taking my first bass lesson on thurs night .. been at it about a month ..
one thing i've found i practice about 2 hrs a night .. and what keeps me from practicing instead of playing along and learning tunes are changing chord progressions .. using arpeggios sometimes .. or the such ..
work up and down scales with various types of progressions:
1 - 4 - 5
1 - 3 -5
1 - 3 - 5 - 8
etc ... things like that .. last night i was doing this one:
1 - 3 - 2 - 4 - 3 - 5 - 4 - 6 - 5 - 7 - 6 - 8 - 7
then back down again .... doing it in one key .. then going back and forth.
i find it very helpful
Practicing... 
