SBL Technique Accelerator Course

[PatrickJ]

Any one subscribing to Scott's technique accelerator course?

I'm really focussing on improving my technique so I'm tempted but I'm also a bit miffed it's not included in my SBL membership!  Even with the members discount it's well over a $100 on top of what I've already paid :(.

 

 

[Woodinblack]

I have been thinking about it.

I don't think there is an issue with it being in addition to the SBL membership, I mean you can get all the information you need from the SBL website, this is a separate addition to that, more focused.

[TheGreek]

Seems to be a lot of hard sell for it...

[PawelG]

6 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Seems to be a lot of hard sell for it...

If Scott’s going to do a lesson a week for 6 months or so, it has to be worth his while...

[PawelG]

1 hour ago, PJ-Bassist said:

Any one subscribing to Scott's technique accelerator course?

I'm really focussing on improving my technique so I'm tempted but I'm also a bit miffed it's not included in my SBL membership!  Even with the members discount it's well over a $100 on top of what I've already paid :(.

 

 

It is extra money and it has to be spent in one go - it is quite an expense.

But on the other hand, it blows my mind how cheap it is. 6 months = 18 weeks / 18 lessons or so. Let’s say the course is $150, that’s just over $8 per lesson. Where can you get lessons that cheap from such a great teacher?

Obviously, some people prefer face to face. I don’t think I do.

I won’t be signing up for the technique accelerator. 

[CameronJ]

I’ve signed up for the course. Will report back with how I get on. It has strong potential to be excellent IMO!

[LeftyP]

I've signed up too.  I watch Scott's free videos on YouTube but am not an academy member.  I think getting the basics right will help my playing.  I have noticed that when I've been doing more practice, my left (fretting) hand aches across the back and my left arm also aches.  This could be that I'm using my hand and arm in a way they are not used to being used or my technique is all wrong.  Like building a house, getting the foundations right helps for the building of a good structure.

[visog]

It's ironic that paying for a service means you're more likely to commit to doing it. 

We could all write an hour practice schedule of technique, reading, transcription and improvisation to do every day for six months, and we would all be materially better bassists and musicians... but we wont.

We'll moan about it on Basschat instead... mocked by our own procrastination... I disgust me.

[Ruarl]

I’ve joined up as well. Looking forward to some structure!

[thebigyin]

I remember going for a few lessons many years ago when I first started and I had never picked a Bass up the guy taught me the floating thumb method which I have adopted ever since (thanks Warren) I stopped going after 2 or 3 lessons as it was expensive and a fair hyke…..I decided a year or later to re-start but he had stopped teaching and passed his students on to a young fella whome I contacted and had a lesson with which was a complete waste of time he immediately picked up on my floating thumb method and tried to change the way I played...….my point is surely technique is a personal thing its what makes us individual ect….why change or try to fix something that isn't broken?? im all for watching and trying to learn new things but I would never change my own technique which I have spent a long time working on....just my opinion.

[Newfoundfreedom]

36 minutes ago, thebigyin said:

I remember going for a few lessons many years ago when I first started and I had never picked a Bass up the guy taught me the floating thumb method which I have adopted ever since (thanks Warren) I stopped going after 2 or 3 lessons as it was expensive and a fair hyke…..I decided a year or later to re-start but he had stopped teaching and passed his students on to a young fella whome I contacted and had a lesson with which was a complete waste of time he immediately picked up on my floating thumb method and tried to change the way I played...….my point is surely technique is a personal thing its what makes us individual ect….why change or try to fix something that isn't broken?? im all for watching and trying to learn new things but I would never change my own technique which I have spent a long time working on....just my opinion.

A friend of mine who was (rather is) a fantastic self taught guitarist went for lessons some years ago and the teacher spent the whole time pulling apart his technique and telling him he was playing wrong. Needless to say he never went back, and to this day is still one of the most naturally gifted players I've ever met. Find your own truth.

Also I may be a bit of an oddity, in that I would rather have online lessons than one to one any day. If there's something you don't quite understand, or is very often the case with me, goes in one ear and out the other due to an extremely bad memory, you can simply rewind or start the lesson again. 

