The way I look at it is this…last week someone went after Ellen Alaverdyan saying she wasn’t a bassist because she wasn’t in a band, although she had played bass with her father’s band before. This was on Facebook and Ellen didn’t take it personally when the poster called her a “bass player”. That’s what we are. You don’t need to be in a band to enjoy playing an instrument like the bass. Sure, if you INTEND to play professionally you should work hard to improve, but if you just want to play bass, there’s no harm in being mediocre as @John_E says as long as you’re enjoying it. The time to stop is when you get pressured into being more than what you are and it ceases to be fun. I’m happy with what I’m doing. I don’t practice a whole lot but when I do, I ENJOY it. I suspect that if people started pressuring me to practice more to get better, I’d probably give it up because then it would cease being fun an turn more into a job.
Is there anything in Yousician that works/guides/helps with improvisation and such? More than just a backing track?
No. Sometimes I just put a song in practice mode and improvise over it. It gives you the chords at the top which makes it a little easier and you can slow it right down to like 50% to have more time to think if required.
It’s usually easier to do it with a song you’re familiar with. Slower jazzy songs are good too. I did it a lot with the Christmas songs when I started getting bored of them 
My 2 cents is there is no one true way, we all have our own to follow.
What I like about learning songs is that’s how I stretch my technical skills. That’s how I pick up new things I wouldn’t think of on my own.
It also feeds my creativity. I was playing Crimson and Clover this week, and played around with the rhythms, and after some noodling had a nice bass line. Then I took a drum fill from another song and played it as a bass line. Worked on that a bit, then mashed the two ideas into a song. Now I’ve got a completely new song, which I wouldn’t have if I didn’t know other songs.
I’m not much of an improvisor, but I do create, and find working out a song very relaxing.
Yes I agree. Seems to be populated by middle aged men who spend more time buying and talking about gear than actually playing it.
No they’re taken from a range of forums over the years, but it does include TalkBass. Those skills are not necessary for playing difficult songs, as I’ve mentioned that you don’t need to understand what you’re playing to be able to play it. You’re just reading the tab and pressing down on the given fret at the appropriate time, so you don’t have to know what note it is or even what interval it is, or whether the rhythm is correct other than copying exactly what’s in the recording, and so on.
It may be different if you’re analysing the songs and doing background reading and listening(preferably including styles we rarely listen to) to be able to understand what you’re playing, but so many don’t seem to be at all interested in doing this in favour of being able to churn out song after song, perfect(as heard on the recording) note for perfect note, as their main aim.
A robot can be programmed to play songs such as these playing Ace of Spades https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RBSkq-_St8
No, just grooving. Soloing is not something I’m that interested in. While there is some overlap, noodling and improvising are very very different. The rapper who improvises is uses his/her knowledge and life experiences of how to construct sentences that would be at least intelligible and sometimes meaningful.
Noodling, on the other hand, is just spitting out words in the hope that something eventually makes sense when strung together.
Naoko Yamano, lead singer, guitar, and primary songwriter for the alt rock band Shonen Knife can’t improvise at all. She has to compose her solos. Bands been together 40 years now.
A lot of solos are composed.
Now the intro to NIB, that’s improvised
Hahaha nice try. You say that like it’s a bad thing!
I was thinking that was a rather impressive trolling attempt actually - just a little too obvious, maybe 7/10 
I restrained myself from a similar one in the Beato thread.
2/10 tops
Thanks for reminding me to get back to the Fender CustomShop about the MasterBuild p bass.
People who has a lot of gears will predominantly talk about gears regardless of skill levels. People who doesn’t have lots of gears wants to talk about skills and tone making up for the lacking. Same goes to the people who has a premium version and the affordable version would tell you there are differences. People who own the affordable version only would pound the table and say that’s there’s no difference.
There’s nothing wrong with being financially secure and ability to purchase, speaking for myself since the middle of Covid-19 my hobby is self sustaining I buy low selling high(er) for profit, working on the instruments sharpening my skills and gain knowledge. Being old(er) has its perks, as we can justify our spending, lol.
I noticed gas guzzler like myself, @John_E and a few others we don’t tell people to buy premium. In fact I just posted my favorite Squier bass that’s my benchmark against any premium instruments.
It seems in many of your posts that you may have missed the concept of Premium products.
Again I’d buy if you are talking about having ability to play one or 2 difficult songs and still have no clue about general music theory but you said thousands even if I drop it by 10 it’s still hundreds. If you can play any one album of vulfpeck on a bass by the end of the last song, you’ll have a pretty good idea of several unnamed music theories, no formal lesson needed.
You have to be impressively dense not to absorb or recognize any shape or form your own theory from it, as Benjamin Franklin alleged to have said “we’re all born ignorant but one must have work hard to remain stupid”
Tomato/to-ma-to, noodling is also a method of catching a catfish with bare hand. First time I was in London I had fish’n’chip believe me it’s not what I expected, lol.
Noodling seems fitting, put together one or 2 to get you started, a few more to whet the appetite, if you can put together a bowl, well, you are the man!
I’m a little over halfway through Josh’s course. I’m taking my time, not rushing. This is, foremost for me, a hobby. I don’t believe I’ll ever join a band, and about as close as I’ll ever get might be to join in an impromptu jam session once in a while.
I get the most enjoyment just thumping along with my favorite songs and practicing my timing, rhythm and speed. It’s a wonderful feeling when you get in the groove and just lose yourself in the music.
It can get a bit boring at times, especially since I have my favorites that I like to play a lot of, yet every day when I get home from work, I can’t wait to pick up that Ibanez and get lost in music heaven 
And just like The Hokey Pokey, that’s what it’s all about!
I ended up singing that last week in my house. Only I know it as the Hokey Cokey.
My wife politely corrected me. I disagreed. We got out the googler and it appears there are different versions. The clearly superior British version and the knock off N American one 
There are several examples of these, sadly
but not food
ok except breakfast
[quote=“howard, post:77, topic:28805”]
You know, fish, chips, cup 'o tea, bad food, worse weather…
massively underrated movie!
Yes, terrific performances from so many, especially Brad Pitt, who doesn’t even have intelligible dialog. And Dennis Farina in that clip, former Chicago cop who became a solid character actor.
I love him in Bottle shock. I’m surprised he’s the theater guy.