Re: advice for a _very stuck_ adult beginner

What's wrong with going out and finding a good teacher?
That's what you need to do.

And as far as "understanding" stuff is concerned...
It's highly overrated. For musicians it's much more im****tant to be able 
  to hear stuff and to be able to play what you hear.

Playing scales can help get you started with this but you really should 
be trying to learn real melodies by ear.
Can you sing Happy Birthday?
If not, then I can't help you. You probably need some sort of really 
good ear training coach, but even he may not be able to help you. I.e. 
If you can't sing Happy Birthday it might be that music isn't really for 
you.

If you can sing Happy B Day then figure out how to play it on your 
instrument now, one note at a time if you have to. You said you play 
bass, right. If you have trouble finding the notes then just stay on 1 
string and go up or down 1 fret at a time until you find the note you're 
singing. Then find the next note. Etc. Once you know the notes try to 
find a better fingering.

Then learn to play some other tunes that you can already sing, like 
Twinkle Twinkle or some other nursery rhymes or some TV theme song or 
pop tune (how 'bout Hey Jude) etc.

When you listen to the type of music you'd like to play try to sing the 
melody then figure it out on bass. Try to learn the bass lines the same 
way. Learn to sing them, then figure out how to play them.

Studying theory will be mostly useless for you until *after* you've 
learned how to do this.


-- 
Joey Goldstein
<http://www.joeygoldstein.com>
<http://homepage.mac.com/josephgoldstein/AudioClips/audio.htm>
joegold AT sympatico DOT ca