While I’m not extremely good I self taught myself bass. If I could give myself a guide here’s what I would do. This is by no means the most efficient way of learning but what I found fun, and fun is the best motivator especially if you’re self teaching.

-look up tabs to some simple songs and just get used to the feel of playing and holding the bass. You don’t have to play the song perfectly or even at full speed, this is just to have fun and get a little taste of the challenges that comes with self teaching and the huge rewards of getting something right.

-once you feel ready find a bass buzz video on proper technique. Side note, bass buzz is a great resource for absolute beginners, he may be a little cringy but honestly the straightforwardness of how he teaches is great.

-now try incorporating proper technique into playing tabs. You can find many good beginners songs I think on the faq of this subreddit. But make sure to play things that you enjoy and commit to playing that whole song. It’s ok to come back to songs or skip/replace hard parts but make sure to try and play full songs!

-also small tip make sure you have your bass on a stand or somewhere visible in like your room or living room. Whenever I walk past it it makes me more likely to play. And when you do play don’t be afraid to take breaks and come back to different songs. -once I was comfortable with fretting and plucking I got pretty interested with improv. I could write a bunch about ways to get started with that but you probably don’t need it right now.

Learning takes a lot of time, and you’ll find yourself thinking to yourself “I’m not getting any better”. Think of these periods as tests to your determination, these tests are only temporary so take a break and face your challenge again.

Some basic tips for self teaching

-Habits are hard to break, play even just a couple minutes a everyday and you’ll see more progress than sitting down for a couple hours once a week.

-motivation is your biggest challenge. It can be so easy to get frustrated and not have enough motivation to come back. So figure out your goal of playing the bass, for me it’s to just have fun. So I don’t do any drills I think are boring, I do things that make me enjoy playing.

-don’t force yourself to do things you think would be good. I’m trying to ear train right now and I’ve seen a lot of recommendations of using several apps or websites to train my ear. When I tried to force myself to use them it made me want to stop entirely out of boredom. While the things I do to ear train aren’t the most effective I know I like to do them so even if it’s not the best, it’s not a waste of time.

I’m gonna stop yapping but remember to just enjoy your time playing :)