HELP! :( its getting me depressed this is

Skip the lessons. Play for yourself. I took lessons for a month and hated it.

 

i usually tell people to quit - you should obviously just be doing something else. not here though as it sounds like you really love playing. toss the books and start having fun again. music is art. theory is science. if you can make the 2 meet, awesome. if not - pick which one works for you.

 

Some of what Joe said, and learning from a teacher and learning the lessons is part of the discipline that turns a hobby/art into something that can be more of both at the same time.

I am not nearly as fluid as I want to be, and I practice, practice, practice...but still encounter obstacles. So I take lessons to get more info and perhaps get assistance to make my playing more fluid and more versatile.

 

Are you in a band?

Probably not the best thing to say, but i find myself very rarely playing bass at home alone now, i always pickup a guitar and jam away/write music.

But when it comes to being in a band, i just love laying down that low end!

 

For some people, playing for fun is what they want to do. For others, they want to push themselves to the limit, and know everything there is to know about bass.

I also believe that you (the OP) need to reevaluate, what bass means for you, rather than just giving up.

 

Give yourself a little time out(from bass that is) you'll find out if you miss it or not,then you can make your decision.I love when i've done stuff on my own but i wish i could just learn a little more,so when i took lesson it was ok.Some of the thing made sense to me but most others just got me frustrated(like reading).But i feel i should try lessons again.

 

Don't give up anything, just hang in there. Spend some time trying to learn a really fun song or two, or more. Maybe pick something from a style you don't normally play - if you play metal, figure out a blues song or a Motown song. Try playing with a pick, and if you already do, learn how to play fingerstyle and how to slap. If you play R&B, figure out a metal tune. Then learn a Creedence Clearwater Revival song. When you are learning songs, also find and print off the lyrics and chords (I don't mean the tabs) for the same song so you can see how what you're playing fits into the chords and learn the song structure along with the bass part. Pick out some Christmas song melodies. Watch The Commitments with a friend of the opposite sex and listen to how the bass singlehandedly moves every song forwards. Tell them that's what you do. Feel the power.

Maybe your teacher is a little boring, pretentious, snobbish, just not a good teacher, etc.? He should be teaching you about things that you want to learn about, not mindlessly getting you to repeat scales without providing some practical context, i.e. applying the scales to songs or chord changes - is he maybe a guitar teacher who also teaches bass or is he actually a bass teacher? I smell a guitar player who thinks he can teach bass "because it is easy."

Theory is important, although some will argue that point, but I might add that for some, it should come a little later in their careers rather than right at the beginning. Just don't let it (or anything else) suck the joy out of your playing. Guard your fun jealously!!

I took Jazz for two years out of a four year university program - I dropped out at the end of my second year because (I now know) I hated playing jazz, and learned that the hard way. I stopped playing for years... school and feeling like I failed sucked the fun out of it for me. But almost 20 years later, I'm back at it, and I still know most of the theory I learned there - I did pay attention to that stuff - it has come in *extremely* useful in many situations. Learn it at your pace, make sure it is practically applied to stuff you care about, and don't let your fun be destroyed!

 

AMEN BROTHER!!

music is definately art, and some of the best artists have no training at all.

I tried the lessons and theory crap, and it wasn't for me. so i play by ear and jam along with records and cop licks. that's how i've learned. and you know what, i love it still and it's my full time job now. so you can do it too bro.

 

+1...

I think your loosing interest because its time for you to either join a band or take up the guitar.

I started playing in a band immediately after I bought my first bass (and within weeks of picking up my first guitar), so I'm totally amazed that anyone would even consider playing the bass without a goal of playing in some type of band as soon as possible.

Taking lesions and practicing at home is a really great thing, but I think limiting yourself to only being a solo bassist is like learning to drive a car, and then only driving on empty parking lots...

 

I'm going to guess that the lesson(s) turned out poorly because you didn't have a goal for yourself, so your teacher just gave you stuff to do to increase your technique and you saw that as boring and useless. I would too.

Stop the lessons for a while, get with some other musicians and see what they are up to. Play. Get a plan for yourself or a plan that includes other players. Once you know where you are going, you'll have a better handle on what you need to learn and that will be the time to start lessons again.

A thousand mile journey begins with a single step, but if you don't know where you are going, you might end up traveling 2000 miles.

 

+1! Words of Wisdom...