DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NO AFFILIATION WITH F.U. OUTSIDE OF RECEIVING E-MAIL SOLICITATION!!!!!!
If there are those that have disappointments, fine. I understand. Everything is not for everybody. My suggestion would be to be fair about the assesment, and attempt to resolve the issue with the staff. If only then you find that you still have issues, COMPLAIN!
I'm just trippin' over the complaints of the over emphasis of the one! If no OTHER funk-a-mental needs to be stressed, it undeniably has to be the importance of the one!!! We have heard soooo many people play their versions of what is thought to be "Funk" and not one time do they even flirt with the one!!! Can you have polka without stressing the 2/4 time signature (yes, I am familiar with polkas with compound or 6/8 time sigs) ? No, because it is a fundamental element! How about a Waltz in 4/4 instead of 3/4? You can have a break down all of the chordal progressions you want to try to explain MELODICALLY why a certain funk piece worked and totally missed the fact that it most cases it was the METER that made the funk work! Listen to this song, that is most assuredly FUNKY AS HELL, and can be epitomized as conceptualizing the notion that funk has very little rules outside of meter and emphasis on the one, yet it has no bass or drum to speak of!!!
Maybe later and I will explain in greater detail how it worked, but more importantly than me explaining it to you (which some wont get after the explanation, and others may choose not to for the sake of being contrary) is the notion that YOU as a musician find a way to fit within the realm of it, or leave it be!
There are so many styles of funk bass playing out there that it is quite probable that many will not encounter what their concept of funk is in the first month of enrollment. You have students of various backgrounds, talent levels, and understanding coming together at one point to receive what some of these masters of funk have amassed over a lifetime, with little to no assessment of the students level. Now add to that the level of expectation of the students, faculty, and administration...can one now begin to see how large of an undertaking this is?!?!? Give this a chance to develop. Let the kinks get worked out before calling this project a ripoff! Those are some really harsh words (calling the project some of the names mentioned here), that are probably being typed by some that would and have been content with receiving less while paying more...especially if it were some other name or face attached to the front of the internet marquis.
As to the issue of accreditation and merit of instruction, let me say that I have seen and heard more than my fair share of musicians with degrees from well known institutions that their playing would easily be described as less than stellar. Some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt, and the still sound no better that the guy in the gin joint that they turn their nose up at for not being able to read charts or understand that the flating of the seventh the key of C (which would be Bb for those not aware) has now placed him in a Modern Mixolydian mode (not to be confused with the Greek), nor does he probably care! His job is to make it work the best that he can! That piece of paper is not gonna play his instrument for him! What the graduate has is the pleasure of attempting to use the name and reputation of the institution as proof positive of their ability. Now is this my attempt at knocking formal education, BY NO MEANS, this is to state that instruction matters more on the application of the student than anything else! I don't care how and where you get it...just get it! Youtube, or in the garage...Berkeley, or Funk U... get what you need! I currently have professors that are brilliant, but totally suck in their delivery. Does it mean that the institution is poor, NO! It is up to me to extract what I need from that instructor.
I say once again if there are those that have disappointments, fine. I understand. Everything is not for everybody. My suggestion would be to be fair about the assesment, and atempt to resolve the issue with the staff. If only then you find that you still have issues, COMPLAIN!
As for the cats that have nothing invested in this, yet choose to sit on the sidelines and sling negativity...being an assclown may have helped certain political commentators achieve notoriety and fame, it never helped anyone at becoming a better musician. I shall salute those select few of you as close with a familiar line of mine...
Shutup and play something!
