What to do when things are seemingly impossible

[Lowender]

[quote name='xilddx' timestamp='1366108705' post='2048312']
I understand perfectly thank you. Unbridled joy and passion when learning an instrument is your pipe dream, it is not reality. Throughout any decent musician's life frustration, plateaux, and failure to understand meaning and purpose of teaching will be (or should be) a regular feature.

Advising someone to abandon their new found instrument because their feelings do not match your theoretical posturing is totally ignorant and irresponsible. People like you seem to be happy to make your pronouncements without realising the effect they can have on people. You really ought to bone up on your subject matter before makeing these ridiculous misleading statements.
[/quote]

Obviously you did misunderstand my points. It's okay though.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Lowender' timestamp='1366120735' post='2048565']
Obviously you did misunderstand my points. It's okay though.
[/quote]

Then please explain.

[Conan]

I felt a bit like this when I was learning to drive. I would oscillate between feelings of "[i]this is so stupidly easy, I don't know what all the fuss is about[/i]" and "[i]this is bloody impossible - I will never be able to master this[/i]".

Amusingly, the thing that kept me going was looking at all the ancient drivers on the roads (well, OK, [i]in cars[/i] on the roads...) and thinking "[i]if they can do it, I'm not going to let it defeat me![/i]".

Ironically, nearly thirty years later, I am still learning to drive! The same applies to bass playing. I can honestly say that while I may not learn something new every day (I don't even play every day), rarely does a week go by when I don't learn something new!

To quote Tom Baker in one of the Sinbad films... "He who perseveres, obtains".

[Fat Rich]

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1366116594' post='2048478']
........ i realise i could never play a note 4 weeks ago, now i can play 10 different Pentatonic Scales, 10 Arpeggio scales, and know around 12 notes.Although not everything is locked into my memory, i am taking a little more in at the end of my days practice.
.......
[/quote]

To get this far in four weeks then you're doing something right!

The thing about theory is that few players have a sort of "Bb Minor scale....chromatic approach..... tritone substitution..... minor pentatonic scale.... etc" running through their brain like the words on the bottom of a karaoke screen. And the few players that do will usually sound pretty uninspiring, I'd much rather listen to someone who barely knows what they're doing but is enjoying themselves because the music will probably sound better.

They say that the best players have learned their theory, incorporated it into their style and then forget it all and just play. In other words what theory I've learned has put new sounds and ideas in my head that I wouldn't have heard if I'd just stuck to playing the same old patterns and shapes on the fingerboard. That's where the ear training comes in and helps you to get the sounds in your head out of your instrument (this is a lifetime's work ). If you can put the names for this theory to the sounds then you can communicate this to other musicians but I found I rarely had to do this.

I'd say stick with it, accept that you're in at the deep end and you'll probably be fine. If you find you're going to your lessons having made no progress, then your tutor should be experienced enough to tailor your lessons to suit and keep you interested. If not, then find another tutor.... it's good to learn from as many people as possible as everyone has a different approach, although that's probably for later in your playing career.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Fat Rich