In my ongoing quest to learn more about what actually motivates bass students, I’d love to know -
Do you want to learn (more) music theory?
What motivates your answer / why do you think you should or shouldn’t?
How long you been playing? (just for context)
I’m particularly interested in personal answers, like “I want to” or “I don’t want to”, versus diatribes along the lines of ‘everyone should’ or ‘nobody should’. Think we probably have enough of those on the internet by now.
And I know many of you are B2B graduates so you already know a solid amount of theory, but I’m especially curious to hear from anyone who hasn’t taken the course yet!
Personally, I feel like I’m in a spot where the only way I can progress is to dive into theory so that I can ultimately reach what I’ve wanted to do since the beginning.
Ultimate goal: improvisation
My learning plan:
Learn basics (or “bass-ics”. get it?) - done
Learn a bunch of increasingly difficult songs. - done
Start trying to wrap my head around Jazz - In progress
I bought my first bass at the end of January, and picked up B2B maybe 2 weeks later. I’ve gone through it twice, and am working through some of Mark Smith’s courses now. I’m content for the time being doing covers and playing in my basement while I hone my skill. That doesn’t really require any kind of knowledge about theory. Ultimately though, I want to get on stage and play with other people. To do that, I need to know how to speak music with other folks, so yeah theory is going to be important. If for no other reason than me feeling like I belong there, doing that.
I’m working through 50 First Songs, Beginner to Badass (currently on module 12), and Simple Steps to Sight Reading. I’m also trying to work through Ariane Cap’s Music Theory for the Bass Player, but I’m not 100% sure how to balance finishing the exercises in one chapter and moving on to the next, so for now, it’s on the back burner.
With 50 First Songs, it took me about two weeks to learn Bad Moon Rising well enough that I feel ready for a play-along, having memorized the little variations and runs in the song.
For Crazy, I took a different approach. I started by working out the key and chord progression from the sheet music before focusing on the small variations within the context of that progression. This took about 15-20 minutes without really listening to the song. My first play-along was nearly perfect aside from some small timing issues, and because my understanding is based on the song’s structure rather than rote memorization, I feel much more confident that I can get back into the groove if I mess up. Learning a song this way feels much better and I didn’t have to listen to it so many times that I never want to hear it again.
I feel like more theory will help me learn songs faster and more thoroughly and will also give me a better shot at being able to pick up or improvise a bass line on the spot if called to do so.
This is a timely question. I signed up for B2B back in June of this year, and am a new bass player, and older (late 50’s). I played guitar off and on throughout my childhood, early teens and early 20’s with NO music theory, and never stuck with it because it was just memorize TAB or chords. You introduced enough music theory that I got really motivated to learn more, and learn to read music so I signed up for a few courses over at Talkingbass. I’m taking the theory, sight reading, and chord tones courses and they are exactly what I was missing in my previous stints at guitar. I feel they have really improved my ability to learn bass because I understand more of the why. More importantly, I find having defined course work, study, and exercises to be motivating. I do really think the breadth of B2B combined with the depth of the music theory I’m doing now is a good combination, for me personally. I would welcome any additional material you may eventually provide that dives deeper into theory. It seems quite a few folks on this forum also frequent Talkingbass, so I’d look for a way to complement that content.
I want to 2nd what @DanW said above. Now that I can actually read music (passingly, having nearly completed Simple Steps to Sight Reading Vol 1) I can much more easily learn songs now vs 2 months ago where I was just trying to memorize tab with no real understanding of the structure of the song.
Absolute beginner and module 9 in the B2B here. I don’t enjoy the theory but I’m getting through because it’s always quickly followed up with a fragment to play and I love those. My ultimate goal is just play along with songs I enjoy with the help of TABs and that’s it. I don’t want to join a band, I don’t want to do gigs and I certainly don’t want to entertain anyone but myself. I know theory is usefull but the B2B course seems to be enough for me.
1 - yes, in terms of ongoing content, I’m strongly in the “more theory” camp. I think the course actually has just the right amount of theory to get one started, @JoshFossgreen. You teach the most important stuff well there.
2 - desire for continued growth as a musician; theory and song crafting is much more important than technical skill to me.
3 - Bass 5y, synths on and off much longer, other instruments in school for several years but none beyond ~10th grade.
Great question. Thanks for asking.
I have not taken you course yet. But, I plan too. For me, at this stage of my career I feel I need a one on one experience. I have an instructor and he teaches both theory and play along stuff. We are doing the Hal Leonard book. I am quite consumed at the current time. He is pushing me more on the play along stuff and I am glad he is. He is fun but not as fun as YOU! The heavy theory stuff is boring.
