Why take lessons?

[downwrogbass]

i've been playing bass for about 7 months now and i'm learning
it on my own. i was wondering why i should take lessons, every musician i know is taking lessons What's the point???.
What the hell are you suposed to learn there. i'm learning to "understand" the fretbourd by scale and song end i get my rythm from me drum machine. i like playing bass on my own way
but i ABSOLUTLY want to be a descent bass player.
should i still take lessons?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

owkey i got the point:
A. learn as much as i can form anyone i know
B. It's important to know music theory and practishe with other people
C. this was a silly question
D. talkbass is awsome if you got questions


THANXS

[BigOldHarry]

Someone with much more patience than I have needs to explain it to young Downwrogbass...

[Oric]

Generally, the best way to learn to do something is with assistance from someone with more experience in the subject. I don't know 'bout you, but if I went to the doctor, I'd want that doctor to have taken lessons. (gone to med school and graduated)

[paganjack]

to get better at bass

[rakirksey]

This is my take on lessons. I take lessons, so I obviously have a slant. Essentially in lessons you're either looking for someone with more experience to give insight and direction. Even players with a lot of experience take lessons, but I think at that point it may be more as a peer trying to learn how someone else might do it.

My main purpose for taking lessons is I'd rather not waste my own time to learn something "on my own" that someone more experienced has already learned or determined already. The why take lessons question can be asked regarding learning in any area really. Why go to college ... you can figure out Calculus on your own the same way Newton did 500 years ago?

[Rickett Customs]

Originally Posted by downwrogbass

i've been playing bass for about 7 months

I could see why you would ask this so early into playing

Originally Posted by downwrogbass

i was wondering why i should take lessons, every musician i know is taking lessons What's the point???.

Well:
Get a point of view from someone other than yourself.

Learn theory, bit easier from an instructor/teacher, IMO.

You'd be surprised

This is of course "in a nutshell".

Originally Posted by downwrogbass

What the hell are you suposed to learn there.

See above

Originally Posted by downwrogbass

i'm learning to "understand" the fretbourd by scale and song end i get my rythm from me drum machine. i like playing bass on my own way
but i ABSOLUTLY want to be a descent bass player.
should i still take lessons?

Play bass "your way" is ok, nothing wrong with that, but there's so much more, believe me. Sure you should take lessons, if you have the means and can find a decent teacher worth a damn. It will GREATLY benefit you. If it dosen't, take from it what you can.

That's just my .02

[standupright]

absolutely take lessons. it speeds up the learning curve as well as helps you fom developing bad habits. wouldn't hurt to take some english lessons as well.

[Dbassmon]

Life lesson #1, if you want to be good at anything, find the best person at that thing, music, business, physics, whatever, and latch on them for dear life. You may think you are learning music on your own, you are not. We all need coaching in this lifetime. To think you don't is arrogant and ignorant. IMO, of course.
Trim the learning curve, prevent unnecessary excursions down the wrong road, prevent having to unlearn bad habits.... the list is long. Trust in the fact there are people smarter and more talented than you and benefit from their gifts. Find a mentor......

[Jehos]

I became a decent (as in hired to play in a band) bass player in about 5 years without lessons.

Ralph Macchio learned to play guitar well enough to do almost all his own parts in Crossroads in about 5 months with lessons.

Both paths are valid, but if you want to get good quickly, lessons are pretty much the only way to go.

Also, Dbassmon makes an excellent point. Nobody teaches themselves to play bass. Just because you're not taking lessons doesn't mean you're doing everything your own way. What you're probably doing is figuring out on your own how to play like somebody else. That's fine, it's what I did, but I was a one-trick pony for a long long time.

[JimmyM]

7 months, huh? I think you've learned everything you'll ever need to know. 7 months is actually too much time to spend. 2-3 months tops and you should know everything there is to know about music by then. But I guess not everyone learns everything at the same speed.

Sorry, I can't answer ridiculous questions seriously.

[Vanceman]

I got a couple of free lessons from a friend this year. I've been playing about 7 years, he's been playing about 30. After watching me play with my band, he wanted to help me. He fixed my fretting hand position, gave me some two octave scales to learn, how to improvise on a turnaround or fill, and showed me an upright bass technique to lessen the strain on my fretting hand during long repetitive songs. I've made more improvment this year, than in the six years before that. I credit those couple of lessons for that.

[Icarus26]

Originally Posted by downwrogbass

i've been playing bass for about 7 months now and i'm learning
it on my own. i was wondering why i should take lessons, every musician i know is taking lessons What's the point???.
What the hell are you suposed to learn there. i'm learning to "understand" the fretbourd by scale and song end i get my rythm from me drum machine. i like playing bass on my own way
but i ABSOLUTLY want to be a descent bass player.
should i still take lessons?

school is the same as lessons. You should go in order to learn. By the way you type, it's obvious that you've been missing out. This is exactly why people take lessons. I myself am signing up for lessons again. It's always better to play with people better than you and having an instructor gives you that opportunity.

