Bass Notes and Chords

Here is a good one for you. Since the day I began the bass, I didn't know until, probably a month into it, what "letters" the 4 strings on my bass were. I used the site www.tunemybass.com to tune it to standard, but I just would look at it from, top string to bottom string. Finally, after a few embarassing moments of someone telling me, no, it's your A string during a jam. I thought I'd better learn the important stuff, like THE NAME OF THE STRINGS! Next came the notes, didn't learn them until a YEAR into playing. See, I taught myself by ear, I would hear a note, then go find it on the fret. I have natural rhythm, so once I found the notes and wrote them down, or rather, where they were on the neck, I would learn a song. When I joined the band, it became painfully obvious that I needed to learn my notes and chords, and since my lupus had me sliding all over the place, it was even MORE important to realize I could play that note on a different string, on a different fret. Dave and Tiger helped me and I ended up online at activebass.com or other sites, learning my notes. I printed them out in big print and taped them to my wall!! THEN, I saw the Stu Hamm live video of moonlight sonata and wanted to learn that part, I printed the tab and spend an entire month learning it, and playing it like he would of the frets. If there is ANY ADVICE I would give someone starting out, it would be...LEARN THE NECK, THE FRETS, THE NOTES, THE CHORDS, YOUR SCALES, ETC.! GO GET LESSONS OR SOMETHINGH! It will save you much grief! I made it through finally to knowing my notes and scales, and jamming is SO much more fun, besides making you a better player and more sure of yourself. Just a little tip from someone (ME) who should have known better ;) Susie