How did you learn?

[Angus]

I never understood why people don't get teachers...how do you teach yourself something you don't know?

[Lovebown]

Originally posted by Angus
I never understood why people don't get teachers...how do you teach yourself something you don't know?

Getting a teacher is great but I think you can teach your stuff from books and other material by yourself - but doing it with a teacher will probably be more fun and easier. For instance, I have a teacher at school that I go to 2 hours a week who teaches me music theory. Now, I could learn all that stuff by myself but it would go slower...eh I dunno. I guess it all comes down to lessons are only useful if you put some practice effort into it yourself.

/lovebown

[Niels Keijzer]

I started with two and a half years of lessons at the local music school...in the beginning, I had to relearn my technique two times! (my first bass-teacher was a guitar-teacher. )
I'm the only one in my two families who plays an instrument, so I don't really have it in my genes or so. (considering you can have that...musicality is more instrumental then primordial)

I'm now studying bass on my own, but I'm progressing less fast. I've been playing bass for five years now, and in my second year I learned to play Teen Town...but I never tried more complicated pieces without a teacher.

So I guess a teacher can be good for you to let you perform/do things you wouldn't normally choose to do...but a band could function that way as well.

[cassanova]

Im pretty much self taught on the bass, I had a few informal lessons here and there from friends to help get me over a hump when i was trying to learn something specific.

Also had music classes for a couple of years. and that laid the ground work for reading for me.

[the-lizard-king]

I am completely self taught.

I never understood why people don't get teachers...how do you teach yourself something you don't know?

Its not that hard if you have patience. I think its better because you develope a style all your own.
Jimi Hendrix taught himself to play.
Jim

[MatW]

Self taught. I picked up the bass because, like so many people it seems, I wanted to be in a band and bass was the the only instrument left to play.

I played along with a lot of records and learned from the occasional video or book.

It takes discipline to force yourself to practise things that really stretch you, but I'm quite happy with how I've learned.

[PollyBass]

wow MatW, your right, i wonder how many people picked up the bass out of need, and then loved it. i was playing guitar........but then my friend said he was going to pick it up. and i was like,,,,"Well, that bass sounds cool, i mean, people always want more bass." So, there we go. i had no teacher. learning by yourself is more fun, and chalenging, like i had no idea how to slap, but read you do it with your thumb and fingers, and sorta got the idea.

[brianrost]

I had played clarinet for two years in elementary school and took some organ lessons my senior year in high school. From that I knew how to read music.

I started out on bass with the Carol Kaye books (back in 1974 it was that or Mel Bay) but didn't get much of anywhere, then I took lessons for a few months in 1978 (again using the Kaye books...with a teacher to make sense out of them). Since then I've continued that pattern of self-instruction interspersed with formal lessons.

Music theory and piano classes during college in 1980, some BG lessons again in 81, a few months of URB lessons in 82, more BG lessons around 1992, URB again in 94 and I just started lessons again in April.

The studying I've done since the 80s was focused strictly on solutions to problems I was having on gigs. The lessons in 92 were focused totally on rhyhmic accuracy and right hand muting. I'm currently working on learning how to walk over jazz standards as my current blues band is doing a number of jazzier tunes where I had been feeling a bit uncomfortable. I figure I'll probably continue those studies for another 6 months or so until I feel ready to continue on my own.

I found that once you get to a more advanced level of playing, you can pick up stuff in a few lessons that will give you months or years of things to woodshed.

[APouncer]

Originally posted by warwicknut
. . every teacher that I found wanted to start me off with "Coming 'Round The Mountain", and I didn't wanna learn that.

Do you have the tab for that Warwicknut? The chords would be a help too!

[beermonkey]

I was self taught for years. I started buying tab books of my favorite bands/songs initially, as well as a really basic "this is the fretboard and here are the notes" type of book. When I started really getting serious about stuff, I started taking lessons and completely weened myself from tab. Eventually, whether you are willing to admit it or not, you will need to find a good teacher if you want to get better.