Self-taught or formal lessons?

[Gnejs]

Just curious were you self-taught or did you have formal lessons?

[SpaceYourBass]

I'm self taught and am looking forward to formal lessons one of these days. It's cool to say I taught myself but yea...I'd be a lot better if I was taking lessons this whole time. A LOT better.

[Drifta]

self taught for 2+ years. then took 8 weeks of lessons with a great musician teacher. I gotta say I wish i had started lessons earliar.

Its all about the right teacher. And I generally find AWESOME musicians that are self taught are really hard to communicate with and have a short leash. They get so locked into what they do/did to get so great and its not always about chops when in a band i find, and it makes it kind of hard.

[Out_of_Toon]

Do instructional videos count as personal lessons too?

[afinalfantasy]

Self taught for learning the instrument, lessons for using a metronome and scales.

[keb]

I taught myself the mechanics of playing a bass guitar (by watching what my favorite players did and copying them), but at that point I'd already taken music theory and composition courses in college. So I suppose a little of both. But my mom taught me piano when I was a little kid, if that counts.

Having teachers around is A1-super-duper for theory... it can be hard to scrounge up the self-motivation and self-discipline for that stuff.

[emblymouse]

Self taught, self motivated, self regulated, self medicated.

[soong]

Formally taught x1000000

In saying that, its also 50% my own work
=]

[Arsenal_Fierce]

I'm self-taught on the bass so far, but I've taken classical guitar lessons in the past. I hope to get some formal bass instruction soon, though, because I can tell I need it.

[mjolnir]

I played on my own steam for nearly a decade before I looked for someone to take lessons from, and he flaked on me before the first one, so I have yet to have a single lesson. Some would say it shows.

[varunkapahi]

formally self taught!
(i got this phrase from the Jaco video but thats my story too)

[b_carville]

Self taught ,although when I was a kid a couple of older guitarists helped me out.
When I first started to play(way back in the 60's) the electric bass wasn't considered a legit instrument by the older musicians.The only lessons you could get(in my hometown anyway) were from guitar teachers.I took 2 lessons from a guitar teacher & realized quickly that he didn't think like a bass player.
I approached the older head bass honcho in town & he told me"Put down the tinkertoy & study the upright".
I wound up teaching myself.I wound up not playing for 5 years in the early 70's.(BIG MISTAKE)
Some guitarists became great bassists(Carol Kaye,Joe Osborn).
There were great teachers in NYC but that was a long bus/train ride & they were expensive& I was really young.
Some of you older guys may remember those days.You really had to search hard for information.But in a lot of ways that made it more fun!
It's so much easier to get help/info/advice now and that's a great thing!

[fourstringdrums]

I started playing on my own and realized I wasn't doing a lot of things right (I just had a feeling), so I took formal lessons from a guy a total of 2 or 3 times before he had a mental breakdown (not my fault). Then I found a great teacher who I studied with for about a year until he decided that after 16 years he was going to quit playing all together. This guy could play any instrument and he was throwing it away because he felt like he wasted a lot of his life doing this and it wasn't paying off financially. He was broke a lot and needed to get a "real" job. Shame... So after that and since then I've been self taught.

[ROON]

Never taken a lesson in my life. I can't stand people telling me there is a "right" and a "wrong" way to play an instrument. To me it's all about self expression and doing things your own way, it's more fun for me like that. Of course I take pointers on how to improve the parts of my technique that bother me, other than that I make my own style.

I am learning scales and what not from a good book I purchased a while ago called "Bass Roadmaps".

[Petebass]

Q. What's the difference between an educated musician, and a self taught musician?

A. A Self taught musician plays 3 chords to hundreds of people.......

(Kidding).......

I'm self taught, but as I get older I wish I'd taken some lessons. I'm getting pretty jealous of some of the guys that come into the store (and fellow staff members for that matter) who clearly know their way around scales better than I do.

[MysticMichael]

Self-taught on the bass guitar. But I had some formal music education as a kid, with a few years of instruction on my first instrument - tenor saxophone - plus about eight years of school band.

That background made it relatively easy to transition to the bass, and made it much easier to accomplish things such as learn new music by ear, arrange music on the fly, conduct productive rehearsals, and so on...

MM

[jollygiantchris]

I bought a bass tried to teach myself for about a week than said **** this and started taking lessons...I'm a really impatient person. But with most other things in life I teach myself but I don't have any natural ability with music so after the first irritating week it was apparent I'd need someone to show me where to start.

[Marley's Ghost]

Self taught. I could use some lessons.

[SelenaBassGirl]

self taught on the bass...and as far as keys..pretty much the same. I took less then two months of piano lessons in the 2nd grade but didn't get far on that...I play by ear. I just listen and find the note!

[KrisH]

Lessons in 5th and 6th grade on trombone. When I got to 11th grade and switched to tuba, I was given a fingering chart and told to learn it. Likewise, when I picked up bass a few years earlier, I used a Mel Bay book. That and my Grand Funk records!