Disheartened at lack of progress

[swarfrat]

It would be time to look for a new teacher anyway, because things obviously haven't clicked with this one. But the comment? Yeah fire this dude. He clearly doesn't want to be your teacher, free up a spot on his schedule.

I'm convinced that teaching is one of the most poorly understood things we do. Many many people in many fields try to "teach", often just leading people through the same rote steps they trod. Without really understanding how to teach. When we like one, more often than not it's just because we found one that works for our style of learning. People who know how to teach anything to anybody are rarer than rare.

 

[Five String]

Mediocrity? Here's a tip - one of the most popular clubs here on TB is the Mediocre Bassists Club.

 

[Willie5String]

There are no bad students, only bad teachers. Dump that degrading moron and move on. Most of all...if you enjoy playing/learning, DO NOT QUIT. Mostly definitely not because of that jack wagon...

With all due respect, I beg to differ. There are certainly bad students. Look at a classroom where the same teacher has students that get A's and students who fail, it's not always fair to hang that on the teacher. There are for sure teachers who are ill suited for the task of teaching a particular student.

There are certainly also music teachers that when teaching the uninitiated, fail to ask the single most important question they can ask..."where do you want to go". Kind of hard to take people on the journey that is music without understanding what the final destination should be.

Teaching music is particularly hard as there is a lot of competition (without any requirement other than they can play well themselves) and a lot of teachers that cater to students who want to "play riffs like so and so" without really teaching the underlying principles.

 

[1958Bassman]

There are no bad students, only bad teachers. Dump that degrading moron and move on. Most of all...if you enjoy playing/learning, DO NOT QUIT. Mostly definitely not because of that jack wagon...

I disagree, somewhat- I was a terrible student because I hate to practice- always have, but I love to play. My ear is good though, so I can learn the sound of scales, arpeggios, chords, etc and use them quicker than practicing them endlessly and maintains my interest. Physical limitations are a different thing, though. At one point, my teacher had me working on reading some music and, having been a good sight reader in the past, I could go for a while before screwing up but instead of continuing, he had me start at the beginning. I would screw up at the same place and eventually, he asked if I was reading, or playing from memory. I said "Kind of both" and I still find it hard to turn off my ear more than 40 years later. He wanted me to think about what I was playing and was flustered when I would answer "Why did you play that minor ninth chord instead of just a minor?" with "Because I thought it sounded good". He had no real 'ear' and most of his playing sounded more mechanical and technical than musical. I took the Summer off and when I went back, I commented on his soloing and he told me that he had taken an ear training class- that made a huge improvement in his playing. He had the technical part nailed and used to practice sight-reading from advanced flute and violin music lesson books that were insane and his chording was excellent but he wasn't really listening to how it sounded from a listener's perspective.

I would hate to have me as a student.

 

[lomo]

Your teacher is, and I say this generously, incompetent at best. The key for a hobbyist is fun. That's why we play. I started at 40 and my only goals are to enjoy the time I play and suck a little less this month than last. Do not measure your progress on a daily or even weekly basis. Do whatever makes it enjoyable to you, and stop only if it's not enjoyable.

 

[Adam Wright]

gonna be real, it's hard to make great progress in an hour a day if you're a beginner. You can, but it will take years. Learning an instrument well is really best suited to people with few obligations like kids. The 11 year old isn't thinking about bills, or whether their job is going to be there next year, or if little Susie needs braces, and when should we start her college fund. My suggestion is boil things down to what you REALLY REALLY want to learn and ONLY focus on that. Find ONE thing to practice and NAIL IT and DO NOT move on until you can, and then still find time to review what you have learned. Using a stop watch helps. Every time your hands come off the bass, hit stop. I started doing this about 5 years ago and it really helped me realize how much I was actually practicing vs the amount of time I estimated I was practicing.

As far as your tutor, they can get bent. There are a lot of good teachers right now with no gigs and lots of free time to teach via zoom. Like some of the best players in the world. Moto Fukushima, Steve Jenkins etc... Most of them aren't even charging that much, especially when compared to their ability/real world experience versus someone local who's probably only played gigs at the local bar and has to give part of their lesson money to the music store they work at.

 

[swink]

Practicing about an hour a day,

It's not about how long you practice, but how you practice. Before you start practicing, do you know what you are going to practice? Set small goals, make a schedule e.g. 10 min warm up 10 min score study, (sing what it says if necessary) 15 min score study applied to your instrument .... make recordings of yourself and critically evaluate them, so you know what you need to work on....

When you look at a score, filter out the pieces that need practice and work on them. Many people have the tendency to play through everything from front to back and concentrate on what they already know because it sounds good.

It's better to practice twice a day for 15 minutes than to spend an hour not knowing what you're doing.....

And above all, make it fun for yourself.

 

[1958Bassman]

Your teacher is, and I say this generously, incompetent at best. The key for a hobbyist is fun. That's why we play. I started at 40 and my only goals are to enjoy the time I play and suck a little less this month than last. Do not measure your progress on a daily or even weekly basis. Do whatever makes it enjoyable to you, and stop only if it's not enjoyable.

Yup- a teacher's job is to inspire their students and find what they need to learn, preferably with the student's input and without, if necessary, through quizzing them.

I have taken time off for various reasons, but I haven't really thought about quitting completely. Not sure I would want to do that because just about every time I play, I do something interesting that never happened before. Not that I'm great, but maybe it's as simple as not screwing up where I had before, playing some interesting phrases in a location where I had problems being accurate in the past or adding accents that hadn't occurred to me before. This is usually from hearing unfamiliar music or something that's very difficult, although it can be from playing something simple. As much as I like some of the faster Jaco lines, he could play something slow and simple as well as anyone I can think of.

