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Issues with my bass teacher
- Thread starter Smedz
- Start date
One comment on the sight reading - I too learned how to read at an early age and I am so thankful for that some 30 yrs later. I read very well, but still spend part of my practice time reading. I think one thing you're not seeing yet is the gold mine on the paper you are reading. I would bet the material your teacher is having you read is full of chord tones, passing notes, approach notes, etc. Maybe look at the line measure by measure and see what you can identify, then ask your teacher to help you analyze how the line is constructed. These are the building blocks for your ultimate goal of making your own lines that sound musical.
All the best and bravo for taking lessons to further your skill set.
All the best and bravo for taking lessons to further your skill set.
i thought i was being nice, dude. sometimes we hear things we don't want to hear, but it pays off for us because we might realize the person saying them could be right. you're 16, i'm 49 and have been doing this a while.
mike dimin's suggestion is a good one, btw. but don't quit lessons and let your teacher teach. he sounds pretty good to me. sorry if i bummed you out, but hopefully one day you'll thank me. if not, sorry.
anyway, yes, some pro musicians can play without knowing how to read, but again, they're flukes of nature and by far not the norm.
mike dimin's suggestion is a good one, btw. but don't quit lessons and let your teacher teach. he sounds pretty good to me. sorry if i bummed you out, but hopefully one day you'll thank me. if not, sorry.
anyway, yes, some pro musicians can play without knowing how to read, but again, they're flukes of nature and by far not the norm.
why do you have to get frustrated and throw things around at all.....sit down with your lesson,and work.....if you get frustrated take five and work on it some more.....not cruel,just solid advice from someone with a gig or two under his belt....
okcrum
in your chest
If you don't write and read your primary language well, that's going to hamper (perhaps severely) your ability to communicate.
If you don't write and read music, you can add "or earn a living" to that sentence. It's also hard to compose; you walk into a studio of hired guys to record your masterpiece - what do you hand them to get the job done? Tabs?
I went through the same frustration you are going through now, when I was 13. To prevent my head from exploding, I also started learning to improvise lines and learn tunes on my own, at the same time I'd study the dry stuff (inc. sight reading) for my lessons. The first time my bass teacher actually had me run a walking bass line to some changes, he almost (literally) fell out of a window, he was so surprised. From then on, he changed my lessons to incorporate both types of assignments, and we added a new tune for me to learn to each lesson. I loved that guy, he was a real pro, Mike Daniels.
Suck it up, man. It'll be a lot faster than you think that you'll be reading as second nature, if you stop fighting it and convincing yourself you can't.
If you really think that music or bass isn't for you, then move on. No sense beating your head on a rock over all this.
If you don't write and read music, you can add "or earn a living" to that sentence. It's also hard to compose; you walk into a studio of hired guys to record your masterpiece - what do you hand them to get the job done? Tabs?
I went through the same frustration you are going through now, when I was 13. To prevent my head from exploding, I also started learning to improvise lines and learn tunes on my own, at the same time I'd study the dry stuff (inc. sight reading) for my lessons. The first time my bass teacher actually had me run a walking bass line to some changes, he almost (literally) fell out of a window, he was so surprised. From then on, he changed my lessons to incorporate both types of assignments, and we added a new tune for me to learn to each lesson. I loved that guy, he was a real pro, Mike Daniels.
Suck it up, man. It'll be a lot faster than you think that you'll be reading as second nature, if you stop fighting it and convincing yourself you can't.
If you really think that music or bass isn't for you, then move on. No sense beating your head on a rock over all this.
For what it's worth...
Out of all of the paying gigs I've had in commercial music, I've only received chord charts and nashville charts.
I think part of it has to do with your goals. Heck I've taken accoridan lesson (yes 1) I wanted the teacher to show me quick theory on how it worked.. he wanted to teach me sight reading etc.. Not quite sure he understood that to drone a 1-4-5 tune for one song required me to learn how to play Beer Barrel Polka.
The guys are right .. sight reading is important...
If you truely want to be a song writer, piano may be more prudent.
Out of all of the paying gigs I've had in commercial music, I've only received chord charts and nashville charts.
I think part of it has to do with your goals. Heck I've taken accoridan lesson (yes 1) I wanted the teacher to show me quick theory on how it worked.. he wanted to teach me sight reading etc.. Not quite sure he understood that to drone a 1-4-5 tune for one song required me to learn how to play Beer Barrel Polka.
The guys are right .. sight reading is important...
If you truely want to be a song writer, piano may be more prudent.
As some advice with the anger:
Due to my stroke, i've got a variety of disorders that add to, and exacerbate my anger.
Put all expensive things a good 5ft away, and keep something hittable, like a pillow nearby. Make it noticable, so in an anger ooutburst you grab, say, a yellow pillow and hit it, punch it, throw it, bite it, whatever.
Think, "This is valuable, I can't break it".
Are you on medication or management classes?
Due to my stroke, i've got a variety of disorders that add to, and exacerbate my anger.
Put all expensive things a good 5ft away, and keep something hittable, like a pillow nearby. Make it noticable, so in an anger ooutburst you grab, say, a yellow pillow and hit it, punch it, throw it, bite it, whatever.
Think, "This is valuable, I can't break it".
Are you on medication or management classes?
i so don't get students thinking they should be dictating the lesson plan. if i knew what i should have learned when i was taking lessons, there wouldn't have been any point in taking lessons. i think when you take lessons from a good teacher, you should just let your teacher fill you with knowledge and you sort of sit there and hush.
Absolutely spot on. Students are almost never in a position to make any sort of valid evaluation of a curriculum. How could they be?
BRAIN SURGEON: For the first lecture of your course, we are going to look at the detailed structure of the human brain.
STUDENT: I don't want to learn about that. Teach me how to drill holes in somebody's skull.
How will you get things to be right theory wise without learning the theory first???
That is what your teacher is teaching you. I know nothing about theory and I am trying to put that right by going right back to square one after having basses for 17 years.
But very few proper theory books come with tab, so your doing the first steps on a very long path.
Unless you think he is delibertly holding you back for extra $$ stick with it.
Also what are you doing when your not with your tutor??
