Welcome, @ghost_note. Glad you’re here. Enjoy!
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Hello!! New to BassBuzz, and Bass in general. Attempted to Jam with a friend a couple years ago, and he gave me his bass because he just didn’t play it. Week before last a kids friends Mom talked me into trying the jam band at my kids music/theater school that they had started. I started these lessons on Saturday, last night Thursday was my first time with the band. Please to say between my 8 years of trombone back in high school/college and my few days on bass, I was able to keep up with Fortunate Son, and a couple other songs and everyone was stoked to have me! Look forward to continuing to grow, and develop, and definitely looking forward to increasing my stamina on my fingers because after my hour and a half session my plucking fingers were WIPED…
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Welcome!
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Welcome to the forum, guys. Enjoy the lessons and the ambience. This is a great community.
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Hi everyone, greetings from France.
I googled for some advices about virtual amp and pedalboards simulators when playing bass directly through a focusrite interface, and I stopped by in the forum as the advices I found were pretty good and also really close to my music taste in terms of sound, so I decided to stay.
So, nice to meet you, I’m a new bassist currently a bit stuck and looking for advices. 
I’m really into punk/noise/post-hardcore/emo music from the late-80s/90s (a lot of US bands actually) for years, and always wanted to play music but always thought it was too late (classic). Two years ago my partner bought me a used squier PJ, and friends bought me a rumble 40 as a birthday present. So I started to play in my room, horrible/shitty The cure, fugazi, negative approach and descendents covers (also tried Jawbreaker but it’s harder and it’s difficult to find tabs) and I was enjoying it a lot.
In the meantime a friend heard about me starting playing and asked if I would like to create a soundtrack for its short home movies. I never made music before, known nothing about it but as my partner was beggining using DAW and synthetizer I decided to try and have been able to create easy short songs with my bass and VSTs. The sound was awful, I wasn’t playing in time, did a lot of pain but my friend was really happy with it and used it in several shorts so it was very encouraging, and we are still doing this at the moment.
I’m also taking lessons for almost 2 years now, but I’m currently in a dark place. I enjoyed them at the beggining, and it probably helped me to improve but I’m currently struggling to work everyday after work. I’m tired of the lessons and I’m not enjoying the songs that I’m suppose to work on. I know that there are classics riffs/songs that are good starting points for every bassist no matter the kind of music you wanna play, and I know that it’s not supposed to be pleasant all the time, especially music theory. But currently i’m not feeling that the lessons are something I do for myself, it remind me of the homework I didn’t want to do after school, and that I’d rather spend time on playing things I like, or creating music “for me”. I feel like it’s another thing to do after work like laundry or dishes. The result is, I do: Nothing. And the next week when I meet my teacher I always have a good excuse for not doing my homework. I’m not really good at playing, and don’t know the notes on the neck, don’t know chords and classic positions, and I have to work on that but that too much for me at the moment.
In another hand when I’m not practicing my lessons and try to “create” music for myself, on my own, I always want to do “what is right” and I just can’t focus on what I really want to achieve, and struggle to avoid the comparison. That makes me sometimes hate to listen music I like, which is normally inspiring. It’s the first time I do something creative in my life, and it’s harder to make it for you than for other people (depending on the people I guess). I only started recently focusing on the sound itself (pickups, amp settings), because for two years with the bass practice it was too many to process. Defining what a good bass sound is, is difficult, and again, comparison is poisoning me a bit. I think i’m too hard on myself. But I didn’t made any full song for now.
My objectives are quite simple I think. I just wanna be able to play “simple” basslines correctly, mostly with a pick, and I don’t wanna bother slap or stuff like that because it’s especially the kind of things that’s really frustrating because I’ll never use it in my life, so I don’t like practicing it, so I suck at it and I’m discouraged. The paradox is that I’m surrounded by musician friends that are really willing to help (and did). I’m supposed to start a punk hardcore band in few times with experienced friends (who don’t care about the skills but wanna play with cool persons), so I hope that it will help me to find the motivation I had when I began.
So I hope I’ll find here cool people to talk to about their experiences, find motivation and “let things go” when creating music.
Thank you for reading, that was a bit long, sorry about that.
See you soon.
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Welcome @Fake_Train !
I think all of us can relate to what you’re going through.
I think the answer to all of your problems is in what you said up there - start a band!
If you have a band that you like, with people that you like, you have the best reason to play and the best motivation to practice, and the best reason for playing.
If you’re practicing to get better in a general way, it is always hard to keep the motivation up.
If you’re practicing for a gig that’s coming up, it is intense and motivating and great.
And then performing is great.
And then you keep doing it over and over, and you get better.
It’s also nice, because if you’re playing outside of lessons, you have questions and ideas to bring to your teacher that really matter to you because you’re experiencing them in your musical life.
Go start that band!!
We all struggle with “I should…” do whatever on the bass to get better.
I’m sorry you’re feeling it.
Once you have a focused purpose in your bass playing, the “I should” voice will quiet down, or it will focus on the things you need for your band/song/gig.
Best of luck!!
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Welcome to all newcomers, extremely glad to you here with us!
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Welcome, @Fake_Train. Glad you’re here. Your situation is both unique and universal. Everyone here seeks to play and some have jamming or band opportunities, but learning how to play is universally not easy. But keep in mind that anything worth learning well is never easy, but it is worth the effort. Please consider signing up for the Beginner to Badass course. @JoshFossgreen is an excellent teacher who makes learning fun and as easy as can be. Also, ask questions here on the forum. We have players of all levels of experience and musical tastes, and everyone is glad to help however they can. Enjoy!
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Hi everyone! I’m Jennie. I’m new-ish to bass - got one as a birthday gift about 14 years ago and played a few bits now and then on it at the time, but with moving house various times, and life in general, I haven’t played anything really in a long long time. This time around, I decided I actually wanted to learn the bass and become somewhat proficient in it. I was researching short scale basses and really like the stingray short scale, but for only really starting out again, the price point doesn’t make much sense for me right now.
So I bought myself a lovely little Ibanez TMB30 which I am loving at the moment.
I’m doing the beginner to badass course as well as tipping away at a few easy song I like. If I get to a good level (by my own standard) I might just have to treat myself to the Stingray in the future!
(My short scale Ibanez below)
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