Pete Academy

'What strings do you use?'

I'm a big Go-Go fan.

[quote name='fdavidso' post='944206' date='Sep 3 2010, 08:50 AM']I don't get out much - who is the lovely lady in the Green dress beside your posts? I think she is my new best friend ever.[/quote] You're not the first to enquire. Christina Hendricks from 'Mad Men'.

[quote name='dave74200' post='944195' date='Sep 3 2010, 08:42 AM']Watched Blur 'the singles' gig on Sky Arts last night. What was Alex James using? A Stingray into an SVT 2 Pro with 8x10 'fridge'. But hey, what does he know! He sounded awesome by the way, but the amp was probably off or just a cardboard cut out of it just for show. Like many have told me, he was probably just going straight into the mixing desk through a £100 di pedal.[/quote] Alex james? Isn't he a cheese farmer these days?

[quote name='oldslapper' post='943815' date='Sep 2 2010, 07:18 PM']I like that Wooten quote Pete. If you liken playing the bass (or music generally) as a speaking a language then: Brain fart ensues:- - there are some who learn a language by spending time in another country and they pick up the lingo by listening and spending time with the locals and can mimic, they often absorb the "emotion" of the language too, but often they can't explain the theory or the grammar behind the language. But they speak, and are understood and listen and understand. However, this can be a little restrictive in that their vocabulary can be narrow and the accent they've adopted may not be "transferable" in another part of the country, let alone another country. - there are those who study a language, are taught by tutors who explain and break down the grammar, they are taught and understand structure (often the roots (greek perhaps) of a language enable the student to have a broader grasp of other foreign languages). These students may never visit the country, and may never absorb the emotion of the language, but they too can speak and be understood and listen and understand. For me, the best is both. Study to broaden your vocabulary and understanding, but go listen to the locals talk. Study, listen and PLAY. Sorry about that, probably all clap trap,..........please ignore. John[/quote] John, that is probably one of the best posts I've seen since being on BC. Nice one.

I hate to say this but at fifteen to twenty pounds a lesson, Youtube is an economical alternative.

[quote name='essexbasscat' post='943765' date='Sep 2 2010, 06:39 PM']No, it's still not quite right. Can you just add a bit more to the mids please ?[/quote] Hang on! How do we know that guy isn't 2' 3"??? Spinal Tap anyone?

I'm roughly the same age as Starless, so I can see his point. I admit bass lessons would have helped me a great deal in my younger days, but I look back and think how enjoyable it was learning to play in those days. Stanley Clarke and Jaco were big selling artists. Disco and funk produced some great bass lines. I never ever sat down to practise and thought: 'This is a chore'. It was always exciting, and I couldn't wait to get home from school/work to do so. My original post posed the theory that there aren't the players to motivate kids. Love him or loathe him, when Mark King came on the scene, people were crazy to learn bass. Ditto with Flea. I also agree with the 'Guitar Hero' theory. Kids want it to be as easy as playing that game. On the other side of the coin I have seen young kids progress to ridiculous standards, and now attend jazz schools etc. I would seriously recommend watching Victor Wooten's last DVD, as he explains the 'language of music' very well.

In my 20s I decided i wanted to learn some jazz, and so enlisted the help of a teacher. He started the first lesson by slagging off my Steinberger L2 (not a 'real' bass) and then drew a diagram of the circle of fifths, without explaining what to do with it. Put me off a bit.

[quote name='urb' post='915780' date='Aug 5 2010, 11:58 AM']One of the best bits of advice I've heard recently was from Mr Vic Wooten - that in a nutshell is no matter what scale or arpeggio you are practicing - try and make it groove.. so in a sense you're doing two things at once: familiarizing yourself with a new scale or pattern but also creating a new bass line as well. It really works and is actually a short cut to playing new information in a 'musical' way instead of trying to 'work it up to speed' - which will happen over time any way - but this way you can focus on creating solid phrases in a way that is far more practical than just trying to shred One other nugget of advice from VW is also to play all your ideas across the full range of dynamics - so from very light and soft to hard and aggressive - and maintaining the groove at all times and dynamic levels.[/quote] Totally agree. The groove is king.

There's so much more media available these days. I can relate to Starless because when I started there wasn't much available in the way of teaching books. Good old Bert Weedon showed me some chords on the acoustic, then my brother bought me a cheapo bass and I picked everything up from records and the odd bass book. When i first heard slap bass in the early 70s, I really wish I had a teacher to show me what to do, as I originally thought it was being played with the finger ends, especially after seeing Pops Popwell on the OGWT. Would have saved me loads of time and pain. I did teach for a few years, and I did try to motivate players, but my lack of theory knowledge forced me to quit, as I felt I was cheating people a bit. However, I did find that there are the kids that want to learn a few riffs, and then there are those that really want to push for something higher.

How many people on here have used internet resources to learn bass? ie. youtube etc. Also DVDs?