Do you want to learn (more) music theory? I am content with my current program. I will become proficient in theory. I do not know what what more there is to learn after Hal.
*** What motivates your answer / why do you think you should or shouldn’t?** For me, It motivates me to better read and understand music and to exercise my brain. A feather in my hat.
**How long you been playing? (just for context)**I have been playing for about 3 months.
My biggest hurdle is memory and moving faster mentally and physically and rhythm. I know it will come. I have just subscribed to Songsterr. The tabs are very helpful to me until I learn the notes better. Tabs are easier. It is a game changer to be able to play along with the music and slow it down and keep time with the note being highlighted and not loosing my spot in the sheet music. I am playing music…even if it is at 50% speed
@Linda, granted, the following is unsolicited by you, but for no other reason than you would benefit from it greatly (in my opinion, better than a face-to-face teacher), run, don’t walk to sign up for the Beginner to Badass course.
B2B is the absolute best way for a beginner to get up to bass playing speed quickly and, most definitely, with actual fun. As entertaining as Josh is in his YouTube videos, in B2B lessons he is patient, methodical, encouraging, calming and seriously brilliant in his teaching of proper technique and, yes, even music theory fundamentals.
Again, I realize you didn’t ask, but I felt compelled to offer you this entirely unsolicited advice because you will learn so much, so fast, and have a ton of fun as you do it.
2 - I have done the B2B course, but before I started I didn’t have any real interest in learning/refreshing any theory (I did study music a bit back in school, but only dealt with treble clef)
Anyway, I thought I was only interested in technique tips and some structured practice to help me play bass covers.
But the course opened my eyes to how understanding chord progression, triads etc can be hugely helpful, and that improvising is fun too. So that’s given me an appetite to learn more
I want to be able to play bass from music notation (I haven’t memorised all fret positions yet). And I’d like to boost my skills for if I end up jamming with others.
3 - Played a bit 15 years ago, picked up again properly this year.
I concur. B2B is probably the best ‘bang for the buck’ bass course out there. Josh really gets you started on the right foot and the breadth of the course gives you an amazing overview.
Thanks @MikeC and @jefflangford67! I appreciate your comments. I know everyone speaks highly of the journey. I will sign up soon for B2B very very soon.
When I was young and hungry to play music, I couldn’t be bothered with theory (beyond the basics, which I had learned at school). I couldn’t be bothered hearing others preaching about scales, diatonic relationships, ii-V-I’s and what have you. I ignored all of it (mostly because it was too “esoteric” and didn’t seem at all relevant to actually playing music). I just listened and hacked it with pentatonics (without even knowing that it was pentatonics I was falling back to again and again). So, now, I want to understand it much, much better - it’s really a “know the rules, such that you can break them properly” kind of approach. And yet, as I think I am getting better at it, I find so much new stuff that seems again to be totally unfathomable (“altered scales”; “chromatic mediants”; …)
Bass coming up on six years; clarinet, sax and drums for much longer (with longish breaks though)
-Yes, I enjoy learning the theory. Especially when I can apply it to what I am trying to play.
-I think learning music theory is the foundation for learning any instrument. It’s like learning physics with or without learning math. You can do physics and understand much of it, like speed vs velocity, but with math it all makes more sense and makes learning new concepts more predictable. But some people are afraid of learning maths. Theory for bass, like math for a physicist, is the language tool that is common between instruments. (ie Key of D; I,V,ii, vi; augmented 5th can be understood by everyone in the band)
-I started with B2B last November (loved it, still can’t play the fast mode on many songs) and moved on to several Talking Bass courses. I enjoy Mark’s lessons about how the scales are derived by stacking 3rds.
I would love to see an intermediate course that is a follow on to B2B with the same structure. Maybe geared a little more to playing with others or along with tracks like the last module. Also something to help with playing faster.
I am hungry to learn theory but do struggle with it, not sure why.
I think Josh would have a good approach.
I’ve been learning for about 2 years with B2B and playing with others.
I learn a lot from Youtube and actually picked up guitar to learn more theory; Mostly with Marty (who I like best) a bit with Griff Hamlin (who dives into advanced stuff too quickly and Iam taking a break) and a little bit of Steve Stine
I want to learn more about rhythms and time signatures and how to write out my ideas using standard notation. From a harmony perspective, I’d like to learn more about walking bass lines and connecting chords together.
Playing bass for 3 years. Played guitar off and on for like 25 years before that, but never had any lessons. I learned more theory in 6 weeks of B2B then all the years I played guitar!
@JoshFossgreen - just for context, are you asking for the purpose of generating new videos for YouTube, or are you thinking of developing a part 2 to the course, or just looking to find out in a more general sense? I’m asking because context is key here, the purpose intended would lead me to different personal opinions.
