easy to memorize songs, and you’ll do it without even trying. Once you play a line a few times, it sticks in your muscle memory.
Yes this. You don’t memorize a song as all those pages of sheet music. You memorize the few riffs in the song (as Howard said, some songs only have 1 riff) and then you measure the structure. E.g. 1st verse 12 bars (which is your 4-bar phrase/riff repeated 3 times), Chorus 8 bars (which is the 4 bar chorus riff repeated twice) and so on.
Once you have the parts under your fingers, the easiest way to remember all this until you have it all memorized is actually a lead sheet, not tab or sheet music. Those are also nice because they have the lyrics, so you can remember entrances and what-not by the lyrics instead of counting all those rests all the time (not that we bassists rest a whole lot in most songs).
E.g. Here’s an example lead sheet for Yesterday.
An 11" x 17" inch photo copy laminated may cost you $3.00 and while your getting that made you may also want to have this also copied and laminated.
Sadly, I get everything off YouTube. Not always correct, but it makes me find the fingering that I like better. Just can’t print it out if I need to.
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When I take a tab off YouTube I invariably transcribe it into GuitarPro. I much prefer doing this to always watching YouTube whilst I’m learning it. Also the process of transcribing is educational in itself in that I am working through the track slowly, note by note. And, even before I start playing, I’m thinking about how I might change it. I’m not too concerned about duplicating the original in every detail, it is my cover after all!
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I learned about this recently. It has to do with neutral pathways. Neural pathways are basically the link between a memory and your muscles ( as I understand it) and once you establish a pathway the effect of time bolsters that pathway more than the effect of repetition.
So, yeah. Learn it, then sleep on it. Tomorrow and the next day it will be easier.
It seemed unbelievable, but I tried it with a song I was working on (a tricky breakdown section) and was shocked how much better I was playing the next day even though I only played through it enough times to get the notes nailed down.
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