 

[1958Bassman]

Hi, I've been taking bass lessons 2 years, and tbh I'm just not making the progress I'd hoped for. Practicing about an hour a day, yet I struggle with simple things I should have down by now, and learning anything new seems to take an age.

Wondering if I'm just not cut out for it, but I really WANT to play well. I'm middle aged and on my last lesson the tutor quipped he teaches an 11 year old who picks up things faster than me, which has further damaged my confidence.

I don't know whether I should just give up and pack it in, find a new tutor, or just come to terms with my own mediocrity. I'm pretty disappointed in myself right now.
Advice welcome!

I don't know if it will help you, but,

Do you play along with recordings? I made my biggest gains after I started doing that in the '60s when I picked up the bass around age 10 or 11 and immediately started learning by ear, having played guitar for a couple of years. I also played Trombone in grade school band, so I had to think about those kinds of lines, which helped a lot. The first song I remember trying to learn was 'White Rabbit' and once I had that one down, I was off and limping into Jethro Tull, etc.

Again, I like to play along with difficult music, but if I have to start from scratch without listening to something a few times, I start by finding any patterns and listening for the 'bones' of the song, adding from there as I get to know it better. I listen to a lot of music while I drive and I learn the songs quickly, so I find that I can play the songs OK-ish the first time through. I would suck without my ear.

 

[dalkowski]

You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. Find a teacher with whom you can set focused, achievable goals ("get better" doesn't count). The teacher will create a plan to get you there. Then...

• Work to accomplish the first goal. (Don't practice till you get it right; practice until you don't get it wrong.)
• Accomplish goal.
• Feel great and motivated.
• Attack second goal.
• Lather, rinse, repeat.
• Buy a 5er and some pedals.

Be patient and be good to yourself. Enjoy the journey–it's supposed to be fun!

 

[Guitalia]

When I was learning, I made sure to mix in some unchallenging songs with the harder lessons. You need to give yourself positive reinforcement along the way. Here's one that's fun to play:



Important tip: you can slow the playback speed for any YouTube video by clicking the gear wheel icon under the video and selecting, e.g., "0.5." Big help, especially for high-bpm songs like Blitzkrieg Bop.

You mentioned Bowie's bassist in his glam era. Here's a tutorial for Rebel Rebel. This one might be better to save for the future. Or not: the individual parts are a bit tricky, but they're repetitious, so there's less work required than you might think.



Just realized I've been playing that bass part wrong, or at least, inaccurately. Not necessarily the same thing! It's not wrong if it works for the song.

 

[dannylectro]

First off, understand that it is harder to learn to play an instrument when you're older. Kid's brains are like sponges. Yours (and mine) not so much. That said...
Find people to play with. That's where the fun is. There are always people learning instruments and playing with others in the same boat as you will be a much more positive experience.

 

[Felix 2021]

When I was learning, I made sure to mix in some unchallenging songs with the harder lessons. You need to give yourself positive reinforcement along the way.

Positive reinforcement - yep that's now the aim of the day!

 

[P. Aaron]

Hi, I've been taking bass lessons 2 years, and tbh I'm just not making the progress I'd hoped for. Practicing about an hour a day, yet I struggle with simple things I should have down by now, and learning anything new seems to take an age.

Wondering if I'm just not cut out for it, but I really WANT to play well. I'm middle aged and on my last lesson the tutor quipped he teaches an 11 year old who picks up things faster than me, which has further damaged my confidence.

I don't know whether I should just give up and pack it in, find a new tutor, or just come to terms with my own mediocrity. I'm pretty disappointed in myself right now.
Advice welcome!

Do you have any friends that play music? Even if only a little. That's where I first picked up a few nuggets. In those circles, it can be easier and there's no pressure of a time meter running and an expectant teacher. Just some guys trading, learning licks, yakkin' it up.

Ditto finding a different instructor. Many music teachers are teaching kids that also benefit (usually) from in-school band-orchestra classes and numerous colleagues communicating with each other, trading info and conversing daily. You're an adult with possibly, much less social contact regarding music and learning it, over coming the difficulties of not knowing and having numerous questions.

It is your job to tell and remind your instructor of where your abilities are, and where you need/would like them to go. You're paying them to help.

In beginning stages, lacking info and insight, it may also be difficult figuring out where do I start? We've all been there and not knowing what you don't know is frustrating.

A teacher needs to evaluate your current abilities and bring you along being patient as they go. When I took lessons to learn to read music, for ex; one instructor commented that his adult-late learners were almost always nervous, less fluid and often because we're much more self conscious, FEARFUL of making mistakes during lessons and taking them too personally. Thus, almost a self fulfilling prophesy of "I kinda suck!" It's a lot to overcome.

Find simple tunes. If you can tune up to recordings and try & play along. Ramones simple. Beat On the Brat stupid simple but a great song.

Starting out is difficult. Bass involves ears, vision and physical learning. Once you get one "Ah-Hah!" moment, it can become addictive. I hope this happens for you.

 

[Nucky]

As George Washington Carver said: "Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough." Keep the focus on playing songs and styles you love. Let go of the rest.

In my experience, there are two types of music teachers: the type who tell you to play the material (exercises, songs, studies) that they want you to play, and the kind who listen and guide you to play what you want to play, while giving you the tools and the feedback to accomplish that. Find a tutor who is the second type.

You may have to "interview" potential teachers over the phone first before committing to work together, but it should be pretty clear to you when you find a good match. One thing that worked for me was sending a prospective teacher a couple recordings of my performances and asking what he thought I should work on. Good luck and keep on rockin'!