hi guys! help!
i have followed most of the posts and all have been helpful and made me feel like i know what i'm doing (when i really don't!). i have no music theory (cant read music either) other than scales. i can play scales  backward, forward, cross-handed, with my feet etc! thing is i can form chords and stuff like that - so here are my problems:

1. i can pick out a melody line and play it if i hear it no problem by ear. but i have no clue how to add a bass line to my melody. it's killing me! i get so frustrated i just want to give up! please help!!

2. there must be some practical theory that suggests what how chords should progress. so if i'm playing a cm7 ought there not to be a natural progression to another chord? or is it whatever sounds good?

please help me if you can. just playing scales everyday is driving me nuts (and my neighbours)!!

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hi afterdark:
what you need is harmony. go please to "albetan's area" and download two files:  
beginning scales and chords
beginning modal scales and arpeggios.
there you will get all basic chords used in jazz and in classic music.
when you play first note of a chord in bass it sounds right.  
so you will learn all chords that work in each tonality with their modal scales and arpeggios.  
i hope it will help a lot.
good luck.
along with the above,take a look at the virtual library(file)over at 360 degrees(use the room map),lots of online sources of info re- this.....
learn music.
learn songs.
learning scales does mostly one thing only for you.... it makes it so you know scales.. period.
learning chords for the most part does only one thing for you... that makes it so you know somce chords.
what you want  to know about   ... chord progressions....
how chord progressions work with melodies....  you have to learn  
chord progressions with melodies.... another name for this is  "song"
or "composition"  ... learn alot of them... learn them inside out...
analyse them... anaylse the harmonic progression  ie.. the i chord goes to the iv  chord then to back to the i chord etc... etc.. on every song/composition that you learn..
see if you can write new melodies over these progressions....
see if you can write new chords under these melodies......
so as i started the answer to your question, the answer is really not in any book or in any essay  ... the answer is simply.
learn music.
learn songs.
after you learn a whole lot of songs you will start to notice that it seems like f7 follows c-7 a whole lot and if you have done your analysis you see this is a ii v progression and that this is all over the place like termites in a house that is falling apart.  and you will learn a whole lot of other things like that.  like the iii vi ii v thats more like the cocka roaches that grandma says she had to fight off all the time as a kid growing up.
wow! thanks guys! sorry if i seem clueless! but truth is i have the passion to learn and i'm going to get this! thanks for all the guidance from every1.

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no need for apologies here at ljp..we're all "clueless" about something w/the music at some point or else we'd never develop,get into new s-it,etc....let me know if you need some specific links...
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