This will be easy for almost everyone on Talkbass, but I thought it was fun.
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Are you an intermediate player?
- Thread starter Diamond_Dave
- Start date
That was great, thanks for posting it! I came to this forum to ask about lessons. My local small-town guitar shop has reopened for in-person lessons and I'd been considering them for a while now, especially to help them out since they've been closed for two months.
Anyway, after watching that video I realize that I'm not even an intermediate bass player!
It has solidified my interest in actually taking lessons. I've had a bass and messed around at home with one on/off for 25 years and could only say I can do 4-5 out of 17 things in that video! Yikes.
I'm old-school in a way that I want in-person lessons...I hate spending any more time than I have to on screens/youtube. With that being said, what kind of stuff should I ask the prospective bass teacher to make sure I'm getting the right training and that I'll benefit from spending the money? Thanks in advance!
Anyway, after watching that video I realize that I'm not even an intermediate bass player!
It has solidified my interest in actually taking lessons. I've had a bass and messed around at home with one on/off for 25 years and could only say I can do 4-5 out of 17 things in that video! Yikes.I'm old-school in a way that I want in-person lessons...I hate spending any more time than I have to on screens/youtube. With that being said, what kind of stuff should I ask the prospective bass teacher to make sure I'm getting the right training and that I'll benefit from spending the money? Thanks in advance!
I'm sorry but I hated the video. Tuning your bass, memorizing the notes on the fretboard, learning major and minor scales, reading 8th-note rhythms, and so forth are "absolute beginner" skills, not "intermediate" skills.
To me, an "intermediate" player is someone who is experienced playing in bands, who knows the standard repertoire of their chosen genre, who can read & write standard notation, TAB, and chord charts, and who can learn songs by ear.
To me, an "intermediate" player is someone who is experienced playing in bands, who knows the standard repertoire of their chosen genre, who can read & write standard notation, TAB, and chord charts, and who can learn songs by ear.
I agree with some of this. How would you describe an advanced player?
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I agree.
I would consider myself an intermediate player at home. But an absolute beginner is someone asked me to join their band.
I think the point is that this is a list of things that a beginner should strive to get under their belt in order to get to the next level. Some of us would call that an advanced beginner level and some might not. But I don't think he's saying that having any three of these skills kicks you out of beginner class. He's saying you have to have all of these skills before you can consider yourself to be moving beyond beginner.
On a side note, skill 1 is somewhat dependent on the ability of your tuner to track quickly. But I rarely need to retune all four strings at the same time while I'm onstage.
On a side note, skill 1 is somewhat dependent on the ability of your tuner to track quickly. But I rarely need to retune all four strings at the same time while I'm onstage.
I thought about your question some more. I think what defines an "advanced" player is 1) genre-dependent and 2) recognized by our peers (not a label we can self-apply to ourselves).
If you have a reputation as a top player in your market, and you get the best gigs in your genre, then you are probably an "advanced" player. If you are getting lots of calls for studio sessions or no-rehearsal sub gigs, then you are probably an "advanced" player. If you are innovating on the instrument, and young players are learning from your example, then you are probably an "advanced" player. If you are a confident leader and the other musicians on stage look to you for cues, then you are probably an "advanced" player.
This sounds more like "top 5%" rather than just advanced. But you can call it want you want.
That's a really thoughtful observation, so I started a new thread on the topic. Thanks!
What % of musicians would you say are beginner vs intermediate vs advanced?
Cool. I guess though, for me it doesn't matter. I know of highly advanced musicians who work constantly on beginner level items. For example, I'm a big fan of the Vlogs that Bob Reynolds does. He's a Grammy award winning sax player who's played with a lot of top people, world wide. In one video I saw, he talks about when you really study a particular aspect, you have to make it small. So he proceeds to talk about how he would spend 20 minutes to half hour playing one note. Just one note. G. Making it sound right. John Coltrane would spend hours just on a C major scale.
So, I say this to mean, it doesn't matter what level you are. How much you advance just depends on how much focus you are willing to expend. Because there was a time when Bob Reynolds couldn't play a saxophone at all.
I think @CatOnTheBass is describing a fairly advanced player, maybe a pro or semi pro. And @Spin Doctor is correct—the good ones work on the basics every day. Free throws, fielding grounders, blocking and tackling.
