A Roadmap for Begginers

[beaglegod]

First let me apologise right off the bat for what may turn out to be a long winded post, this is my first here as Ive been skulking around for a while reading alot of older threads, I finally descided to come out from behind the bushes.

Ive tried my hand at several instruments in the past guitar 20 years ago, than bass for a hot second, than about 10 years ago it was violin each time I had a teacher and some very good teachers at that, each time I got out of the gate fast and gradually fizzled out. Impatience, and anxiety would eventually become mountains to high to scale and Id give up.

Now at the ripe old age of 40 Ive descided to give things a go again and so for the past month Ive been practicing and studying the bass. Trying not to fall into the same pitfalls from my past. I dont think its all been a waste as alot of what Ive learned from my old guitar teacher and violin instructers is helping me especially in the area of knowing how to relax and practice with as little tension as possible. Ive also been re-studying a book on music theory"the complete idiots guide to music theory". Which is a big help. However as far as the instrument itself I wasnt very happy with the books I found for learning to play bass. I picked up the Duummys book and complete idiots guide (figured that had to have me covered) and while there is some good info in these books it just didnt seem like a step by step guide to playing. Than I happened upon a course being sold on ebay it was only 9 bucks , came in PDF format,so I said what the heck maybe Ill get a little something out of it. Well I was very impressed it seems Ive found what Im looking for however I wanted to see what you guys thought as far as the logical progression for learning bass. This is to let me know if Im on course.

Firstly the emphasis is on building technique, in fact I emailed the author and he told me if my hand were out of shape for playing to just drill some of the fretting and finger picking exercises for 4- 6 weeks slowly at first always with a metronome working until playing qurter notes at 120bpm. Than to continue with the exercises for 3-6 months dropping off old ones that become easy and taking on new ones while trying to learn songs that arent too complicated. Basically as he put it this builds the engine that makes the car go.After this these are the topics I would be studying/practicing:

Diatonic Bass Scales:
Master the Essential Diatonic Major And Minor Scale Patterns.
Increase Fretboard Know How by Mastering a Small Sequences
Learn to Build Longer Runs By Combining Small Scales Sequences
Further Refine Our Basic Technique Through Scale Sequences and Patterns
Learn How To Actually Practice Theses Patterns for Maximum Results



Diatonic Scales in All 12 Keys:
Learn to Master the Major and Minor Scale Patterns In All 12 Keys
Exercises for Mastering the Art of Shifting the Patterns
The Beauty Here Is: We Don’t Really Learn Anything New, We Just Learn How to Re-use What We Already Know.

Pentatonic Scale Studies:
A Key Scale In Rock/Blues Country Music.
Learn The Pentatonic Major And Minor Scales in all 12 Keys
Learn What Parallel and Relative Scales Are
Exercises for Pentatonic Master

Legato Studies:
Build Fret Hand Speed/Stamina/Accuracy
Exercises and Workout for Building Serious Hammer-on and Pull-Off Chops
Learn Valuable Shifting and Sliding Skills for the Frethan

Finger Permutations:
Build Increased Finger Independence/Speed and Accuracy through Permutation Exercises.
Learn to Create a Never Ending Series of Variations to Challenge New Technical Demands.

Single String Scales:
Learn one of the Most Overlooked Concepts for Bass or Guitar.
This is a Must for Effortlessly Moving Across The Neck and Understanding Intervals.
Learn to Visually See as Well as Hear Intervals with Basic Ear Training Exercises

Making Music-12 Bar Blues and Lines/Licks/Riffs:
Learn to Put Your New Found Skills To Work In The Real Musical World
Learn Basic Musical Form and Concepts for Building Your Own Bass Lines
Exercises and Examples Teach Us Root Patterns and Rhythmical Variation.

Learn to Play and Easily Find Root/Fifth/Octave Lines

Learn Chromatic and Diatonic Approach Notes

Learn Some Common Bass Lines/Licks and Riffs


Making Music-Chord Progressions and Bass Lines:
Put Our Skills to The Test Playing Over a Common Set of Chord Progressions
This is Where We Get to Put All Our Previous Learn Knowledge to the Ultimate Test.

