What do I do?

[proud_of_scar]

I've been looking for a teacher. And I finally find one that I want, Jeff Carswell, really good player and teacher from what I've heard and seen. Only problem is, that... I have no job, and no way of getting one (Im underage) Ive saved about 160 dollars over the course of a few months, for lessons. But now I'm not sure if its really worth it, because its 40 dollars an hour. I only have enough for 4 classes... Is it possible for the teacher to point me in the right direction in those 4 one hour classes? I'm not really sure what to do.

[snyderz]

No way of getting a job??? I worked 7 days a week when I was 13. Can you mow a lawn? Rake a leaf? Clean a window? Wash a car? Throw a newspaper? Sorry to rant. Yeah, do your 4 lessons. I guess when you're out of money, there is no more.

[proud_of_scar]

I don't mean to sound lazy or to try to make excuses for myself...but i don't really live in a place wheres that's possible...
It's a bad neighborhood and I'm sure my parents wont allow me to randomly knock on peoples doors asking if they need their lawns mowed. Newspaper service is done by truck, there's no "newspaper boy" kind of thing down here.

[HaVIC5]

Originally Posted by proud_of_scar

I don't mean to sound lazy or to try to make excuses for myself...but i don't really live in a place wheres that's possible...
It's a bad neighborhood and I'm sure my parents wont allow me to randomly knock on peoples doors asking if they need their lawns mowed. Newspaper service is done by truck, there's no "newspaper boy" kind of thing down here.

Explain the situation to him. Teachers are reasonable people, and try and work out a deal with him. He could probably give you an extra lesson or two if you pay it all in advance or something along those lines.

[MalcolmAmos]

Going rate in East Texas is $75 a month for four lessons.

There is a lot of free how to's on the Internet. I for one do not worry about that old wives tail about forming bad habits if you teach yourself. Save your money - purchase a good book. People on this forum have decided to work from Building Walking Bass Lines by Ed Friedland and then discuss and ask questions about it here. Join us.

www.studybass.com is a good place to start and it's free.

How long have you been playing? What do you already know. What would you like to know how to do first? Be specific and I bet we could get you started.

[proud_of_scar]

I've been playing for about a year, i know how to read, just not....fast. I have a mid, to bad knowledge of where everything on the fretboard, i've been playing to what i hear.(if that makes any sense) Somethings are really confusing, like when it comes to song construction and composing. Where scales and chord tones fit into all of this? Like... if a guitarist is playing a Dminor, how to I compliment him without just playing root notes? There's just so much I want to know, and that I have nobody or nothing really pointing me in the right direction that sometimes i get the feeling that I'm not improving at all. And its frustrating. Does this make any sense?

[electracoyote]

Originally Posted by proud_of_scar

I've been looking for a teacher. And I finally find one that I want, Jeff Carswell, really good player and teacher from what I've heard and seen. Only problem is, that... I have no job, and no way of getting one (Im underage) Ive saved about 160 dollars over the course of a few months, for lessons. But now I'm not sure if its really worth it, because its 40 dollars an hour. I only have enough for 4 classes... Is it possible for the teacher to point me in the right direction in those 4 one hour classes? I'm not really sure what to do.

If you are a self-starter, highly-motivated, and willing to take responsibility for educating yourself, you can squeeze a lot of direction and guidance from those four lessons. But you need to have your teacher load you down with enough material to last more like a month, not a week. In one-week increments, you will not accomplish as much as you can in a month.

So, see if you can get your instructor to outline a series of goals, using texts, method books, and anything else he has available, that will take you a month to master.

Then stretch your lessons over a four-month period.

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by proud_of_scar

I've been playing for about a year, i know how to read, just not....fast. I have a mid, to bad knowledge of where everything on the fretboard, i've been playing to what i hear.(if that makes any sense)

OK you know your way around you just need some direction on how music thinks. Playing to what I hear, I presume means you've been winging it or jamming as best you can. Nothing wrong with that, just need some direction.

Somethings are really confusing, like when it comes to song construction and composing. Where scales and chord tones fit into all of this? Like... if a guitarist is playing a Dminor, how to I compliment him without just playing root notes?

Lets talk about scales and chord tones ---- we play chord tones (the notes that make up the chord)
Well sometime just root notes are OK, sometime you need a few of the chord tones. With a Dm chord your bass line could include just a bunch of D's in a groove or you could play chord tones like the R-b3-5-b3 degrees of the D major scale. That's kinda left up to you. Nothing wrong with roots, then R-5, then R-5-8 then a full fledged chord tone.....

