1 year, what's possible?

[Shakin-Slim]

I've been at uni all this year doing English Lit because I was playing to my strengths. However, not my passions. I moved to Wellington here in NZ to go to music school and do jazz performance. I'm going to be taking the year off study next year to work full time and get up to scratch for the audition at the end of the year, as I am not confident or skilled enough just yet. If I was working full time and donating as much of my time off as possible to music, like a daily routine, plus having a teacher, how likely do you think it would be that I will have the ability to walk over most changes, read well and solo confidently when my current ability is rather low? I understand how walking works, I also understand chord theory and all that. It's just the application to the instrument that gets me hung up. I need to know if this is a likely possibility.

Cheers,
Shaun

[Spin Doctor]

I absoulutely believe you can pull this off, but you are going to have to be a bit obsessive about the instrument. This means no sitting around watching TV when you need to be practicing. When you get home from work, you get a shower, grab something to eat. Then practice pretty much till you get ready for bed. You will need to do this every day for a year.

You will have to be a bass geek, like Scott Lafaro. LaFaro started bass when he was 17. He died when he was 24. In those 7 years, he pretty much completely revolutioized the role of jazz bass. But he had serious bass OCD. It was all he did, all he thought about. What you have to do is simple by comparison. You don't have to re-invent anything. You just have to figure out and, know what the hell you are doing with that bass.

But, I think you can do it. I also hope you have a good teacher who is gonna teach you the right stuff.

[SurferJoe46]

Do you 'feel' the music? If you're trying to force that into yourself, then it may not work.

Unt vat vould Herr Sigmund say?

< perhaps if I insert a few smiley-faces here, it will lighten this up a little >

You know that music cannot reside in your Id - but should reside in the Ego like fine wine, good food or a trophy wife.

Without a modulated desire, (there's that Super Ego) you will have troubles keeping centered, and since you're not earning a living playing bass at the mo, you might not get to your plateau in a year, but burn out long before getting there.

I like the 'learn under intense pressure' idea, but I'd rather play in a new-founded band and try to grow with them as a learning experience before I'd take on such an odious task as forcefully learning bass on a strict schedule.

With the job market the way it is and NZ seriously behind the curve yet and not as bad off as the rest of the world - you may not be fully aware that musicians aren't getting the gigs like they used to. It's not that Kiwis aren't aware - they just aren't in the mainstream of places like the US/Europe where even busking isn't paying and the usual on-ramp beggars are giving up asking with cardboard signs and instead getting a ski mask and a gun.

You DO understand that you have to eat - right?

If you take your strength (literature) and run with that concurrently with your passions (bass playing) and try to get them to co-exist, you might be better off. It will always leave a stronger desire to play if you aren't up to your earballs in timetables.

But beware, as a professor's chair in Middle English specializing in Chaucer's Mysterious Sabbatical may not be a bread-winner for long either.

Play bass like there's no tomorrow and you might will burn out on it too. I'd be afraid of taking the sweetness out of a talent by force-feeding it to myself, if I had my druthers.

I wish things were different, but reality is cold - although in days past, a starving artist was a quaint reminder of passionate, iconoclastic people on the fringe of society. Today, he's just a guy in line for a hot and a cot.

Sorry to get all Maudlin on ya in an Aldous Huxley-way............ but times are different.

[onlyclave]

Originally Posted by Spin Doctor

I absoulutely believe you can pull this off, but you are going to have to be a bit obsessive about the instrument. This means no sitting around watching TV when you need to be practicing. When you get home from work, you get a shower, grab something to eat. Then practice pretty much till you get ready for bed. You will need to do this every day for a year.

You will have to be a bass geek, like Scott Lafaro. LaFaro started bass when he was 17. He died when he was 24. In those 7 years, he pretty much completely revolutioized the role of jazz bass. But he had serious bass OCD. It was all he did, all he thought about. What you have to do is simple by comparison. You don't have to re-invent anything. You just have to figure out and, know what the hell you are doing with that bass.

But, I think you can do it. I also hope you have a good teacher who is gonna teach you the right stuff.

Not to be a buzzkill but I don't think you can get there. The university might let you in but you need to take a step back and and honestly evaluate yourself. Because you are accepted is ZERO guarantee that you will be successful. Period. I watched literally HUNDREDS of people fall out of university music programs because they just couldn't hang. Yes, they were accepted into the program but the program quickly left them behind.

Also, Scott LaFaro played clarinet before he switched to bass. Music is music, instrument operation is a much simpler task to accomplish. One takes years of study and understanding and the other is actually rather simple.

Find a private teacher, enjoy playing bass and don't ruin your hobby.

[brammerd]

A lot is possible in a year

I started out last year in september and this afternoon I made an analysis of All the things you are, I can play it and solo over it.

Just gotta practice a lot! There were days I practiced 10 hours...

Things not to forget are:
Learn to sight read. Music is a language and if you can't read or write...
Train your ear and sing intervals.

[fdeck]

Of vital importance, based on the unfortunate experience of one student in a recent thread. Make sure the school that you're applying for has a full program for electric bass, including a teacher for that instrument.

[Stumbo]

So you want to be a music major?

[Shakin-Slim]

Originally Posted by fdeck

Of vital importance, based on the unfortunate experience of one student in a recent thread. Make sure the school that you're applying for has a full program for electric bass, including a teacher for that instrument.

Yeah they do A lot of electric bassists go through there and they have a few teachers for it.

Also in response to a few replies on here, I really don't want to kill my passion for the music or instrument. I highly doubt that my passion for the music will die. Been in love with jazz since I was a kid. Some of my earliest memories are Blue Train. I know pure love for jazz isn't enough to get through jazz at university, I do however find from talking to musicians doing the degree that my passion for it seems 10x deeper than them, so I guess that's a good start. Also I am not interested in high paying gigs or anything like that. There is a very serious group of older musicians and music school graduates here in Wellington who are incredibly serious about establishing a scene of jazz being taken as a serious art form. They play small bars for small money, but all I want to do is join them really. And have the facility to play with any group. I know it will take sheer bloody-mindedness to achieve the skill I want to be at in a year. I think someone mentioned doing my literature at the same time as music. Just taking music lessons on the side. I've tried and found it hard to juggle the two things. I'd rather focus on one.

Maybe I'm expecting too much to be able to do this in one year. If I take the year off to work on it, and I'm not good enough at the end then I've spent a year off uni. Not for nothing, mind you, but you get the idea.

[sammyp]

do you love jazz music? or do you feel this is the only option for a uni degree .....that was my situation in '92 - and i got the degree ....still not much of a jazz musician

study and pay tution for something you love ...their are contemporary music degree programs out there now - they are here in canada so they must be in the states!

on the other hand, if jazz is your passion, then get that reading together and walking ..do some ear training - from where you describe yourself you will probably need to dedicate at least 2-4 hours a day 5-6 days a week to achieve your goals!

it can be done, if you love it it's painless!