Everyone I ever met who was self taught had a great ear, and had great taste. They seemed to "find" on the instrument what they heard in their heads. Self taught without those attributes failed to make progress and gave up the instrument. Being taught formally will get you from the Starting Line to some point "B" but not the finish line. The problem with being taught is you learn things without a reason why so it appears as "trivia" to you - until the "Eureka" moment and if that moment even comes. Example: When I started bass and guitar I used a clip on tuner and the instructors encouraged it. "Tune up! and let us start" That action slowed down training my ear. When I discovered this I stopped using the tuner and the mundane act of tuning up became the start of the lesson by warming up my ear and my attention. Better playing and learning quickly followed.

I love to hear Jeff's perspective on musicianship. I think he is absolutely correct. I remember when I was learning guitar, someone had to show me the chords. I got to a point where I could not progress any further so I wound up taking lessons which helped me tremendously. It is not (reasonably) possible to instinctively know everything we need to teach ourselves. Lessons are imperative. However personal artistry is an essential part of being an effectual musician as well. (Effectual meaning able to touch the emotions of the viewer\listener with our offerings musical or otherwise.)

For me, doing both helped get me off the ground, plus back in the 70's, I think it was far easier to stay focused without a million electronic distractions. I started out in my early teens, in early 72 trying to learn by ear, then took lessons from a good teacher who also brought theory and structure in. A year later or so, I was trying to do it on my own, but with some bass learning books and a pretty solid foundation. By 1977, I was a full time bass player doing the 5 night a week club circuit. It worked for me back then, only having records and cassettes to learn from. For inspiration, living in the SF Bay Area was a teenager, I could shoot up to Winterland and see some of the most amazing musicians and bands. I wanted to play on that same stage and was determined to get good enough to do it. By the time I thought I was good enough, they closed the place down ! Major depressing event. Fortunately there were other great venues in the area ( Old Waldorf, Great American Music Hall etc) ......but Winterland had that vibe that I loved.....plus it's own unique room acoustics where the bass especially sounded great to me.

Jeff this is Jimmie Rex Wiseman aka Shirtless Guy. First may I start off by saying I believe you are the best string player in the world. Sorry but that is MHO. Secondly you are one of the few people that if I met you I would just put my guitar down, shut up and listen. Hopefully however you would find me interesting and we may even both walk away with some gain or such. At the end of the day if I learn something new on guitar or on my guitar approach then the day was not a bad day. Yes I have taken the super vitamin. I took lessons from 1982-1984 but other than that I am self-taught. It worked for me, and your advice is right on as usual. Rock on Jeff! 😎🎸🎵

@_Distemper

Ай бұрын

Dude, no one wants to see your 60 year old pubes.

I have a bass teacher for practice but I'm the coach for game time

After you've established some sort of foundation of playing skills you're more able to come up with a path forward, and start being more deliberate about how you progress as a player. I think that there's a basic level of competence as a player that you need to have to be able to progress, but once you've reached that point, if you're deliberate about how you want to advance, then you can help develop your own path.

I learned by listening to a bass part I liked, and imitating it. The same way humans learn to speak. You don't explain grammar to a baby and tell them this is a noun, this is a verb, this is a adjective...you let them stumble their way through words, pronouncing them incorrectly...until one day...they can speak with the proficiency of an adult with a limited vocabulary. As they grow and learn and listen to more speakers, their vocabulary grows. That's how I learned to play bass. I'd listen to a song and think "there is no way I can do that", but slowing the song down with software and learning it note by note until I could play it in time essentially built my bass "vocabulary".

So well taught!

Thanks Jeff🙏

Keep it up!

In general this is how ANYTHING/EVERYTHING is learned: 1) Your own personal trial and error (or "self taught"). 2) Instructions from others who have learned from their own (or others') trial and error. 3) A combination of 1 and 2. Nothing revolutionary here. In all cases (1, 2 or both), you are still ultimately responsible for whatever development you make. And there are no absolute guarantees that the information you receive from others will result in faster/better development then you may get on your own (though it is reasonable to assume so). And when is comes to individual production of action, specificity is one of the most important factors in learning/development. This is why it is entirely possible to spend time and money getting lessons WHILE NOT getting closer to one's specific goals, especially if those lessons and practice detract from the necessary specificity required for optimal development towards stated goals. If your goal is the ability to produce a specific artistic product/performance and you devote time developing some other tangentially related abilities/skills, rather than the specific and necessary abilities/skills for your goal, you might in fact be wasting time/money/effort.

Concordo Jeff, somos nós baixistas que decidimos o que queremos e quanto queremos evoluir como baixista e músico

I reckon there used to be far more pride in learning the science of music, putting in the hard ground work. Those guys who have said things like "there are no wrong notes" or that "Theory is scam", they have had exceptionally clear and privileged guidance in their early learning ground work.

Always surround yourself with people...should I say smarter than and more knowledgeable than you... about a subject you wish to learn..in this case the individuals can expound dynamics and project what they have learned 😊

I give you a dollar to make me a better player.

It's not one or the other though! You make it sound like it's an EITHER / OR and it is not. I have paid money in my life to private teachers, later a tuition and a degree from Berklee College of Music and I have spent a life time also learning self taught.