I think this might be asking a little much of my fellow TB'ers but I'm a little fed up with not being able to just pick up my bass and play my heart out. See I'm listening to Heart Break Even - Ani Difranco and I think her bassist is amazing. Granted it's jazz but, what is required of me to be at a level to at least play similar to that or even just be able to play it? I guess what I asking is a list of steps to take to be at the level to transcribe quickly by ear.

here's what I've got so far:

Learning theory
>know major/minor scales and patterns
>memorized fretboard
Taken some online lessons
Can pick bass parts out of songs


I don't know, I think my problem is that I can hear something, MAYBE get close to it on my fretboard but I'm never confident that it's correct. This post is probably redundant and useless but I'd appreciate some insight. Thanks guys and gals.

turn on the radio and play along to it, how long does it take you on average to find the right notes?, dont try to play similar to anyone else you hear, love the music you play, you play one note with passion, play it again with indifference - hear the difference?

Find an instructor who is an accomplished professional jazz musician. Then practice a lot.

Practice, of course, and play with people a lot. Play jazz - charts - standards - take solos. Get Band In A Box, cue up a standard a night and work it until you find your voice.

When you are playing, don't TRY so hard to be amazing and focus more on "having something to say".

What I have been doing lately is firing up BIAB, playing along with "So What?" and practicing creating melodies and solos using modes - each time through I pick a different mode to use and work really hard on making lines and phrases that sound nice and have good resolution. I must have played it for over an hour the other night and I could have gone all night if I didn't have a family that expected me to be a part of it... I started off clumsy and by the end of the hour was really hitting it! It felt great.

That's what I am doing these days and it really feels like the key to getting my 'playing my heart out' thing going. Maybe it will help you too.

I condensed most of the stuff I've learnt into three basic elements:

Patterns - scales, modes, chords
Positions - keys, tunings
Phrases - sequences, endings, motives, rhythmic forms, tempos