OK, let me expand on this to be a more constructive answer and less of a whine.
I’m quite a goal-directed learner so B2B was great as each lesson was a mini-goal in itself and it felt like it was building to a larger whole.
Now I feel a bit lost what to do next. I’ve found other lessons don’t suit my learning style as well as B2B and there’s so many topics that need to be covered it’s difficult to know what to do next. I end up doing a bit of this and a bit of that but not really feeling like I’m moving in a particularly productive direction and the aim of “get better” isn’t really concrete enough to motivate me well.
I suppose what I’m saying is I need B2B part 2.
You know how @JoshFossgreen gives us a sneak peek at whatever bit of music will be in the workouts? I see his noodling at the beginning of the lessons as another kind of sneak peek - into the future. Except that when the future arrives, the noodling will be of our own making, from whatever has influenced us and we’ve absorbed.
As a group Guitar and Ukulele instructor I run into issues all the time, or did before Covid, where students were wanting to jump ahead. I always have a lesson plan and tell them if they want more stay for an extra 1/2 hour after class and I will go over the extra material but I will not subject the remainder of the group during the lesson because of the risk of de-motivation.
The thing I found most interesting is that the students that want the extra material are usually the same ones that do not practice between sessions. Human nature I guess, go figure.
I’ve been taking some private lessons and my teacher is encouraging me to do some improvisation around lines, but because I struggle to remember which notes go with which keys, or apply the shapes I know fast enough to fit into a rhythm I find it difficult. Having that knowledge at my fingertips would really help.
Ah yes, but you should see the look on their faces when they have played a whole song together.
I started doing this FREE years ago when many schools started cutting music classes in their curriculums.
The thing is that 10 year olds usually have the attention spans of a bag of wet socks so a lot of them give up, in this world of instant gratification. But, if one or two out of the ten continue, I have done my job.
Most of my classes are mixed age groups so there is usually only maybe 1 or 2 youngsters in this age range. The ones that usually stick with it usually have other family members learning at the same time which seems to help inspire them.
@pete_s
I was in your exact position and actually put the bass aside for about a year after B2B. I hunted all over to find other things. Some talkbass courses are good, some way too much theory for what I care about. Ari’s first book, ok, but haven’t cared much about it since. SBL forget it.
My advice is this…
Full song practice - to me is one of the best skill builders going and you play things you like. The catch here is if something seems way way too hard put it aside. Our own 50 song challenge is the closest thing you will get to B2B part 2. Each song was picked by Josh to build on the skills you learned in B2B. What most of us found is after a certain number of these we would rather pick our own songs, but the skill building in the easy to medium ones if really useful.
Rich Brown - go to his YouTube Channel, sort all videos oldest first, find the first metronome video, do all 5 (I took private lessons which focused on improv, learned more from Rich. His ghost notes and triads stuff is great (I’m on the triads now). Assuming his other stuff will be too. And they are free!!!
Agree with @Celticstar here. Your fingertips “learn” through rite learning. Over and over and over. Any instrument is a lot of repetition. Every single time I pick up a sax, it’s long tones first (every single note on the horn as long as I can hold it, to build intonation memory), then all major scales (never did add minors, crap one more thing to do).
15 minutes in I get to start working on learning new concepts or songs.
One thing I would add about live lessons.
You really need to go into them knowing what YOU want to learn. Too too many instructors simply give you their normal course of action. I tired of this quickly (and the expense for it), even though I clearly stated what I was wanting to do.
What I did find though, is most of the things I wanted to work on with him came to me by simply focusing in and doing it until I understood it. Didn’t need a person telling me how to use a pick, it sorts itself over time, etc. I think the only downside to B2B (other than no part deux) is that you really feel like you’ve mastered things then quickly learn you are really at the beginning of the journey.
I am fortunate to be able to learn from a book and then apply it. Of course this does assume that the book is correct. As a case in point, when I was considering one of Ari’s books I watched a promotional video of hers and in it she stated that there were only 24 keys. I sent her an email about it but never heard back. That was it for me with Ari’s material.
Back in the early 1970’s, when I started guitar, the instruction books to get were primarily Mel Bay. But now the best bang for the buck, for me anyways, are the Hal Leonard books. It seems Mel Bay is just not staying up to date and, his books are not any cheaper.
Thanks for the Rich Brown tip, he’s got a great style, I’ll definitely check out his other videos.
Reflecting on what others have said I want to say I’m not put off by the effort or time involved. As part of my job I’m constantly having to learn and practice new things so this is not new for me. I think the frustration for me is that over the years I have gotten good at learning these skills. I know how to get to where I want to be and have confidence that what I’m doing will get me where I need to be even if I occasionally take a wrong turn.
Bass and music is so fundamentally different from these things though that I’m essentially back at square one. I don’t have the resources I’m used to when learning something new.
Essentially I need to learn how to learn the bass.
