I've taught myself to play the bass from a book (8 week crash course). It was a good book for getting started, but I don't feel like I've progressed very much since reading it. I can generally pick out simple bass lines, but struggle to follow anything complex.

I'm thinking of getting bass lessons, and would appreciate opinions from people who are self-taught, and those that have had lessons. Are lessons important? I'm sure I could continue teaching myself, but I'm concerned about picking up bad habits and not being aware as I know no different.

This is one of the things I regret the most when I stopped taking guitar lessons when I was younger. That and not continuing my music reading/writing and theory.

Lessons aren't just about technique and theory either, as different instructors will teach you and show you different ideas or concepts, or even different styles/genres. Bounce ideas off of each other and sometimes it takes another person to elaborate on something that you might not be picking up easily and make you go "a-ha!"

But having taken lessons for approximately a year when I started on guitar, and continuing on my own after that, as well as learning to play drums and later bass on my own, I know lessons are something that can only benefit you (unless you have a crappy teacher, I'm guessing). I'll be looking to taking bass and maybe guitar lessons come 2010 after nearly 15 years since I stopped. But that's me.

Others are completely self taught and have no issues whatsoever, so it is kind of down to the individual as well.

I am a self taught bassist. I did take guitar lessons many, many years ago. Unfortunately I have forgotten a lot of what I learned. I think lessons are pretty important and I wish I took some time and took some lessons and learned to read bass. A lot more opportunities could have opened up for me. What I do now, playing classic rock in a bar band, doesn't require reading but it sure would have been nice. Plus the feedback from somebody showing me the right way in the early years would have been great instead of fumbling around. If you have the opportunity to take some lessons, go for it.

Take lessons. Record yourself and listen back. Take a music theory course. Learn some keyboard. Join a band and do some gigs.

That's a good point. I mostly listen to old school punk and rock, so that tends to influence my playing. I listen to people like Norman Watt-Roy (The Blockheads), and he plays so fast I can't quite pick it up. Paul Simonon (The Clash) plays some really cool reggae influenced bass lines that are easier to pick up, but I don't think it's stretching me enough. I would like to learn jazz, but I wouldn't know where to start, so that's where I think a tutor would be really useful. Thanks for your response.

I just listened to you on MySpace, and your sound is pretty cool; but I take your point about going for lesson. I think I had more or less decided on lessons, but wanted to hear from people who had lessons and who were self-taught to get their perspective - so thank you for yours.

All good advice. I have a keyboard in the loft, so I'll get it down and use it when studying the music theory course.



My initial thought when reading that was that I'm not really a performer, and only really want to learn to relax at home. But the more I think about it, the more appealing it sounds. Maybe when I get to the point I feel a bit more competent :-)

Competent? Where's the fun in that? Dive in.

I'm a self-taught bassist of 32 years. I've had one lesson and that was recently. My view is yes you can do it on your own. But you will learn quicker and more accurately if you take lessons. Also learning to read from day 1 is a great idea as learning later on is more difficult.

Davo

No. Join a band now. Better yet: yesterday. You'll learn heaps more than spending time in your room.

I am mostly self taught. Picked up bass about 7 years ago because me and some friends decided to start a band and everyone played guitar already. Joined my second band 7 months after that and progressed a lot.

I took lessons in between, but beware: pick your teachers. I was dabbling with scales when I took my first bass lesson, from a guitar player (...) and he told me there was no use in "just" learning scales. A few weeks in I stopped taking lessons from him since it was expensive and I wasn't getting much from it. But I stopped with the whole scales thing and never really picked it up again

My second teacher, I only ever went there twice due to conflicting time schedules. But he explained to me how to read music, so now at least I can decipher the notes on a staff. Better than nothing, I guess

As from 2010 I'll start taking lessons again, and I cannot say how much I look forward to it. It won't be cheap but I know already that it will be worth it.

A good teacher can be really valuable. As you learn more it can deepen your enjoyment of the instrument. I'd recommend going to your local music store and asking about who the great bass teachers are. The really good teachers will have good reputations.

And don't discount the coolness of performing live. It's a thrill to play a great set for a receptive audience.

