Without a doubt for me it is inconsistent practice. I tend to go in phases where for a while I will focus and put in a reasonable amount of time where I make steady visible progress.
Then life gets in the way and either I stop playing for a few weeks or play very little. It doesn’t help that I also have several other hobbies that are competing for my time.
In addition to that there is the tendency to play or practice things that I know rather than stretch myself a little.
Having some sort of a plan helps but I don’t always have one. On Bass (I also play a little guitar and drums) I have made good progress with B2B and Paul Wolfe’s books when I do put the time and effort in. Both of these break things down into small easily digested chunks which is a big help for me.
I stopped using tabs 2 months ago and only now look up standard notation. After a quick google image search I had the ‘key’ to all the symbols and can now read music slowly. Also I can sight read to the level of a 5 yr old, ie quarter notes and simple rhythms at a speed of 60bpm (1 note per second).
I could ‘read’ music within a day and it hasn’t slowed down my learning of songs by much, but the upshot is, I can now ‘see’ those relationships theory talks about that were a puzzle, inside a mystery, inside an enigma, and I get to choose where I play everything, making me explore the fretboard a lot more.
All in 2 months!
And the only reason I have continued to improve in this way (to answer Josh’s question). I set BOTH short and long term goals that keep me motivated to improve.
Being able to sight read any piece at speed is a mountain to climb, but reading music is more of a molehill .
Absolutely agree which is why there’s the old ‘ymmv’. There are a number of reasons for a difference learning paths, and also the reason I quoted rather than replied. I don’t disagree with @Wombat-metal at all just providing another perspective taken from my experience.
I don’t learn theory to read music. I just learn to read music and find the other sh!t starts to fall into place.
And this is after reading tabs for 20ish years and still not seeing it. Who knew.
Yes, same here, but I’m still new at this bass thing (going on 2 years now ) I practice every day and still improving little by little , but it is probably too early for me to say this, there is a wall for me to hit in the future, just have not reached it but I will conquer it
I have yet to complete the B2B course, no other answer needed!
When I think about it, number one would be not going out of my comfort zone. Don’t get me wrong, I find some songs a challenge, and they take a lot of work, but I look at songs I like on Songsterr and think ‘I’ll come back to that when I’m a better player’.
I need to push myself a little harder. Although I don’t want to lose the ‘fun’ by overstretching.
That’s a tough balancing act, but you can try to push yourself harder without being hard on yourself if that makes any sense
Just laugh at your stumbles and carry on you’ll get there, put in the time
Self confidence (which is a much bigger topic than bass playing). I tend to be the type that success builds on success, but also defeats build on defeats. I’ve got times when I feel like I can play anything, then times when I struggle with alternate plucking.
**[quote=“JoshFossgreen, post:1, topic:72443, full:true”]
Hey gang! I’ve been thinking about why some people are happy with their progress, and some aren’t… besides that those who aren’t should have bought Beginner to Badass.
What do you think is the #1 thing that’s kept you from improving on your bass journey?
(I’ll save my answer for later to not bias you)
[/quote]
**
My guess would be not practicing everyday. I’m guilty of this myself but as others have stated life and work gets in the way. I’m forcing myself to practice at least 1 hour a day even if it’s just 30 minutes at a time. I’m only 5 months into my new bass adventure and know it’s a marathon and not a sprint.
I should confess I am dyslexic, and therein lies the struggle. I do okay with numbers, but musical notation looks like random chaos to my brain.
I can learn to overcome it, like I did reading and writing, but it will take years, like it did reading and writing.
The toughest part of the course for me was the section on notation following the Billie Jean module. I couldn’t handle it, Billie Jean was a walk in the park by comparison.
I can see how dyslexia would make reading music notation difficult.
I learned to read music and play alto sax as a kid, when I joined the school marching band.
To sound each note on a woodwind instrument (commonly a clarinet/sax/flute) requires pressing one or more keys simultaneously. The same set of keys plus a thumb-activated octave key yields notes an octave higher. It’s not impossible to learn, but it was Greek to me as a total newbie player.
In comparison, reading notation (treble clef only) was an easier task, by far. And, perhaps paradoxically, it made learning sax faster and easier for me.
Granted, I was a kid, free of responsibilities and open to learning everything I could. Besides that, I’ve always been fascinated by learning new languages. And music notation is definitely that!
Bottom line, if one has the desire and capability to do so, learning to read bass clef music notation can open new horizons of learning and playing - not the least of which is knowing note positions all over the neck and not having to look at the fretboard as you play.
This I feel. I’m also dyslexic. There are negatives, but there are also positives. I can think in pictures and can draw to communicate complex ideas and concepts. This ability has really helped in my professional career. Images (literally pictures) of the solution to business problems coalesce in my mind, I then draw them for clients…
Right now for me I believe its lack of time, having to run kids around to afternoon sports and to their own music lessons 5 days a week. Leaves little time to do what I really want and that’s to get one on one lessons to teach both music and technique
My lack of desire to get out and play with other musicians has me focused on creating my own music. I haven’t sat down to learn anything on the bass since the folks I played with went their separate ways. I write songs I think I’m coming up with interesting lines but I don’t know if I’m getting better I just focus on not sounding any worse than the last line.
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