Scott’s membership - worth it?

[josie]

2 hours ago, ambient said:

You only ever benefit from any lessons if you’re willing and able to go away from the lesson and practice what you’ve been shown or study what you’ve been told. If you can’t do that then any lesson is a waste of time and money. There’s nothing annoys me more personally than someone arriving and the second thing they say after saying hello is sorry, but I haven’t picked my bass up since last time I saw you. Just having lessons in themselves will serve no purpose at all.

This. My teacher does push me and teach me new good things during lessons, but even more important is that I know that I have to remember what he's taught me, and make progress between lessons, or I'll be letting him down and wasting his time. There have been many dull days when the only reason I've picked up my bass was that I needed to be able to look him in the eye at my next lesson. 

[RedVee]

I think you have got it all wrong!........If you don't practice then you are letting yourself down and not the tutor, who is still getting paid whether you progress or not. You are concentrating too much on pleasing your tutor and not yourself. If you carry on with that approach you will never advance!

[ambient]

6 hours ago, No. 8 Wire said:

On Scott's there is a lot of theory.  A reading course has just started, 2 modules added so far, taught by Phil Mann. Starts at zero, my level! And moves onwards.

Phil was one of my tutors at uni; an excellent player/tutor. Steve Lawson also does things on the Scot’s lessons site.

[josie]

4 minutes ago, RedVee said:

I think you have got it all wrong!........If you don't practice then you are letting yourself down and not the tutor, who is still getting paid whether you progress or not. You are concentrating too much on pleasing your tutor and not yourself. If you carry on with that approach you will never advance!

I hear what you're saying. What I care most about is becoming a better bass player. If I don't practice I'm letting myself down... and my band.. and my teacher. But there are many times when the motivation of playing better for them or for him tips me over into practicing when I wouldn't just for myself. 

I work in disability support with university students, and I've long ago lost count of the times when one of them has come to see me and said "I only motivated myself to get this assignment done because I knew I had to come to see you and tell you about it." 

I think of it as like the difference between having a gym membership and a personal trainer. (Not that I have either!) You could, in theory, go and work out every day, but nobody else will know if you don't. Or you could have someone to talk to every week, who will know, and who will help you when you falter. 

Imho - ymmv 🙂 

[lownote]

Many people see music school like ordinary school.  They want to be told stuff and do the tasks outlined - which is what happens at school.

SBL is more like university.  You train yourself, with the input of a guru.  Well, that's how it was in my day anyway.  If you took charge of your education you got a first.  If you went along to take notes in lectures and hand in the essays on time you got a 2/2. 

Understandably those who didn't go to college reference their music training needs by what they know - the school model, spoon feeding. Monkey see, monkey do.

Scott himself is self taught.  He worked out what he needed to know and then scoured the world (quite literally) for the bassist who could help him do that. Didn't he travel to Barcelona to learn from Gary Willis? It's that extraordinary - almost nerdy - focus and self discipline is why he's where he is. It reflects in the way SBL is.      

Edited August 21, 2018 by lownote12

[Hellzero]

I started my first course yesterday evening, the only one about fretless, and went to the third of it. Being a fretless bass player for over 30 years and devoted to 6 strings basses, I knew everything Steve LAWSON was talking about, but merely put it into practice. Then after that I started to use what I've seen with my bass and ended up playing around an hour or more (after having closed my practice log) using all my right hand fingers, which I never did before and it became clear and easy to me. Funny, no ?

That said, being hyper structured, I hated the old web site which was a total mess. The new one is way much... structured. And being a self taught player myself, what I like is the fact that I can learn my way, so attending an entire course step-by-step and repeating the hard places by simply pressing pause, go back to the difficult point, and start over and over if necessary and still having the same quality level of teaching because it's recorded. Try this with a teacher, he'll certainly loose patience and will not have the same approach when starting back where you stopped, if he even remembers what you were doing...

So I like it and the next step will be learning back some theory, which I certainly already know, but as I said in my SBL introduction, I need to sum up all my knowledge. And it seems to work.

[Zalastar]

I'd love to do this but I'm assuming that you have to fund it all up front as the site says $14 per month billed $168 per year. Sadly I can't find that cash up front so it's stick to the free stuff for me.

 

edit.. 

just found the monthly option, $14 - $25, wow that's a bit of a price jump.....

I could however give the kids less food 😁

Edited August 21, 2018 by Zalastar
Further info discovered

[lownote]

2 minutes ago, Zalastar said:

I'd love to do this but I'm assuming that you have to fund it all up front as the site says $14 per month billed $168 per year. Sadly I can't find that cash up front so it's stick to the free stuff for me.

