Improving technique

First off, hello to everyone here.
Second, I just started playing bass and I wanted some advice on how I could improve my technique. I've enrolled myself into a music school but there's a waiting list and I want to keep busy. I know where the notes are and I'm trying to teach myself scale theory but I wanted something else also. Lately I've been learning songs by the Smashing Pumpkins, Rage against the machine, and asked a guitarist friend of mine to teach me some simple blues riffs and such things that require more than playing the root note of a chord over and over. I wanted to hear your recommendations on whatever I could learn to become better ( perhaps then rising into beginner status .
Thanks for you time,
Gunnar Thor