I had about half a dozen face to face lessons many years ago and I just found it an extremely uncomfortable experience. 

 

 

[SpondonBassed]

57 minutes ago, thebigyin said:

I remember going for a few lessons many years ago when I first started and I had never picked a Bass up the guy taught me the floating thumb method which I have adopted ever since (thanks Warren) I stopped going after 2 or 3 lessons as it was expensive and a fair hyke…..I decided a year or later to re-start but he had stopped teaching and passed his students on to a young fella whome I contacted and had a lesson with which was a complete waste of time he immediately picked up on my floating thumb method and tried to change the way I played...….my point is surely technique is a personal thing its what makes us individual ect….why change or try to fix something that isn't broken?? im all for watching and trying to learn new things but I would never change my own technique which I have spent a long time working on....just my opinion.

 

Some teachers try to mould you into their image of what is good and proper in a given subject.  Others listen to what you say and then work with what they have in front of them.

It sounds like you got the former when you needed the latter.  Hard luck.  Keep trying though.  There are lots of good teachers who don't automatically make you feel like you are back in short trousers again.

[Ruarl]

1 hour ago, thebigyin said:

I remember going for a few lessons many years ago when I first started and I had never picked a Bass up the guy taught me the floating thumb method which I have adopted ever since (thanks Warren) I stopped going after 2 or 3 lessons as it was expensive and a fair hyke…..I decided a year or later to re-start but he had stopped teaching and passed his students on to a young fella whome I contacted and had a lesson with which was a complete waste of time he immediately picked up on my floating thumb method and tried to change the way I played...….my point is surely technique is a personal thing its what makes us individual ect….why change or try to fix something that isn't broken?? im all for watching and trying to learn new things but I would never change my own technique which I have spent a long time working on....just my opinion.

Sounds to me like the second guy was just a bad teacher. In one of the intro videos for the course Scott points out there are different techniques for plucking strings. All are appropriate for different things, and he wants to teach his students to have a conscious choice over which to use, rather than switching between them at random. In your example, no muting method is bad as long as it works. I’m assuming your floating thumb muting is very good, and your second teacher just thought it was not a good idea. I noticed in my playing that I’m switching around in a way I don’t have control over. That’s why I signed up. 

If you’ve spent a long time acquiring the technique you want, then I don’t think this course is aimed at you. My own technique is something which has only ever received haphazard attention, and I’d like to give it some focus and maybe even cover areas I hadn’t thought of myself. 

[thebigyin]

31 minutes ago, Ruarl said:

Sounds to me like the second guy was just a bad teacher. In one of the intro videos for the course Scott points out there are different techniques for plucking strings. All are appropriate for different things, and he wants to teach his students to have a conscious choice over which to use, rather than switching between them at random. In your example, no muting method is bad as long as it works. I’m assuming your floating thumb muting is very good, and your second teacher just thought it was not a good idea. I noticed in my playing that I’m switching around in a way I don’t have control over. That’s why I signed up. 

If you’ve spent a long time acquiring the technique you want, then I don’t think this course is aimed at you. My own technique is something which has only ever received haphazard attention, and I’d like to give it some focus and maybe even cover areas I hadn’t thought of myself. 

I think I have kept the floating thumb method because it just comes naturally to me and yes you are muting the string you are anchoring on ect….I listen to a lot of old school RnB and Rock from the 60s/70s so my playing and style is tailored for the band and not as an individual or soloist....spend many hours working on getting a good groove and technique I watch many local bands and although there players are good play the right notes but some lack FEEL and in my humble opinion if you don't have good Feel then it just sounds messy.....Good Luck Ruarl…...check out Danny Mo Morris he is one of the tutors on SBL Academy he is a master of the James Jamerson 60s RnB groove that's if your into that type of vibe.

[thebigyin]

1 hour ago, SpondonBassed said:

 

Some teachers try to mould you into their image of what is good and proper in a given subject.  Others listen to what you say and then work with what they have in front of them.

It sounds like you got the former when you needed the latter.  Hard luck.  Keep trying though.  There are lots of good teachers who don't automatically make you feel like you are back in short trousers again.

