I need practice not lectures...

[BobDeRosa]

If I were you, I would:

• Contact Josh Fosgreen to see if he might be working on a course for intermediate learners
• Do exactly what @brianrost advises in #46 above. Fundamentals are what it's all about.
• Check out Dan Hawkins's OnlineBassCourses on YouTube. Not really lessons, but short, informative sessions about specific kinds of playing, and all free.

 

[eddododo]

As someone who remembers those days long ago-

if you can find an instructor, do that. Going through a book or a non-interactive course will only give you practice material. It’s up to you to control your progression, really. Find exercises and do them. A lot. If the course you looked at is easy, make it harder.

Sometimes practice needs to be hard, challenging your ability. Sometimes it needs to be monotonous and tedious- sometimes you simply have to spend time getting some muscle memory downloaded.

an actual teacher is essential if you aren’t coming from another instrument you’ve mastered or otherwise a strong musical background. I know a lot of players who spend more time buying books than they do simply practicing.. find a teacher, FIND PEERS, and OBSESS over the instrument. Being in love with the process and the art form will do infinitely more than trying to find the Goldilocks bass book.


Lectures aren’t for everyone, but whether or not you stay engaged is up to you.

 

[lark_z]

I found Andrew's Studybass to be quite helpful. StudyBass - Free interactive online bass lessons

There are a few videos, then it's all text linked to both exercises and popular song examples that use that topic. So, you can read the topic, practice the exercises and then play along with songs you know that uses that principle (like - major pentatonic scale or whatever). Many of the songs are in the "Bass Tab White Pages" book, so a copy of that is helpful.

 

[Acoustic356]

Yeah but most of history's truly great musicians learned music as an academic undertaking. "Jamming with the boys" only takes you so far.

Tell that to the innovators of Rock and Blues…

 

[40Hz]

If you’re serious about bass playing, and online and video instruction doesn’t work for you, then you need to stop kidding yourself and start taking lessons - in person - from a live instructor.

Wish I had a different answer for you since I get the feeling it’s not what you want to hear. But it is what it is. And from what you’ve said about the other learning alternatives you’ve tried, I think an actual instructor is now your only viable option. Or at least it is for the time being. Live lessons aren’t necessarily going to be the only thing that ever works for you. But virtually every player who progressed beyond an average skill took some lessons from someone sometime or another. Even top pros and the better known teachers like Scott will take an occasional lesson from someone else. Learning is a never ending process. And no matter how good you get at anything, there’s always going to be someone who knows something you don’t know and is willing to share, or is just plain better at something than you presently are. And there’s no shame in admitting that and asking them for help. Most people who are truly good at what they do are very generous with their help if they’re approached with a modicum respect and simple courtesy.

With luck a teacher will get you past whatever is presently standing in your way and get you to the point where the alternative learning resources you’ve already tried and gave up on will become workable for you and regular one-on-one lessons are no longer necessary.

Good luck on your bass playing journey.

 

[OOD]

Tell that to the innovators of Rock and Blues…

And punk?

 

[marchone]

Join a band.

 

[40Hz]

Tell that to the innovators of Rock and Blues…

Yep. Which many now seem to feel have stagnated and become played out genres. And truth be told, many of these ‘innovators’ were one trick ponies who only came up with one or two arguably original ideas which they then proceeded to milk for their entire careers.

For every great ‘innovator’ who supposedly did it all on their own, I can’t help wondering how much farther and faster they might have taken their art with the time they’d saved if they could have avoided some of the inevitable false starts and snags you encounter whenever you’re trying to do it all by yourself.

Standing on the “shoulders of giants,” as the saying goes, is a time proven strategy that lets you avoid reinventing the wheel. Smart people don’t reinvent things when they can just grab a copy of already existing plans. Or get somebody to show them how to do it.

From what I’ve seen, the single biggest barrier to making progress is false ego.

 

[Flying B]

I've spent a lot of time on this forum looking up online courses and trying them out (reviews, free trials, youtube...)

Unfortunately I must say most of them do not suit me, including two of the most popular ones: SBL and Talkingbass. The reason is that most online lessons are basically video lectures, with little to no explicit guidance on what to practice and how.

Personally, lectures come into one ear and go out the other one. I'd prefer to use my bass when I'm learning bass...

I was lucky enough to find Bassbuzz (Josh Fossgreen) and made HUGE AND FAST progress. It is a structured and linear program, divided into small bits. Each concept is taught in a short ~10-15mn video which is accompanied by a "workout" video, usually based on a well-known song, that makes you practice each concept, and thereby learn by doing.

For eg. to explain the major scale, Josh would teach you a short riff and have you play along the video slowly and then faster and faster. And then magic, no only do you know the major scale, your fingers know it too.

The only problem with Bassbuzz is it's a beginner course. I finished it a couple months ago and have since been making desperately slow progress. I'm now looking for another course, similarly based on practice rather than lectures, but for intermediates.

Any ideas?

I know exactly what you mean. I tried Sbl for a couple of years but like you say I would sit there listening with my bass to these half hour lessons and still not really know what to practice at the end of it.
Having said that, a few people have mentioned Ariana Cap who has got a couple of courses on Sbl and she was one of the better ones on there. I've just ordered her new book.
I'm sure it's good advice to get one on one lessons but I've struggled to find anyone local to me any good, and it seems like a bit of a crap shoot picking one out online.

 

[rashrader]

How about a real person as an instructor?

 

[GwenOnBass]

Real people are doing instruction by video here in the time of The Thing That's Going Around. Makes little difference where on the planet your real instructor is located.

