Advice on Teaching Yourself

[trevcda]

never practice mistakes .. !

I taught myself piano and guitar via lesson books, which I would just blaze through. Unfortunately although I learned how to play both instruments, I taught myself a lot of incorrect fingers and other habits that had to be unlearned. My fingering on an open D guitar chord still baffles many professionals! I tend to learn something I'm interested in really fast. I'm like a dog addicted to a ball in that I will rehearse it over and over and over. Fortunately I live alone and use headphones, so there's nobody to complain at three in the morning. I say that to say I understand the drive to learn by yourself. What I would recommend while your just learning is to proceed at a pace makes you happy, but find a way to touch base with an instructor once a month or so. Explain to them that you are concerned about technique and spend a half hour or an hour and see if you need to adjust your playing. As with most instruments it matter most on transitional issues. But fix it before it becomes a habit.

 

[Worldeeeter]

My advice is DON'T. Amateurs teach amateurs to be amateurs.
After 20 years of wasting my money on books, CDs, DVDs, etc., I finally invested in lessons, and the difference is GIGANTIC.

There are so many pros that give lessons (Roy Vogt, Anthony Wellington, Adam Nitti, etc.); there are also tons of locals that charge much less, if the $$$ is an issue.

 

[electracoyote]

Hello Everyone
I was wondering if anyone has advice on learning an instrument by yourself. I have a hard time being disciplined and was wondering if anyone has any tips. How to keep a good practice schedule, different things to practice, stuff like that! Also if you have taught yourself tell me your experience in that and how you kept motivated. Thank You!
-Sophie

Could you buy a language primer and teach yourself a new language? Or would you learn a few words and phrases and eventually give up?

You mentioned discipline issues. People who lack discipline need coaches they see on a regular basis. That's what music teachers do, they monitor your practice routine and progress and offer constructive feedback to help you better structure your practice routine and maximize your time.

We can recommend all the books and primers in the world, but if you lack discipline, it won't matter.

Do you want to learn formal music principles from standard notation, like how to read the bass clef? Do you just want to learn a bunch of songs from TAB? Maybe some combination of both?

You might be best finding a good experienced reputable teacher and having this conversation, letting him or her know what your goals are.

 

[bassfran]

Lots of good advice here already.

Be sure to begin each session slowly, (stretch, hydrate, breathe and relax), to prevent any possible injury. Tune up and grow accustomed to each pitch and it's relation to the next. Learn how to tune using harmonics in addition to using a tuner as it helps to train your ears.

Learn where all the notes are on the fingerboard and learn scales and intervals in as many positions as possible.

I would work on building hand strength, developing the muscles and callouses necessary for the long haul. Also listen to a wide variety of music and play along with whatever moves you, as much as possible, at whatever level you can.

 

[madbass6]

Hello Everyone
I was wondering if anyone has advice on learning an instrument by yourself. I have a hard time being disciplined and was wondering if anyone has any tips. How to keep a good practice schedule, different things to practice, stuff like that! Also if you have taught yourself tell me your experience in that and how you kept motivated. Thank You!
-Sophie

My advise on teaching yourself would be not to if you can help it! Bad habits are hard to break later on ! Best to have a qualified teacher teach you the rite way from the get go! good luck.

 

[Killed_by_Death]

Speaking of rites, it's kind of a rite of passage to have to lug your bass over to the instructor's place every once in awhile.
Bad habits happen, like flying fingers. I'm sure there's heaps more, but I can't think of them at the moment

Also, if the instructor cares about your progress, they will make sure you practiced the previously lesson. That never happened with me, no accounting by me or the instructor.

 

[garp]

I learned from the radio. Turn it on, play crappy bass lines. Continue to play until the lines you play are far less crappy. The reason for the radio (not CD's or MP3's) is it forces you to play along with things you don't know.

It also forces you to learn how to tune your instrument in ten seconds or less. When you're listening to stuff that was originally recorded in the '60s and '70s, there was so much variation in magnetic tape speeds and stretch – not to mention producers like George Martin who intentionally varied tape speed to achieve certain effects – that almost no two adjacent songs you hear on a classic rock station today are in the same tuning.

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

"I have a hard time being disciplined"

That's gonna be a problem. Music is not easy - it is, in a word, work. But the good news is that one can learn to be disciplined.

 

[JimmyM]

It also forces you to learn how to tune your instrument in ten seconds or less. When you're listening to stuff that was originally recorded in the '60s and '70s, there was so much variation in magnetic tape speeds and stretch – not to mention producers like George Martin who intentionally varied tape speed to achieve certain effects – that almost no two adjacent songs you hear on a classic rock station today are in the same tuning.

A little bit true but exaggerated. Historical records and advances in technology have enabled us to put the speeds of songs where they need to be to be to reflect the artists' true intent. Plus nearly every studio had a piano that was kept in tune. True, some ignored it and tuned to themselves, but it really wasn't all that widespread.

 

[MrLenny1]

Get a good teacher.
Working with one is invaluable especially
when you are starting.

