Improve bass or songwriting skills?

[Odinbass]

Looking for advice or just like to hear your own stories on a similiar dilemma.

Like most people, I have limited time and money to dedicate to music. After not really working on improving anything for the past few years, I'm looking to concentrate on getting better at some facet of my musicianship over the next few.

Being primarily a bassist, I've considered upping my bass game. Purchase-wise, this would involve buying a new better bass that will allow me to explore advanced techniques; such as slap, tap and chords (my current bass doesn't handle tapping particularly well).

In addition I'd like to spend time working on learning unfamiliar styles/songs, improving my sight reading, and exploring my creativity on the instrument. Being a bassist is a big part of how I identify myself so working on being a better one makes sense.

On the other hand, in my slightly younger day I used to be a songwriter for my bands. Not the best, but with practice I think I could be at least decent. To do this I'd probably need a DAW program (Cubase etc), a MIDI controller, audio interface, and possibly an electric guitar.

Ultimately I'd like to write for a band again. However, composing the all the parts for songs takes time and working through the bad ideas to get to the good ones takes even more time. Thus I could not dedicate enough time to both improve my bass skills and songwriting simultaneously. It is one or the other... at least for the immediate future.

The downside to these would be that working on fancy bass moves probably won't serve much purpose beyond show-off moments. With songwriting, I am in a weak position as I am not a great singer and would have to get other people to sing my songs.

Perhaps this is the wrong forum for an unbiased opinion (talkBASS) but maybe you guys have had a similiar experience; concentrate on your primary instrument or choose to work on broader skills like songwriting, production, etc?

[tangentmusic]

Do the things that give you the most personal satisfaction.
If songwriting gives you that, then write songs.
If becoming more skilled on bass is more thrilling, do that.

[Muaguana]

If you can budget your time, you can do both. While I was getting an AAS in Audio Production Technology, I took a class in composition and had to write 5 compositions in a semester in addition to practicing bass for a jazz improv class and honing my mixing chops. And I'm not talking about I-IV-V pop fluff, this was baroque-esque string trios, Schoenberg-inspired twelve-tone pieces... the stuff that makes you bang your head against a wall.

It can be done, you just need to know when you should focus on one area of study, and when you should focus on the other.