I’m going to agree and disagree with that statement @BeerBaron . I’ve worked in the outdoor education industry and successfully taught hundreds of people to ski. I’d definitely agree that an in person lesson is the fastest most efficient way to learn skiing.
I took up whitewater kayaking and in the beginning was taught in person how to roll my kayak from being upside down with me underwater to upright. There’s a lot of physical and mental factors involved in getting those skills developed. You need to master lots of precise motor skills and combine them all together to be able to roll the boat back up. Miss one element and you fail.
I don’t see learning bass in the same light. Every aspect of the skill, be it plucking the string, fretting etc can be practiced in isolation. You can sit down and practice plucking an open string for hours without needing to involve the fretting hand.
You can then add the skill of alternate plucking again without the need to involve the fretting hand. You practice and practice that skill until like many of us on here you don’t even think about it. I naturally alternate pluck and will then choose to pick with a single finger or rake for a specific reason.
The B2B course gives you all the information you need to get the fundamentals of your technique solid. What it doesn’t give you is a magic pill to improve your playing.
I started with no real adult experience of playing an instrument. I set myself a goal of 1 year to get to a point where I could ‘play’ bass on simple songs.
So I practiced and averaged 2-4 hrs a night for a year. That’s well over 1000 hours sitting in our spare room just putting in the work.
No amount of in person teaching is going to give you that. I’m not saying don’t go to lessons. That’s not my point. What I’m saying is:
Put in the work and you’ll see the results.
Here’s me after 12 months of playing (note: I think i logged well over 100 hours on just that one song!)
That’s basically the plan. I’m not practicing quite as much as you were, but I am getting lots of practice: online courses (B2B), learning songs, drilling technique exercises. In-person lessons would just be an add-on.
Sounds like the consensus is that working with this instructor is probably not worth the money. Finding the right fit could be valuable. But if I can’t find that fit and just continue self study guided by B2B, I am unlikely to develop counter-productive habits that will take extra effort to unlearn.
Side note: what do most people use to record themselves? I tried my laptop, but its microphone doesn’t work over that much distance. I’ve got an older GoPro and a basic webcam.
Hi Beer Baron, Listen to your gut. Maybe take a breather after you last paid lesson and see how your feel in a month.
You have noted a couple of great things that you are enjoying with your instructor. You are new to bass (like me), there is an overwhelming list of things we can improve on. If my instructor picked on everything my head would blow up-boom!
Your instructor is probably able to play and listen to you too. His playing with you is helping you to hear what the music should sound like. Talk to your teacher about what you want and expect. Maybe he can accommodate you or suggest another instructor for you. It says alot to me when you say you are having fun! Let us know what you decide.
This is actually what I think I want a good instructor for and am not getting from this one: narrowing down that overwhelming list to the two things I would benefit the most from focusing on for a week.
Observe my playing. Identify the two things I would benefit the most from focusing on. Show me what to do to improve those. Give me 1 song and 1-2 exercises that will reinforce that focus that I can work on for a week.
That is great BeerBaron-it is an awesome plan! I hope you communicate your expectations/complaint to your teacher for constructive criticism and respect.
I use my android phone as a camera via usb, much better quality than most webcams.
If you got win 11 you can use your phone directly on win 10 you could use an app like droidcam
I would tend to agree with those who advise finding an instructor whose a better fit for you. I’ve had students depart after a few lessons because my approach to focusing on fundamentals, ear training, and learning to play in ensemble isn’t what they were after and that’s fine. It’s also advisable for their benefit in learning to play.
Only you can tell whether or not private lessons are helping you to learn and if the instructor is helping you to accomplish that. If not find another instructor or another method from which to learn. Since your dealing with School of Rock ask for a different instructor or if you want to go it on your own just let them know or discuss how and why you’re not progressing with them as you feel you should. Find out what what they suggest before you make a final decision.
Not every teacher is a match for his student. Case in point. If I wanted lessons on soloing on guitar over standard blues progressions an instructor whose forte is shredding over heavy metal is not gonna be of much help. It’s the same with bass although I would always suggest learning some fundamental techniques and scales before moving on to specific songs. It’s not enough to know what to play without also knowing why you’re playing what you are. How does it fit into the mix with how the tune is written and what other instruments are doing. That’s important too.
Except for the first few lessons and/ or some milestone lessons, the “lesson” in general are pretty short. The technique and theory will be explained and my teacher would watch me and make corrections and watch some more maybe I’d learn 2 specific techniques each lessons and songs or exercises would be suggested and pretty much done for the day.
I’d go practice and report back for evaluation on the next lesson in the context of the song or some grooves. Unless it’s U2 “with or without you”, I won’t be learning any songs in the entirety in one lesson. Most songs I like may take several lessons to piece all of the technique together. The good news is most music would have similar techniques that I’ve mastered and in my tool bag so I can skip them and work on the one I have not mastered.
We are not machines, so things has to be introduced to us very slowly, unfortunately. The advantage of being young while learning is that they excel at repetitions, it looks like they can learn so quick but in reality they can repeat the exercise 4 to 6 times faster than us and they love to keep on doing that. Most of us repeat the exercise maybe 20 times and announce to ourselves, we got it, not even close,
This is basically what I’ve settled on. I’ll go to my lesson with him Wednesday, bring up my concerns that I’m not getting what I’m looking for, and see what he suggests. Potentially another instructor there he could recommend as a better fit. Otherwise, I’ve got two other schools within about a 1 mile radius of work.
It took me a LONG time before I found a guitar teacher who could teach me in a way I could understand. I’m sure your teacher has had students he’s had trouble teaching. Just tell them you don’t feel their method is working for you and see if they can recommend someone else. Easiest way is just say you can’t afford lessons for awhile and then find an instructor someplace else.
First lesson with new instructor yesterday. (Same school.) MUCH better fit for me.
It was mostly still feeling each other out, but he already gave me exactly the type of technique critique I was looking for. Pointed out how changing my elbow position will drastically effect wrist and finger angle on my fretting hand.
