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Full Stack Bassist Group (Scott's Bass Lessons).
- Thread starter oysterphish
- Start date
Starting to think about approaching the FSB course differently. Maybe I should just divide it into 10 weeks per module, a full year, and not be concerned about trying to keep up as the Modules open. Perhaps this is a better goal setting path for my own advancement.
I struggle with some of the rhythms of Module 1 to the point where I get a measure down one day, only to have to start over from scratch the next day. Ha! Memory capacity at my age. I was going to skip the "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" entirely, but I have the transcript of the song and with changing over to a 10 week time frame, I can now spend the proper amount of time I'll need to learn it.
I had 6, 2, 4, and 7 practice sessions during Weeks 1-4, totaling 19 sessions and averaging 35 min per session! This is a good milestone, close to what Scott suggested, 5x per week and 30+ min per session. Although, I learn and retain slower. These sessions don't include the 10-15 min I sometimes have to spend beforehand just getting the rhythm down in my mind, without a bass in my hand. Many times I have to use Band in a Box with a similar track or a bare bones track at 60 bpm, and slowly bring it up closer to FSB track speed. Whew!!
I still cannot get through a full Exercise without mistakes, at any speed. I focus more on my technique instead. I think this will help me more in the long run. My main goal as always is to play Walking Bass lines to Jazz Standards in the style of the Beegie Adair Trio (Beegie Adair - Wikipedia).
So, I can spend the next 6 weeks just on M1, taking the "pressure off". My motivation can come from posting here as I progress, which will help me stay the course.
Happy New Year to all. Great to be here along with youze guyz!
I struggle with some of the rhythms of Module 1 to the point where I get a measure down one day, only to have to start over from scratch the next day. Ha! Memory capacity at my age. I was going to skip the "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" entirely, but I have the transcript of the song and with changing over to a 10 week time frame, I can now spend the proper amount of time I'll need to learn it.
I had 6, 2, 4, and 7 practice sessions during Weeks 1-4, totaling 19 sessions and averaging 35 min per session! This is a good milestone, close to what Scott suggested, 5x per week and 30+ min per session. Although, I learn and retain slower. These sessions don't include the 10-15 min I sometimes have to spend beforehand just getting the rhythm down in my mind, without a bass in my hand. Many times I have to use Band in a Box with a similar track or a bare bones track at 60 bpm, and slowly bring it up closer to FSB track speed. Whew!!
I still cannot get through a full Exercise without mistakes, at any speed. I focus more on my technique instead. I think this will help me more in the long run. My main goal as always is to play Walking Bass lines to Jazz Standards in the style of the Beegie Adair Trio (Beegie Adair - Wikipedia).
So, I can spend the next 6 weeks just on M1, taking the "pressure off". My motivation can come from posting here as I progress, which will help me stay the course.
Happy New Year to all. Great to be here along with youze guyz!
Don't get discouraged because you pace is slower than some others. I'm still working on M1L3. We all have our own war to fight. And by the way, I spend at least an hour (sometimes two) each day practicing. With drums I fell down the rabbit hole of technique pursuit for way to long. I should have (and now do) just spent time playing. I'm struggling to avoid that same pitfall as I learn to play the bass. It's hard because that is the direction my head goes.
Timing is an issue for me, which is weird seeing that I have spent the last four+ years playing drums only. I've said before I think I have a deficit in listening skills. That is also something I work on with each session. Oh well, it is what it is. I'm finding myself of two minds as I go through this. One is that I want each exercise to be perfect, the other is that I should just get through the lessons and perfection will come along eventually. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. If I focus on my weak points but don't dwell on them to the point of obsession I'll probably be better off.
In the end, I'm not stressing over the time it takes to get through each lesson or module. As I read your post above @mcaputi I realize I should put a target on completion for each, either lesson or module. This might help me not to lose sight of the need to make consistent progress.