Wewlcome aboard, Gez.

I am a self-taught bass player, but I had played trombone, baritone and tuba in high school, so some the fundamentals of music I already had when I picked up a bass in my 20s.

As far as lessons, I know if I would have taken lessons I would have been at my current level probably 3-4 years ago. Lessons with the right instructor will be beneficial, especially if you are serious about investing time into being a great bass player.

Definitely get together with some people and play. That will drive you to learn. You'll make mistakes, you'll drop the ball, but so did everyone else at some point. You'll be surprised at what you pick up on the fly.

I played for 20 years without private lessons, though I attended a few courses. I then took some intensive private lessons. I have to say that my playing improved more in the months following those lessons than in the years, self-taught, preceding them.

Bass lessons? I'm a good guitar player taking flute and mando lessons... I wish I had the time and money to take bass lessons, too!

But it IS true that you can pick up lots of things on your own. A good teacher can speed up the learning curve, though.

Even if you do have a teacher, sitting down and learning things from records and other musicians is a GOOD thing. The main problem is finding the time to do it all!

Where's the fun in that? "Not all who wander are lost." I lean toward Getz's POV. If you have a good enough ear you can pick up bass lines from recordings and be playing with a band right off. You can be learning as you go; we all do. It may be true in classical music that you have to reach a certain minimal level of proficiency before you can perform, but not rock 'n roll, baby!

Above all, have fun. It's called "playing" music! If you can do that while taking lessons, go for it. (I can't; I have what the doctors call "issues with authority..." )

Hope I can be of help. Played drums for many years in the Chicago
area. Switched to bass for the love of the low end. Tried to get
it on my own but progress was slow and I developed a style that
hurt my left hand. Took some lessons a year and a half ago with a qualified bass player who taught me how to prepare as well as how to read some.
Last night, my wife (she's a singer) and I played out with a local group for the first time in twenty years..me on bass. And it went very good. Also, I'm an old dog (71yrs) who is glad to be learning new tricks. A good teacher will bring out your good
qualities. I'm done....nap time !

I came to bass after having played piano (with lessons; theory and technique), trumpet (with lessons; more technique, less theory), and some music theory classes as a kid.

I taught myself, but took lessons for about a year after having played for a few months on my own. Those initial lessons were very useful to me, particularly around fretting hand technique.

I did not take lessons for a long time. Then I went back and took a series of lessons. Somewhere I started a thread about it. Those lessons were really useful, and even though I thought a different teacher would have moved me ahead even faster, I got a lot out of what this guy taught me -- particularly around how I thought about the fretboard and how to move along and across the fretboard (mostly via thinking about fingerings differently).



Huh? Getz's first sentence in the thread is, "Take lessons."

If you have the scratch and the time, take some lessons.

And, play with other musicians -- gigging or not gigging -- but play with other musicians.

Peace.
--SW

God bless you Mr. P, you are giving me hope that my musical value will still be at least somewhat viable for a few more years...

Thank you for all the responses to this thread. Based on the responses, I'm definitely going to get lessons but I'll also continue playing by ear and improvising.

I'm also going to join a band - looking forward to it.

I played bass for over 40 years without lessons. About 2 years ago, I became disgusted with myself and decided to learn music theory and reading. I studied under a good teacher weekly for 2-3 months. I contnued with my theory learning with the help of the internet. I don't read well enough to play with a charted band or orchestra but I do know now what I was playing and why I was playing what I was playing.
Rocky

That (more than anything) is the primary reason you should take at least a few lessons early on if you're even remotely interested in "getting good" or playing the instrument for a lengthy period of time.

Can you get really good without them and be totally self taught? Absolutely. However there may be stupid things you're doing that you aren't aware of that are making it very difficult for yourself. I know I sure was. Fretting hand thumb placement was especially bad on my part. Learning proper technique is not only beneficial for "getting good" but it also will save you from potential injury later. Like carpal tunnel.

+1

No book, CD, DVD, internet video, etc. can watch what you're doing while you're playing ... and correct it. Only a qualified instructor can do that.

I learned jazz through the school jazz band, especially in high school. If you're still in school you should look into it.