That was one of the reasons I stopped going to the initial tutor excellent Bassist but very Jazz orientated and that's how he came across.....I was a very late starter I was late 30s when I took up Bass but more RnB, Blues and Rock.....I went about 3 times took on board some pointers and after 6 months was playing in a Rock n Roll band and a Pop/Rock band so things took off pretty quickly for me.

[CameronJ]

26 minutes ago, thebigyin said:

I watch many local bands and although there players are good play the right notes but some lack FEEL and in my humble opinion if you don't have good Feel then it just sounds messy....

I have to agree with this 10000%. I know a couple of guys who have much more comprehensive music theory than I do, but when I hear them playing it often totally lacks in feel. I play entirely by ear at the moment so I’d say as a result my feel is quite good. Now I just need to get my theory and technique up to the same level as my feel to make me a more complete player. Hence, SBL!

[Woodinblack]

Well, I signed up. Thought I might as well, it’s only a gig and a half’s money - incidentally a shock paying when you think, oh it’s $147, that’s just £100, turns out my head is still on pre-brexit time! - and I really do need a bit of smoothing out so I want to give it a try. Hope it will work, been a Scott’s bass lessons member since the beginning, I go so rarely that when I do it always says “looks like you’re new here!”

[CameronJ]

10 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

I go so rarely that when I do it always says “looks like you’re new here!”

It does the same thing to me 😂 I wallow in shame every time...

[lownote]

I'm doing it even though most of my time is spent doing sax now.  If its rubbish or too boring you can always get your money back within 30 days. I doubt it will be... although 6 months just on where you put your pinky seems a  real deep drill-down.

Edited September 30, 2018 by lownote12

[Woodinblack]

13 minutes ago, lownote12 said:

although 6 months just on where you put your pinky seems a  real deep drill-down.

Yeh, but just imagine how good your pinky is going to be at the end!

[CameronJ]

On a serious note, I’m a heavy pinky user in my bass playing - I almost never use my ring finger on my fretting hand which means I’m in what I assume to be a very small club of players whose pinky is actually stronger than their ring finger. I really need to work on that...

[Quatschmacher]

10 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

On a serious note, I’m a heavy pinky user in my bass playing - I almost never use my ring finger on my fretting hand which means I’m in what I assume to be a very small club of players whose pinky is actually stronger than their ring finger. I really need to work on that...

I’m in that club now. I played for years using my ring finger when playing at the lower end of the neck. Then I picked up the Simandl book on double bass fingerings and it was a revelation; suddenly playing low down wasn’t uncomfortable anymore. I use a mixture of Simandl and finger-per-fret, depending on where I am on the neck. 

[Woodinblack]

29 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

On a serious note, I’m a heavy pinky user in my bass playing - I almost never use my ring finger on my fretting hand which means I’m in what I assume to be a very small club of players whose pinky is actually stronger than their ring finger. I really need to work on that...

Yep, same here, if my ring finger does anything it is to back up my little finger in what it is doing.

[SpondonBassed]

3 hours ago, thebigyin said:

the initial tutor excellent Bassist but very Jazz orientated and that's how he came across

I had one of those last year.  I didn't ask him to teach me, he just sort of took it upon himself to change everything about the way I played.  I'd only asked to go around to his gaff to record his set for me to practice with at home so that I'd have a start on accompanying him on an Open Mic night or two.  It turned into lessons and I never got my recording in the end.

Both of us were therefore wasting our time.  Thankfully he bailed and I didn't have to blow him out as a result.  He meant well but had some very rigid ideas.

 

2 hours ago, CameronJ said:

...when I hear them playing it often totally lacks in feel. I play entirely by ear at the moment so I’d say as a result my feel is quite good. Now I just need to get my theory and technique up to the same level as my feel to make me a more complete player. Hence, SBL!

I feel you.

[tpoolan]

I enrolled on this for exactly the reason visog mentions above - if I've paid for it, I'm more likely to keep at it.

So far, it's been very, very helpful. Two lessons in and my posture is better and I'm rebuilding my right-hand technique, which was always shaky.