[Helm]

Bad teacher. Forget him, keep the book. Practise a lot, read on-line bass help tutorials so you know you're not practising wrong. It will be a shame to destroy your hands if you're doing something wrong. Have fun with scales, man. Make little songs while you play them, then displace them all a few tones up and down. Reinvent the little melodies you make, by turning them upside down and inside out. Play simple stuff and then play blitzing fast stuff and don't forget to scream along with the really high note. Dance, man. Practice can be fun.