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If you could take lessons from any bass player...

I'm betting the world's virtuosos don't necessarily make the best instructor. (especially at my low, low level of competency). Geddy or Marcus Miller would be amazing, but I don't think I could take what they could give.


Always been kind of tempted by Anthony Wellington's Bassology. Phil Mann's courses at SBL are among my favorites too.

Not a bassist, but I bet Wynton Marsallis has something to say too...
 
depends on what we mean by lesson.

if you really want to learn, in a lot of cases the highest profile people are not particularly great teachers.

but, if we mean whos brain you would like to pick (aka just sort of hang with) definitely sir paul for me. maybe flea. maybe claypool.

who could you learn the most from is a different conversation, but way less glamorous to ponder. In most cases the person able to help the most will be someone with professional training and experience as a teacher (ie someone who teaches music in a school).
 
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who could you learn the most from is a different conversation, but way less glamorous to ponder. In most cases the person able to help the most will be someone with professional training and experience as a teacher (ie someone who teaches music in a school).

It'd be hard for me to generalize on that point. The most helpful teachers I've ever met were teaching in music schools. As well as some of the worst.

I think the ability to teach well is a little like music itself. Which is to say part gift or natural talent and part training.

Professional training as a teacher may well make someone better at it than they would be without it. But I've met far too many teachers with a degree in education who lacked flexibility in their teaching approach and were completely unable to communicate or connect with their students in a meaningful way.

I sometimes think some people are just born to teach. And no amount of training will make someone a good teacher if that special insight, sensitivity, and willingness to genuinely teach isn't already there.
 

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