In the funk! But not the good kind! >.<

[Papa Dangerous]

I feel a big lack of ambition in bass playing currently. I even feel like I have lost some abilities that I had once done so nicely with. I find myself just noodling around, not learning, and not advancing.

I started working 40 hours a week 3 months ago. This added with the fact I do not have a car means I have to depend on others. So when I have a 12pm shift, I find myself leaving the house at 845am to sit on a bench until I get to work. I get out after 8, and sometimes need to wait til 1am before getting a ride home.

Since I am now currently surrounded by instruments where I work; and I get home and see my bass. She (Ibanez GSR I got 8 years ago) does not do it for me like she used to compared to all the Fenders, the Lakland, the Warwicks, etc. that I get to try out. Plus, I hear all these people play at my job, and they just seem to always sound better then what I produce. (Could I be going to hard on myself here?)

Not only that, I do not have a bass amp. I would easily buy one, but all my savings are going towards a car and bills currently.

Regardless, I still find myself in a funk. I do not feel like I have actually played 8 years, and I have not had a band opportunity yet (I feel my skills need to be finely tuned before attempting a band.. unfortunately, I find myself with this attitude towards a lot of things and sometimes it holds me back.)

I am considering lessons.. whenever I can afford it, but I always liked the idea of being self taught... However, I feel like my music never has direction.

*My current plan, which is not in action just yet, is getting Sonar Cakewalk by Roland, and an audio interface. I want to make my own drum loops, maybe generating some guitar lines, and play my bass into the comp. I imagine this will help, I am still waiting for this program.

Anyone have some suggestions, that perhaps you, or know someone else who has ended up in a similar predicament?

[kb9wyz]

I can't relate to you on the feeling like I haven't played for eight years front, but I do have slumps where I just can't seem to do anything right and question if I should go on living with a bass in my hands. I just feel I can't advance. So I do feel for you there.

A couple people I know and have met swear by Band-In-A-Box. You can throw together jam tracks really quickly and just play along. There are different versions of it. The cheapest isn't too badly priced and just uses the standard MIDI sounds on your sound card.

It's an idea.

PG Music Inc. - Band-in-a-Box, RealBand, and more

[Papa Dangerous]

I do like that idea very much. The most enticing thing about Band-in-a-Box is its simplicity. That would provide a quick jump in the game and be able to do as I need.

However, I am getting Sonar, eventually, and wanted to learn an actually program, rather then something of this caliber.

What do you personally do for your slumps?

[bolophonic]

Dude, get a car and then you won't have to sit around waiting all night for people to give you rides. Or get a bike.

[Papa Dangerous]

Originally Posted by bolophonic

Dude, get a car and then you won't have to sit around waiting all night for people to give you rides. Or get a bike.

Im working on it. They are not cheap ya know lol I have a bike, its 15 miles each way to work, and a lot of hills.

[kb9wyz]

Originally Posted by Papa Dangerous

I do like that idea very much. The most enticing thing about Band-in-a-Box is its simplicity. That would provide a quick jump in the game and be able to do as I need.

However, I am getting Sonar, eventually, and wanted to learn an actually program, rather then something of this caliber.

What do you personally do for your slumps?

I have Sonar and love it, but I don't use it for what you're thinking of doing. I use FL Studio for that. Can't really explain why. But I like to set a nice two or three chord progression on a loop and just jam with it. For a very long time. After a while, I get so into what I'm playing that I don't want to stop. And this is easy to do. If you want ideas, just print a list of common chord progressions and set the time signature to whatever, and throw a drum beat for different genre's of music up and have fun. You can also play CD's and just jam along.

That's all I really do, though I mostly just go for the long jam session with FL to get the funk out.

[clodhopper]

Put a practice routine together for some manageable amount of time, even if just 10 mins a day. Run scales or arpeggios - something that you don't have to think too much about, just to keep your fingers working. When the desire to make music hits you again you will have all that skill that you have been developing in those 10 minute practice sessions to help you play what you hear. Sometimes it's difficult to feel musical all the time but just keeping it ticking over will pay dividends.
Having said that, it's sometimes good to take a complete break. When you come back, all those tired sounding licks that you are bored with now, will sound new again.

[Schlyder]

take lessons... YES.
If you are finding yourself in a bit of a stale period...
work on your ear training, and sight reading.
Do lots of listening and sing/scat/mumble back the lines you hear
Transcribe new songs.
Listen to many, many different styles of music.
Take a random string off your bass, and play/sightread songs.

Lots of things you can do. As long as it's different than what you are doing now.
Like the saying goes....
" If you always do, what you always did, you'll always get, what you always got."

[Russell L]

Well, when I taught myself guitar at age 13 I didn't have a car, but I didn't have to wait for rides either. I feel for you, pal, and wish you luck.

But, here's a difference between us. Music has always been a hunger for me. I remember going out to the garage on a freezing winter's night many times, dressed in a thick jacket and hat so I could play my crummy, cheap guitar for a couple of hours without waking anyone up or interrupting them in any way. I could be doing anything else beforehand, and that yearning would hit me like a brick. I knew I HAD to go play or it would tear a hole in the universe. Never mind what others could do on their instrument. I was totally getting off on what I was doing on it, no matter what it was. I had already done the same thing on my grandmother's piano for many years before then. Does that feeling ever hit you?

[bassnat]

Get the car first. Too much sitting around. If you have access to a community college, look into bass lessons there. Usually good teachers can be found at an affordable rate thru the school. If that is not possible get into some free YouTube lessons. There are a lot of teachers posting videos. Think positive, get out of the bad funk, and get in good funk.

[Depth_Charge]

Originally Posted by Papa Dangerous

What do you personally do for your slumps?

I'm 38. I'm self taught, started playing when I was about 19, took a lot of breaks, never learned much theory, and for all my time wanting to play music and being involved in it, I've only been in a handful of working cover bands, and can pretty much only play simple stuff (to my mind...)

Pretty much my whole playing "career" I've felt like I'm not good enough, that I should take lessons and learn "properly", that I should know more, be better, be in more bands, get paid more etc etc. Most of the time this thinking doesn't hold me back, but sometimes I realise I've gone a bit off it or I haven't touched it for a week etc. But then when I jam with other people, I get all these compliments about how I'm a "real" bassist who plays the "actual" basslines and most of the time I get the sense I can at least hold my own in most band settings which is a good thing, despite my own feelings of lack of progress.

The way I drag myself out of such slumps is to usually learn something new - a new scale, a new song thats just come out, a different genre than that I'm used to, a song from a genre I don't particularly like, learn a piece by ear etc. Just something I'm not used to that convinces me that I'm not as bad as I think I am. If I'm really desperate to break a slump, sometimes I'll pick up a guitar and try and learn a song that I already know on bass. That usually brings me back

[JimmyM]

Take lessons and tell people you're self taught regardless.