Help! ADD/analysis paralysis with so many learning options

[viking power]

Hi,

I’m back to playing bass guitar after multiple years focused on rhythm and lead guitar. I find myself in a position of having access to too many options for learning and was hoping to get some advice on which one to focus on first.

Here’s the list:

1. Online: All Access annual subscription to TrueFire - several bass instructors and multiple courses focused on bass
2. Online: Annual subscription to Fender Play - bass learning path, several riff and song lessons for bass.
   
3. Book: Hal Leonard Complete Bass Method - have worked through some of book 1 in the past. Do I really need to learn to read?
4. Book: Bass Guitar for Dummies - have had it for years, not sure how much I dived into it in the past
5. Book: Bass Logic - seems well thought out. No audio to play along with and not sure if applying what is taught is straight forward or not
6. Online: Working Basslines course - 50 commonly covered songs broken down into lessons by Paul Wolfe

Any thoughts are appreciated. Find myself with just too many options and am bouncing from one to the other.
I am not quite a beginner but by no means intermediate or advanced. I am mostly interested in rock, metal, punk, and rockabilly music genres. My goals are somewhat unclear. I mostly want to get really good at the instrument with the ability to play along to songs, compose, and improvise. At present I’m playing for my own enjoyment only. Not sure if a band setting is something I’ll ever pursue. Maybe garage level jamming.

Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[Lorin Cohen]

I hear you on the "overwhelm" front....there are way to many options out there these days.

Glad to hear that you're interested in working on your improvising, as honing your your improvising chops will give you the foundation to feel free playing all styles of American music.

As to your question about reading- yes this is an important skill, but for the styles of music you mentioned, your ears and improvising skills will be far more important.

In general, I'd put the books away for a minute and focus on playing along to recrdings and seeing if you can pick out some simple melodies to play on the bass, in addition to the bass lines of course.

A few questions:

1. How much fun are you having with that list of materials? Are they inspiring you to pick up the bass every day?

2. If you could pick ONE thing to develop in your playing over the next 3 months, would that be?

3. Do you have a mentor/teacher to help guide you?

Thanks!
Lorin

 

[viking power]

I hear you on the "overwhelm" front....there are way to many options out there these days.

Glad to hear that you're interested in working on your improvising, as honing your your improvising chops will give you the foundation to feel free playing all styles of American music.

As to your question about reading- yes this is an important skill, but for the styles of music you mentioned, your ears and improvising skills will be far more important.

In general, I'd put the books away for a minute and focus on playing along to recrdings and seeing if you can pick out some simple melodies to play on the bass, in addition to the bass lines of course.

A few questions:

1. How much fun are you having with that list of materials? Are they inspiring you to pick up the bass every day?

2. If you could pick ONE thing to develop in your playing over the next 3 months, would that be?

3. Do you have a mentor/teacher to help guide you?

Thanks!
Lorin

Thanks Lorin!

Great food for thought and suggestions. My answers to the questions are:

1. The only fun I have with any of these materials is when there’s a snippet of a song or a riff that is taught. I hadn’t thought about this too much before. I keep trying to push myself to do the unfun stuff thinking that’s what is good for me. I have done the same with trying to learn electric guitar.
2. I think knowing how to improvise some cool bass riff/line to match a chord progression would be a great accomplishment over the next 3 months. Obviously, I wouldn’t expect to be “skilled” at it in that short of a time. Right now though, I have little or no clue how to go about it. Alternatively or additionally, I’d love to have built a repertoire of several songs that I can play on bass over the next 3 months.
3. I do not have a mentor or teacher right now. I had a bass teacher at one point about 8 years ago. It was a good experience mostly though not ideal. He had me learning modes from the get go along with an Iron Maiden song. That was a lot to take on when my skills were really not up for it yet.

Thanks again for the response!

-Jason

 

[Lorin Cohen]

Thanks Lorin!