 

[sabre79]

Play along with songs on the radio or in your music player. Also get something like Guitar Rig (with a usb interface) or a Line 6 Pod Studio that has amp and effect sims and play along to songs on your computer. That's what I do. I cannot concentrate on learning technical things and I have very little discipline. Maybe I'm lazy. I am terrible at reading books and I don't know a thing about theory. I might only know a handful of notes on the fretboard. I certainly would not give this advice to anybody, just people like myself who get bored easily (I probably have ADHD) trying to learn scales or theory. I play one hour in the morning and one hour before I go to bed each day. Not because I have to but because I can't wait to. I have a blast learning and playing songs.

 

[DrummerwStrings]

This is an interesting take. Victor Wooten argues the exact opposite - that nobody can really teach you EXCEPT yourself. Everyone else can only show you things, but it's up to you to learn it and own it. I guess it's all about perspective.

...The point, which was made from 2 different directions, is you're not an island. Even transcribing - you're writing down something someone else/others made.

EDIT: I should have reread before posting - didn't mean 'The point' to imply the only point that can be made.

 

[Herbal]

Properly learning arpeggios in a key was an eye opener for me.
Much more useful to my playing than just running scales up and down, which I never could make work in a very musical way.

Make the effort to play a bit every day, if I don't get time to play bass one day I will play another instrument, sometimes even just a pennywhistle or harmonica.

Enjoy it, if you don't enjoy it its never going to become a part of you.

Don't be too self critical of your playing & this is the one I find the hardest to achieve.
"I could have played that note better/ I could have not fumbled that one single note."

When you feel ready find other people to play music with.

 

[JW_Manhattan]

Don't! Get a teacher - as in a qualified teacher. Someone that can observe your "bad habits". Unfortunately, internet videos and books won't do that for you. Bad habits create physical damage, eliminate progress, and will eventually lead you to stopping.

Teach yourself = REALLY bad idea.

Unless you are coming from another instrument that was taught to you, along with music theory... you are setting yourself up for circling in a dead end.

 

[Herbal]

It also forces you to learn how to tune your instrument in ten seconds or less. When you're listening to stuff that was originally recorded in the '60s and '70s, there was so much variation in magnetic tape speeds and stretch – not to mention producers like George Martin who intentionally varied tape speed to achieve certain effects – that almost no two adjacent songs you hear on a classic rock station today are in the same tuning.

Interesting!
when I try to play along to some music, it often can sound a bit 'off'.
My bass is in tune, but pitches don't seem right.
This would explain that maybe?

 

[Cropduster]

My advise on teaching yourself would be not to if you can help it! Bad habits are hard to break later on ! Best to have a qualified teacher teach you the rite way from the get go! good luck.

As a learner myself i can say this is the most concise, valuable piece of advice in this thread so far, and there's lots of good advice here. Sure, you can teach yourself how to read and understand tab or notation, you can find plenty of tutorials and bass schools/lessons on line, "study bass" is my favourite as an absolute beginner and i highly recommend it, BUT, if you just follow along to on line lessons there is no one assessing your progress, you may be hearing and seeing what is being told to you but are you applying it correctly? Being lazy and shortcutting the foundations that improve your technique will drastically stunt your growth on the instrument and that wastes time and effort, it may kill what little discipline you have to continue all together.

If you're just curious and want to noodle around then fine, how and what you learn isn't going to really matter that much, but if you seriously want to play with a basic proficient technique get lessons, the money spent will repay you in spades down the road and you will have a set schedule to complete the tasks given to you as well as an evaluation of your progress, correction of bad habits and encouragement to do the work and progress.

If you spend money on a Bass, amp etc, spend a little on lessons each week/fortnight, it's a sensible investment.

 

[jchrisk1]

Nothing takes longer than trying to teach yourself something you don't understand. Sure, you could make it up or figure it out eventually, but it could take years before that ahah! moment. Someone could teach you that in a way that you understand much more efficiently.

 

[mambo4]

I have a hard time being disciplined and was wondering if anyone has any tips.

Google Jocko Willink and get after it.

 

[Mushroo]

If I was a beginner who couldn't find a good teacher, here is what I would do:

Play with other musicians every chance I get. Learn from them. Ask lots of questions. Get them to teach me songs and show me fingerings. If someone calls a song I don't know, do my best to fake it by ear, then go home and learn the song for next time. Record my jams and listen back so I can hear my mistakes and which skills I need to practice.

On the days I can't find any musicians to jam with, listen to music and let the guys on the recording be my "band." Listen to my favorite albums obsessively and study not just the bass lines, but also the vocal melody, drum rhythm, guitar part, etc. and how they all fit together.

When I am burned out from practicing, go out and see some inspiring live music. Network with other musicians. Meet my musical heroes, shake their hand, sit in the front row and study their approach to the instrument.

That is what I would do, if I were a beginner again and couldn't take formal lessons.

 

[garp]

Interesting!
when I try to play along to some music, it often can sound a bit 'off'.
My bass is in tune, but pitches don't seem right.
This would explain that maybe?

Could very well be. Most of my early learning was done by playing along to the radio, vinyl and cassette tapes. What might've been originally recorded at A440 often didn't end up at A440.