Community colleges and community groups may also have jazz bands open to everyone.

These sorts of jazz bands will likely be for "note readers". That is, you need to be able to read standard notation ("sheet music"). Preferably to be able to sight read.

You may be able to find a group in your town that likes to read charts/lead sheets from real/fake books. This requires a different skill set based on music theory and improvisation. That is, you need to be able to read chord symbols and make up a walking bass line on the fly.

If you are lacking any of these skills, private lessons can help you obtain them more quickly than DIY.

[edit: Most college jazz studies programs are designed with kids who have gone through school band/orchestra programs in mind. They will have spent at least 8 years reading music. You may need to beef up your reading skills if you want to go this route, but ask the director first. Also, if you are a college student you may want to ask about taking private lessons from the music department for college credit.]

I wish :-) I left school 29 years ago.

I've managed to find a good bass tutor, and have my first lesson arranged for Thursday next week. It's 20 miles from where I live; I live in quite a remote area, and couldn't find anyone closer. Really looking forward to it.

I find that one lesson can give me a lot to build on. I took my last 2 hour lesson (from Steve Lawson) a few months back and I'm still working through stuff that we worked on and talked about that day. Similarly, I took lessons with guys years ago and I'm still working on some of that stuff.

You might be interested (as I also was self-taught and book taught for many years before taking a lesson) to read about my experiences with lessons since.

http://philwbass.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/my-bass-teachers/

I think that several things are important:

- the quality of the teacher
- the open-mindedness of the student
- the amount of focussed practice the student is prepared to do outside of the lessons
- that the student has regular playing/gigging opportunities to put the learning into practice
- that the student and teacher get on, (though it's possible to have a good lesson from someone you clash with)

I played piano and guitar and had a couple of other brief encounters with instruments as a youngster, but I did not seriously start to practice until I took up double bass at age 16. I had a couple of years of classical lessons, but then learned jazz mainly from players on other instruments. When I went to New York in '80, I took lessons off and on with Michael Moore and Dave Holland -- both were fantastic teachers.

I think on a beginning level it's important to have regular lessons. Once you are playing with other people a lot, then it's nice to visit with a guru every once in awhile for inspiration.

My most recent lesson was last year with the solo bassist of the Cologne Radio Orchestra, Yosounari Kawahara . . . an incredible classical player. I still remember and put to use some of the things he said to me.

I wish you the best of luck, Gez--sounds like you are going in the right direction. Driving 20 miles for a bass lesson isn't so far :-)

Yes, I travel from London to LA for bass lessons - well I'm going there anyway but...

How can you teach/learn Jazz if it is improvisational
Rocky

So is blues.

As I mentioned earlier, as taught in the school system jazz is just notes on the page. Like "suggested" parts. As the students learn more about improvisation, suggested solos are replaced with chord charts. Eventually (at least by college) you work with lead sheets/chord charts.

As Jeremy suggests, if you can improvise a walking blues bass line you're on your way to handling walking jazz bass lines.

We've said it before several times: music is a language.

Sight reading is pretty much the same as TV news reporters who read from teleprompters. If you've ever had to give a cold read in public you know it's not easy to do this well. As you read words on the page for the first time you speak them, phrasing and emphasis are tricky until you're well practiced. Same thing goes for reading notes off the page.

Improvisation is like giving an off-the-cuff speech. You already know the subject matter so it's no big deal. Or a storyteller. Each time you tell the story you embellish it just a bit differently.

Some stories (or jokes) are so well written that the best way to deliver them are as is. There's nothing wrong with a theatre group performing a script as written. Same thing with a cover band playing a hit song note-for-note.

Then there are the actual writers of new articles, stories, books, etc. Musicians can create new songs and compositions, too.

Music is a language. It can be written, read, spoken, heard. Different skills are required to engage the language in different ways, but, for example, there have been many successful musicians who could not read or write standard notation.

How does someone become a public speaker, able to take the podium and speak knowledgeably (if not passionately) on various topics? It just takes practice, although a little instruction will go a long way. Some schools even teach public speaking. The same is true with musical improvisation.

It all depends on how well you know the language and the subject (music and the genre).