Bass: Haven't been making any progress

[-Rhythm]

Hello. I'm a beginner bassist who have already been playing for afew months.
3 more days to my 3rd month, and I feel that I haven't been making any progress.
Want to be independent, so I learn by myself, from the internet and asking questions about everything I don't know when I have the chance to talk to experience musicians.
Playing bass' my most enjoyable hobby, and I practice almost everyday, whenever I have the time.
I worked for afew days and have like, $200(?) and here's where I need your opinion.

Is there anything I can do with the money to improve on my bass playing?
Here's some of things that I've thought of :
- Get a bass teacher, have a couple of lessons to find out where are my mistakes? ( I can't have many lessons due to not wanting to ask my parents for money to pay for lessons. )
- Get a new amp and have sound of better quality? I play with my friends sometimes. ( Mine current amp's a 5w tgm bass amp. So the quality isn't that good. )
- Get a camera or some sort to record myself playing, do a cover of a song, post on youtube and hope that people will comment and point out all my mistakes?

I hope I can get some advice. =]
Thank you for reading.

 

[cheesedaele]

New amp may help you sound better, but won't help you play better. (unless you're already being drowned out, that's a different story)

If your interest is simply play better, without doubt the best choice is a teacher. Another choice is buying books, those are good too. YouTube is also nice, but usually just gets you insults and flames unless you're a pretty girl, then people are suddenly really nice.

 

[-Rhythm]

Thanks for replying!
Hmm, any recommended books/bass teachers to learn from?

 

[cheesedaele]

http://www.soft.com.sg/forum/how-bass/

 

[Diesel]

Best is to learn from free youtube.. Theres some really good teaching aids to teach you how to play certain songs. Search for it.

 

[-Rhythm]

@ cheesedaele : Thank you.

@ diesel : Yeah, I did searching youtube/google for tabs and scores for songs that I want to learn how to play. Most are lessons from americans, but sometimes I just couldn't understand them due to their accent. ( No offense. )

 

[cheesedaele]

If you haven't seen it, http://www.studybass.com/ is really good too. Well-structured, easy to understand, goes a little beyond just practical skill into music and theory.

 

[-Rhythm]

Yeah that's where I learn almost everything about bass from. =X

 

[freezer000]

U can check this guy's website out, he has some clips on bass techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/user/TIMBASSIX#p/u/20/LyB-DyUTZMw

 

[benjso28]

How about teacher from Musiclab?

It is important to lay strong foundation esp when u r new to the instruments.

Check out www.playbassnow.com.

You can also watch video of good bass players on youtube to be inspired.

Cheers

 

[-Rhythm]

Thanks!
Hmm, I might take lessons from the music lab. =X

 

[cool-beans]

Get a teacher! It's the best and easiest way to improve, especially since you practise regularly.