[quote name='Starless' post='943664' date='Sep 2 2010, 05:03 PM']If I can slip into 'when I were a lad' mode for a moment or two, there was no such thing as a bass teacher when I was 13. There was no tab, just piano based sheet music for the day's popular music hits. Probably one of my first achievements at that age was memorising the chords to Ride A White Swan while flicking through the sheet music rack, dashing home and trying it out with the record playing in the back ground. I was a star! My 'teachers' came on platters of black vinyl and I could call on them any time I wanted, John Paul Jones, Andy Fraser, Jack Bruce - all at my beck and call whenever I needed to try figure something out. I wanted to emulate these people, and in the process of copying them picked up the greatest skill of them all which cannot be taught - how to LISTEN. The more bass lines you figure out by listening to them, the faster and easier it becomes to figure out the next one. Led Zep II was a struggle, but by Led Zep IV I was playing along very quickly. No one showed me how to play bass, they didn't need to because it really isn't rocket science. Here's a simple test. Go and find a song that you are not familiar with (nothing too taxing bass-wise) and listen to it. Give yourself a week (no cheating, no tab, no sheet music), and if you can't play the bass line (doesn't have to be at the correct tempo, just the correct notes) then no amount of 'teaching' is going to make a blind bit of difference in the long run. Consider percussion as a career path. Did JPJ place his thumb in the same place as Jack Bruce? or did Andy Fraser utilise one-finger-per-fret or....... who gives a hoot - certainly not me. If I picked up 'bad habits' then I continue to be blissfully un-aware that these are bad habits, and it bothers me not one jot as long as I can still play the damn music. I recently acquired a double bass and decided to check on t'interweb for the correct way to hold a French bow. Waste of time, there are 101 different experts out there who advise 101 different ways to hold it - so I'll do what comes naturally. What's the point of paying money to a teacher who, after trying various hand positions will declare, "Hmm.. just do it the way that feels most comfortable for you, that'll be £17.50 please" - Ker-chinng! The little runs and shapes that John, Jack and Andy taught me are not cast in concrete in the songs that I orginally learned, I can use them all over the place. They may be pentatonically ambioniphonicly Gregarian in their pentanamera Diolithian progression but that is information that I've managed to do without in a playing situation thus far and am happy to maintain this level of ignorance until the day I die (life really is too short). If someone is serious about taking up the bass, then my advice is to acquire THE most important piece of kit at least 6 months prior to purchasing their first bass. A six-stringed acoustic guitar. There, I've said it. This notion that bass is somehow on a different cerebral plain from six-stringers has the unfortunate side-effect of making people think that it is perfectly acceptable to learn bass - and nothing else. How many 'proper' bassists are there out there in the real world of showbiz who have no idea how to hold down a G7 or Am on a six-stringer? What kind of bassist takes part in a jam session and can't recognise the shapes that the guitarist is making with his hand on the fretboard? A less than desirable one, that's what. Apart from anything else, an acoustic guitar is very easy to pick up and noodle around on the bottom four strings (yes kids, they are tuned the same as a bass) without annoying the neighbours. You're not wanting to start churning out highly complex classical or finger-pickin' tunes, just master the basics of at least 1st position chord shapes, so if Bert Weedon's 'Play In A Day' is too complicated for someone to master on their own then again, they should start looking for a nice second-hand drum kit - not a teacher (who will just be following Bert's 'syllabus' anyway) If someone's attitude to bass (or guitar) is, 'I can't play because I need someone to teach me', then they can't play, and should just take up golf.[/quote] Interesting post, and one I can relate to. I learned everything from playing along to records.

[quote name='51m0n' post='943649' date='Sep 2 2010, 04:54 PM']Oi stop posting - I still cant scroll past your avatar! [/quote] Stop staring at my missus!

Have I missed something? Did someone mention chavs?...

Good post, Doddy

And what is that 5-way mid thing about about?

Whenever I try a new amp I like to dial in my favourite sound easily. The VBA400 was instant, so was my (albeit poorly) LMK. Whenever I've tried Ampegs, it's always been a piss-about. Just my opinion, of course.

Are there any other bass teachers on here that have noticed a decline?

Perhaps he's taken his amp for repair.

[quote name='51m0n' post='942381' date='Sep 1 2010, 05:20 PM']Really struggling to read your posts Pete, something to do with your avatar?[/quote] I think a Burberry baseball cap would complete the image.

[quote name='51m0n' post='942381' date='Sep 1 2010, 05:20 PM']Really struggling to read your posts Pete, something to do with your avatar?[/quote] Funny you should say that...Marvin had the same problem.

[quote name='lonestar' post='942422' date='Sep 1 2010, 06:00 PM']liking the new look though. Is she one of your new backing singers ?[/quote] As the great Stevie Wonder once said: 'I WISH!'

Never liked Ampeg. Once had a Marshall VBA400, which blew the Ampeg away. Too heavy, though, all of them. Ooh, me back...

[quote name='dood' post='942240' date='Sep 1 2010, 03:31 PM']I fear this is a big part of the problem. Guitarists teaching Bass to me is akin to a harp player teaching piano. As far as I am aware, there is/was just one 'proper' Bass teacher in Norwich. - I'd like to be proved otherwise - but I *hope* that when I start teaching in the area, Bass Players won't be put off by the fact that they *may* have been taught by tutors who haven't spent a considerable amount of time studying / playing the instrument they are actually teaching. I've been playing for over 20 years now.[/quote] I've seen the guitar teacher thing a lot, where he supplements his income by teaching bass as well.