Teaching Philosophy
Damian Erskine over at notreble.com has some excellent tips on how to gain fretboard knowledge. A lot of folks struggle with this. A lot of bass instructors struggle with how to teach it too. The big deal, is one approach doesn’t work for all students, even though the desired outcome is the same. Personally I [...]
I made up some new business cards, and thought it would be a good idea to put something useful on the backside. Over the years, I’ve experienced Nashville Notation many a time, although realistically, each person who has given me such a cheat sheet has called it something different. As such, I sat down with [...]
Continue reading about Nashville Notation, Circle of 4ths, 5ths, MS-Excel
In many ways, online music lessons seem a good idea, but there are some caveats one should be aware of. Lets take a look at the pros and cons. Pros: You can learn at your own pace, at your own time frame, and at the best time that works for you. This is a pretty [...]
I dont teach bass tabs for three reasons. First, they are an easy short cut and as such a temptation. Its not that I’m against things being easy, in fact simplification of complexity is a key part of teaching, but that they can become a crutch. Ie, rather than learning notation, chords structure, or working [...]
While searching out music with interesting time signatures, I came across Rachel Barton Pine’s cover of Spirit of the Radio. A most fascinating mix of classical and progressive rock performed on violin. Granted, the alternative time signature thing I wanted to use as an example is not readily apparent… its there of course, but the [...]
This is a common question asked by many bass students. In many ways, it comes back to ones goals. Granted, a jr high student may have vastly different goals, than 40+ individual who wants to play bass in their church group. Yet, the goals really do set the stage…. but they need to be manageable [...]
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