D chord = R-3-5-3 now if it was a.....
Dm chord = R-b3-5-b3 would be appropriate, then if....
Dmaj7 chord = R-3-5-7
D7 chord = R-3-5-b7
Dm7 = R-b3-5-b7
See a chord name and muscle memory takes over. Yes it's that old P word.

This may help. http://www.smithfowler.org/music/Chord_Formulas.htm
This will help with what notes are in a scale, i.e. what is the 3rd note in the D major scale? No it's not F. Look it up. http://www.woodwind.org/clarinet/Stu...les/index.html
Here is some fake chord sheet music - are you playing from fake chord yet?

Fake chord sheet music ------
....G............................................
I nev-er cared much for moon - lit skies,
................................Eb7
I nev-er wink back at fire - flies

Before I close this out -- scales. Right now use scales as an exercise to warm up by and get to know your fretboard. In your music use pentatonic scales and leave the 7 note scales alone -- you don't have room for seven notes in a bass line groove. In your music use chord tones and leave the scales for melody -- I bet no one is asking you to take a lead break so forget about melody for now also.

OK how much of that did you understand and how would you handle this piece of fake chord? Let's see what you know and we'll go from there.

[proud_of_scar]

Lets see if i get this, this means that on G i can play anything on the bass as long as it fits into the 1,3,5?
and about Eb7... im not sure... wouldn't it be 1,3, b7? but that's not on the formulas sheet...


Fake chord sheet music ------
....G............................................
------------------------------------
------------------------------------
-------/55----2-222/55555---------
---33------------------------------
I nev-er cared much for moon - lit skies,
................................Eb7
------------------------------------
---------------------------????????-
---------/55----2-222/-------------
----33------------------------------
I nev-er wink back at fire - flies


something like this?

[m_bisson]

How old are you? Are you in highschool? grade 6? Most schools have a music program, and it's FREE. Get involved with that dude. You'll get to play some jazz and experience things that you'll NEVER get the chance to do outside of that environment.

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by proud_of_scar

I've been looking for a teacher. And I finally find one that I want, Jeff Carswell, really good player and teacher from what I've heard and seen. Only problem is, that... I have no job, and no way of getting one (Im underage) Ive saved about 160 dollars over the course of a few months, for lessons. But now I'm not sure if its really worth it, because its 40 dollars an hour. I only have enough for 4 classes... Is it possible for the teacher to point me in the right direction in those 4 one hour classes? I'm not really sure what to do.

perhaps look into a dvd method.....the better ones will give you enough work to keep you busy for months

[proud_of_scar]

Originally Posted by m_bisson

How old are you? Are you in highschool? grade 6? Most schools have a music program, and it's FREE. Get involved with that dude. You'll get to play some jazz and experience things that you'll NEVER get the chance to do outside of that environment.

I'm in high school, and yes i tried that. I enrolled in band last year. But the music director was a real hard guy to work with...personality wise... Not only that, it isn't band,BAND. Where its an extracurricular activity. Its actually a class, so in order to give grades, all he would do is give everybody packets, and there was a certain number of songs that you would have to play correctly in order to get your grade. Most of the songs were twinkle twinkle little star kind of stuff... Also he would neglect the stringed instruments, he would usually only work with percussion and the trumpets. Leaving my two guitarist friends and myself without guidance. Every time we would ask for help on anything he would give some sort of half a**'d explanation. One day he asked to play my bass, so let him. He started playing smoke on the water by deep purple. He was struggling to play the right notes, and would often mess up. After that moment i realized that, that class wasn't what i was looking for.

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by proud_of_scar

I'm in high school, and yes i tried that. I enrolled in band last year. But the music director was a real hard guy to work with...personality wise... Not only that, it isn't band,BAND. Where its an extracurricular activity. Its actually a class, so in order to give grades, all he would do is give everybody packets, and there was a certain number of songs that you would have to play correctly in order to get your grade. Most of the songs were twinkle twinkle little star kind of stuff... Also he would neglect the stringed instruments, he would usually only work with percussion and the trumpets. Leaving my two guitarist friends and myself without guidance. Every time we would ask for help on anything he would give some sort of half a**'d explanation. One day he asked to play my bass, so let him. He started playing smoke on the water by deep purple. He was struggling to play the right notes, and would often mess up. After that moment i realized that, that class wasn't what i was looking for.

yeah,but the people you meet in music class can get together and run with the ball.....in any class there are probably some that would like to work on stuff with you....

[m_bisson]

plus you said you are having a hard time with theory...

