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SBL - Fretboard Accelerator any good?

Bassguy87

Bassguy87

Aug 7, 2011
111
53
United Kingdom
#1
I missed the window for this last year and they've just released the third installment which I might jump on.

Has anyone done this course who can share feedback please?

$147 dollars for the whole course ($50 discount from $197 with my membership).

They're also offering Fretboard Accelerator Plus as an add on which includes the full workbook, lifetime access to the practice accelerator and additional group mentoring from top session players (Additional $297). I'll probably just stick with the basic course...

Fretboard Accelerator – Scott's Bass Lessons
 
#2
While I was looking for a way to demystify the fretboard, I remembered an age-old harmonic concept that I learned from one of my music teachers.

And after playing around with it for a bit, I realized this concept allows you to connect every fretboard pattern that you’ve ever learned…and you ever will learn…into just FOUR “master” patterns.
Click to expand...

Oh my what could Scott's hyperbolic $147.00 secret pattern possibly be? Tetrachords perhaps? Nah too obvious....

I'll point you to a bullet proof technique for learning the fret board for a fraction of the price.

There have been many medical studies of fad diets to see which ones really work.
The conclusion always ends up : all diets work, if you stick to it.

Same for bass practice methods. The one that really "unlocks the fretboard" will be the one you actually stick to.
If dropping $147 motivates you to stick to it, then sure, why not.
 
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#3
I sincerely wonder why anyone would need some Ba$$-o-raptor program to learn the fingerboard. There are only 12 notes and 4 strings! Come on!

Here's what you can do, that would cost you 0.00 $.

It's summarized in 4 words: Think, Sing, Play, Listen.

You just need to get some fingerboard paper (you can draw a fingerboard in a sheet of paper and photocopy it, or just download from internet and print it).

Step 1: Think.
Put your bass away. On the fingerboard diagram write down the notes of some scale (or mode or arpeggio). You just need to know the notes of the open strings, and the intervals for each note of the scale, as well as a little bit of thinking.

Step2: Sing
Sing the scale (or mode or arpeggio). It is essential that you practice this, so that you have the sound in your hear.

Step 3: Play and listen
Play the notes you have written on the fingerboard diagram. You will have to search for, and find, fingering patterns that are ergonomic and enable you to navigate the scale fluidly all over the fingerboard. Do not restrict yourself to one pattern or one octave. And listen actively to what you play; sing while you play.

Repeat this for all scales, all modes, all arpeggios. Over and over. Until you know your fingerboard like the back of your hand.

You own me 0.00 $. (lifetime access included).
 
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#5
I was hoping to get some info on this as well. I'm in my second year of SBL subscription. I had dropped bass playing over the years - no band, intense work, other hobbies (jiu jitsu), just a general lack of time to dedicate. I decided to come back to it in 2020 lockdown times and grabbed an SBL membership in hopes it would help "focus" me. I'm a really bad student and bad "practicer". There are some gems on the site that I feel made it worth my money, some of the classes are worth it. I found Players Path to be helpful, the live seminars with guys like Gary Willis and Michael League are cool, even some of the performances are practically worth the $ alone (Hipster Assassins!!!). But the "focus" wore off pretty quick. There's too much content and it's too easy to fall down the rabbit hole and I found myself jumping from lesson to lesson (or blowing through them) without really spending the time needed on each - bad student, bad practicer. It's become increasingly difficult for me to sit through anything Scott is doing though, as, like many, I find his approach to be... well... we don't need to get into that, but it may be colouring how I perceive his teaching as well. In any case, his style isn't for me and this will probably be my last year as a member. Likely I will migrate to talkingbass, as based on what I've read it seems to be more my speed.

That being said, I AM interested in the fretboard accelerator (last hurrah?). I'm annoyed they're making me pay for it, but still considering it before canceling my sub. I would like to improve my fingerboard litteracy (it's not teeeerrrrrible, it needs LOTS of work). I like that this is a several week thing broken down into little pieces and delivered a drip at a time, which would kind of force me to spend time with the material and prevent me from skipping ahead too much. I considered just buying the book for 50$ but knowing myself, it'll end up in a box with Evan Marien's book and others after I pick few things from a few pages here and there. Has anybody actually done the program and can comment on it? I'm also a bit concerned it's just going to be the same stuff from Phillip Mann or elsewhere on the site (triads in circle of 4ths, chord tones), repackaged and delivered more slowly (but still maybe worth it?)
 
#6
It looks like the whole thing is based on triads and triad inversions. You can get some curriculum information after the pitch videos on his website. If I had to guess he probably discusses stacking triads. He makes some big claims in the ads about "hacks", "code breaking", and the "world first" this and that. Learning the fretboard takes hard work and study, so I am skeptical about wild (and expensive) claims.
 
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#9
I've also done the course and am happy to answer any specific questions. Apologies that this is quite a long post but it sort of grew as I tried to write out my experience \ thoughts in as an objective way as I can:
◦ It is triads all the way down. First set of modules focus on major triads and then later modules bring in minor, diminished and augmented and then you mix and match. The exercises also cover the inversions and multiple fingering patterns for each of the inversions.But triads are just a vehicle for moving around the fretboard. This isn't a theory course so there is no theory on triads, intervals, tertian harmony etc.
◦ It is exercise after exercise after exercise - think drills. You will learn the notes in the fretboard intuitively just by doing the exercises. The number of repititions will drill that into you.
◦ If I had to give my take in one sentance on what the courses aims to deliver it would be "The exercises aim to improve fluidity over the fretboard by practicing different fingering patterns across the triads (and inversions) across frets 1 to 12 of the fretboard."

