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Has anyone here ever tried online bass lessons?

M

MacaroniShrek

Mar 18, 2022
115
176
#1
I have never had bass lessons. I mainly learned how to play after guitar lessons and learning when I was a kid in the music ministry at church.

I basically was thrown up on stage at 12 because they needed a player and that's how I started playing the bass. Ten years later I feel like I'm plateauing (I've felt this way for a few years now) and want to step up my game. The simplicity of the music I play at church (mostly modern ccm) is a factor as well as never having lessons and my practice habits.

Where I live and my work schedule makes in-person lessons a bit impractical. I would like to try live online lessons. I have a personality that does a lot better with a person I'm accountable to, so courses without a teacher won't do well for me.

I'm thinking of lessons in a zoom call with an instructor. Has anyone ever tried these types of online lessons? Is the audio delay a major killer? My mic sometimes struggles to pick up my practice amp, is this a major problem?

Thanks!
 
#2
I do a lot of teaching in this format. Usually I don't have a problem hearing a student, unless they haven't set the Zoom options to "original sound" and select the "low" setting under the Suppress Background Noise menu. And if they're using a phone for Zoom . . . well, that's all kinds of awful. There are very few audio options on phones. It's got to be at least a tablet, and preferably a laptop or desktop computer.

Audio delay is not usually super significant. However, playing together in real time is impossible. I don't have too many students that I need to play with in real time, though.

I take the online format very seriously; I've got lighting, multiple cameras, and everything runs through a mixer and audio interface. I can also set up lots of different views while putting my transcription software on screen, etc.

Anyway, long story short, Zoom is pretty good, and with the right instructor can even offer a couple advantages.
 
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#3
I've been taking my lessons via Zoom since COVID shut things down, and while I prefer in-person for a few reasons there hasn't been a drop in the value of the experience.

One of the big advantages is a 30 minute lesson takes 30 minutes, and isn't padded by the 15-30 minutes before/after for getting to/from the lesson. I take that 30 minutes right after the Zoom ends to work on things from the lesson, which helps me get them locked in that much better.
 
#5
@Snarf Is it easy to pick up on and correct technique problems when you're teaching remotely? I've been considering getting Zoom lessons because there seems to be a thin selection of in-person teachers where I live, but that's been one of the reasons I haven't pushed the button yet.
 
#6
Mark_G said:
@Snarf Is it easy to pick up on and correct technique problems when you're teaching remotely? I've been considering getting Zoom lessons because there seems to be a thin selection of in-person teachers where I live, but that's been one of the reasons I haven't pushed the button yet.
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Most of the time, yes. I do have one guy though who has no place to put his tablet, so I'm always looking up at his hands. That one is trickier. But as long as I have something close to a front view, and they can spin around a little every now and then so I can see how they're positioning their thumb (which, usually I can spot a thumb error from what's going on in front anyway), it's no problem at all.
 
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#7
Snarf said:
Most of the time, yes. I do have one guy though who has no place to put his tablet, so I'm always looking up at his hands. That one is trickier. But as long as I have something close to a front view, and they can spin around a little every now and then so I can see how they're positioning their thumb (which, usually I can spot a thumb error from what's going on in front anyway), it's no problem at all.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that's helpful to know.
 
#8
I’ve never had a problem teaching online, I actually really enjoy it. Like yeah, there will be times where internet lags or cuts out but on the whole that doesn’t happen too often and when it does I do accomodate for it. At this stage in the pandemic we all know how technology is.

Outside of that though I’ve yet to encounter a technique issue or anything I can’t solve. If anything it usually forces me as the teacher to really know how to present information so I’m really into it.
 
#9
I've been taking bass lessons on Skype for almost ten years. In person lessons would be better in a lot of ways, but impractical for me because my teacher and I are on opposite ends of the Continental U.S. Latency on the video call is not really a problem for my lessons.
 
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#12
Gramski said:
One advantage of online lessons is that my tutor records the lesson so I can go back over it later ... I then submit videos of me doing the exercises \ playing an agreed song before I can book the next lesson.
Click to expand...

That's really useful, too! My teacher has a Google Drive where he will put notes/materials that I can access in between lessons and there is also a folder where I can record videos of me doing exercises. The videos are useful for him and makes more efficient use of our time together.

I also really like how you have the choice of almost any teacher in the world and not just whoever happens to be in your local area.
 

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