Went through a whole bunch of tabs last night. Spent most of my time on James Brown's "I Got You (I Feel Good)". Fun song in general and a fun song on the bass. I can't play it perfectly, but I think I did pretty well for never having owned a bass before this week.
That said, after a few days of going through online tabs, I'm feeling like I'm hitting my first plateau. Seems early to be hitting plateaus, but it's not like I'm a total newbie. I've played some guitar and have been a drummer for 25 years. So I've been a part of music - or music has been a part of me - for a long time and the instrument is far from foreign to me.
I feel like I need to do something to take a step toward real improvement rather than just being a casual player. I have a few books I've downloaded and think I'll spend some time with them.
It seems the consensus among expert bassists (based on my own online research) is that understanding chord structures is more important than scales. Bassists tend to not play scales so much as tailoring bass lines around the notes within the chords being played by the other instruments in the band. So, for example, if the rhythm guitar is hammering on a C Major chord, the bassist should base the bass line n the notes in that chord starting with the major triad - the 1, 3, and 5 in this case.
I know chords on the guitar - at least, I know how to play them. I don't know the notes contained within them. I think this is what I'll try and learn next and I'll see if the books I have contain sections focused on that aspect of playing. I know at least one of them is good in this way.
Looking forward to learning some new things tonight.
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