Exercises and Workouts for Creating Real Life Bass Lines
Master Essential Practice Skills to Easily Find Common Root/Fifth/Octave Patterns
Practice Incorporating Diatonic and Chromatic Approach Notes Into Our Lines
In Short: Really Get To Know The Fretboard


Making Music-More Lines Licks and Riffs:
A Collection of Bass Lines/Licks and Riffs to add to our Musical Arsenal.
Designed as a set of Real Life Musical Ideas and Concepts
Further Refine Our Understanding of the Fretboard
Walk Away with a Collection of Great Lines and Licks to add to Our Playing
Further Refine Our Chops with Real Musical Examples

Music Theory-Basic Major Scale Construction:
Learn 3 Basic Rules For Building Major Scales
Learn Where Key Signatures Come From
A Very Easy to Understand Lesson in Basic Music Theory
Music Theory-Scale Alteration and Perspective Chart:
Learn to Build New Scales, such as Harmonic Minor by Simple Scale Alteration
By Altering a Note or Two From What We Know we Can Easily Master Other Scales.
Complete With an Easy to Understand Chart and a Discussion on How to View Relative Scales and Modes

Does this sound like a logical aproach for study, these things cuopled with studying music theory? Do these topics in this order seem like a descent roadmap for a begginer? Again my reason for posting all these topics is to make sure I dont invest the next year or so aproaching things the wrong way, I do see a LOT of similar exercises and such right here on talk bass and some other sites, its the putting of everything into a logical order for study that seems to me to be the big challenge. So for now Ihave what I have and will stick to it but Im all ears for oppinions and advice. Hopefully I can make good progress with what I have for a while.

[Fergie Fulton]

This seems quite comprehensive and should stand you in good stead. But i think you should find a teacher who has the same philosophy and work with him so you can stay focused on what YOU want to achieve.
Staying focused and having the disipline in your learning will be the hard part as you will always want to do the "fun" stuff at the expense of the "need to know" stuff.
Distractions are easy because you will hear or realise something and will want to explore it more, that is natural, but only after you have finished what you were working on, and as an 'extra thing' rather than an 'instead of thing'.
Good luck and its never to late to start music in life.

[PSPookie]

All of the technique and theory in the world are not going to help you if you don't enjoy what you are doing.

The thing that seemed to be missing from your plan was: HAVE FUN

Don't get me wrong, technique and theory are important but if you aren't having fun then you won't be able to get through the rough patches -- the frustrating plateaus. You also won't want to put in the necessarry amount of practice.

Be sure to include 'fun' time in your practice routine. Take a few minutes at the end just to play whatever you feel like playing. I also recommend playing with other people as soon and as often as possible. Not only is this much more fun, but it will also help you improve.

Listen when you're playing.

Worry less about falshy techniques that you can't do yet and more about making your current skills fit into a musical context.

[Battlecat]

Hey everybody, I almost in the same boat with beaglegod but he seems to be a little ways ahead of me. I'm thirty five and have finally realized that after sleeping with the guitar/bass under my bed, that I am not going to wake up one day and know how to play. I think that I am finally to a point where I can actually learn what I need to, Especially with the internet today which we didn't have 21 years ago when I got my first Harmony strat from Fingerhut. Anyways, I know how to read tablature and can usually find and figure some stuff out on my own but there is a point where I just can't get past a certain point cause I'm lacking the skills to allow me to proceed.

I have plenty of time to practice but I really don't know what to practice, I find myself just playing Midnight Oil, or Weezer songs over and over until my kids are ready to kill me. I want to get away from this because I know that, even though it's fun, My skills aren't getting any better.

I guess in all of this my question to you who know is about scales. I am ready to learn everyone of them If that is what I have to do to be considered a bass player. I will practice them until they are perfect. I know there is a purpose for knowing scales but I don't know what that purpose is. Could someone please explain?

Battlecat

[BobaFret]

I can only say what has worked for me. After doing the scales thing I enlisted the help of a local bass hero to tutor me. He got me away from that line of thinking and more of a chordal approach ( i.e what makes them up and what to play over them ). Since part of the scales is in the chords you are learning them in a more musical way IMO ( and his ). Once this makes sense adding in the extra tones from a scale for walking etc. is not a big deal.