Not sure where this should go. Asked this in a FB group, figured I’d ask here: Ok, this is a long-winded post (tl;dr: Which app for learning bass?). I am currently chewing through content in BassBuzz and I’m really enjoying the learning style. However, I want to learn multiple popular songs. I know I can “pick and choose” from YouTube, but different teachers have different styles, and I’d prefer some consistency. To be fair, I also play guitar, so if I can find something that lets me play guitar and bass, that’s even better. That leads me to instructional apps. I signed up for Rocksmith+ yesterday, and my first impressions of the app is that it is hot garbage. Poor song selection (but thousands of “Side C” songs to choose from!) and a game-focused interface that looks like someone was told, “Make it look like Rock Band, but add lots of complexity so that we can’t be sued”. I also absolutely hate how it uses the computer mic if you want to use your own amp (I have the special cable doo-dad arriving tomorrow, but I’m currently thinking it will go back, because the rest of Rocksmith+ seems to suck. A lot).
The other two apps that seem to be bass-friendly are Fender Play and Yousician. I’m curious if anyone has used any of these three for a while and could offer advice based on the knowledge you’ve acquired? (I’m still open to considering Rocksmith+ – I’m still inside the “try free for 30 days” window)
(Note: Got some followup comments on using Guitar Pro, which seems interesting, but wanted to hear what folks thought here)
For what it’s worth I don’t think an app is the answer. I tried Yousician but I felt that just following the bouncing ball didn’t improve my ability to remember chord progressions etc. I just mindlessly followed the bouncing ball. Didn’t work for me.
I think learning easy songs from start to finish is where it’s at as far as working on lots of different skills ie timing, feel, dynamics etc. Play along to YouTube videos with rolling tab at the bottom. Completely free and improves your playing.
Then record yourself (just do it in your phone to start with)
Listening back to your playing is real tangible feedback.
The best thing for my playing since doing B2B has been learning whole songs.
Lots of fun easy songs to get you started. here’s a few suggestions:
I used Rocksmith when I first started. I thought it was helpful. Don’t know about Rocksmith+
Same 
Although it’s been delisted now, not for sale anymore, but Tonelib Jam works just the same (if you use the 3D mode), just not as pretty
Same 30 day trial, then ya can buy it if you want… Or just let the 15s countdown run & click “still evaluating” 
lol.
Can use the same files rocksmith does, and there’s 1000s of free songs on customsforge, takes 30 seconds to create an account and away ya go! Lol
I’m coming to the end of the B2B course and l am now learning songs. I don’t use an app for this…
I’ve been going for songs I like - generally, with a fairly simple bass line, although not all are in this category as I want to stretch myself. I start with looking for the tab on Ultimate Guitar Pro (I’ve paid the subscription as I wanted full access), plus Googling “[song name] bass tab”, what I’m looking for is a YouTube video with a rolling tab at the bottom of the screen. I’ve been surprised regarding the number that I have found, even for some quite ‘deep cuts’. I have also paid for Moises, which I’m using to a) isolate the bass line so that I can properly hear the rhythm / syncopation, and b) play along with the bass line removed.
So, in terms of paid for, it’s Ultimate Guitar Pro and Moises. Combined with Google and YouTube, it seems to be working for far…
I had a Rocksmith+ subscription for the last year, and barely used it. The song selection just isn’t for me.
I am still using the old Rocksmith, but it isn’t on sale anymore, and does have an even more gamey interface, anyway. The interface of + is way better, imo.
I am also using what @DeadPixels suggested, Tonelib Jam. This is an awesome software to use alongside downloads from the customforge and Rocksmith 2014 DLCs.
You still have the ability to play along the song, slow down the song, repeat a section and all that, but you can also view the song as tab, or even standard notification, instead of only the Rocksmith note highway.
I also used yousician, most of the songs are covers on there, but I think it seems to have the better user interface from a musician point of view, tab and standard notation. I recommend taking a look if Rocksmith+ seemed too gamey for you.
To be able to use all the content they have to offer, you need to have their highest subscription tier, though. They have gated many songs they offer through that. their lower tier subscriptions almost seem like a scam to me.
Also what @Barney says about following the bouncing ball is true: You might be too dependent on what you see on the screen and not really play to the music.
I mitigate that by trying to learn the songs part by part, have it in my head and only look on the screen to take a quick peek on what is coming next.
