After making it through the first song of Players Path Level 2 at Scott's Bass Lessons (SBL) - the (at one time) challenging "Boss the Bossa" - I moved on to learning the next two tunes simultaneously. I don't know if this was a good idea or not. It took me around four months to get to a point where I could comfortably play these two songs. That being said, it has been a bit of a frustrating ride to get to the point where I could record videos of my playing to submit to SBL for feedback. Although I gained a fair degree of competence in playing these two songs, I still am unable to play them through without any mistakes at least three times concurrently (this is the SBL suggested definition of "mastery").
Here's a look at the first tune: "September Leaves", a copyright risk-free variation on the old jazz standard "Autumn Leaves".
The second tune that I messed around with is called "Smoothly", a jazz/funk number that has a touch of Steely Dan sensibility to it. I thoroughly enjoyed practicing this one. The song reminds me of a time in the late 1970's when I was a little kid and this kind of "Yacht Rock" was all over the radio. Playing this just feels good.
I have decided to move on to SBL Players Path Level 3 even though I still can't play these two songs all the way through without errors. Perhaps this will happen at some point as I will continue to practice them as part of my "beginner repertoire". After four months, it is definitely time to move on and try something new.
The frustration and challenge have taught me an important lesson about persistence and patience - just keep going and resist the urge to be hard on oneself. This has been a downfall for me throughout my life - getting easily frustrated at not mastering something quickly while simultaneously berating myself. I think that through this crazy musical instrument called the bass guitar, I am finally learning to be more patient and much more kind to myself. Better late than never.
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