I just gave a productive lesson to a student concerning the modes of the major scale. We’d gone over them in the past but this was the first time I think he really had a lightbulb moment and GOT it. I won’t bore you with too many of the mundane details concerning diatonic music theory, [...]
This is an old blog post that I decided to go back and update. Some of the ideas I expressed here have evolved since the first writing, so I wanted to reflect that. I’ve totally removed the bit about making organized practice routines because, as it occurs to me, they’ve never been so successful. I’d [...]
Electric Bass Instructor Available in West Ghent
I have over 15 years playing the electric bass, which includes 4 and 5 string as well as fretless instruments and a Bachelor’s of Music from Berklee College of Music. I am not a “failed guitarist.” I have been teaching privately for about 5 years, including teaching bass [...]
The hardest part about writing out lessons has been the lack of dialog in this medium. It is much easier for me to discuss musical concepts with another person than it is to write out an inclusive lesson that explains any potential questions. It is difficult to assume the aptitude of the reader on given [...]
I had a student today ask me about how to properly produce vibrato. I was momentarily stumped. I really never thought about it before, and I had to pause for a bit to think about it. In the past I have had this problem with questions about left-hand muting, and a good 95% of right [...]
Last week, while I was getting my oil changed at Checkered Flag Toyota, I decided to venture down a few blocks to GC (Guitar Center, not Golden Coral) and after playing a couple of Fender J-Basses that were in serious need of cleaning and adjustment (as are most of the instruments in stock at Guitar Centers across the country) I moseyed into the instruction book section to see if they carried any of the Sherr Music books. Instead, I found something that completely disgusted and infuriated me:
Apparently Daisy Rock has released a bass method book specifically aimed at the female student.
Before I get into the most obvious question this book poses, I will say that, personally, I have no great love for many of the method books released by the major publishers out there. Any book should be reinforced with real-life musical interaction, whether that interaction be from an instructor or a group of friends that get together and jam in the garage. Learning music is just like learning a language, if all you have to guide you is a book you won’t get very far, you need to listen to the language and have people there to help you along. That being said, my complaint with these beginning method books is just that they rely too heavily on nonsensical exercises that bore the student into oblivion or waste space with stupid pictures and charts and do not provide enough useful content. The Mel Bay Method is a particularly agonizing series as it hasn’t been updated since it was written in the 1950’s and features a somewhat confusing method of teaching the student how to play bass string by string as opposed to position by position (for you laymen: watch the “Late Show With David Letterman Show†and the house bassist, Will Lee. Pay close attention to how often he moves his whole hand up the fretboard… with few exceptions he stays in the range of the first four or five frets, or the first position. If a beginning student were to learn from the start that all 12 pitches can be played in that first position, many of them would not quit after the first three months.)
So, this Daisy Rock book is ridiculous because it is not only in the same category as many of these other lame instructional books but it pretends to be a tome of empowerment for aspiring young female musicians. This book, written by Daisy Rock founder, Tish Caravolo (a woman), offers nothing new or innovative other than pictures of female bassists (more on that later). As far as the content goes, this book is no better or worse than any of the other beginning method books on the market. The big question remains: What does being a girl (or boy) have to do with learning a musical instrument?
Sometime in 1998 I was attending my first lesson with Whit Browne at Berklee College of Music. I picked Whit as my teacher after an incredibly embarrassing placement audition. Whit was actually one of the professors that auditioned me, and I won’t say I was totally horrible, I just didn’t know what was expected [...]
