Furthering my Bass abilities

[JeffC]

So this is a really open end question but I'm hoping someone will have some guidance.

I've been playing for about a year now and started from scratch, no musical background to speak of. The whole time I have been learning with a band. So the experienced members have really helped loads in my progression.

I am at the point now where I can sort of learn a song by ear, know where to find all the notes on the fret board, learn the songs the band can throw at me fairly easily and quickly, etc.

My problem now is I feel a bit lost when on my own. I love the bass and I have a big love for motown and funk, although I have trouble playing it, my fingers are still a touch too slow.

I see lots of people online playing some really nice melodies and such and want to learn how to come up with nice pieces, even for when I have to come up with bass lines for the bands own rock, alt rock songs.

What should I be focusing on learning at this point, I feel really lost. Should I look at learning scales, improve, jazz....

Please help!

Also I find that I am a bit more of a visual person so while I don't mind books, if someone could suggest a good bass dvd for what ever discipline you suggest, that wold be wonderful.

Thanks
Jeff

[hunta]

I would recommend finding a bass teacher. Probably the first logical step would be to start with reading music (if you haven't), and to learn the major modes. It can be tricky to get started on the right foot with that stuff and it really helps to have a good teacher to make sure you have a solid grasp on all the fundamentals. There are lots of websites and books and probably dvd's that cover this stuff, but none of those things can answer questions when you get horribly confused... And that tends to happen repeatedly when people learn theory

[JeffC]

I am already able to read music although I'm not quite fast enough to site read.

I have also had a couple teachers. The first one was a guitarist teaching bass....he didn't last long. The second one was a 30 year jazz player 25 year teacher. He was good...expensive but good. I feel like that's now what I need right now. I can understand the importance of a teacher but at this time I don't see it as a necessity.

I am looking for a focus at this point.