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Online Instruction

L

Llewellen

Guest
Dec 23, 2016
348
342
#1
Looking for recommendations (link) to an instructor who:
  • is a great teacher and coach
  • has real, verifiable experience/credentials
  • gives lessons via skype
  • is more interested in pedagogy than being the internet's greatest schlockmeister of musical books.
I'm an intermediate level player, been playing for several years, some early classical training on piano. Mostly interested in creating and playing arrangements of light jazz and pop standards, some R&B, soul etc. Small venue duo or trio situation with vocalist and without full drum kit.

I'm offering a complimentary copy of my new book "How to Play Better Than Jaco in Three Easy Lessons Without Practising" to whoever comes up with a useful referral :)

Edit: Sorry to sound so snide but I visited a few well known instructor sites, signed up for a newsletter and was then barraged with non-stop sales pitches.

Edit#2: I should have mentioned initially that my main and preferred instrument is 5 string fretless.
 
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#5
Llewellen said:
I checked out his site and it seems that Anthony's style leans mostly towards slap and genres that employ that technique, which is quite far from where I'm at.
Click to expand...
Not at all. I had several lessons with him, and we didn't even mention slap. His approach is essentially striving to build your overall musicianship and to develop the command of the instrument that would enable you to express that musicianship. Ant is a badass!
That said, I have a few more strong recommendations (in alphabetical order):
Jeff Berlin (in terms of credentials that is the peak)
Cliff Engel (underrated and oft forgotten, but rock solid, fits your criteria perfectly)
Tony Grey (Monster player, great credentials, excellent instructor, beautiful human being)
Joe Hubbard (awesome player, top notch instructor...check his youtube stuff to get a glimpse)
Todd Johnson (has beautiful incremental approach, very warm personality...well, see the comments for the above teachers, they apply here as well).

They will all do great job of teaching you, but you may find that some of those personalities click with you better, or that their hours/availability suit you more. In any case, you won't go wrong with any
of them.
 
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#6
@GastonD : Thanks for the great info. Berlin and Hubbard are two that I visited initially and found to be heavily into selling, although I did find Berlin's "academic" approach very interesting and I did download a few of his exercises to use as practice tools.

Engel and Grey look interesting but Todd Johnson seems to be a perfect bullseye for me and where I want to progress. I didn't mention in my original post that I recently spent about a year studying chord theory and chord melody on six string with a teacher who was a disciple of Ted Greene and Lenny Breau. That is where my ear leads me on bass - very much working directly and in tandem with the melody/vocal line.

I will contact Johnson and see if there's a fit that can work together. Thanks again for the tip.
 

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