I wrote this over at MySpace and have gotten some nice response. i thought to put it here as well. If you have any problems with what I have said, then please let me know. Best to all!
"Thanks a million for your kind messages and supportive statements. It actually is interesting to find so many people who DON’T think that I am a bad guy because I am against what practically the entire educational field stands for. I never really knew how many people actually understood my points about musical content to study and work on. You guys are becoming a greater nation than ever before.
In this month’s Bass Player magazine, I wrote a letter apologizing for my hard attitude toward other methods of teaching and I still stand by this. Nobody wishes to be made a fool of for what they believe in. And yet, I tried hard to allow for the variety of methods that are out there, but I admit it; I failed! Political correctness just doesn’t work for me even though I would agree that a more gentle approach is the best way to state one’s views. I will work on this! But, there are so many nonsensical methods in learning how to play that I just can’t allow player/teachers who don’t know their subject and are affecting YOU with their philosophies to do this without a clearer perspective about these bogus learning methods from an old conservatory trained ex. violinist, now jazz bassist like me!
I saw practically a total generation of musicians accept these methods as valid (what else could they do. They didn’t know enough about music to know that they weren’t!) Because they have, the general bass community, in fact the general music community practically can barely play a note. So, I publicly disagreed with every music magazine, every website that offered lessons, every teacher that taught foolish learning methods, every well known bass player who offered inadequate musical instruction, every DVD that taught B.S. principles, every piece of music with tab on it and I totally dismissed that ridiculous clicking box, THE most distracting device from where good time comes from in the history of the electric bass guitar.
What is surprising is that practically 100% of the comments for years were against what I was saying. I didn’t care, I knew what I was doing and saying. But, lately, I’d say within the last years, loads of people have come forward agreeing with my statements that to play well, you have to know what you are doing on a functional level. Music is that functional level, in fact, it is the best academic concept of all time if one chooses a teacher or some other source to learn from. Thanks to those who are finally getting the message. If you follow this principle and learn correctly, then Congratulations! You’ve just entered the rarified air of musical growth, something that nobody else has insisted upon, not one other well known player/teacher that I know of."
