Any tips on learning songs and remembering bass lines? I am 52 and need a few bits of wisdom from this great group.
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Old fashioned way. Repetition.
Break it down to different part intro, verse 1, 2, chorus, verse, break, outtro.
Do them slowly one piece at a time then connect intro to verse then To chorus. Next thing you know you’d be flying through the song.
Do this a few songs you’d find your special ways to learn and memorize the song.
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As Al said: repetition is key and you need to develop your own way how to best remember the different parts - we all learn and memorize stuff differently.
The good thing is that most pop and rock tunes (really all kind of popular music in a digestible less-than-five-minute form) are made up of a few chunks that are repeated (perhaps with small modifications).
Hard work will do it - there is, for example, the 50 song challenge that should keep you busy for a while:
Latest 50 Songs Challenge topics - BassBuzz Forum
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I use a gamification approach, ie a Rocksmith-like playback as seen here: Play-along songs with synchronised tabs on Youtube - #2 by chris_van_hoven
It works quite well, if you repeat a song quite often. Complicated parts of a song I just skip first, then play it simplified when I understand the “nature” of the song better and then I focus on those parts and repeat just complicated stuff.
My approach is better for getting technique, timing and dynamics right - for learning the whole song, I admit that it might be too playful and easy, as you see the next notes “flying in”, and that keeps you from remembering.
I need to force myself to NOT look at the screen when I know the song good enough. It takes discipline!
Also, I made/make the mistake to play too many different songs and not focus.
A small playlist (3-5 songs max) that gets repeated often is better than my approach with 15-20 changing songs and 3-5 songs as core playlist.
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Ah, one more thing: I’m f#cking 58!
That means two things for me:
- sensomotoric skills are not what they used to be. I noticed that also when playing Wipeout on Playstation (a game I was quite good in) or doing martial arts for fun with friends (I was Taekwon Do instructor, a long time ago). There is a certain “lightness” missing in all motion - which is very frustrating! I do remember the mechanics, it’s just hard to apply. For new stuff it’s even harder!
- Though I learn quickly on an intellectual level (currently I am thinking a lot about quantum mechanics and string theory, and that comes easy to me, though I am a cognitive scientist / psychologist originally) - memorizing stuff is harder. This starts with the stupid shopping list and ends with memorizing songs. I remember thing I learned 20-30 years ago better than stuff I learned yesterday!
Getting older s#cks totally!!!
This video might be helpful:
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I get totally confused by the Talking Bass course offer. He mentions “Technique Builder For Bass Guitar” in this video - is this a subset of “Bassic Fundamentals”?
I purchased “Bassic Fundamentals” as a follow-up/Addendum to B2B and there seems to be overflap to “Technique Builder For Bass Guitar” - but I’m not sure.
As mentioned above, my slow progress in memorizing is very frustrating - but really my weakness is technique. I hoped for “Bassic Fundamentals”, but Mark’s approach just doesn’t click with me (yet?) and the white background burns my eyes!
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Some of the course structure is quite old and, if I got things right, an overhaul is ongoing. You’ll find some info on the structure here 
It might be a bit outdated though (September 2023).
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I’ve done the Bassic Fundamentals and am now doing the Groove Trainer courses and the Technique Builder one. There’s some overlap as the Fundamentals is a broad brush giving a foundation to a lot of things. These courses then go into those things ingreater depth.
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Cool!
So - if I had one course to do, would you advise “Bassic Fundamentals” or “Technique Builder”?
Again, my focus is on technique now, so “Technique Builder” sounds better suited, if it really goes deeper than “Bassic Fundamentals”…
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If you’ve done B2b then probably not the Fundamentals. It is a real foundation so it goes through a lot of stuff but not in any depth. I would imagine you already know how to pluck, basic scales, basic triads/arpeggios, pedals., amps, basic set up, etc etc. sounds like the Technique one would be better. I’ve not got far into it yet as I’ve spent more time on the Groove one (better for my previously mentioned rhythm issues) so hard to give details but I’m certainly expecting significantly more depth than the Fundamentals.
Note the free lesson linked above is from the Technique course.
I have also got B2b so I have enough courses to keep me off the streets for a while 
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I just wrote an email to TalkingBass and asked to clarify things.
Now I understand why Josh offers only one course - it leads to much less confusion (though I wouldn’t kind a follow up!).
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Their two styles are very different as well. I think Mark’s more reserved approach is better suited to us stuffy Brits certainly more the sort of approach I’m used to. Josh’s is much more upbeat and maybe thereby a little more inspirational.
Incidentally I prefer white background to black. Horses for courses 
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Yeah, Josh seems to be Dutch by heart! Charming, funny and good looking 
I can ignore the white background (but I am looking for a technical solution, to change that in realtime) and I can even ignore Mark.
Most important thing is to learn, so I’ll drink some tea, drive on the wrong side of the road and use strange metrics to prepare for TalkingBass, if necessary!
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@joergkutter - I think you are the one that stated the topic on how we each approach a song. I can’t seem to find it though and it might be helpful to the OP here.
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So, here is a thread from earlier, which might provide further pointers:
(Thanks to @John_E for a good memory! Where were you, Funky Forum Dude @eric.kiser !? 
)
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It beats the alternative.
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I would like to get younger any time of the day
That most definitely is not an alternative.
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