My more subjective thoughts:
◦ The accelerator is extremely well organised and structured and a step up from a standard SBL course.
◦ It doesn’t contain anything you couldn’t find for free on the internet but that goes for a lot of things in life. It saves trawling through a range of sites that are of dubious quality or which are also just alternative click bait for paid courses and spam.
◦ The course won’t achieve anything. You need to put in the hours and the practice. The course may help with accountability and discipline in getting the practice done.
◦ The Accelerator plus seems to be typical SBL up selling and is completely unnecessary.

Perhaps a more pertinent question is for those considering the course:
◦ Are you being held back in your playing by not knowing the fretboard intuitively and being able to move fluidly around the fretboard? E.g. would it improve your walking bass lines?

Whether you would get value from this would very much depend on where you are in terms of experience and where you feel you would like to improve.

@sargebaker - I share your feelings on SBL. Too much unstructured content where my lack of discipline \ lack of experience meant I found it very difficult to see courses through and to get the most of all the information that is there. I'm also a fan of Phil's courses and I'm now a student of his. I find the £35 a month for a 60 minute lesson better value than SBL - Phil records the lesson; gives you a set of exercises and a piece of music to learn at the end of the lesson and then you need to submit a video and get it reviewed before you can book the next lesson. I find it great value and I need the 4 weeks between lessons to really ingest everything we go through and get clean and consistent on the exercises. That said; the Accelerator is a lot more in depth than Phil's course on SBL but I suspect everything on the Accelerator is covered somewhere within an existing SBL course if you can find it and put it together yourself.

Talking Bass is very different. I find Mark very dry, very academic but the lessons are top notch although more depth than breadth - they can be quite specific. You buy a lesson for life; it is not subscription based.

I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has ...
 
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#10
@Gramski Thank you for taking the time to write all that out, super helpful! I know the fingerboard but I don't "know" the fingerboard. I'm thinking I'll give the course a shot and drop out on the 29th day if I feel it really isn't cutting it. Seems fairly low risk in that regard
 
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#11
sargebaker said:
@Gramski Thank you for taking the time to write all that out, super helpful! I know the fingerboard but I don't "know" the fingerboard. I'm thinking I'll give the course a poopie and drop out on the 29th day if I feel it really isn't cutting it. Seems fairly low risk in that regard
Click to expand...

That would be the sensible approach. I thought I knew the fretboard reasonably well but when I started noodling with some walking bass and went along to watch a Jazz jamm I realised that reasonably well meant I didn't know it enough to be useful to anyone. I couldn't consistently \ continuously find note after note after note after note intuitively without hesitation. I realise that playing bass is a whole lot more than knowing notes but when I hesitate moving between notes then I lose time ... and the accelerator course does help enourmously with that.

The downside as I stated in my first response is that the course is reptitive drills; exercise after exercise after exercise. I'm not saying that is bad as over time it builds muscle \ mind memory and you can do the drills in different orders \ patterns. It builds finger vocabulary if I can dip into some marketing BS for a moment. But it isn't the most exciting of courses and there are very few moments of awe and wonder.

I did find it very useful but it certainly isn't a course for everyone.
 
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#12
Bassguy87 said:
They're also offering Fretboard Accelerator Plus as an add on which includes the full workbook, lifetime access to the practice accelerator and additional group mentoring from top session players (Additional $297). I'll probably just stick with the basic course...
Click to expand...

@Bassguy87 - I don't see anything of value in the "Plus". The standard course includes a pdf workbook and you get lifetime access to it.

Not sure what the additional mentoring covers but the exercises aren't difficult per se. Different triads in different finger positions across the fretboard. It is being disciplined enough to do them day after day after day ... and perhaps having that session player looking over your should helps with that. But it is a lot to pay on top of the $149 \ $199 and I don't see any value in it.

Edit - Add - If this were a groove course or technique course I could perhaps see the value of the mentor though it would still be expensive and the value would depend on how much personal feedback you got.
 
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#15
There is (imo) very little of the annoying, flashy Scott on the course itself but this is SBL .... you should have known that there would be dollups of BS along the way (usually with an unhealthy dose of added marketing upsell on top).

You will get a feel for the accelerator from the first couple of weeks and get to see the module titles for the whole course. The accelerator is just triads and inversions and different fingering positions and moving fluently between them but it came at the right time for me and I found the structure gave me the discipline to follow it through (where as I tended to get sidetracked and lose focus when I did an SBL academy course or trawl the internet).

Good luck with it.
 
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#19
Hey buds, I'm looking for partners to join this course with me. I live in Brazil and can't afford it in its entirety, so I though we can maybe divide? Please DM me and we can discuss the details.

Cheers
 
#20
phillipkregg said:
Joe Hubbard’s note finder technique is another free option.

Please don’t waste all that money on that SBL stuff.
Click to expand...

I wholeheartedly agree with not wasting money but one persons waste is another persons treasure.

The SBL accelerator is certainly not for everyone and as I've said above you can almost certainly get all the material free on the internet or on an SBL academy course if you looked hard enough and put it together yourself and have the discipline to follow it.

But the Joe Hubbard link has no relevance to the material covered in the SBL accelerator course. I've watched the video and done the SBL accelerator and for me; the biggest waste was watching that video from Joe.
 
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