When did you stop taking lessons?

[jaybo]

I find it interesting to talk to players who have stopped taking lessons because they feel they are competant enough to recognize their own mistakes without having a teacher present. Anyone here feel they've reached that level?

[anonymous0726]

I haven't had a formal lesson in years. My dad shows me some new stuff every time that I'm home. I try to learn something every day. Every day that I play with anybody, they show me at least one thing -- if I'm open to it. As soon as I have some bux, I'll be knocking on Homer Mensch's door.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally posted by jaybo
I find it interesting to talk to players who have stopped taking lessons because they feel they are competant enough to recognize their own mistakes without having a teacher present. Anyone here feel they've reached that level?

I don't believe anybody ever reaches a point where another person can't teach them something and that is certainly the message I've received from all the Jazz DB pros I've studied with.

Was it Rufus Reid who decided to study full-time again recently?

Anyway if you think that the only thing a teacher can do is to show you your mistakes, then you have just been going to the wrong teachers!!

[Chris Fitzgerald]

I still study, and hope I'll always continue to do so.

[jaybo]

I wasn't implying that Bruce, just trying to keep things brief. It's neat that there are pros out there that still study with a teacher. I've talked to even local guys who have a steady gig that seem to be in a "stale" state of mind where they don't feel like they have anything more to accomplish in bass skills.

[Joe Taylor]

Never stopped sometimes it a while between lessons but never stopped.

What I find it is harder to find a good teacher who wants to fool with old players. The all want young students.

I'm looking for a teacher now and not having much luck at all.

Joe

[Monte]

I don't stop taking lessons, I just change the focus. I focused last year on improving my technique enough to benefit from studying improv with a master at both doing and teaching. He has had 3 student winners of Downbeat awards, and after having 2 lessons, my eyes are actually getting opened to creating interesting lines.

However, he is a trumpet player, and thus I am not really "studying" bass with anyone at the present time. My time is limited enough that I chose to do this now, and take the occasional orchestral lesson with a bass teacher to keep developing my technique. Now I DO practice a lot of technique stuff to keep fluid, but I'm finding it a lot of fun to take exercises from my improv teacher and find a fingering that works well on bass. For example, he teaches adding a note between the 5th and 6th degree a major or minor (pure) scale, for the purpose of keeping you on chord tones on the strong beat when playing 8ths or 16ths. Fine, but the major version of that on bass is a $^*&# to finger.

Anyway, there is always more to learn than hours in a day.

Monte

[David Kaczorowski]

Part of a teacher's job is to teach a student how to be able to teach himself.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally posted by jaybo
I wasn't implying that Bruce, just trying to keep things brief.

Implying what?

It's neat that there are pros out there that still study with a teacher. I've talked to even local guys who have a steady gig that seem to be in a "stale" state of mind where they don't feel like they have anything more to accomplish in bass skills.

Well that's a different thing to being "competant enough to recognize their own mistakes without having a teacher present"

- that's just being stale and unimaginative!

There are loads of different musical styles to study and incorporate into your playing. I mean, I have looked at Brazilian and Afro Cuban styles and the more you learn the more you realise there is to learn. I went to a Jazz concert on Friday, which was a Septet lead by a Cello player, which included two violins, Double Bass, Viola, drums and a sax/clarinet player. The all-original music had elements of Schonberg as well as odd-time signatures - the leader has studied with Dave Holland. There are just so many directions you can take in music!!

If you just close your mind to anything beyond what you need to do, then that's just being "brain-dead" to me. When I stop learning new things, that
is the time to stop living!!

[XavierG]

I take lessons every chance I get. I hope to be studying Afro-Cuban/Nuyorican Jazz with Vancouvers baby-bass master, Allan Johnston (Grupo Jazz Tumbao), very shortly. There's always something new to learn, and I like it that way.