How do you motivate yourself to learn stuff?

[WickedPissah]

How do you motivate yourself to keep learning something even when you're having a hard time getting around a new song?

I'm having a hell of a time learning kick out the jams but I don't want to give up, how do you push through?

[MilkyMcMilkMilk]

slow it way down if possible. i am no good at working songs out by ear so if i have a tab book
or get a good tab on the internet i use guitar pro that way you can change the speed and have
the volume high so the bass part is isolated.
1st though i like to learn each of the individual distinctive parts, 1 at a time of course
then after i have the parts down i start focusing on the arrangement and piecing everything together until it's smooth.

I used to always put a lot of pressure on myself and think i suck if i can't learn a song in a few hours,
but now i will sometimes practice the same song for 2 weeks straight trying to get it.

i don't really know if this is much of motivational advice, more or less just a method of learning a song.

basically you just have to really want to learn it. if it frustrates you, put it aside for a day or a week and come back to it later.

[funkybass4ever]

Give yourself adequate time- don't rush it. When I get frustrated I just play other things for a while and then come back to it.
I am currently learning (playing 60% of it ) Paul Chambers solo on BASS BLUES by John Coltraine. I found sometimes when i take it measure by measure i get the most benefit and learn it better. Sometimes I take an entire phrase and learn that.
Are you reading notation or tab?

[nortonrider]

no pain - no gain.
If you want something, you have to work for it. Period!

If you give up saying "it's too hard", then you didn't want it as bad as you first thought you did.

Determination and Perseverance.

[WickedPissah]

Thanks. I just got discouraged when I found that it's way harder than it sounds.

[Lesfunk]

If I'm having trouble with a song (I assume you mean by ear), rather than just trying to get note after note after note, I break the song down into sections and with each section I try to determine the basic target notes that the changes revolve around. Then try playing through the section I'm working on very simply, just trying to hit the roots of the changes and get a general feel for the tune.
Then I try to work it up a little from there and If the bass part is to much for me to handle, either by not being able to hear the parts or the parts being too difficult for me to play, I try to add a part that I can play and try to cop the feel of the tune even if it's not the actual note for note line.

[baddarryl]

My motivation is that I don't want people to look at me and say "dang that guy sucks". Call it avoiding shame I guess!

[HaVIC5]

Whenever I'm in a rut with playing, I stop for a day or two. The longer the better, believe it or not. When I pick the instrument back up, it feels 1000x better than I remembered it. Sometimes the best way to get motivated is just letting the instrument do it for you.

[JimmyM]

I think of all the money I will lose if I don't learn what I'm supposed to.

[tbei]

If you are finding it hard, have a break from it. But don't give up on that song, come back to it with a fresh look at it.

I was in a bit of a rut so i spent 2 hours jamming to the James Brown greatest hits and loving it again now

[Deacon_Blues]

Playing with others is the only thing that really motivates me to practice bass. (baddarryl has a good point though ) I'm just not sure if you can call it "practicing". Mostly I'm just jamming along to songs, either to learn the song, to work on my endurance with the help of it, or just jamming for the fun of it. Sometimes I practice technique things but hardly ever scales, arpeggios and stuff.

[cassanova]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

I think of all the money I will lose if I don't learn what I'm supposed to.

That's what keeps me motivated especially when its songs I can't stand.

[Rudreax]

I want to get to that point where I could play something that melts faces and just say "wow" to myself.