I agree that posting here, and reading the posts of others is cathartic. It helps to see that others are fighting the same fight, though the battles may look different. I would encourage all FSB/TB folk to post their thoughts, trials, and accomplishments to this thread.
Stay focused in the new year, we've made it through the busy time and now the focus on creating a better bass player can come to the forefront.
Timing is an issue for me, which is weird seeing that I have spent the last four+ years playing drums only. I've said before I think I have a deficit in listening skills. That is also something I work on with each session. Oh well, it is what it is. I'm finding myself of two minds as I go through this. One is that I want each exercise to be perfect, the other is that I should just get through the lessons and perfection will come along eventually. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. If I focus on my weak points but don't dwell on them to the point of obsession I'll probably be better off.
In the end, I'm not stressing over the time it takes to get through each lesson or module. As I read your post above @mcaputi I realize I should put a target on completion for each, either lesson or module. This might help me not to lose sight of the need to make consistent progress.
I agree that posting here, and reading the posts of others is cathartic. It helps to see that others are fighting the same fight, though the battles may look different. I would encourage all FSB/TB folk to post their thoughts, trials, and accomplishments to this thread.
Stay focused in the new year, we've made it through the busy time and now the focus on creating a better bass player can come to the forefront.
The great thing about the course is you can use it however you like. I'm more or less keeping up with the release schedule so far. But that may or may not continue, and I'm fine with it whichever way it goes.
As far as the exercises are concerned, I'm initially less concerned about playing perfection than I am about understanding the concept. Why are these the notes that Scott chose to include in the bass line? So I'm taking the time to breakdown each exercise and understand what notes are being played (3rd, 5th, 7ths etc). Once I understand the concept well enough (and have had at least some level of success playing it) I've been moving on to the next lesson - meanwhile I still work on the previous lessons exercises knowing that long term striving for playing perfection will help ingrain the concepts too.
I'm also looking at some of the cover songs I play with my band, and understanding how those bass lines were built. As I stated previously I'm mostly a memorize a tab to learn a song guy, so understanding the concepts of how some of the bass lines have been built for our songs has been eye opening.
This an exciting part for me as well. When I look at the music of some song I am learning and can see what and why those notes work together it’s new level of understanding.
Welp...I'm officially behind my schedule. On Mod 2 Lecture 3. Really enjoyed Lesson 2. I found it very easy, but some of those grooves and patterns are now forever engrained in my brain. I've been incorporating track 3 into a lot of Shoegaze style music. Very fun to play.
I finally learned the entire original "Dock of the Bay" bassline by Duck Dunn. The original is played at 103 bpm, but I slow it down to 90-100. I still make mistakes and struggle with technique at that bpm rate. I'm going to move on to Mod 1 Lecture 5 now, 7th chords. I'm into Week 6 of Mod 1, a few weeks to go.
I’m still working on M1L4. Haven’t gotten to Dock of the Bay yet but looking forward to it.
I didn't do any of the actual Challenge work for "Dock". With 4+ weeks to go before I move on to Mod 2, I may go back to do tackle this and do other improv work that Scott encourages us to do in Mod 1.
Without knowing what the 'Challenge' work is it is hard to say, but if the FSB is a well-structured and progressive programme* there will be some reasons for having 'Dock' placed where it is in the programme. Hopefully those reasons revolve around some fundamental 'Core Curriculum' techniques and/or musical concepts that will be built upon later. In other words, 'Dock' and the work attached to it cover some pre-requisites for later work that will depend (to some degree or other) on having completed the prior learning. With that in mind, I would recommend making a go-around. Behind the apparent simplicity, the 'Dock' bass part clearly (IMHO) demonstrates a lot of solid and 'transferrable' ideas that make it worthy of closer examination, even if you have no intention of ever actually performing the song itself.
YMMV, and good luck with the programme - at least you are keeping yourself honest
* Possibly a big assumption
Hi @SteveCS. Thanks for stringing the quotes together and your comments. I see you are not a student working through FSB.
