I can't seem to get the hang of bass playing...?

[Low Sound Love]

In every learning process you'll hit a plateau from time to time, feeling like your stuck and don't advance anymore. It's the most normal thing in the world.
Plus, as you get better, you start to pay more attention to details and identify all the flaws in your playing. Because you get better, you get the idea that you suck, even though you're making progress.
Just keep it up, put some variation in your practising. Also: play with as many musicians as you can, don't matter if they're pro's or beginners. You will always gain something from it.

[lbbc]

All great ideas mentioned above. I'm a middle school band director who also plays bass. I have given some of my students bass lessons...and could have started with theory (which you will eventually need), but chose to teach them basic patterns and moved to songs they wanted to learn.

Some use tabs and others learn by ear...both are valuable. There are many bass lessons on video and YouTube. As a joke, my kids got me the book "Bass For Dummies" for Christmas. I love it! It is a valuable tool for beginning and more advanced bassists.

Keep hanging in there...continue practicing, learn songs, maybe jam with other musicians. I've found that bass players are generally good about sharing their techniques with each other. Good luck!

[simplebassliner]

Originally Posted by josa115

But maybe I am just too lazy/talentless to pick up an instrument? I don't want to waste my parent's money if it's hopeless. Has anyone ever felt like this? Is there a solution?

If you are lazy, of course it's hopeless. Talentless? Everyone can improve with practice. Practice everyday. Your lesson with your music teacher may last just an hour or so once a week, but you should practice your lesson everyday. Spend a LOT of time with your instrument and practice...practice...practice...practice.
*This was the best advice that I read in a column written by Jeff Berlin in Bass Player Magazine long long long time ago.

[VerryBerry]

Originally Posted by hgiles

How long have you guys been playing before you started playing gigs?

I'm not playing gigs yet. I've only started playing bass last January, so 10-11 months in starting from zero. (Well, OK - I took some piano when I was a kid, and I played saxophone during my jr. high and high-school years - so not quite zero.) My day job and family obligations don't allow for too much practice time, but I have started playing with the odd friend or two. There's just enough improvement every so often that motivates me to keep going.

All the stuff I wrote about as advice to Josa I got from TalkBass and it surely has helped me. Even though I may never gig (never say never?), this bass/music thing, for me, is about maintaining sanity in a not-so-sane world.

[jmclearnon]

I don't know what your "instructor" is like, but i don't think you can make big jumps like that straight into improv.

I heard someone say that learning anything (bass included) should be done is small bitsize chunks... If you think your technique is not great, ask how to improve it and work on that one part of playing, it may be boring but think about this....

learn how to play dotted quavers -> learn a major scale -> play with a drum machine playing a scale with that rythm -> then maybe omit some of the notes from the scale (not play them) -> then you have effevitely made a basic bassline.

Thats one example, i was talking with Ant Wellington the other day and he was saying about how improvisation is made up of several different things, such as articulation, phrasing, space, technique, dynamics, emotion, tone, rhythm and listening.

If i wanted to learn to play saxophone, i wouldn't be able to improvise properly until 1.i have a grasp of the notes on the instrument and 2. was able to explore all of the above areas.

Don't be discouraged!! If you take small steps you can achieve your goals!! You will be jamming with people in no-time! I think your "instructor" has dumped too much information on you and swamped you. Just take it easy and enjoy the ride!!

Hope that helps a bit, sorry if it doesn't

Jonny

[bluesbass99]

There is a lot of good advice here. But first, don't get down on yourself. 98% of us have the same problems. I have to work really hard to do what I do...no different than almost everyone I know. The main thing is not to get discouraged or down on yourself. Reaching plateaus is just part of it. You may think you will break into the next plateau, but you will. Playing an instrument is like anything else in life. Hard work really pays in the end.

[jmclearnon]

+1 to that comment, if i'm learning a new technique its back to 40rpm for a few months . . .

[northernmonkey]

Try different teachers. Different teachers teach in different ways, and different people learn in different ways, you've got to find the combination that clicks.

It sounds like you arent enjoying what youre doing. Thats critical. Without enjoyment, you'll lack drive, and without that, youre screwed.

My bass teacher mostly uses guitar or keyboards when he is teaching. His logic is that I'm doing the bass bits, so he doesnt need one, he has to do the other bits. It's not very conventional, but I think its cool

[Bassamatic]

It may be because you are not putting out the effort, or it may be that your abilities and aptitudes are in a different direction. You don't state your age, but I think you are young enough that you have not tried a lot of different things yet. It seems that you chose bass because you like music, but you did not state that you have had any previous musical experience or interest.

No one can do everything. A lot of people say things like "you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it", etc. But this is patently not true. If it was, we would have a lot more superstars in sports and music, etc.

The fact is that we are all born with a certain set of aptitudes that cannot be changed - just like eye and hair color. You need to find what yours are, and what things will use them best. This will make you happy and successful. You say that you are not good at anything - well that is also not true. What you mean is that you are not good at anything that you have TRIED so far. The fact is that there is something that you have never thought of or tried that is perfect for you.

Most people just follow their interests ("I know what I want to do"). This is not usually successful, because your interests have nothing to do with your aptitudes and you can only be interested in something that you have actually experienced in some way. This is easy to see - most people's interests change from time to time. The result is that most people end up doing things half-heartedly, just enough to keep their grades or jobs, but are not happy or really successful at their work or studies.

