it’s the guy at (the excellent and free) study bass that gave me this idea. he is a big advocate of learning chord tones before scales. the analogy is learning the alphabet before learning words, as the smallest part of music is intervals (which is what you start with in the chord tones course). i happen to agree with this. HOWEVER, many many people do the scales course first and are perfectly fine with it, i don’t think in the real world it makes much difference. I DO think that if you’re going to do it you need to do both the chord tones and scales courses and highly recommend following those two with walking bass, as it really puts what you have learned into actual musical application. (BTW i’m just replying to Tdub but this is really meant as info for anyone interested as i do believe he has already done these courses).
Chord Tones looks like an interesting course. Looks quite spendy at first until you notice it’s 53 lessons.
I agree wholeheartedly. My next course after scales and chord tones was walking bass lines (which has helped me immensely). I’m actually still in that course, taking it simultaneously with the sight reading course and ear training course.
agreed, those are the 2 big ones. And I think if you’re going to just pick one to start with – Chord Tones gives you the template to be able to compose/improv a great sounding bass line for any song just from knowing the chord progression, which to me is the most applicable knowledge from either course. Once you have Chord Tones down, Scales is great for filling in the gaps of those chord tones.
yes. obviously cost is relative, and we all have different levels that we are comfortable paying. but i compare it to taking lessons from a teacher, which would be incredibly more expensive. when i printed the course outline for the walking bass course, it was over 50 pages long. and that’s just module 1 out of 3. mark says the sight reading course that he is redoing is going to be close to 1000 pages long (!).
Yeah when you factor in the amount of material the course is quite reasonably priced. Mostly I was boggling that he got 53 lessons out of Chord Tones. I might have to try and track down the outline (he used to link them from his site IIRC).
Has anyone ever used the books and CDs/DVDs on the Carol Kaye website for further bass training? She has a DVD course and manual specific to Bass, as well as another for Music Reading, and other Book and CD combos for Jazz Bass, Rock-Funk Bass, and more. I know she has been a bass/guitar teacher, and her “Carol Kaye Bass DVD Course” gets good reviews on Amazon, although it shows as out of print there (available at her site).
Is Mark’s ear training course any good? I’d like to take one but can’t decide between his and Rick Beato’s.
I like Mark’s ear training course very much, just as I like all his courses. I’m a bit biased though.
I don’t know anything about Beato’s course so I can’t comment on the differences. Ariane Cap also has an ear training course which I heard is excellent. If I wasn’t taking Mark’s course, I’d get Ari’s course.
My guitarist said Beatos course is amazing, but I can’t confirm with first hand experience.
I might actually do the Chord Tones course. Seems like a neat way to look at intervals.
Something about Beato’s teaching style bugs me. Not completely sure I would work well with it. Another youtuber like Scott that has solid entertainment value for me but whose teaching style is not the best fit for me. Which is a bummer as he is really knowledgeable.
(also - I think this is a me thing, not a problem with Beato.)
I feel the same way when I watch his videos. He is very knowledgeable, but I just can’t connect with him. It’s the same with Luke at Become a Bassist, I just can’t connect with him. Weird…
Thats a pretty penny, even when they are 30% off.
I am going to push to finish the Chord Tones and Sight reading beginner module before the all access pass runs its course in June.
I would love to do the walking bass and 2nd part of the sight reading (as I think Mark really has this market cornered with his approach) and the ear training as well.
Reality is that I will finish the all access pass, and sight reading part 1 and I will most likely get my walking bass lines course from Damian on his site, and I hvae analyzed it and it is excellent material, so I think I will get at least equal value there if not more.
His ear training approach from what I can tell is mainly in DOING transcriptions as a way to develop your ear and sense of time and many other things, and he focuses heavily on this process with videos and tips and samples and gives help answering questions directly back to you within minutes to hours, and the ear training course is really costly IIRC.
I am pretty sure that the only thing I will be able to continue on at Talkingbass with Mark is to purchase the intermediate Simple Steps to sight reading package, as I do want to continue to learn thru his process. Plus, he is said to be releasing an advanced, level 3 pack this year, so in the future, I hope to be able to get that one too.
I am very happy and fortunate to have found Damians site, as I can get all the lessons there that I will be forgoing by not buying the package at Talkingbass and Damian also makes it fun and really interacts with the user on a personal level for any questions, and if you want to see a leesson, he will fit this into his schedule and make another lesson to add to a module, it really is awesome for the cost.
