Rant about instructional DVD's and online lessons.

[Matty Koff]

Some common drills I run are:

Up and down the major scale and then back up the scale playing each triad. I repeat this, raising the pattern up a step (fret) each time.

Pentatonic modes (Running through a given scale starting at different intervals withing the scale [Like playing a G major starting on the note of A])

Chromatic finger exercises (google some)

The trick to making any of these effective is to set a metronome to such a speed that you can execute them flawlessly. Even if it's embarrassingly slow - don't sweat it. Don't speed up until you are consistently nailing those exercises. You'll get a lot faster.

@two fingers is dead on when he says repetition early on is necessary to seeing any improvement. Also, if you set 4 week milestones for tracking success instead of looking for daily progress, you won't get as discouraged.

No doubt repetition is key.. you get a like because in a post that took me 30 seconds to read you've provided more useful information than I've gotten out of some 20 minute videos and even entire books, lets throw a series consisting of several DVD's in there too. I especially like hearing about how you practice, especially what kind of drills you use.

Ive run chromatic exercises to heck and back both on guitar and bass, and should probably do them every time I pick up my bass as a warm up. Kudos dude I'd enjoy more posts like this.

 

[FugaziBomb]

No doubt repetition is key.. you get a like because in a post that took me 30 seconds to read you've provided more useful information than I've gotten out of some 20 minute videos and even entire books. I especially like hearing about how you practice, especially what kind of drills you use.

Ive run chromatic exercises to heck and back both on guitar and bass, and should probably do them every time I pick up my bass as a warm up. Kudos dude I'd enjoy more posts like this.

Appreciate. I think all instructional videos are terrible. They always take 45 minutes to tell you what I just did in 30 seconds.

As far as someone hovering over you about technique, in the jazz circles i used to play in, my technique was probably considered "terrible" by my peers, but I could still hang, so most people didn't hold it against me.

 

[Matty Koff]

TL-DR : I wish I could edit the OP but hopefully this will get the message across - I want to thank everybody for trying to help, even if I wasn't quite asking for it. I do appreciate the good natured members of talkbass who chimed in to offer their opinions and whatever advice they thought best. TL-DR

To be clear - my OP was a rant.. shortly after an experience with an instructional DVD, but the rant has to do with common trends I've experienced with such material, as well as online material, or even books that from my perspective devalues the material offered, which is often material that's been paid for.

There have been a few assumptions about why I might not be nailing a lesson, and perhaps I was misleading in my assumptions of what music education might be like from the ground up.

However, with respect for all of you, before I fall asleep tonight I'd like to request that if you feel like you want to help, do so by offering links to material that does a better job than some of the issues that I described. Several of you have pointed me towards potential instructors for 1 to 1 sessions online, and I'm hoping to start taking some lessons via skype/zoom soon.

Resources I've utilized -
SBL - Scott is awesome, but talks way too much.
talkingbass.net - I'm probably going to resubscribe at some point, he's usually more to the point than others, but still can talk a bit more than demonstrate.
Music Theory for the Bass Player by Ari Capp
Truefire - cool but limited on bass instruction
JamPlay - also cool but somewhat limited on bass instruction
Hal Leonard's Bass method books 1-3 (I had to write in the audio tracks for each example with a pencil)
Ultimate Guitar Grimoire
Other books I can't think of the names of.

Both Truefire and Jamplay offer GuitarPro documents for lessons, which is absolutely awesome imo. Being able to slow things down and speed them up, highlight sections and put them on repeat with notation and tab.. best tool I've ever used for "self teaching." I wish I was good at transcribing, I'd put every practice drill known to man in this software.

Other information I'd find useful is just hearing your practice routines. What exercises did you do starting out? How long did you do them? How long did you sit at a slower tempo, and how did you progress to playing at speed? How do you feel it specifically improved your ability to play bass, or better yet, to improvise with almost any musical situation? How did your practice routines progress over time and how do they look today?

Can you play like this dude? No really, watch it until the end.. he's insanely good. Nathan Navarro blows my mind too. And while he does a lot of comedy in his videos.. Davie504 has shown off some pretty stellar chops as well.



My only band atm is an originals project.. just about every thing we've written was done via some form of improvisation. I'm open to learning songs to help develop technique.. but I'm after expanding my arsenal of theory and technique with which to be creative. I like audible demonstrations opposed to reading. Even better if they're demonstrated at various tempos I might be able to follow along with. I do a lot of playing by ear.. even things I might be hearing in my head. I'd enjoy advice on how to best practice with said information.

I don't expect all of it to be useful to my experience level, but if you're feeling so inclined as to offer advice, the things described above are what I consider to be most useful and much appreciated. Otherwise, I'm glad I had a place to rant about my experience of a lack of local instruction. For not having a proper education in music, I get by and surprise myself from time to time. On more than one occasion people seem to have enjoyed and enjoy playing music with me.. and all in all I crave input from musicians that might be more skilled than myself at any aspect of playing. There're probably a lot of you that have more experience than me, and I'm all ears.

At the same time, I don't expect a free education in music from talkbass members, so I'm not suggesting anyone's obliged, but if you are into being helpy helperton, which is not a bad thing in my book, this post should outline the kind of help that might take me places.