There IS a way out of this. There is a non-profit research foundation that has been testing people for nearly 100 years. Their series of tests can determine what your pattern of aptitudes actually is, and advise you on the things that you should do, and more importantly NOT do.

I took these tests many years, ago, and like the 100 or so people I have referred over the years, it changed my life. Once I started doing what I was built to do, it felt like the weight of the world was lifted off my shoulders, my grades went up and I was happy and fulfilled, and have been for many years.

Check it out - read some of the stories from people, and then just do it. They have test sites all over the world. if you do this, you will be thanking me the rest of your life. Sorry if this sounds like an ad, but I am a believer.
www.jocrf.org

[maxgrant]

OP: At about 8-10 months after starting to play, I felt comfortable playing with other people. After about 2 years, I played my first gig in front of quite a few other people (400).

It takes time. Don't get worried about a lack of progress so soon. 2 years seems to be the minimum time for a person to get a basic level of competence at an artistic discipline. So keep plugging away, and don't let someone tell you to quit. I had lots of people tell me I should quit before I got my fingers under me. That was almost 30 years ago. I've never looked back.

[jandscotten]

Originally Posted by psp742

Get Ubisoft Rocksmith and the bass DLC... It's both fun and easy to grasp since the game adjust to player skill. The better you follow the notes and chords, you learn actual set of each song... The games are pretty fun too, helps you get used to position in fret, chords, etc.

+1
Actually all the new ones come with bass already installed!

Remember, "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" or is that axe murderer...I never get those straight.

[Canyouhearmenow]

Some great advice on here. This is my first post but had to jump right in. I started 10 years ago and got so disillusioned that I gave my bass to my son who is a good guitar player...I gave up.

Fast forward around 8 years, son moved out and left my Bass behind telling me to give it another go. I told a mate at work the story and he said he had an old guitar lying around and so we started to practice together regularly - wow what a difference! We have both progressed so much because we feel we have an obligation to each other and so practice individually every day. And together every working day in our lunch break.

Something else I heard..."If you think you are making no progress put down your instrument, turn it round and pick it up again and try to play in the opposite hand - now you can see how much you have improved!"

[Synthax]

I had issues right off the bat moving from scales to songs and the reverse. A friend sowed me something and several things i was struggling with clicked. Once you learn the pattern for the major scale you know it moves around the fretboard. No look at the song "i want you to want me" by cheap trick, the main part of that song is a major scale walkdown. Look up the tabs for it and youll see how you work you way down from the high part of the scale to the bottom. Once that clicks a bit for you, the rest will start to click more rapidly, at least it did for me.

Another song to learn from where you can see some improvising sort of. Have you ever seen the rain by ccr plays a lot of root fifth notes with passing notes to the higher set. You can see how they throw in some notes to get you from one part of the song to another.

I could be dead wrong, but hopefully not
Stick with it and spend time with the bass in your hands, it will click

Neil

[Synthax]

Sorry for the typos, trying to do this on the go from an ipad,....poorly

[Synthax]

Sorry, i have 1 more thing to add that helped me. Try standing up after sitting for a while and see if things feel diferent. I have no idea what happened but when i started practicing and playing while standing, things went smoother, sounded better, and the ache in my hands stopped.

Neil

[atomicdog]

Find friends to pay with. Start a band, nothing serious at first, just some guys to jam with. Check your local music store of Craigslist for other players looking to jam. The best way to practice is in a performance situation. That will help you apply what you know (you can play a million blues tunes with a simple major scale walking bass line and the old G C D (I,IV,IV) pattern. Performing with others will help you tighten up your technique, lead you to learn new stuff and get you out of the rut. Hang in there—you've already learned a lot and are building a solid foundation (and that's what bass is all about).

[jamminology101]

Originally Posted by Synthax

Sorry, i have 1 more thing to add that helped me. Try standing up after sitting for a while and see if things feel diferent. I have no idea what happened but when i started practicing and playing while standing, things went smoother, sounded better, and the ache in my hands stopped.

Neil

+1
Always practice with ur strap at the length ur going to b using when ur standing up...seems like a no brainer but when I first started playing a practiced with the bass in my lap with the fretboard kinda angled toward me for better visuals and when I went to play with my band is b butchering everything and really struggled to reproduce what id been practicing. All those muscle memory connections are a little different when those angles change. I'd suggest tryin to find some newbie novice musicians on if level and form a band...can't tell u how much inspiration it gave me when I first started practicing with a band setting...we used to tape our practice sessions and let people listen to us and no matter how woeful those sessions were it always gave me the inspiration to practice and comeback better than the time before which is the philosophy that's carried over some 25 years later.

[jmclearnon]

Originally Posted by jamminology101

+1
Always practice with ur strap at the length ur going to b using when ur standing up...seems like a no brainer

I would definatelly agree, when i started playing fast jazz all the rehearsals where sitting down, see when it came to standing up and playing fast for long periods of time.... well when your arms are not that long and your standing its a more machanically challenging.

I now practise most of the time standing up as if i was playing at a concert... except if i practise for like 6 hours then i get tired but since the strap is short most of the weight is on my shoulders.

[matey]

really cool advise like most tof the stuff on this forum im really new at it as well so my two cents is keep at it while your enjoying it, if it seems like a chore have a break for a while and be sure to read lots of posts from TB

[GRAHAM SG1]

Maybe learning a different type of music will get you out of the blues rut, blues can be very predictable and safe, if you mess up you know when to start again, I know blues is the basis of a lot of music but it does get boring if played all the time, IMO