To clarify, I was going to skip the Challenge Work applied to "Dock" because I wanted to move on to the next Lesson to try to keep up with the course timeline. Instead, I found the Duck Dunn transcript of Dock and learned that instead because it's easier and I wanted to learn the original before attempting (perhaps at some future time) to quote "apply all the bass line skills you've now acquired to" Dock.
I agree with you. Freely improvising by applying all the bass line skills from the previous examples in the Lesson is an excellent skill building exercise. Many other bass teachers incorporate this as a great way of ingraining the training into growing the skill set for future work.
Thank you for your friendly recommendation of "making a go-around." As I stated, I have given myself 4 more weeks on my lengthened timeline for completing Module 1, which gives me more time to struggle through the improv Challenge work.
Thanks again for "seconding my e-motion".
To clarify, I was going to skip the Challenge Work applied to "Dock" because I wanted to move on to the next Lesson to try to keep up with the course timeline. Instead, I found the Duck Dunn transcript of Dock and learned that instead because it's easier and I wanted to learn the original before attempting (perhaps at some future time) to quote "apply all the bass line skills you've now acquired to" Dock.
I agree with you. Freely improvising by applying all the bass line skills from the previous examples in the Lesson is an excellent skill building exercise. Many other bass teachers incorporate this as a great way of ingraining the training into growing the skill set for future work.
Thank you for your friendly recommendation of "making a go-around." As I stated, I have given myself 4 more weeks on my lengthened timeline for completing Module 1, which gives me more time to struggle through the improv Challenge work.
Thanks again for "seconding my e-motion".
I haven’t posted an update for a while, but I’m still in Module 1. I took 2 weeks off from work for Christmas and New Years but was only able to practice occasionally due to family commitments.
The test for myself is being able to walk into a Guitar Center, grab a bass off the wall and play Module 1 stuff for a few minutes and make it sound decent.
I tried that last weekend and apparently all of the stuff I’ve learned fell outta my head somewhere in the parking lot, because I didn’t pass the test.
Picking a bass with impossibly high action didn't help though.
I’ve watched the first video of Module 2 and Scott does a great job with the material.
The test for myself is being able to walk into a Guitar Center, grab a bass off the wall and play Module 1 stuff for a few minutes and make it sound decent.
I tried that last weekend and apparently all of the stuff I’ve learned fell outta my head somewhere in the parking lot, because I didn’t pass the test.
Picking a bass with impossibly high action didn't help though.I’ve watched the first video of Module 2 and Scott does a great job with the material.
Yeah, ouch, but that's still an excellent test!I did that last week, played at GC what I had practiced a few hours earlier - 8 measures of the original Dock song. I was surprised that I played it better at GC. Anyway, I always play at very low volume - just in case. Hey, we'll get there over the next few weeks and months!
Welcome back. Yes, I think these videos are really the best I've seen of him. He's teaching as if I'm in the room with him for a private bass lesson, one-on-one.
Without knowing what the 'Challenge' work is it is hard to say, but if the FSB is a well-structured and progressive programme* there will be some reasons for having 'Dock' placed where it is in the programme. Hopefully those reasons revolve around some fundamental 'Core Curriculum' techniques and/or musical concepts that will be built upon later. In other words, 'Dock' and the work attached to it cover some pre-requisites for later work that will depend (to some degree or other) on having completed the prior learning. With that in mind, I would recommend making a go-around. Behind the apparent simplicity, the 'Dock' bass part clearly (IMHO) demonstrates a lot of solid and 'transferrable' ideas that make it worthy of closer examination, even if you have no intention of ever actually performing the song itself.
YMMV, and good luck with the programme - at least you are keeping yourself honest
* Possibly a big assumption
I think it’s a very well structured program, and I think “Dock” was chosen for a few reasons.
After starting us in a 4 bar chord sequence and later having us play an 8 bar sequence, it was time for us to tackle the standard 16 bar AABB song form.