And high school is age 15+....so... GET A JOB

[proud_of_scar]

Oh how I wish that was true in this case... The story gets worse hahaha. 70% of the class got thrown in there because they didn't choose an elective, since my school is severely overcrowded all the other classes were full, so they had to stay. So what you get is a class mostly full of people who 1. Dont want to be there
2. Dont care and 3. Dont listen. Not to mention i'm a tab bit antisocial

The only people i would work with are the guitar buddies, but most of the time i was me helping them, since i had been playing longer than both of them, and knew a bit more.

I can't speak all bad about that class, on the upside I learned to read.

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by proud_of_scar

Lets see if i get this, this means that on G i can play anything on the bass as long as it fits into the 1,3,5?
and about Eb7... im not sure... wouldn't it be 1,3, b7? but that's not on the formulas sheet...

Fake chord sheet music ------
....G............................................
------------------------------------
------------------------------------
-------/55----2-222/55555---------
---33------------------------------
I nev-er cared much for moon - lit skies,
................................Eb7
------------------------------------
---------------------------????????-
---------/55----2-222/-------------
----33------------------------------
I nev-er wink back at fire - flies s
something like this?

No it's not on the sheet, but, that did not throw you. Good going. On the Eb7 -- 1-3-b7 will work. R-3-5-b7 will work a little better. Why? Well for one thing it's probably in 4/4 time so you need four notes per measure. And then a Major chord is made of the R or 1 whatever, the 3, and the 5 degree of the scale for the Eb part of the chord and then for the Eb7 we gotta get that extension in there. Now the extension 7 is a b7 like you said.

Not real sure what your numbers represent. Talk to me about your 2's. Why 2's?

I think what I would do with this piece of fake chord is play just roots to the beat of the song. Since fake chord is not going to give you any help with note duration, tempo, etc. I cheat and let the lyrics help me with that. I'd do a G note over each lyric word - as I sing the lyrics under my breath (I nev-er would get three G's). When the Eb7 comes up I'd switch over to an E note and flow with the tune. I think this song fits roots better than chord tones, but, that is just me. That brings up something I like about playing bass. The actual bass line is usually left up to us, as long as we keep the beat going we can pretty well do what we want.

Are you playing from fake chord now? Tell us a little about your music and how you go about playing the song.

[proud_of_scar]

Originally Posted by MalcolmAmos

No it's not on the sheet, but, that did not throw you. Good going. 1-3-b7 will work. R-3-5-b7 will work a little better. A Major chord is made of the R or 1 whatever, the 3, and the 5 degree of the scale. So for a full chord tone we should get those three notes into the picture. Now the extension 7 is a b7 like you said. You got it.

Not real sure what your numbers above represent. Talk to me about your 2's. Why 2's?

umm, the numbers are tab for what I think I could play if the guitarist was playing G.

Since the major scale for G would go (1) G,(2)A,(3)B,(4)C,(5)D,(6)E(7)F#(8)G so then 1G, 3B,5D...

Is that wrong?

[Jim Campbell]

Originally Posted by proud_of_scar

umm, the numbers are tab for what I think I could play if the guitarist was playing G.

Since the major scale for G would go (1) G,(2)A,(3)B,(4)C,(5)D,(6)E(7)F#(8)G so then 1G, 3B,5D...

Is that wrong?

i can give you a good lesson for free......learn to read music....tab is a shortcut to a dead end

[MalcolmAmos]

Yes G would be G B D. And yes, forget tabs, it will just slow you down. Remember I said as long as we keep the beat and develop a groove we can pretty well do what we want. Don't fall into the trap of playing by rote.

If the music has a G chord play G's notes. Now how many of them you play is left up to you. With that Eb7, if you like R-3-b7 and you can make a groove with it - use it.

Try some R-5-8 stuff. That's like power chords there is no 3rd to give it a major or minor feel.
Try R-3-5-7-8-7-6-5 Eight to the bar and coming back down has a nice feel.
What the heck - R-2-3-5-6 is the major pentatonic. If you get lost and do not know what chords are being used in the song revert to the tonic pentatonic and lay down a groove using the tonic pentatonic.

Work up some generic go to "riffs". http://www.studybass.com/lessons/bas...e-major-triad/

[proud_of_scar]

Originally Posted by Jim Campbell

i can give you a good lesson for free......learn to read music....tab is a shortcut to a dead end

Yes i know, I did learn to how read. But since i don't do it often its a bit hard for me to read at anything but a snails pace.

Also, if you're willing to give me a lesson, I'd be delighted to take you up on you're offer. (also grateful)