Nay, lad, sithee... he does do a monthly option. See https://scottsbasslessons.com/profile#manage-subscription  Best to email support and ask, they're prompt and friendly and will sort out any questions you may have.

Edited August 21, 2018 by lownote12

[Zalastar]

Just now, lownote12 said:

Nay, lad, sithee... he does do a monthly option.  Best to email support and ask, they're prompt and friendly and will sort out any questions you may have.

Just found it, I did what my Mrs would call a Man Look the first time. Edited my original post to highlight my stupidity :-) 

[lownote]

4 minutes ago, Zalastar said:

I'd love to do this but I'm assuming that you have to fund it all up front as the site says $14 per month billed $168 per year. Sadly I can't find that cash up front so it's stick to the free stuff for me.

 

edit.. 

just found the monthly option, $14 - $25, wow that's a bit of a price jump.....

I could however give the kids less food 😁

So that's under £20 a month -  an hour's lesson with a bad personal tutor.

[Zalastar]

1 minute ago, lownote12 said:

So that's under £20 a month -  an hour's lesson with a bad personal tutor.

Absolutely, don't disagree that at that it's still well worth the money... but when on a tight budget it's a bigger hole to punch in the account. Now what can I sell....

[No. 8 Wire]

44 minutes ago, Zalastar said:

I'd love to do this but I'm assuming that you have to fund it all up front as the site says $14 per month billed $168 per year. Sadly I can't find that cash up front so it's stick to the free stuff for me.

 

edit.. 

just found the monthly option, $14 - $25, wow that's a bit of a price jump.....

I could however give the kids less food 😁

That's a big jump!

Cheaper to bang it on a credit card and pay that off instead.

[thepurpleblob]

I quite like the free videos on YouTube. I've found many of them very useful. 

The marketing it horribly American and I don't mean that in a good way. I find that a bit offputting. 

Note to Scott... if there was a pay monthly option that doesn't take the p*ss ($25 vs $168/12 = $14) I would probably sign up.

Edited August 21, 2018 by thepurpleblob

[chris_b]

33 minutes ago, thepurpleblob said:

Note to Scott... if there was a pay monthly option that doesn't take the p*ss ($25 vs $168/12 = $14) I would probably sign up.

It's a standard business procedure to offer a discount for paying a lump sum annually. I do it on lots of stuff.

[thepurpleblob]

19 minutes ago, chris_b said:

It's a standard business procedure to offer a discount for paying a lump sum annually. I do it on lots of stuff.

I make that a 44% discount for paying annually. I get it that it's a "standard business practice" and would expect to pay a little more. But that isn't a "little" more. I can't help suspecting the "Gym membership" effect. At least they have your money for a year even if you don't use it. Please excuse my cynicism. 

[Sibob]

1 hour ago, thepurpleblob said:

I quite like the free videos on YouTube. I've found many of them very useful. 

The marketing it horribly American and I don't mean that in a good way. I find that a bit offputting. 

Note to Scott... if there was a pay monthly option that doesn't take the p*ss ($25 vs $168/12 = $14) I would probably sign up.

I imagine most of their members are American, what's Scott going to do?!

Si

[naxos10]

I signed up a couple of years ago after the 14 day trial. Like some have said for it can be difficult to have a regular tutor but being able to 'dip' into the academy when time allows is a god send. I also find that being able to recap and replay the lessons when it suits is a boon.

Eventually took the full subscription offer and with retirement on the horizon I will be (hopefully) using it to the full.

[Woodinblack]

Only you know if it would be any use to you. I have a lifetime membership of signing up when it first open and I don't often go there. When I do I learn valuable things, but I just don't get round to it often!

[chris_b]

7 minutes ago, thepurpleblob said:

I make that a 44% discount for paying annually. I get it that it's a "standard business practice" and would expect to pay a little more. But that isn't a "little" more. I can't help suspecting the "Gym membership" effect. At least they have your money for a year even if you don't use it. Please excuse my cynicism. 

OK, I get that you don't think it's a good model, but I don't understand the cynicism.

If that buys me access to the whole site for a year, I'd make use of every part of the site for that time. $168? If we stay in dollars, that's 46c a day! 46c buys you access to several lifetimes worth of bass knowledge and experience. To me that's peanuts and if I signed up I'd make sure I got $2 out of it every day. What can you buy for 46c? That's probably less than the cost of the electricity I use logging on to Basschat every day!

[thepurpleblob]

9 minutes ago, chris_b said:

OK, I get that you don't think it's a good model, but I don't understand the cynicism.

