I am coming up on a year of playing

[Sexfan]

Hi everyone, I am new here and this is my first post, if i am posting this in the wrong board let me know!

I bought my bass about a year ago and have practiced consistently everyday and I would like to know what others think of my rate of progress. I got a few lessons but could never find a teacher that I liked so I have been learning on my own. Right now I can play a decent amount of songs from start to finish as well as a large amounts of riffs. The most difficult song I can play well from start to finish is probably Soul to Squeeze by RHCP, which was my only real goal for the year. My ear is also developing and I can recognize intervals and can work out how they correspond to the notes on the fretboard with relative ease. For the first six months I only really practiced rhythm and technique so I have just began learning to train my ear as well as transcribing. I am pretty happy with how I progressed so far, How would you say I have progressed in relation to yourself after one year?

[jschwalls]

Sounds like you're off to a good start. Make sure you also learn ALL the notes on the fretboard, to the point where you can recall them from memory instantly.

I had professional instruction from Beaver Felton in the beginning of my bass "career" so it would be unfair to compare our 1st year progress. He had me working on more theory/ryhthm based stuff rather than learning songs. The first band I was into learning songs was RUSH and back in the early 90's finding bass tab to a RUSH song was almost impossible, so I had to do it all by earas well.

Keep working hard and it will pay off...

[Sexfan]

Do you have any tips for learning all of the notes on the fretboard? Basically all I have done so far is just practiced a few major scales to the point where I know generally which notes are where on the fretboard. I also naturally picked up on simple patterns (octaves, fifths, etc.) but other than that I am struggling to get to the point where I know where every note is instantly. I was kind of hoping it would come naturally over time but that has proven pretty ineffective. Can you offer me any advice outside of just sitting down and memorizing them?

[ericw]

Get a beginner book, like Hal Leonard Bass Method book 1 or something, and learn to read music. Practice sight-reading and playing in the different positions on the neck (same pitches on different strings and what-not). I'm doing this right now - the sight-reading forces you to know where the notes are instantly.

You'll probably fly through book 1 if you put any time into it though so take care of it and don't open the CD and maybe you can return it when you're done...

[NickInMesa]

Sexfan (nice name btw), you can learn the fretboard by simply playing the notes and saying them.

Using the "Up 7, down 5" rule to find the notes and learning how to find the tonic instantly will help you do that as well.

Teachers will teach you something but there is no teacher that can teach you everything. I have had a few teachers, some taught me a lot others taught me nothing.

Be careful not to chat too much and concentrate on the playing. The ideal is a teacher whose main instrument is the bass, but can also doodle on a 6-string and you become a 2-piece of a beat box or recording.

This is what my current teacher does and it helps a lot.

All the theory (learning scales, etc...) you can do on your own. There are lots of great books out there. The Bass For Dummies book is really really good, by the way.

[mizmor]

My teacher has me take index cards and write out the notes of the strings and the notes on the fret board with no sharps and flats. I mix them up and try to memorize where the note is on what string. Works for me.

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by Sexfan

Do you have any tips for learning all of the notes on the fretboard?

Check out this post:
The Big Free Music Related Software Thread

If you have MS Excel or can get it, this is a very good trainer to learn the fretboard notes.