2.5~ weeks ago I went to my very first lesson with an irl teacher, who knew I had literally never held a bass guitar in my life before that moment. He handed me a guitar and said to play Mission Impossible. How ironic.
8th notes (maybe 4th?) in an odd rhythm
alternate plucking
string crossing
the biggest possible finger stretch ever (1st and 2nd fret)
didn’t even tell me to anchor my thumb on the E string…
when he finally realized I couldn’t do it, he decided to give me E Blues progression:
playing across all 4 strings with string skipping
moving my thumb anchor
reading repeat bars
at least I got to fret with just one finger…
After that my own guitar was delivered, I took B2B course and did it for 14 days, where Josh teaches every single technique separately and gradually. Only now I can play the stuff that the irl teacher scribbled down for me…
That was my experience with an irl teacher. I knew right away that the whole thing smelled like absolute BS, but it took two weeks of actual, sensible learning with B2B for me to gain the knowledge and skill to realize exactly why it was so bad
That’s pretty crappy. I could see maybe trying to gauge what you know, like if you said you had some experience already but if you went in and said you had none I’d expect the teacher to start with the basics. I just recently started School of Rock because of wanting to do their adult band and meet other musicians. I haven’t started that part yet because of a current scheduling conflict I have on their practice nights, but 1-on-1 instruction comes with it as well as all their online stuff. I think Bassbuzz has propelled me way into their course and from the jump we’ve been playing some harder stuff. I started BB a few months ago.
I’ve considered SoR, just to get some on stage experience. I’ve jammed with a fwe folks, still meet up with my drummer buddy about every other weekend. None of them really seem like they want to do a band, and only one of them would possibly be in the kind of band I’d be looking for.
I feel you’ll be better served by waiting until after B2B to get the most from an IRL teacher. Better still, find some people to Jam with once you have the basics down.
I think that it is common for in person teachers to try to get you playing something recognizable in the first lesson to hook you. I’m not even saying that’s a bad thing necessarily because some people need that and would drop quickly with boring beginning exercises.
I did one in person lesson after B2B and was clear before the lesson that I want him to watch and critique my technique. I think I’m doing things right, but without an in person instructor you don’t know for sure. Despite that he wanted to teach me riffs. I’m like, sure, but watch my technique and tell me if you see something I’m doing wrong.
One of the reasons Josh is the best is he can make those beginning foundation lessons interesting, where many others make them feel like boring drills, so they skip them.
I’ve had a very good experience with SoR. First season was British Invasion and now we’re in a Woodstock season which is more suited to me than last season (I’ve played Santana, Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Paul Butterfield Band, CCR, Mississippi Queen, and Joplin so far and it just started three weeks ago). First season, we did a 5-song preview show at a bar in Fort Lauderdale and then the second show was a 20-song show at a different bar in Fort Lauderdale. Each school is different, but I think I got lucky at this school I go to because most of the musicians have been playing for a loooong time, not a lot of turnover, and they just use this as a fun way to jam with other musicians where they don’t have to plan anything. It’s a great way to learn to play with others. Only con for me is that you don’t have any say in song/season selection and you get assigned songs. And so I have long stretches where I don’t get to practice songs or genres I like because I need to make sure I am prepared for rehearsal. We basically get a choice of hard rock season (Ozzy, Metallica) versus Classic Rock. One positive thing is that you do get invited to jams outside the school that involve non-SoR musicians so it is a great way to get involved in the greater music community. I think you’d love it @faydout, but it will be more classic rock driven…and they won’t be doing any post-punk or shoegaze seasons!
I’ve heard schools have done the 90’s grunge season which would be a lot of fun, but I haven’t heard them doing the full album of the Wall…that is wild. I’m waiting for them to do a southern rock season or a country season which would be cool, but I may have to move north in Florida for that or into Georgia or the Carolinas.
No disagreement here. That said, once you learn the foundation, those boring drills are really helpful when you want to advance and polish skills past B2B graduate level.