If that buys me access to the whole site for a year, I'd make use of every part of the site for that time. $168? If we stay in dollars, that's 46c a day! 46c buys you access to several lifetimes worth of bass knowledge and experience. To me that's peanuts and if I signed up I'd make sure I got $2 out of it every day. What can you buy for 46c? That's probably less than the cost of the electricity I use logging on to Basschat every day!

Ok... I'm not disputing the value of the site. 

I just commented that if there was a 'realistic' monthly option, I would sign up right now. I very rarely have $168 kicking around that I don't need to spend on something else.  I find it surprising that there isn't. The $25 per month is, all but the shouting, double. That's not happening. 

I was just postulating that if people buy a year then, at least, SBL get a year out of them even if they stop using it. If they pay monthly and can't be bothered then they'll just stop paying. I'm becoming aware that I'm digging a hole for myself here. 

Anyway, make the monthly fee 'sensible' and I'll sign up. And I'll be nice 😄

Edited August 21, 2018 by thepurpleblob

[tb4sbp2]

I agree the $25 a month was on the high side

I would think this to be more like a 10-20 a month

Still I have signed up and it has not been a month yet and I am seeing improvements

Even the basics are great to revisit due to the rut some of us can get into from time to time

I have never taken lessons anywhere else but I am really enjoying it so far 

Edited August 22, 2018 by tb4sbp2

[Dazed]

Well I wasn’t  expecting this much feedback, many thanks to all that have commented so far!

My reasons for posting were to gauge if people had used the lessons, improved, and felt there was a worthwhile improvement from the financial outlay. 

I know from my own experience, good and bad, you only improve by putting the time and effort in but also focussing and not wasting your time widdling (guilty). 

I started off as a child, aged 8 or 9, playing guitar and having weekly lessons at school. The lessons definitely helped - good teacher. I gave it by senior school and a couple of years later picked up the bass and taught myself. I’d learned to read earlier on guitar to an ok level but over time stopped reading and learned everything by ear. I played with a large brass swing band for a year or so and realised my reading was pretty awful! Instead of practising reading I left the swing band, although my girlfriend at the time also sang in the same band and her leaving influenced my decision. Looking back I should have stayed with the band 😂 but that’s another story

 At 15/16 I started playing in bands, mainly original material with the very occasional cover gig. Of course at that age I was too cool to have lessons and carried in doing my own thing for 7 or 8 years, slowly getting further into a rut and not really improving my playing, knowledge, theory or reading. At some point in my twenties I had a few lessons from a quite well known bassist/ guitarist/drummer a very talented musician. The problem was I didn’t know what I wanted to get from the lessons and as we were friends, the lessons became more of a coffee and a chat. He did teach me about modes, which I vaguely remember and occasionally practice them.

Life became busier as it does, music became less important and the bands I’d been playing in fell apart or imploded as we all moved onto other things.

I stopped playing for a long time, ten years or so, bands and all the politics had left me with a bitter taste. For whatever reasons I kept all of my gear and eventually the urge to play returned. Anyone who has been through this will know the feeling of joy but also disappointment that your abilities have severely diminished!

This brings me upto the last chapter of my playing, the now slightly rounder shaped,  more disposable income, post mid life crisis, bedroom noodling, accidental bass collector (yes I do blame BC!) attempting to learn and actually understand what I’m doing. I haven’t really progressed with any theory or reading, though that is still a goal and I haven’t yet found enough courage or nerve to look into playing with other people or in public, but I haven’t complete ruled it out either. 

Through other tragic life events I’ve found myself with vast amounts of time to fill. A while ago I went back to what I enjoyed and set myself a few tasks of things to learn by ear. As much to keep playing as to help me through a massive depressive phase, which it really did. Sticking to a rough schedule of daily practice I did make a lot of improvement, surpassing my previous form in some areas which was encouraging. Again things got in the way and that all tailed off.  

So here I am again, staring at my collection of more money than talent,  giving myself a bloody good serious talking to, to get rid of all those shiny things, but keep a couple and concentrate on the playing . 

 

If you’re still here reading this, I thank you, you’re very patient and I have signed up to SBL. I may even post updates to publicly shame myself into keeping at it.....

 

 

[tb4sbp2]

Hi Dazed, 

Your story does not sound much different than my own. In and out of playing due to work/college/family and so on. Now the career is good, family has grown and I have time to myself again. That is why I signed up to SBL. To relearn some of the forgotten stuff and to grow past where I was/am. I am not in a hurry to join a band but I want to play and be better at more than just pop, rock and country. So to the "Shed" I go! And like Scott says: "I'll see you in the shed"

Best of luck (to the both of us)

[Hellzero]

Quite the same story for me guys.

So see you in the shed too, with my real name there.

[Zalastar]

I've also taken the plunge, hope the shed's big enough for all of us :-)