A gazillion songs are in 16 bar format, but the point of Module 1 is to PLAY THE CHORD. The chord changes of “Dock” prevent you from just playing nonsense in the key. Yeah, if you play just roots, octaves and chromatic approaches you can consider it a simple C major song, but if you are playing 3rds, 5ths and 7ths like you are supposed to, C major won’t work. He’s forcing you to play the chord changes.
He promised “no jazz” when he was selling this course, but Module 1 gets close at times. Some of these chromatic approach note phrases could have been played by Paul Chambers. But Scott is both a great instructor and a savvy marketer, and he knows very few people will buy a “jazz” course. “Dock” doesn’t have any ii-V-Is or any other obvious jazz references. He’s keeping his promise.
I agree that class is structured pretty well. It appears that modules 1 and 2 are what to play (i.e. chromatic walks, triads, 7th, scales & modes, etc). Module 3 looks like it will be how to play (i.e. technique). Modules 4 and 5 appear to be when to play (i.e. groove, feel, focus on different musical styles, etc).
And yes, everything builds on the previous lessons. You learned chromatic walks in Lesson 1-2, and you keep using chromatics as you go thru further lessons to learn triads, 7ths, etc.
I've mostly been cruising through the lessons, but I've come to a screeching halt in Lesson 2-4 (Ionian Mode). Having a harder time wrapping my brain around this info. In this lesson I feel like I'm just memorizing a tab rather than truly understanding what I'm playing and why - which was my issue before I started the course. So I've got some work to do before I can complete this lesson and move to the next.
And yes, everything builds on the previous lessons. You learned chromatic walks in Lesson 1-2, and you keep using chromatics as you go thru further lessons to learn triads, 7ths, etc.
I've mostly been cruising through the lessons, but I've come to a screeching halt in Lesson 2-4 (Ionian Mode). Having a harder time wrapping my brain around this info. In this lesson I feel like I'm just memorizing a tab rather than truly understanding what I'm playing and why - which was my issue before I started the course. So I've got some work to do before I can complete this lesson and move to the next.
Very true. I'm a bit of a fundamentalist (think Jeff Berlin) when it comes to music education. I prefer sitting down with my bass, a good book, a pencil and some manuscript paper over video lessons and personality presenters. So I'm interested in how this course compares to other SBL offerings but I'm not willing to stump up a lot (IMHO) of money just to find out, hence 'stalking' this thread, hopefully not in a creepy way!
Yes, but I can't totally read standard. I played trumpet back in HS, so I used to know how to read treble clef - not that I could do that anymore either. But I can sight read the duration, so I use standard for note duration but the tab for what note to play.
This what I do as well. 30 years ago I dabbled in reading for classical guitar. 20 years ago piano, the last 4 drums.
Actually learning to properly read, that is another dragon to slay on another day.
Still working the thirds and fifths lesson here, M1L4. Actually I’m stoked about this little groove in C. It seems to focus on a variety of ways to play around the chord. A few more days of that and then applying that to different chords and I’ll move on.
I don’t want to blow past this. I think committing this to my tool box will pay dividends in the future.
I love that you're doing this. I, too, walk into shops and try to recall songs and licks I've learned. Luckily I pass the test most of the time. There is some memory dump from time to time. I really want to understand more about the brain and why this happens.I haven’t posted an update for a while, but I’m still in Module 1. I took 2 weeks off from work for Christmas and New Years but was only able to practice occasionally due to family commitments.
The test for myself is being able to walk into a Guitar Center, grab a bass off the wall and play Module 1 stuff for a few minutes and make it sound decent.
I tried that last weekend and apparently all of the stuff I’ve learned fell outta my head somewhere in the parking lot, because I didn’t pass the test.
I’ve watched the first video of Module 2 and Scott does a great job with the material.
When at a gig....I now use cheat sheats. I never used to. But sometimes I get up on stage and forget everything, unless its a song I know very well. I usually only have a few weeks to learn new songs before gigging them. With family, job, and everything else....my bass playing sometimes suffers.
