So...i have my very first bass student

[johncg]

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

On the other hand, if you change the word "mystical" to "intuitive", then I would argue that teaching students to balance the intuitive aspect with the intellectual aspect is exactly what any good teacher should be instructing their students in. Music theory is like grammar; once a concept learned and put into play, the specific rules need not be referenced in order to use it. The intellect/intuition balance is crucial in the making of a good musician IMO. Neither can be ignored completely, and each student has a different aptitude for each, necessitating an awareness of the student's learning style by his or her teacher. Some students need a lot of help on the intellectual side of things, others need help getting their intuition in balance with their knowledge, and many need both kinds of help at different times. YMMV, of course.

I'm glad to see that someone saw my point through my somewhat ornate language.

Most educators I've encountered seem to spend little time on the intuitive aspect of music. But the best musicians have a profound connection with it. It's something I think you really can't explain. It is felt, and one has to feel it in oneself.

But we teachers can encourage thought about it. We can show the students our own connection with it and ask them to participate by "jamming."

To me, nothing else is really important. I'd rather listen to someone feel every out of tune note on an out of tune guitar than what most great players end up doing: playing very well while their hearts are somewhere else.

So, again I say, teach the "intutive" first. And let all your rules and techniques act in servitude to that goal. You might even find that your students will care about the typical stuff more.

[Rune Bivrin]

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

IMO, figuring out what each student needs to do in order to improve, and in what order, is always the best place to start.

Interesting. But there are two possible starting points here: One is when you start teaching. It says nothing about the student, and then you're 100% correct.

The other starting point is when the student starts learning how to play bass, assuming they haven't really played any bass at all. In that case you need a pretty good idea of how to move along. How to introduce the concept of bass playing. What is it, and how does it differ from other instruments they might already know something about.

I would probably focus on the major scale, whole-note root thumping and basic technique. Then move up to quarter notes and introduce the root-5:th pattern.

Way back, before I really could play any instrument I learned the major scale for no apparent reason. Later, when I started playing guitar I found that knowledge surprisingly useful. This certainly carried over to bass playing.

I've watched the guitar player in my current band struggle when me and the keyboard player transpose on the fly, so I have an idea of what obstacles the lack of theory knowledge might raise. He's an excellent player, but knows no theory. He hardly knows the names of the chords he's playing. On the upside, he's really good at hearing what's right and what's not. Probably because he's not caught up in trying to figure out what mode a passage is in or if that chord he hears fits in with the key of the song.

[Rune Bivrin]

Originally Posted by tcataldo

First of all, what a bad-ass. Of course.

The thing that Wooten does not address is that the reason he is able to "sell" his "wrong" notes is the fact that he has a firm foundation of building solos out of a more fundamental tonal vocabulary. In other words, he makes the listener hear his outside lines as being right because he has a great ear and obviously knows the "right" chord tones to skip around. Wooten actually proves how important it is to know the "right" scales and arpeggios, in a backwards fashion.

I beg to differ. He's asking us to choose between two evils: A groovy but completely disharmonic solo, and a stuttering harmonic, soul-less wank-fest. It's like asking what you'd rather prefer to eat: Mouldy bread or decaying fish? I'd pick the bread every time, but not because I like it.

And because his playing drowns out the background, he gets away with it. It would hurt my ears otherwise. I would have liked to hear him play a happening bass line to that backing.

But as bass players we are conditioned to prefer groove to non-groove, and rightly so.

[swrbass5]

I taught for a little while, just because a few band members of mine had kids that were interested in bass. One of my guitar players is a teacher --- He told me one thing that I think is important. NEVER show what you can do in front of a student ( unless they come out to a gig -- which probably won't happen if they're the age my students were.) Talk them into a drum machine ( not a metronome) . And just keep it simple. In my opinion, those old Hal Leonard books are still the way to go. I'm afraid I can't help you with advanced players. All of mine were beginners.