What are your short and long-term goals?

This is actually one of the main reasons I like the online course of Ari Cap’s Music Theory for the Bass Player (cohort version). It gives you plenty of work to do for each unit (it sets a minimum amount of work, but you can also do it all if you want). It goes for 40 weeks in structured units, so I feel I’m improving week on week and it continues to build on previous units. I am also purposefully trying hard not to get distracted by going down the Youtube rabbit hole whenever a new ‘insert channel name here’ video comes out. I’m trying really hard to just stick with the course and practice what I’m learning there AND, if I get a bit tired of that I can work on songs from the 50 song challenge. AND, if my fingers hurt I can get on this forum :slight_smile: . But that’s it - trying to focus and not let myself go in lots of directions, which is what I usually do (all my report cards said “easily distracted”).

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Sadly this is now literally my day job. I miss when my job was more along the lines of “make stuff.”

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I started this with the goal of creating better bass lines for the songs I was writing, I’ve also started playing music with more people which is pushing me out of my comfort zone by making me either learn someone elses bass line or come up with a reasonable facsimile on the fly. I guess the truth of the matter is that the goal posts keep moving. What wasn’t important to me 2 months ago is now very important to me, what was a goal six months ago is now achievable but the knowledge that I could do better won’t let me call it done. The short term goal is to do better…better at practicing, better at paying attention, better technique.
Long term goals is to be better…be a better musician, be a better bass player, be a better group member.

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My goal, if you can call it that, is simple: have fun. If it stops being fun I’ll find something else to do. So far, no chance of that happening. I haven’t had this much fun in years. :smiley:

I’d like to regain the level of proficiency that I had 45 years ago when I stopped playing, but I don’t know if that is even possible.

At some point in the future I’d like to hook up with some like-minded old farts for some informal blues/classic rock jam sessions.

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:+1:

I hope I am doing better in my day job when it comes to defining and breaking down goals than when it comes to bass… somehow it is hard to bring this “management mindset” into something that is supposed to be fun :crazy_face:

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Good job, I can relate! I also play harmonica’s! So I’m getting ready for a gig, learning some songs for other groups to sit in with or building my own harps!
I also work 50hr.s a week! Bass is my first Love, there’s just something about it that’s so relaxing. After finishing the B2B course, Josh did an amazing job of making so many things with playing & theory understandable!!!
Thanks Josh!!!

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Short term - play so often that my fingertips become numb :laughing:
Long term - would love to play in a grunge cover band

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Very tough goals.

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short - create my own simple bass lines around my sax playing / make funky beats with bass & bari sax
long - play with other real people in the flesh from the start of a song to the end

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You can do it!
I am now up to my wrists numbing out sometimes (yes I know not good)

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Short term: get through B2B for the 2nd time.
It’s weird, I thought I would just blow through it as a refresher, but, nope, I’m still stumbling in spots, which is frustrating and enlightening at the same time.
Longer term: get back to playing with a band. My garage band hasn’t met in more than 2 months. Sometimes we made good music. Sometimes it was just a good excuse to get together with friends and have a beer or three on a Thursday night. Oh, and maybe play a song or two. But since our singer moved, we haven’t gotten together at all. I’m looking at Craigslist and BandMix to see if there’s something local, but the garage band was a neighborhood thing. We walked our dogs together, got each other’s mail if someone was out of town, so the judgement level was low. Now I’m looking at walking into a room full of strangers and wondering if I’ve got the chops. But, damn I miss playing with other people.


And if you have a garage band, you have to have a fridge magnet for everyone’s garage beer fridge :grin:

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Sounds like a nice group and a lot of fun. Hopefully you can get back together at some point. But, if not, you’ve had experience playing with other people and if you go into a new situation at least you’ve got that experience under your belt which, no doubt, will be a big help.

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Short term: play through songs with smooth transitions, and learn the proper notes and theory.
Long term: have enough knowledge to teach my wife and daughter. Also to be good enough to play at our church and write the music for it.

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Short term: finish Beginner 2 Badass and then do another lap through to see how much cleaner I can get it.

Long term: 1. form a punk band.
2. Learn to play the Seinfeld opening theme (just did the first slap lesson so I’m on my way)
3. Come up with some loftier goals.

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Short term- Keep up Hardcore lesson plan for B2B without getting too sloppy and teaching myself way too many bad habits.
Medium- Get some of those 50 song challenges down while maybe tweaking around again with the fast B2B licks I had trouble with this time around.
Long- Ideally find a fun garage group willing to put up with my new car smell…

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My goal for 2022 (since we’re getting to the resolutions time of year) is to start playing open stages. I’m a singer and I love to perform, but up until now my performing has always depended on knowing musicians that were both able and interested in playing, which aren’t always easy to find. I’ve also thought of pulling a band together and even put out feelers pre-Covid, but I’d really like to have the freedom to just get on stage whenever the mood strikes.

Since local open stages are usually 3 songs, I want to build as many as 5 mini set lists of cover songs that I can sing and play cleanly and well so I can go frequently without repeating songs too often. As I progress I’m hoping to eventually host that open stage (you open and play the first 30-45 minutes), potentially leading to little gigs at the local cafe or opening at the local bar (that might be my resolution for 2023).

I also want to not make a total fool of myself if I’m asked to jam on bass with my musician friends, so continuing to work at being a well rounded player is a must. I don’t expect any of the bass players in that highly talented gang will feel overly threatened by my new skills, but I still want to hold my own.

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It was going to be “take over the world” but the world is a mess right now, soooo… finishing the SBL jazz course I’m working on, do the SBL technique accelerator course (which I put on hold to do the jazz course) and continuing to do more of the same stuff I’ve been doing this year: work on improvising, work on composing more stuff, transpose/learn stuff by ear, play as much as I can, keep working on theory.

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I have modest goals.
I’ve been on a hiatus with B2B - got through as far starting module 15 a few months ago, but for many modules I never got past the easy, or maybe for a few, the medium workouts.
(confession mode) I think I sabotaged my progress by trying to learn to read the bass clef also, and I stopped practicing. (/end confession mode) I need to take it all slowly.

So I am now planning for the short term (January) to start the course over, once I get through all the other imminently necessary (in the near term) life stuff I’m trying to work through in the meantime. I can’t give myself “permission” to concentrate on bass, until I finish those things.

Mid term, once I have completed B2B more satisfactorily, is to try to learn to read the bass clef, but not to the extent of distraction or discouragement. I also had signed up for Mark Smith’s Sight Reading Vol. 1, so will have to get back to that at some point.

Long term, I hope eventually to have enough proficiency to accompany my son (who plays guitar and piano) for a few tunes. If the Sight Reading course goes well, I may take some others at TalkingBass. That’s about as far as I can see right now.

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Hang in there, @Never2Late . . :wink: And don’t worry . . . lots of us (myself included) had a minor re-start along our journeys, so you’re not alone!

Cheers
Joe

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Thanks, @Jazzbass19, I’m not letting it get me down. I hope I’ll be able to post some progress in a couple of months. I do have somewhat of a habit of starting some things and not finishing them, but don’t think learning the bass to a basic level of proficiency will be one of those.

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