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by downwrogbass

i've been playing bass for about 7 months now and i'm learning
it on my own. i was wondering why i should take lessons, every musician i know is taking lessons What's the point???.
What the hell are you suposed to learn there. i'm learning to "understand" the fretbourd by scale and song end i get my rythm from me drum machine. i like playing bass on my own way
but i ABSOLUTLY want to be a descent bass player.
should i still take lessons?

Firstly taking lessons with a good instructor will teach you that what you think is doing things "your way" is mostly taking the long way around, and doing things ways that are less efficient and potentially picking up poor and even harmful technique along the way.

A good instructor should teach you appropriate technique and theory too. There is more to knowing adequate theory enough to be a "decent" bass player than just the notes on the fretboard and a bunch of scales.

Also if I was you I would be concentrating on using a metronome with straight clicks rather than a drum machine when you practice and I would practice everything, including scales with it.

It's possible to learn anything without taking lessons but for most people they are, at best, taking the long route to learning, and at worst they are setting themselves up for poor technique and possibly injury through use of poor technique.

Also, let me just say that the old "I'm doing things my way" is code to me for "I'm really too lazy to put some real effort in and if I go to a tutor they might just call me out on it". Hopefully no-one here is going to support you in that. It seems to me like you are looking for a justification, which you aren't going to get from me or hopefully anyone else.

[4Mal]

Doing what your'e doing may help you build dexterity, help you get around the instrument, build muscle memory - apparently it also might build self esteem as well If you want to play simple stuff and nothing but - that might work. I don't think the Ramones guys did lessons for long ... I could be mistaken though. Lessons will help you become a musician if you have it in you.

When I take a lesson, it isn't about playing bass. It has more to do with building a more musical bassline.

I have worked with some self taught guitarists, drummers and bassists that are killer players in their idiom. They don't know squat about music theory or harmony but - they have ears and creativitiy. They experiement a lot and find what works for them in the context of a song. One of them is the most prolific writer I have ever met. Those folks have trouble getting outside their idiom though and so I can sit in with them, but they can't sit in with another musical environment very easily ya dig ?

To a man they all find it limiting eventually.

So after 7 months are you ready to make the call - work to become a musician or be lazy and just learn how to run around the neck ? Most folks answer, "not ready" in my observation ...

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by 4Mal

Doing what your'e doing may help you build dexterity, help you get around the instrument, build muscle memory

Or they might just be building up a lot of bad habits.

[buddyro57]

If you have to ask why.....you aren't ready. Life's too short to explain it to you, sorry.
JS

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by buddyro57

If you have to ask why.....you aren't ready. Life's too short to explain it to you, sorry.
JS

I don't know, I think it's worth explaining. My explanation is sufficient though and it really only needs to be said once. If the OP still doesn't get it, then I believe you are right, life is too short.

[REAPER52]

WHY TAKE LESSONS
I believe that right after you wrote that line the rest of the post went south.
if you take lessons for the rest of your life you might or might not become a very good bass player. You can for sure study for the rest of your life and continue to learn something new every day. just think of what some of the people that did things a long time ago might have been able to do if they were alive today....open your mind a closed one wont let anything in

[David A. Egeler]

First & foremost, the lessons help you in alot of general directions ! One: concentration, think before you speak. Two: pay attention, not just to the music but by using proper spelling & grammar. Three: Just when you think you know something, you haven't got a clue !!!!! There are alot of different interpretations to music, everyone has there own ideas, your ideas are not unique !! Instructors usually have seen & done much more than you have in half the time, respect education. Any questions ?? Let me know !

[Alex van Funk]

What are you supposed to do if you can't afford lessons? I learned everything by ear and most of the stuff I hear, I can play on my bass after a period of time. As time goes on you realize/memorize for example how the note sounds on the 6th fret of the G string. In addition, I know quite a bit of theory now. You sorta pick it up as time moves on: modes, inversions, scales etc. Some guys on TB that study music in colleges and universities know a lot. However, if you don't have good ears then it won't matter how much you learn. Most of the old musicians didn't now anything about theory. Most of them if not all of them never had lessons, and yet in turns out they were the best. I was also discouraged by the fact that most teachers are actually guitarists and have no idea about playing bass, they think its the same instrument tuned an octave down. The price for lessons is also extremely high. And now with Youtube, TB and theory sites its quite possible to become a good musician if you're willing to put the time and effort into it. In addition to learning via the Internet, Jam/listen with/to other musicians, that'll help you learn quickly. If you liked a riff they played stop and ask them to play it again until you can play with them.

Love music, use your ears and you'll be good to go.