Second opinion for the Tascam CD-BT1. You got to get something like the Tascam, the Akai Riff-o-matic or software like Transcribe! to loop and slow down the song. This is not cheating. Years ago guys used to wear out records playing 33 rpm records over and over at 15 rpm. Also, I am a rare exception in that I would recommend looking at the tab. Yes, they are often wrong. But if I print out four or five, I grab this part from one and that part from another. You can pretty quickly catch on to if one part does not meet your needs or another one does. But the best thing that tab can help a beginner with is the correct part of the neck to be looking at. If you are based only on the CD, you might start in a place on the neck that is not the best or the one the actual player used. But you want to strive to be able to work it out by listening. Start with something like easier like Sk8ter Boi. Be listening on the radio for easy songs to work out. Work up to the difficult.
Remember you are not just learning songs and learning to transcribe, you are learning to play on the bass a part you hear in your head. Right now it is someone else's part. Someone who maybe knows what they are doing. Strive to get in touch with the part of you that can come up with your own part, and listen to that part in your head, and play that on the bass. This transcribing stuff heads you in that direction. You are storing away little parts, and learning how to connect your fingers to a sound.
Learning the song is not the same as playing it over and over and over until you can play it correct every time. Don't just learn it. Memorize it. Keep playing it. Call your firend and say, yo, lets get together and play this song. Yo, I got a bass, go buy a drum and let's start a band.
Better players I am around are willing to work on one song for a long time. Not so good players just want to get through a song and then move on to another song and then another song. My ex-band used to work on three songs at a time. We would go through each song four times, then through them one after another after another three times as a mini set, then take a break. No stopping, no talking, no joking, just playing. Man. Good stuff. The fourth time through one song we sounded pretty good, but the third time through the three songs we sounded really good. Think about how many times an ice skater or gymnast goes through one routine. The better musicians do that with one song.
Tim.
