Bass lessons

[DJpullchord]

After playing bass for ten years or so, more out of necessity than choice, I thought I might buy some lessons.

What am I likely to be taught?

I can derrière about in pentatonics and read music, slowly, especially slow when it’s all shifted for bass.

What would come next?

Thank you for your input. 

x

[oldslapper]

Asking yourself some questions may help you make some important decisions, including who you choose as a tutor.

Why do I want lessons?

What do I want from lessons?

How do I learn best? (Doing, watching, listening, etc)

Am I prepared to practice between lessons?

IMHO I think it’s a great decision to have lessons! 😊

as an aside, walk away from any tutor who plays “at” you, showing off their fretboard acrobatics. Stay with one that listens to you, challenges you, encourages you, is patient, consistent and isn’t a serial killer. The last one is hard to gauge until it’s too late, but handy to know.

Best wishes, have fun!!

Edited September 25, 2019 by oldslapper

[itu]

Progressions, walking bass (two beat, four beat, walk), legato playing, reading and writing music, transcriptions, some ideas for soloing... ideas to play ergonomically, to rehearse productively... to open eyes to other music... technology stuff... anything.

The most important thing to me is to listen to other bassists' playing and trying to understand, why and how they do their thing. Transcribing and scores help a lot although I am pretty slow. It is still fun.

[itu]

Your bass teacher can teach you anything you want, but it is up to you to do the work to master it!

Fight resistance! You can master it if you really want.

[Bogdan]

Congratulations on making a decision to get better at bass. 

What you're going to be taught depends a lot on the teacher you get and what you're looking to get better at.

Where do you think you're lacking? What kind of music do you enjoy playing on bass. 

Your practice will most probably consist of technique and then various concepts like @itu mentioned above. 

Don't expect instant results though, especially with a face-to-face teacher where you meet only 1 hour per week or something. Unless you're learning how to play specific songs with your teacher, everything you cover will require homework and practising in between sessions but that's obvious. Most important is that you focus on stuff you dig and find enjoyable and then work on getting better in those areas. 

So make up simple goals like: 

I want to learn how to play slap bass and be able to play this or that song.

or

I want to learn simple walking bass concepts and be able to jam over chord progressions in 4 feel

...make the goals achievable please and that kind of thinking will go a long way.

The most important lesson bass teacher can pass on to you is how to think like a bass player, this is especially helpful if you're coming from guitar or some other instrument. So things like rhythm, time keeping, groove and light theory will come in more handy than being able to solo using A pentatonic scale for example.

Hope this helps and let me know how it goes. 

[mikel]

10 hours ago, oldslapper said:

Asking yourself some questions may help you make some important decisions, including who you choose as a tutor.

Why do I want lessons?

What do I want from lessons?

How do I learn best? (Doing, watching, listening, etc)

Am I prepared to practice between lessons?

IMHO I think it’s a great decision to have lessons! 😊

as an aside, walk away from any tutor who plays “at” you, showing off their fretboard acrobatics. Stay with one that listens to you, challenges you, encourages you, is patient, consistent and isn’t a serial killer. The last one is hard to gauge until it’s too late, but handy to know.

Best wishes, have fun!!

This x 100. Its not difficult. What do you want out of it and does the teacher listen more than they talk or play.

[Monkey Steve]

agree with all of the above - not from personal experience, but from a guitarist friend who I would rate as superb, but who would have a few lessons every now and then just to shake things up and see what else he could learn to get him out of a rut

He told me two things:

1.  As other have said, if you're not a beginner then be clear about what you want to get out of it, don't just pitch up and expect the teacher to have all the ideas

2.  If you don't think the teacher is helping you, find a new one

What he found was that a good chunk of the teachers he saw were great guitarists but rubbish teachers.  He has a story about having gone to one specifically to learn about modes, only to find that the teacher just wanted to show him how fast he could solo in different scales.  Which sounds bad (because it is) but he'd actually gone to the same teacher before and was really impressed with him when he was showing him soloing techniques and fingering in different positions, so it's horses for courses

Once you know what you want to learn about, maybe come back and see if anyone can recommend someone in your area

[DJpullchord]

Thank you all for your input.

Much to think about.

I think I’d like to take grades, as it’s structured, which is the opposite of what I’ve been doing since picking up a bass guitar.

[dave moffat]

As others have said its about deciding what you want to get out of it how much you're prepared to put in and finding a teacher you gel with, everyone is different. Some folk think they just need to turn up to their weekly/monthly lesson and somehow the teacher will magic them into a decent player, doesn't work like that, you get out what you put in. When I have a scooby what direction I want to go I'll probably get some lessons too🙄

[oldslapper]

6 hours ago, DJpullchord said:

Thank you all for your input.

Much to think about.

I think I’d like to take grades, as it’s structured, which is the opposite of what I’ve been doing since picking up a bass guitar.

Just my opinion obviously, but if you’re going for grades, I’d recommend finding your local RGT registered tutor. 
My RGT registration expired a couple of years ago when I stopped teaching, but I liked that there’s a bit of accountability, good material and support for both pupil and tutor, plus LCM exams aren’t shabby and have a nice range of styles. 

[DJpullchord]

What are RGT and LCM?

What I don’t want is someone that teaches 6 string guitar, persuading me that they can teach bass guitar too. If you know what I mean.

 

[oldslapper]

55 minutes ago, DJpullchord said:

What are RGT and LCM?

What I don’t want is someone that teaches 6 string guitar, persuading me that they can teach bass guitar too. If you know what I mean.

 

https://rgt.org/

I was a bassist teaching bass. 

But I’m sure you’ll find a bass teacher who can offer you exam tuition who’s not a member of RGT. It’s just my experience. 😎 

I also offered Rock-school grades, lots of tutors do too.  

[mcnach]

On 25/09/2019 at 19:20, DJpullchord said:

After playing bass for ten years or so, more out of necessity than choice, I thought I might buy some lessons.

What am I likely to be taught?

I can derrière about in pentatonics and read music, slowly, especially slow when it’s all shifted for bass.

What would come next?

Thank you for your input. 

x

 

I've gone for lessons on and off over the years. When I did, I went with a good idea of what I wanted. I approached potential teachers with that idea: I'd like to get better at X, or learn Y... and they would tell me what they think they can do to help me achieve my goal. Some have their own ideas and didn't convince me. Others were happy to stick to what I told them. The best ones were able to understand what my goal was, and they were able to explain to me how to get there we may be better off addressing other points I had not mentioned... 

Then you choose the one that seems to fit the best. It's important that you get along and understand each other well, so don't be afraid to try a few until you find 'the one'. 

But the main thing, I think, is to have some idea of what you want to achieve and find a way to communicate that to the teacher. Just showing up and saying "teach me" may be ok if you have unlimited time and funds, but may not be the most practical way to get the results you want.