What are some things to work on as an "intermediate" bassist?

[Jalen Fuller]

Hey, I have been playing bass for a few years and so far I can play roots, 5ths, triads, scales along with whole, half, quarter, eighths and syncopations. I can also read chord charts and sheet music(still working at it) and play a whole song in a band setting. Besides learning more songs what else should I learn as an "intermediate" bassist?

 

[Nashrakh]

This may be a tall order right now, but the one thing that really pushed myself was getting a reading gig. For me, it was joining a local big band. The beginning was tough as nails, but nowhere else do you get such diverse music across all skill levels. It was a quantum leap for my playing, even if the first few rehearsals were really rough. What you need to learn is all in the music in that case, and that's a plus.

 

[BassChuck]

What did you mess up the last gig? What did you try to do in rehearsal that didn't work? What are you practicing that you are having trouble with? What do you need to know the next time you get with musicians?
That's what you work on.
It's nice to have big time goals, and you need them to keep on track, but having a clear focus on the next step and working on that is the key to long term improvement.
One of the big problems that face people who are on the way to getting it together is to make a goal that is, at the time, too big to reach. (Teen Town at a faster tempo that Jaco, Grooving better that Victor, etc) It gives you something to talk about and sound important, but you really need to hit those ii-V7 patterns in all keys, or learn the whole neck, or read a simple etude, whatever the next step is.
Organize your work. Be patient, it's a process, not an event.

 

[lfmn16]

Get a good teacher. If you're not sure what to work on then you need an unbiased set of ears to listen to you play and help you prioritize what you need to work on. A lot of what you mention are things I would expect of a beginner - roots, 5ths, triads, scales along with whole, half, quarter, eighths, and playing a whole song with a band.

 

[IamGroot]

Go play with folks better than you.
Go play styles of music different than yours
Go to jams and learn how to play unfamiliar stuff on the spot.
Get better at sightreading.

How good are your jazz chops???

 

[Spin Doctor]

Always work on your time. If it doesn't feel good, it won't matter how good your notes are.

 

[Bushrod Johnson]

Theory, theory, theory. And the many typical chord progressions.

 

[gln1955]

It's all about identifying your weaknesses in relation to your goals. What do you want to be able to do? What in your skillset is keeping you from achieving that goal? Once you figure that out, you know what to work or what to have a teacher help you with.

 

[mambo4]

the one thing that really pushed myself was getting a reading gig.

Reading was the first thing that popped into my head. Writing too.

 

[kevindahl]

It's all about identifying your weaknesses in relation to your goals. What do you want to be able to do? What in your skillset is keeping you from achieving that goal? Once you figure that out, you know what to work or what to have a teacher help you with.

Being able to identify your weaknesses is key.

Work on:
slapping/double thumb, I have been trying to get the double thumb technique down for about 8 months now.
tapping/chording
reading
transcribing
timing
speed
Right hand/left hand

 

[Spin Doctor]

Honestly, this was such a huge question, with so many possible random answers that making any reasonable headway with it is impossible. It's one thing to have a million things suggested to you. It's another kettle of fish trying to figure out how to go about any of it. As mentioned before, if you're serious about playing, learning to get better and all the rest, you need a good teacher to guide your development. You can teach yourself, but that way will add literal years if not decades to your progress.

 

[lfmn16]

As mentioned before, if you're serious about playing, learning to get better and all the rest, you need a good teacher to guide your development. You can teach yourself, but that way will add literal years if not decades to your progress.

+1

The problem with being self taught is that you don't know what you don't know. Sometimes even if you can identify the problem, you might not know what the solution is.

Like just about everyone else, I was taught that you learn to play cleanly by starting slowly and working up to speed. I was playing a passage on guitar that I could only get so fast and no matter how much I practiced I couldn't seem to play it up to speed. One of the things my teacher told me that really helped was to play the first two notes at tempo, then when I could play them cleanly, add the third note, etc. By doing this I realized that I picked differently when playing really fast. I took his advice and modified it to fit me. I got the correct picking by playing it fast (although sloppy) and then started slowly and built up to speed with the correct picking. This technique has helped me to play significantly faster and cleaner.

There are many times of a teacher helped me to improve my playing significantly with an idea I hadn't thought of. It's one of the reasons I'm so pro-teacher. Although I've been playing guitar for years, I've only been taking lessons for a few years, but when I compare my current playing to pre-lesson playing, it's night and day. I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at now without lessons.

 

[BassyFred]

Do you work with a metronome? You should be working slowly and afterwards speed up for more precision. Are you muting your unused strings? A good muting technique generates a cleaner sound.

 

[Jalen Fuller]

Always work on your time. If it doesn't feel good, it won't matter how good your notes are.

Definitely, I’m always obsessed with my timing even more than notes so definitely will keep at that

 

[LeFunk Machine]

How about you learn different styles of music? Reggae, Blues, Sebene etc..

 

[TKenrick]

Ears, ears, ears, ears, ears. Then work on your ears.

Ear training is the slowest, most tedious and most painful thing I can think of to practise, but I think it's also one of the most important and overlooked. If you spend all your time working on things like double thumbing and tapping but can't recognise intervals and chord progressions by ear then you're good for the NAMM show but very little else.

 

[vindibona1]

Several others have said it, but it's worth mentioning again...and again.

I've been playing bass a long time but only seriously for about 2 years and consider myself to be an advanced intermediate player at the moment. But I get hired for gigs, not because I'm a good player, but because I can read standard notation. It looks daunting at first, but in actuality in it's raw form it's simple. Up and down tells what pitch to play. Left to right gives you the timing. Yeah, there's a learning curve to be able to translate what you see on a page to actual sound. But you don't have to become proficient in 20 minutes but the sooner you get going the sooner you will be. Starting to be able to read standard notation will also be able to help you visualize and better understand music theory, and help you in many ways that tab or playing by ear cannot teach you.