You paraphrased my post and closed with essentially what was my point haha
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Bass Lessons for the Experienced?
- Thread starter RickyWoo
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You paraphrased my post and closed with essentially what was my point haha
Well yeah because I agree with you here Ricky. But it IS possible to waste a teacher's time.....
Gotcha! I suppose it's possible, however, I would suggest players seeking lessons should be looking within their level of experience. 100%. If a person gets inspired to play bass because they love Victor Wooten, and they want to learn, definitely don't make Victor Wooten your first destination for a lesson. LOL! I get your point. Lessons should be taken/given on a level where both parties can walk away satisfied, for sure.
Hmmm....not really although going to Victor Wooten to show you how to tune your bass might be overkill. But it's up to him to say yes or no to teaching you so in some ways that's not your problem and in general I'm with you saying go for it regardless of what you think your level is. At any level you're always going to get something valuable from a great player....they were all beginners once too.
I'm more saying if you do go to him and he gives you some work to do you'd better do it or you won't be prepared for the next lesson. One thing all great players have in common is they worked their butts off to become great players. None of them are going to be very understanding if you don't work hard and some will very much consider it a waste of their time if you don't. This is a bit of a sidetrack and not what you meant when you asked "How would taking lessons from someone who is offering lessons be a waste of their time?" But it's something important to think about for any lessons but especially if you're lucky enough to get to study with a great.
Well that's not what I thought you meant but absolutely! I just assume the student would have the mindset of learning the criteria, if they sought out for help. If a student isn't applying themselves to learn the material, it's a waste of everyone's time for sure. Like I've said, I've played a while now and I'm 100% on board with learning "Mary had a Little Lamb", if I have to, to learn to read. Whatever it takes.
I think what some people don't understand when they study with great players is how much work the teacher might expect of you. You don't get to be great without doing the work and the reality of how large a commitment that is can be difficult to just jump right into. I got this wake up call first from Rick Kilburn and again (slow learner I guess) about twenty years later from David Friesen. By my last lesson with David I was practicing 6-8 hours a day and feeling like it wasn't enough....and when you hear how average I sound now you'd probably agree that it wasn't.
That's the truth, bro. Luckily for me, once I started my lessons, I became OCD about the whole thing for years on end. I wish I still had that drive, lol.
Also people think lessons are about the length of the lesson. Nope, it's all about the material. I had a 30 minute lesson with Anthony that covers stuff I've worked on pretty much everyday for years... It's the kind of stuff you never can say, "Ok that's done..."
One thing I did, and that I would recommend to anyone, was that I recorded every lesson and I still find things to learn in them since I've stopped a few years ago.. Basically, I have 4 years worth of Anthony Wellington lessons to sort through. That's right around 200 lessons... Prolly a bit less. A lot of the stuff he told me then is just now starting to make sense...
The hard part of recorded lessons is that you have to listen to yourself... It's painful...
Y'know though part of being a great student is asking great questions. I bet listing to yourself asking dumb ones is pretty educational. Friesen said to me more than once, "That's not a good question, ask me a better one."
As some people have noted, the main thing about studying is the homework and accountability. The first lesson might be a bit strange and funny, but whatever you are given during the session - be sure to work really diligently on it until the next one. If anything, then in order to have intelligent and meaningful question to ask that next time.
I think that is where I have fallen down in lessons as an adult. When I was learning piano as a kid, I practiced hard to nail Twinkle Twinkle Little Star because I didn’t want to disappoint my teacher. I didn’t really care if I could do it or not, but I couldn’t bear to let my teacher down.
The few bass lessons I’ve taken through “schools” around town have ended up being with smart-alec 20 year olds (I’m pushing 40) I'm sure they could play, but most where just College kids earning some beer money, not Teachers. Without respect for the teacher there was no desire to impress them and no drive to be better.
If you take a lesson with a world-renowned artist/teacher I think the desire to impress them would be very, very high.
HI,
I am a long term guitar player on a Bass guitar learning binge. Enjoying bass much more than guitar atm.
I checked out the Scott Divine method and the problem, to me, is that there is alot of TALK. If you already know modes, theory, and know how to get around on the neck, the lessons feel (to me) painfully slow. He's entertaining to watch and a great teacher, but the lessons I watched were kinda slow paced for someone coming from guitar.
It seems like the role of the bass player is to have a huge vocabulary of tasteful grooves to cover any situation. What I'm doing now is a combination of the TrueFire groove videos, combined with Band In a Box (and learning covers) to improve my vocabulary and work on changes.
Band in a box is very expensive, but its like a limitless drum machine with "real audio" pro parts. You can mute everything but the drums, change the tempo, transpose, etc so you get to practice exactly what you want. There are hundreds of songs and you can write your own with simple chord notation. You can solo the bass part making it easy to learn the bass part, you can loop over sections. Band in a Box is absolutely the best practice tool ever invented.
I've taken guitar lessons a couple times with local "pros" but IMO, its way overpriced compared to what you can get online. You can get videos or do skype lessons with the absolute best players in your style of music.. its impossible to find that locally, imo.
I am a long term guitar player on a Bass guitar learning binge. Enjoying bass much more than guitar atm.
I checked out the Scott Divine method and the problem, to me, is that there is alot of TALK. If you already know modes, theory, and know how to get around on the neck, the lessons feel (to me) painfully slow. He's entertaining to watch and a great teacher, but the lessons I watched were kinda slow paced for someone coming from guitar.
It seems like the role of the bass player is to have a huge vocabulary of tasteful grooves to cover any situation. What I'm doing now is a combination of the TrueFire groove videos, combined with Band In a Box (and learning covers) to improve my vocabulary and work on changes.
Band in a box is very expensive, but its like a limitless drum machine with "real audio" pro parts. You can mute everything but the drums, change the tempo, transpose, etc so you get to practice exactly what you want. There are hundreds of songs and you can write your own with simple chord notation. You can solo the bass part making it easy to learn the bass part, you can loop over sections. Band in a Box is absolutely the best practice tool ever invented.
I've taken guitar lessons a couple times with local "pros" but IMO, its way overpriced compared to what you can get online. You can get videos or do skype lessons with the absolute best players in your style of music.. its impossible to find that locally, imo.
Not to call you out singly, but a lot of players think they know these things when perhaps they do not know them as well as they assume. Do your self a favor and listen to the Anthony Wellington clip in my previous post .
It changed my estimation of how well I knew modes, the finger board, theory etc.
I shred satriani and vai songs pretty easily. I have practiced modes and arpeggios religiously on guitar. That anthony wellington clinic is right up my alley, for me its the dexiterity and technique I need to develop, and a vocabulary of grooves. Everything he played in that video is easy for me on guitar.
Thanks for that link, that is right up my alley.
Thanks for that link, that is right up my alley.
The more I see of Ant, the more I love him.
I've been working on these patterns for some time, yet he's able to put it into a single unified pattern. (If I could get Fodera to build me a 7 string, I'd be happy to spread the word, btw
)
The more I see of Ant, the more I love him.
I've been working on these patterns for some time, yet he's able to put it into a single unified pattern. (If I could get Fodera to build me a 7 string, I'd be happy to spread the word, btw
I just watched that clip this weekend. I recall having worked out that "grand pattern" on graph paper, using an imaginary 20 string bass, when I was like 19 or something. It was a total revelation.
But Anthony took that idea and spent much more time reducing it to something concise, elegant , and so useful.
Danny Morris is fantastic: Invalid Link Removed
I learned a lot from him in my Berklee online classes and would consider him as a private instructor.
I learned a lot from him in my Berklee online classes and would consider him as a private instructor.
