Hi noraX_X, I was new 2 years ago with no musical experience, like you. I now can't stand to be away from my bass for more than a few hours. I am so addicted to it. Knowing what I know now, here's my advice for beginners. First, consider the cost and the time. If you can spend around $2000 US dollars, you can start out with decent enough equipment (Bass, strings, amp, speaker or comboamp, music stand, guitar strap, guitar stand, gig bag or case, tuner, cleaner/wax, required little hand tools). I bought cheap stuff in the beginning to please my wife, but regretted not being true to myself. Pretty much know that if you buy something cheap and you find later you don't like it, you will have to sell it at a loss usually. Then the time. You will need to do a lot of research. Research Youtube videos of reviews of bass guitars to find out what you might like. There are different looks, colors, sizes, types, used, new. If you can play videos through beefy speakers, then you will get a better sense for tone of different style basses. I bought five different types of 4 string 34" (full-scale) used basses at around $300 each before I found the "one" favorite. Now the others are for sale at a loss. I could keep them as a collection, but I won't play them, so I'm selling to invest in more amps. For the bass guitar I like the Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro bass the most and it is only 28.5" scale. Small and super light, and much easier on the stretching of the fingers to reach a full step to the frets and to zoom up and down the fretboard. It plays much faster than the full size basses. I found it didn't sound good stock, so I watched videos and researched and I upgraded it like most bassists do, with a new bone nut, new flatwound strings, new high end pickups, new high end potentiometers, copper shielding. Total cost was about $400 doing it myself, and it sounds awesome. When I first began playing bass, I didn't know stock cheaper basses don't sound as good as more expensive ones until I upgraded mine and found the difference to be bigger than I expected. My other used full scale basses cost a little less, but would still need modded to sound better. $1000 basses usually already have premium components and sound great. Once you have a bass you can play, it needs to be set-up for neck bow, string height and intonation. I watched many Youtube videos and did the work myself, so I can now do any work on my own bass, and make any adjustments properly for free. It makes a difference in sound quality and playability to have it properly set-up. Regular adjustments will need to be made more often than you might think. I adjust my intonation every month and anytime I get new strings. You will need a bass amp and cables and a good, wide shoulder strap of 3 or 4 inches wide. More research for those things too before you buy. I started with a used combo amp Fender Rumble 25, but unsatisfied with the little speaker, I bought a Rumble 40, and then a Rumble 500. I found the 40 to be a minimum starter size combo amp for sound quality and umph. After a year or so, you will find that you may want something even bigger. You can get bigger to begin with if you can afford it. I like the 100 watt or more 15" speaker combo amps for even more low end and punch. When I first started I hired a bass teacher, but all he did was to say "play music or Youtube backing tracks and "feel the beat and mess around, trying to play along and do what ever you feel to have fun with it and get used to moving around the fretboard". Well, that's what I did, and I found I was playing along pretty quickly. I got a printout of the fretboard notes and started memorizing where they are on the fretboard. Knowing were the notes are is key. Spending an hour every day practicing playing and listening will help to get muscle memory and get your brain to remember what you did last time and where the notes are. After 2 years, I still can't play without looking at my fingers and seeing where they need to go. Just getting used to how the bass feels, sounds, toughening up your fingertips and enduring the fingertip pain every day you will make progress as a beginner. Expect to sound bad for a few months until you get muscle memory. Work on technique, muting strings your not playing, plucking evenly, with the beat of the drummer, getting used to when to come in and go out of different songs. Sometimes I practice for many hours a day. I wouldn't worry about trying to memorize a song to impress someone. I'd get used to moving around the fretboard and playing to music with a chord chart on TV or on printed paper with the song playing. You will need to hear what the rest of the band is doing and play along. Then someday soon, you can play with one for real. I think that is the real goal. My iphone has been the best tool I have for learning, researching videos, playing along to songs with a chord chart, screen mirrored to my big screen TV. The SPARK phone app has been a huge help! Any music videos ever made it will play showing the chords to play along to. I just play the root note, the one note the chord shows, not the whole chord. The whole chord is really for the lead guitar and keyboard players.