I've been playing bass for nearly 40 years (yes, I know...my body is in it's early 50's before my mind has had chance to grow up).

I'm not too shabby at playing bass and I've absorbed a lot into my own playing over the years from the influential players of their day, so I've learned the same Jaco chops that everyone else has, Jeff Berlin, Stanley, and going way back I learned more Chris Squire stuff than anyone except Chris Squire would ever need. So I can wriggle my fingers on the fretboard pretty well on fretted and fretless basses and play in most styles (a bit weak on slap but, hey...). All of this has meant that I've been able to work as a regular weekend warrior, in many different styles of band, for all that time without anybody finding me out :smug:

But...here is the deal.

I played piano as a kid to the point where I was sight reading and studying music theory. I stopped playing piano a couple of years before I started on bass but there were no bass teachers available to me at that time and I never managed to translate my dwindling reading and theory skills from piano to bass so I'm self-taught.

At the time it didn't seem to matter, being the next John-Paul Jones or John Entwhistle was a much more attractive proposition than sitting there playing scales and playing on stage also seemed to attract more girls than sitting in my bedroom playing arpeggios.

But now, since the celtic band I've been playing with has just broken up, I've decided to take some time out before seeking out another band and start to learn bass all over again. Properly this time!

AND IT's HARD !!!

I'm working through some scales now, teaching myself because I still can't commit to getting a teacher. Even though there are loads of them around now, compared to when I was a kid, I work stupid hours and have to travel a lot at short notice during the week so I'm sure that I would end up messing any teacher around with short notice cancellations.

So, has anybody got any tips or recomended study guides for somebody who is a complete beginer teaching themselves.

And has anybody got any tips for sticking to structured practise instead of getting sidetracked into 'Portraits of Tracy' after 10 minutes?

Ok dude, here's the deal:

You need to make a "business plan" of what it is you want to accomplish. It should include what you want to be able to do as a musician and it should even include what you DON'T want to do. Focus your thoughts and give yourself direction.

Next, using that information in your business plan create yourself a weekly practice schedule. Make it something that can be accomplished on a daily basis and can be measured weekly. Don't make it too difficult or too long otherwise you are going to be playing Portrait of Tracy and calling that practice. Make it a short list like "15 min. warm up, 30 min major scales in all 12 keys saying the note and then playing the note, 30 min. some kind of exercise book, 30 min jam on the tune of the week" and then do that every day.

Next week change it up but make sure you make a list of things that can be accomplished daily. You aren't going to fool anyone but yourself if you make these amazing practice routines that you can't finish. It's like if I walk into the gym and decide that be the end of this week I'm going to be benchpressing 450lbs. Not going to happen.

Seek out good self-teaching materials. Ed Friedland has some GREAT books for sale on his website and on Amazon.com.

But the most important piece of advice I can give is play with as many people as you can as often as you can. Experience will help you guide your own studies.

Someone posted this the other day - looked useful so I bookmarked it.

http://garywillis.com/pages/lessons/read.html