I loved my time at Talking Bass, and I am not toally abandoning him, but there is no practical way for me to purchase walking, slap, ear training and whatever else I am missing, along with simple steps level 2 and level 3.
I have to draw a line somewhere, so I do plan to keep on with simple steps, but will be moving elsewhere for the others, if I didn’t make that clear already. LOL
I can screen shot it for you.
It and any others you might be interested in.
What’s your opinion of Chord Tones? Ok for roughly intermediate level? People seem to love it.
Beato’s was incredibly expensive. I think it is 40% off right now, but still like $120, regularly $200. That is too rich for me. only B2B have I paid that high, and it was worth every cent.
Of course, and I have told this story before, it was the 100% money back guarantee that made me feel good enough about spending the money.
After Scotts free lessons went from lesson 10 doable to lesson 11, um having me needing 500 lessons after lesson10 to make lesson 11 make any sense,
so I was thinking, at least if B2B is like that, or if it is just way too beginner, I can get my money back.
This is one thing that is actually attractive to me about Beato’s courses, he gives a 30 day money back guarantee.
That in itself makes me at least respect his business plan more than many.
for people to come out with these very high priced “turn you into the bass player you want to be” classes, and not give you a hint to what is in it, and not offer any type of money back guarantee, I get way turned off, and don’t usually consider it.
I don’t believe talkingBass has any return policy, but at least, up til now, he gave all access pass, so you could check them out without commitment to buy.
I don’t recall what Mark’s ear training is. it is either surprisingly affordable at like $34.95, or really expensive at over $100. I don’t recall.
If it really was $35, then I would certainly get that one too.
For that, I need a little fact checking my own thoughts session.
LOL, OUT
I think it is incredible. I loved that class.
I also think the scales class is incredible.
I think the scales class is more complete, and while it hits on modes and all types of scales it does touch on building chords and 7th cords and gets into chord tones a bit.
There is alot of crossover and if I snapped you a SS of both the Chord tone and the Scale course, you would see that it is almost identical in content and course material, just one looks at it from scales and the other looks at it from chord tones.
I took the scales first, and most of the first module of 3 in the class, and 1/2 of the 2nd module really seemed like the same class. in fact I have found so little in the chord tone that I did not get a good grasp on in the scales class.
there are things like extended chord tones, and I don’t mean 7th, 8th, 11th, 13th, I mean how to extend a chord tone across all 4 strings, not that you play the chord tone and keep going to the 9th or 11th, but just to extend it across the strings, as a way to get around the fret board, you can extend chord tones and you can extend 7th chords and any of those add on chords.
the sus and approach and caged and all that other stuff, so much of it was already in the scales course.
But please don’t take this as a bashing of the chord tone class, I think it is an important class to take. i might have seen it differently if I had taken this first and then the Scales, cuz you grow chords to scales and you break apart scales for chords, i guess is a way to put it
so if you get chord tones first, and learn the pieces, I guess you continue and learn how to create the wall, or finish the sentence, or something like that.
I found it an invaluable addition to take after the Scales class. and I have learned tons from it, I can see hou you would think I was saying I already got it from the Scales course, but I did not get everything, and have learned alot, maybe more then from the scalse course, but that is because I had a greater understanding going in, so it was easier to take more away from it, just because I learned the bass in one course and now I am adding the filler.
I am sure you know what I am trying to say.
The class is great.
I still think if I had to do it over again, that I still would have started from the Scales course.
But, I went in knowing very little theory, only a rough, kind of understanding of the circle of 5th’s and 4th’s, and did not fully understand the modes and many other things about scales. I feel it was important to know this stuff for the chord tone class to be easily grasped.
and I would still do it that wway, however I am sure that both ways could and would work, like everything else in this instrument, there is probably not a right or wrong, it is. just what preference and what makes you comfortable.
The wrong here, the real crime, that would be not taking either course.
Cool, thanks, that’s helpful. I have a decent understanding of the modes and basic theory but am lacking a bit in harmony, so I think I’ll probably go with Chord Tones.
Depending when you want to start
he is supposed to be relaunching his website in June with many upgrades and other classes being added. who knows if he will do more things like SBL and try to have player path type things, that take over the all access pass???
I would imagine that sometime between then and now, or now and then,
that he will have a sale, if not a blow out sale on his classes.
I know he does them from time to time. @PamPurrs is probably the one who tracks this better, when sale time might be, but I think he is due for one, and like I said, it might be in May June to bring in his new site.
If you are interested in both courses, or saving money, you might wait for a sale and just grab them both at the same time.
Or get one now and wait for the sale to get the other…
Just a thought