Great food for thought and suggestions. My answers to the questions are:

1. The only fun I have with any of these materials is when there’s a snippet of a song or a riff that is taught. I hadn’t thought about this too much before. I keep trying to push myself to do the unfun stuff thinking that’s what is good for me. I have done the same with trying to learn electric guitar.
2. I think knowing how to improvise some cool bass riff/line to match a chord progression would be a great accomplishment over the next 3 months. Obviously, I wouldn’t expect to be “skilled” at it in that short of a time. Right now though, I have little or no clue how to go about it. Alternatively or additionally, I’d love to have built a repertoire of several songs that I can play on bass over the next 3 months.
3. I do not have a mentor or teacher right now. I had a bass teacher at one point about 8 years ago. It was a good experience mostly though not ideal. He had me learning modes from the get go along with an Iron Maiden song. That was a lot to take on when my skills were really not up for it yet.

Thanks again for the response!

-Jason

Cool.

I'd say if you can put the books aside for 2 weeks, and focus on the "fun factor", while also training your ear and getting more comfortable on the bass, that would be great.

Try this:
Focus on a tune that's rooted in the 12-bar blues form. This form is endemic to all American music, so the more comfortable you get with it, the more comfortable you'll be all around playing a variety of genres.

See if you can learn the bass line and the melody by ear, and play them on the bass. It may take a little longer than just reading it out of a book, but my sense is that it'll be more fun, while also developing your ear, fretboard knowledge, technique, and feel, without you even thinking about it!

There are tons of classic songs that fall into this in this category, but here are a few I often recommend:

Day Tripper (Beatles)
Black Magic Woman (Santana)
Riders On the Storm (The Doors)
Mustang Sally (this is a 16 bar form, but still contains the I-IV-V blues chord changes)

How does that sound?

Lorin

 

[viking power]

Cool.

I'd say if you can put the books aside for 2 weeks, and focus on the "fun factor", while also training your ear and getting more comfortable on the bass, that would be great.

Try this:
Focus on a tune that's rooted in the 12-bar blues form. This form is endemic to all American music, so the more comfortable you get with it, the more comfortable you'll be all around playing a variety of genres.

See if you can learn the bass line and the melody by ear, and play them on the bass. It may take a little longer than just reading it out of a book, but my sense is that it'll be more fun, while also developing your ear, fretboard knowledge, technique, and feel, without you even thinking about it!

There are tons of classic songs that fall into this in this category, but here are a few I often recommend:

Day Tripper (Beatles)
Black Magic Woman (Santana)
Riders On the Storm (The Doors)
Mustang Sally (this is a 16 bar form, but still contains the I-IV-V blues chord changes)

How does that sound?

Lorin

I’m in. 2 weeks focusing on learning the bass line and melody for Riders on the Storm. I’ve always loved this tune so it will be fun rather than drudgery.

I considered Day Tripper but have already fooled around with learning it on guitar and bass via tabs so would rather start fresh.

Appreciate your advice and generosity!

 

[Bass]

...I’d love to have built a repertoire of several songs...

This is probably worthwhile. I spent a few months learning cover songs, and it pays off. I focused on songs that a person might hear at a jam night. That way a person could go down to the bar and "sit in" and maybe know some of the songs.

Of the books and resources you mentioned I would lean towards the Hal Leonard book. I have the 3 volume set and some day I plan to work through it. To me the exercises look like fun.

Beware, it's probably a good idea to focus on one thing at a time. If you plan to learn songs, then learn songs. If you want to work through a book, pick one book. Pick one or the other.

Enjoy, and good luck!!

 

[Lorin Cohen]

I’m in. 2 weeks focusing on learning the bass line and melody for Riders on the Storm. I’ve always loved this tune so it will be fun rather than drudgery.

I considered Day Tripper but have already fooled around with learning it on guitar and bass via tabs so would rather start fresh.

Appreciate your advice and generosity!

My pleasure! Feel free to DM me with any questions!

 

[mambo4]

If you plan to learn songs, then learn songs.

Learn songs even if you don't
Knowing more songs gives you a very real world use case to practice everything else on your list

If you are caught by choice paralysis just google "cover band set list" and learn the first result you don't yet know.
Because it almost doesn't matter what songs you learn: it's the training data set for the musical AI that is you.