 

[3bc]

If what it required to proceed is "Do this exact exercise for 45 minutes each day for the next three days" then it will be a long road ahead.

This for sure. SBL has an incredible amount of content, and curriculum aimed at every level of student. And a wide variety of instructors with different styles. I like SBL a lot, and find the enthusiasm of most of the instructors to be a huge bonus, especially Scott himself. If you are at the level where you need someone to specifically dictate an exact practice regimen and/or to correct your technique, get a teacher.

I started bass lessons for the first time about 6 months ago. I've been playing for 30 years and I'm not a pro, but I'm not a beginner or really intermediate student either. My lessons are on zoom, from a teaching professional who is on SBL from time to time. I wanted him to help me with technique, feeling that was the biggest thing holding me back. Without saying it specifically, he got me off of that really quick. Why practice technique when you can practice music? I've learned more the last 6 months than I would have if we spent that time focusing on technique, which he confirmed is not my weakness. You practice technique by necessity, when you practice music.

It sounds like you need one on one instruction to get the level of structure it sounds like you are looking for at this stage.

 

[Bonafide]

Sometimes you do need lectures, to listen to. Sometimes the listening is short, sometime the listening is long. The irony is the listening, is always short in relationship to how much time it saves you in the learning. But at the end of the day, if you want to get in shape, once the instruction has been given, nobody can do your pushups for you. The 'fast track' in improvement is 'slow and steady'. BTW, I find Mark at TalkingBass to be an excellent educator with very little fluff, filler or pitches. Worth another look.

 

[Sparkl]

I've spent a lot of time on this forum looking up online courses and trying them out (reviews, free trials, youtube...)

Unfortunately I must say most of them do not suit me, including two of the most popular ones: SBL and Talkingbass. The reason is that most online lessons are basically video lectures, with little to no explicit guidance on what to practice and how.

Personally, lectures come into one ear and go out the other one. I'd prefer to use my bass when I'm learning bass...

I was lucky enough to find Bassbuzz (Josh Fossgreen) and made HUGE AND FAST progress. It is a structured and linear program, divided into small bits. Each concept is taught in a short ~10-15mn video which is accompanied by a "workout" video, usually based on a well-known song, that makes you practice each concept, and thereby learn by doing.

For eg. to explain the major scale, Josh would teach you a short riff and have you play along the video slowly and then faster and faster. And then magic, no only do you know the major scale, your fingers know it too.

The only problem with Bassbuzz is it's a beginner course. I finished it a couple months ago and have since been making desperately slow progress. I'm now looking for another course, similarly based on practice rather than lectures, but for intermediates.

Any ideas?

Get a teacher. Do what he says.

Sounds brutal but it is what it is. Online courses will only get you so far because as a beginner, you highly likely lack the understanding and importance of which exercise is really crucial and they will never be able to provide you with an optimal learning route for your specific case/interest.

 

[brianrost]

2. Learn the major, minor scales in all 12 keys, then the related pentatonics.

As luck would have it, I just saw this video that explained why there are actually 30 keys, 15 major keys and 15 minor keys!!! It's an attempt by Victor Wooten to show that a lot of music theory is actually very simple ideas. This is actually quite enlightening, even if it is a lecture

 

[Biggbass]

Scott Devine's bass lessons is a great place to start and stick with.
But there is no substitute for practice. None.

 

[Black Out Jazz]

I'd advise doing what I am right now, and that is memorizing the fretboard and scales. For example, do you KNOW where A# is on every string without counting frets? Do you KNOW what sharps are in every major scale? Get the fundamentals down and learning with be easier. YMMV, this is what I am doing.

 

[707GK]

Why not buy a lesson book with supplemental audio learning (either CD or electronic)?

 

[azureblue]

Learn basic music theory and how to play a major and minor scale on you bass. Learn the notes on the neck up to the 12 fret. Learn now to play major and minor triads. Since bass works well well with patterns this means you only need to learn 4 patterns, then you simply move them to different positions.
The best teacher is your ears - get an audio recording program, like Garageband or Reaper, and an audio interface. Load a song you want to learn into it, and record yourself playing along. Then pick the song apart - break down the bass part and learn why it is that way. Listen to the other instruments. A big mistake bass players make in the learning process is not learning how their parts work with the song and other instruments. You are part of a team. Learn to work like that. Then learn to read. Just pick it up as you need it - it will come together for you.

In some cases, there are players who learn by themselves, and then get formal lessons to fill in the gaps. I call them practical players - they learn what they need to know to gig, first. Like a bassist I knew that played for 3 years in a band, and never played in the flat keys because the guitar players played in D, G, E, A, and C. He was perfect for that band, because he was solid and stable, and he listened.

In my case, I played single reeds for about 12 years, then went to bass in an R&B band, and didn't read for maybe 6 years. I picked up theory from Carol Kaye books and from guitar players and keyboard players. Then I went to music school and got a solid jazz education. I had a leg up on most of the other students, because I had practical experience - I knew how whatever I was being taught, would apply in the real world. So I wasn't spending time trying to figure out how to apply the knowledge.

 

[40Hz]

Real people are doing instruction by video here in the time of The Thing That's Going Around. Makes little difference where on the planet your real instructor is located.

^This.

Real-time via datalink has arrived. Take advantage of 5000 prior years worth of human innovation and use it.

My SO has done her weekly with her guitar guru via Zoom and her iPad for over a year now. And it works like a charm. Even a career IT guy and professional techno-cynic like me was impressed by how well it’s worked out for her.

Lesson via video conferencing and payment via Venmo. Win-win! What’s not to like?