Bass Lessons: Sometime After Week Two

Well I suck. I bitch about other people starting blogs that they don't stick to...meanwhile I completely forgot to blog the last 4+ months of my bass lessons.  I only managed to blog the first and the second lesson (and a preamble).  I'm not sure how many lessons I've had since then. They are supposed to be once every two weeks...but we've had to skip some due to schedule conflicts. If July 12th was my first lesson...in theory we COULD be up to 12 or so by now...but it feels more like maybe 6 or 8. I really have no idea at this point.

We haven't really settled into any kind of pattern with lessons. I come in and ask whatever questions are on my mind and she tries to address them. I don't actually play much at all. It is mostly talk. I'm ok with that...because I feel like I never have a chance to ask music questions of people without feeling dumb. So I ask her all of my dumb questions cause she's nice.

This week we talked a bit about building speed by keeping fingers close to the fretboard. We've talked about this before. She suggested playing things really slowly and deliberately to create a solid and good technique foundation. She also suggested playing really fast...faster than I have to...because then you just CAN'T play with bad technique.

We talked about finger patters for major scale exercises where you alternate 3rds.

We talked about 7 chords and dominant 7 chords and 9th chords...and some other chords...and adding those scale degrees to bass lines.

I said I struggle with learning things by ear sometimes. She said knowing theory can help you figure stuff out...but sometimes you just have to go painfully slow and find the note.

She suggested we work on jazz stuff but I said I hate it...so we'll see if it comes up again. We're also debating teaching me to read music for bass. I don't think that I need to learn this...but I'm oddly curious about it. I should be a quick study because I already know how to read music...including bass clef...I've just never done so for bass.

We're drifting a little bit and I probably need to come up with a plan of attack.

• I think that I really need to be working on playing major scales (and the associated 3rds exercise) with a metronome EVERY DAY. I think this can help with all that I struggle with...speed, knowing the relative positions of notes on the fingerboard, getting used to playing all over the neck. She's already given this advice, but I need to apply it.
• I think that more important than jazz...I might ask her to help me to know more about blues. I hate blues too, but walking blues bass lines are so useful for so many things. And pentatonic scales...I really don't understand those.
• I think that I would like to know more about reading music for bass. I could probably teach myself this but I won't.
• Asking for her help on whatever it is that I'm working on and struggling with at the time. Right now I'm not working on any new songs, so that's a bit why I feel like I'm drifting too.