Appreciate all the feedback here. Separately, a friend recommended TrueFire. For now, I think sticking with B2B is the smart approach, then learning complete songs like @Barney recommended. Honestly, I want to skill up enough to find other people to play with. I think that means I need to get really comfortable understanding how to follow chord changes and then flub stuff in the proper key (this is more important to me than learning songs, which maybe seems contradictory).
“The other two apps that seem to be bass-friendly are Fender Play…”
I used fender play for a while before i started bassbuzz. It was … OK. Once i started BB, i saw no use in continuing FP. I learned way more from BB. This was a couple of years ago though - maybe they’ve improved things since then.
There’s some good stuff within MySongBook. It’s be tabs to go with Guitar Pro and some are full songs. You can adjust speed, isolate instruments, loop sections.
Some sound pretty crap as it’s just midi, but there are some that are almost like playing along with the actual song.
I’ve got the annual subscription which shows as $30, but you can usually get a discount. I think you can also try one free song a day.
I stopped using Fender Play once I found B2B as there was too much searching for the next step (at least for me).
I checked out TrueFire and bought some courses but one of them were for the bass. Again none of the ones I looked at seemed to fit the bill for me.
Like others I find learning from play along is a good way to go and you don’t have to finish B2B to start this. I did get a Boss Pocket GT and it works well as both a “for my ears only” practice amp AND controller to play along with YouTube videos. The Pocket GT lest you loop sections of videos, and you can slow them down. You can run into an app via the headphone out jack as well.
The one thing about the Pocket GT is that the amp modeling software can be a Rabbit hole. 
Again maybe that’s just me.
Bass On!
Ric
I spent A-LOT of time with Rocksmith 2014. The fingerings are a hot mess. It’s good to get you into things but later down the road it’s frustrating and demotivating.
What I’ve been doing to learn songs is search for “ bass tab” on YouTube. Then I play around and try to play the song through with the tab, first at slow speed then moving up.
Step 2 I export an MP3 from the YouTube video and run it through Moises. Which gives me the different stems from the music. This lets me drop out the existing bassline so I can play with the song. I’ll also drop out everything but the drums to try to get timing better. You can slow down and speed up the songs too.
This is also nice because you can save out the stems and drop them right into Reaper when you are ready to record video covers.
The best thing to do is to focus on the pattern and sound of the song. Get away from reading tab while you play as soon as you can. Once you start learning the songs by ear then you can just play and that’s where the goods are at.
Build that muscle memory of the song and let your instrument sing!
Also I look at 3 pieces of the puzzle:
- B2B and other technique work
- Songs on YT -building a song library you can play from memory
- Fun - Always leave room for fun riffs or playing with pedals/improv. It can’t all be hard work. Even practicing riffs with just a metronome or drum machine can be fun if you like the pieces you are working on
Fun is REALLY important.
If I’m doing it for a cover, I like to actually buy the MP3 so that whatever fraction of a penny makes it back to the artist gets to them. That’s mainly to square it with myself for stealing their music and posting back on YT later. That and I use Logic pro on my iPad for stem splitting.
That’s entirely the point in all of this imo. Even the “school work” part of doing courses is fun for me, but yeah… sometimes you just need to throw some music on and rock.
I quite often don’t do the whole stem separation business. Yes, if I’m going to record the cover but otherwise I frequently play to the original.
There are a couple of reasons:
- It sounds better because the stem separation is never going to be perfect; it will remove some bass tone from all the other instruments. How much this is true varies from track to track. Some are appalling some are OK.
- I (naturally) tend to play with my mix rather higher than it should be and consequently if I can actually hear the bass on the recording I’m doing something wrong - wrong note, out of time, whatever - if I’ve got it spot on then I’ll only hear my bass.
In RipX (and in Moises too), you can either mute any stem (ie bass) or set the volume of that stem higher/lower:
You can export any/all stems, or the complete mix (with muted bass or the bass in the mix with any volume).
I tend to practice with the unprocessed song or with the bass a little louder, so I know what’s going on.
When I’m satisfied, I practice with bass muted, so I can hear my bass in the mix better and correct mistakes.
Depending on the song, I use either the background track with or without bass for my recordings.
Finally I mix my dry bass track (and add effects - mostly EQ, compression, maybe chorus - if needed) with the bassless background track.
I never export all stems for the final recording, as mixing those together mostly sounds really bad!