I probably should have spent more time playing and less time on the forums and YT and I wish I discovered much sooner how much I love playing bass instead of guitar.
The one thing I might have done differently is work more on learning the fretboard playing triads in the cycle of 4ths all over the neck first instead of wasting time playing scales/modes which really hasn’t been nearly as useful. I enjoy playing songs so I focus mostly on playing since that’s the main goal
Another thing I’d do more of which I still don’t do enough of is put on a backing track or chord progression and solo over it. If you want to be good at improvising it’s like speaking. language, you have to do it a lot… there’s just no way around that I find that in general, a lot of courses teach the parts: scales, intervals, chords, modes, etc. but where they fall down is putting it all together and teaching people how to effectively use those parts practically.
In the past I HATED theory, bass has given me much more of a reason to learn and enjoy theory and I think the best way to learn theory is to use it for composing/improvising.
I’ve been pretty efficient with the stuff I’ve done though… I did Fender play (which I already had) for a couple of weeks after buying my first bass and then I did the B2B course in about a month so about 2 months after buying my bass I had a pretty solid foundation! I had played guitar for a few years before that and I played music for about 10 years in my youth so I wasn’t a total noob.
I really think that the B2B course is the best out there for beginners or people who have played bass but lack a good technical foundation. I like that it give people a good foundation, gets you playing fast and keeps you interested. It teaches enough basic theory so you can understand music structure but doesn’t waste time with stuff that’s really unnecessary at the beginner stage. The only thing it doesn’t teach that I think is a very useful skill is raking.
Place I would start is a phone app like Loopz and an aux cable to plug your phone into your amp. Will give you a lot to play with as you figure out what you want for the cost of a cable
There is a aux port on your amp, you can get a cable to connect your phone, and run the drums or a song through the amp with the bass. Easy way to practice with minimum investment. Many drum apps for the phone
I totally agree with you on micro shifting. Working on a song for past month with great many fill in’s, besides being an old man now don’t help either.
There are lots of ways to do this but I don’t know your particular setup. I assume that you plug your bass into some kind of interface and then into your PC?
Does that interface have an aux in port for you to plug in your phone and control the app from there?
I use a Mac and haven’t used a PC in 20 years but I imagine you could use some free software on your PC for drums. You could certainly Use a DAW on your PC and quickly create a drum track.
Again If you post your current setup then maybe other PC users on here could chime in with suggestions for you.
By no means the expert here, but I’ve been using the drum tracks that come with my Zoom pedal. I typically play with headphones plugged into the pedal. I can’t stress enough that I’m a noob and stumbling through this stuff myself, so I would not take this as any kind of sage advice.
Well I use GP8, Guitar Pro 8 there’s a song book you can get songs for free or buy for a small price. The one with full sheets comes with every piece of instruments notations and tabs. You can practice your music along with it. You can choose the fingerboard view as well in addition to the sheet. You can speed up and slow down your music. I’m not sure how much is the GP8 now, maybe $70 it’s worth it. I have the GP7 so I paid a little more for 8 but got to keep both.
If you are using computer this is the way to go. I don’t practice in front of the computer most of the time, only when recording. I don’t practice bass with just drum track unless it’s a specific groove exercises. I take my cue from many instruments so I always practice my song with music accompaniment.
and I wish I discovered much sooner how much I love playing bass instead of guitar.
