Hi All,
I don’t know if this is the right forum to reach out on, pardon me if I’m in error, but I’m in a bit of a dilemma with the bass.
I made the move to take private bass lessons at the advanced age of 56 years old last year. Can you believe that 56! I felt that the window of opportunity was closing on me very quickly, so I had to do it now or never. I never played an instrument in my life and I thought this would be an intriguing endeavor (a fantasy) to explore at my advancing age.
I found a seemingly nice elderly gentleman who’s semi retired and has been giving lessons for over 50 years. I take lessons at his small studio 3 days a week.
The main push for me to take the lessons was driven by a goal oriented, intellectual experiment, to see if I could stick with the lessons for a minimum of one year. I did just that by completing a year. My goal was to just learn the basics and move on. I’m most intrigued with the patterns and understanding the mechanics of the bass. I’m an analytical thinker and that leaves lots of room for me to pause and think. It’s not the best practice if you’re trying to learn a song by trying to play in time and keep a steady rhythm going while thinking too hard! I’m absolutely terrible with rhythm and timing even after a year of lessons. Ditto for my playing in general. My old fingers of fate certainly do fracture the dear fretboard!
Here’s my dilemma now; I’m on the cusp of giving up my private lessons. I’ll give you a rundown of what my 12 months of bass lessons consisted of; learning the g, c and d scales, eights, 12 bar blues all the way up the neck, rhythm, melody and timing, some tabs, and a plethora of very short abbreviated songs. My teacher told me early on that he doesn’t use a curriculum for bass students, only for guitar. I think that’s a red flag, eh?
Each lesson became a virtual repeat. I gradually became increasingly bored with the repetition and began practicing less and less. One day I was practicing the g and c scales and 12 bar blues for the millionth time with a metronome nonetheless, over and over until I said to myself I’ve had it.
Like I said my teacher seems like a nice old guy, but I think his teaching materials are questionable. I wasn’t learning the bass to become a performer, gig or jam with others. Even if I was 40 years younger and in my prime I wouldn’t have wanted to do that. I wanted to collect as much knowledge on the basics and move on to an alternative learning course outside of private lessons.
I generally don’t seek the advice from others, but since I’m still very much new to the bass world a little help would be welcome. Given the summary of my explanation of lessons and possible future goals, would it be best to cancel the private lessons like I’ve been teetering on and move on, or is there a silver lining to be found if I stayed on with the lessons? I just don’t know. At my old age I’m not planning on this being a life long hobby. That’s why I want to keep it simple. But I do have a thirst for knowledge and would love to gain more knowledge about the bass without plucking out a few notes here and there with another year’s worth of simple, short songs. That gets tired very quickly.
Sorry for the long essay. I just need some clarification from others who have more in depth experience with lessons, etc., of what would be most prudent in my situation.
Thank you for reading my post.
