Thanks for the response. Speed and dexterity are for sure important. I'm going from basically being a "one finger" player to using all the fingers, which the private lessons for sure helped, but I want to get even better at that. Music theory is another thing I want to learn a lot more about. I also want to learn other places on the fretboard to play the patterns I play. I've heard people call the first 3 or 4 frets the "money makers". That's where I seem to do a lot of my playing, but I think there are easier spots on the fretboard to play a lot of stuff.
Mastering your fretboard opens up a lot of doors, and will save you money on any future lessons. If you come in knowing all your note names and musical alphabet we can skip that part and really get into the meaty stuff that is harder to learn solo. Your goal should be to know every note, on every fret, on every string. You can pick any random spot on your bass and know what note you're playing.
There are plenty of videos and articles out there, but here's one method I find very useful to learn your entire fretboard:
Take a sheet of regular notebook paper and draw four vertical lines. These are your strings, and the blue horizontal lines are your frets. Draw a single horizontal line at the top, which marks your nut. On the margin, you can draw the circular fret markers (typically at frets 3, 5, 7, 9, 12, etc.) for reference. Once you have done this there are two approaches:
The first is to simply write the name of every natural note (ABCEDFG). IE mark your open E string, write F on the 1st fret, G on the 3rd fret, etc. Continue until you've filled in the entire neck with as many frets as your bass has, or 24, which is the most you see on standard basses. Once you've done that, draw a fresh blank diagram and do all the sharps and flats. Finally, combine the two and map out the entire fretboard. I find doing it in phases like this helps reinforce things, whereas if you just write it all at once you get on autopilot and stop really referencing the bass as much as just remembering your alphabet.
The second method is to pick a single note and fill out your diagram with only that note. For example, draw every C on your bass. Then, add every G, and now you have a root and fifth you can look at to see all the different patterns they form.
Once you can do this, start doing the same with scales. You'll find that with your major scale, or minor pentatonic, most people play it in boxes where they stay anchored to one or two different positions. When you map that scale out across the entire fretboard you will see the "in between" shapes and then you can practice those to create bridges or shift positions, which lets you play up and down freely without being stuck in boxes.
Taking lessons for theory will be much faster and easier (meaning, cheaper) if you already know your fretboard and musical alphabet.
