Lessons Or Scales????

[Lonelypoet15]

This Problem has Be Plaguing Me For Ages And I Want Is Settled right here On The Forum.

Do You REALLY NEED Lessons To Play And Insturment??

My Friend Geoff Has never Stepped foot Into A Mars Music Or Teaching Class And His bass Sounds Amazing. He Has A Band And They Actively Perform Around Plano.

Also Feildy From Korn Made It Big And he Practied Scales Instead Of Lessons.

Does Being Taught How To Play Help?

NOW DONT GET ME WORNG

This Summer I Am Taking Lessons For Bass And Guitar I've Already Signed And Paid.Schools out In Like 7 Weeks So Im getting things ROunded Out For Summer.

So You tell Me, Which Is The Best Way To Go?

[richiebee]

Originally Posted by Lonelypoet15

Does Being Taught How To Play Help?

It's usually about learning good technique as opposed to bad technique. You can read books on how to learn pretty much anything, and anyone can learn scales. But without guidance from someone who really knows how to play, or more to the point, knows how to teach someone how to play, it's just luck whether you are playing right.

For many, playing right doesn't matter. If all you want to do is a 45 minute set in a local band, hey, technique doesn't matter too much. Hack your way through. If you want to play 90 minute gigs every night of the week, you'd better hope your technique is good, because you're going to strain tendons, muscles, whatever it is you use to play your instrument. You're going to get tired.

Unlearning bad technique is much harder than learning the correct technique in the first place. It often requires starting from scratch, and the further you get as a player, the harder this becomes. Been there, done that. Unfortunately, there aren't too many good teachers out there.

[Lonelypoet15]

So I Guess A Major Thing of playing Is Form? Thats What Im Really Going To Learn

[richiebee]

Form? I guess it depends on how you define form.

Technique is how you hold your instrument... how you move between different notes, how you play those notes. Playing without tension in your body, to make difficult passages easy and to avoid injuries such as tendonitis or tissue damage. Learning rhythmic sense. Possibly reading skills. Possibly theory skills. Its different for different instruments.

[Roo]

Since music is truly something that's traditionally been passed down through generations from teacher to student, I think it's important to take lessons with a real person in front of you. Idolizing yourself on someone you learn from is great because you can actually ask them questions, whereas I'm (pretty)sure you won't get an answer out of say Hendrix.

Often teachers will use method books and such to help you, and give you more content to look at if you've already finished everything else. I think that using a combination between the two, and sucking as much information and about your instrument as possible from both living and written sources will build you into a well-rounded player. Famous players like that guy from Korn may have really made it, but as the music business goes, it's often more about who you know rather than how well you play. For all you know, he might not be as much of a great well-rounded player as you might think he is. I know that many of my teachers have imperfections in different departments, and they're aware of them and wish they'd done different - nevertheless they're still making careers out of music.

My 2 cents