 

[jnuts1]

With all due respect to the JP video, what's the issue with using a bass with no fret markers? Do people need fretboard markers to use your ears? Not having them is probably one of the best things he could do to get you to develop them. He's got the same notes on his bass as you have on yours so you might have to spend a bit longer finding the note but that process is going to do wonders for you so it's a good opportunity. But I agree for the most part that video is a bit dull, there are a few good nuggets in it but I kind of feel it's one of the classic bad instructional videos that a lot of big names put out without realising what they were doing. I'm sure if JP put one out now though it would be so much more informed.

that's what I was thinking. that JP vid is serious and no fret markers should be required. i gotta go practice. those triplets at the 18:20 mark are killing me....

 

[bbh]

I’ve never had good luck with private teachers but I’ve only tried 3 or 4 people.
My learning was done by exactly copping the bass parts of desired tunes. All the way down to the tiniest of things. This means hand placement and associated techniques. It gets sooo deep though, you can get lost in the minutiae (excuse my spelling).

 

[kevindahl]

No doubt repetition is key.. you get a like because in a post that took me 30 seconds to read you've provided more useful information than I've gotten out of some 20 minute videos and even entire books, lets throw a series consisting of several DVD's in there too. I especially like hearing about how you practice, especially what kind of drills you use.

Ive run chromatic exercises to heck and back both on guitar and bass, and should probably do them every time I pick up my bass as a warm up. Kudos dude I'd enjoy more posts like this.

My routine is similar. I start with working on my right hand. I have some etudes which are basically the root and the fifth and have random patterns which help me alternate fingers. You can use as many fingers as you like and do octaves as well as tenths. Everything I do is to a metronome.

I then will work on my left hand. I pick a scale. Play it 2 octaves shifting on all strings. Maybe play it in thirds or sixths. You can pick any pattern really, there are lots of examples.

I work on appreggios next. There are some great patterns out there as well.

Lastly I always slap. I dont use it in my rock cover band but the double thumb has taken a long time to nail. I have been working on it for a year.

Then I learn and/or practice cover songs that our band plays or us learning. Thats about it.

I used to do a lot more in my 20's like sight singing and sight reading but iI just dont have the time.

 

[bbh]

My routine is similar. I start with working on my right hand. I have some etudes which are basically the root and the fifth and have random patterns which help me alternate fingers. You can use as many fingers as you like and do octaves as well as tenths. Everything I do is to a metronome.

I then will work on my left hand. I pick a scale. Play it 2 octaves shifting on all strings. Maybe play it in thirds or sixths. You can pick any pattern really, there are lots of examples.

I work on appreggios next. There are some great patterns out there as well.

Lastly I always slap. I dont use it in my rock cover band but the double thumb has taken a long time to nail. I have been working on it for a year.

Then I learn and/or practice cover songs that our band plays or us learning. Thats about it.

I used to do a lot more in my 20's like sight singing and sight reading but iI just dont have the time.

Yes it’s important to play 2 or more octaves on your scales. I’ve seen too many stop at 1. Guitar players should be doing 3 octaves so I guess that’s the same on a 6 string bass.

 

[roswell1965]

At the same time, I don't expect a free education in music from talkbass members, so I'm not suggesting anyone's obliged, but if you are into being helpy helperton, which is not a bad thing in my book, this post should outline the kind of help that might take me places.

Five minutes that might change your life:

 

[Matty Koff]

Five minutes that might change your life:

Not going to call it life changing, but Vic's talking to parents and families of future bass players in that video imo.
He grew up with The Wooten Brothers. lol. Man was born into a music supportive family. In another video he puts it this way "My brothers all played music, and they needed a bass player". He was encouraged early on.

Berklee and Regi claim it was 2 years old or before the age of 5 when they started teaching him. I've heard him say 4 years old. Music was probably the easy A elective for him with the brothers he grew up with.

Roy, Regi, and Joseph can all play well. Those dude's didn't get that good without some form of guidance or instruction. He had guidance from the start.


I think the ending of this video where he demonstrates his technique is more useful for me, as someone who's spent a lot of time "just playing" and feeling kind of stuck in how I play. At the end of this particular video he talks about building up the vocabulary to a point where he no longer has to think about it. As much as possible, learn the rules, learn your theory. Starts around 44 minutes into it.



Still... I want to hear how he personally progressed his technique, how many hours did he spent running at 60-80bpm before he was able to pull off what he does without it feeling like something he could repeat?

Like.. I can barely almost do double thumb+pluck triplets on the G string after hours and hours of repetition, but it's not coming as easy on the lower strings.

I know it took forever to before just slapping with my thumb felt somewhat natural. Finding the right exercise very quickly made me go from practically slapping my chest while trying to bite my ear to accurately slapping and even a bit of double thumb, even if I'm still very much still a beginner when it comes to slap.

That being said... got a free introductory lesson on zoom. Gave me some theory homework that will probably take me the rest of the week and then some to really memorize, but just the bit I've been given is already changing how I look at my fretboard and how I think about what I'm about to play. I'm going to stick with him for awhile and see where he takes me.

 

[GastonD]

In term of developing overall musicianship via a fretted instrument, it is really hard to beat this guy, and he's having a great offer at the moment.