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"Expert" Village???
Sat, 01/10/2009 - 11:27am
Is anybody using this place for bass lessons? I just found it today and there are a bunch of bass lessons up there, but I'm really not sure I would call all of these instructors experts. Hey, for all I know they may be expert uglies, but they are sure not expert instructors.
I don't just mean to blow the place up or anything, but if you're going to be Expert Village should there be some sort of qualification for who's teaching what?
Here's an example of what I mean. This guys whole discussion begins on why you should not use the 3rd finger while you're playing upright and then as he gets to the octave, he says, oh, ok, now it's ok to use the third finger. It just isn't delivered very well, if that makes sense.
http://www.expertvillage.com/video/60221_bass-g-swing-fingering.htm
I should say that I don't play upright. I'm not arguing technique here, I'm arguing the quality of the lesson being given. The guy could be right. But then, I didn't exactly pay a whole lot - read: free. So who am I to complain. I just found it kind of surprising to see that it was Expert Village and the guy didn't seem to be much of an expert. At giving lessons.
Caveat: If this video is actually one of you uglies, too bad. I don't care. :D Just kidding. If it is, well, I hope we can still play together nicely. :)
Sat, 01/10/2009 - 1:02pm
#2
Well, to clarify, as a rule you're not supposed to use your 3rd finger when you're playing the upright until you get past the octave position. The reason for this is because the distance that your hands have to cover when fingering notes on the neck of an upright. The 3rd finger is used in conjunction with the 4th finger... they kind of act as a single digit (So fingerings go 1, 2, '4', where the 3rd and 4th fingers go down at the same time). This is also because the pinky is a notoriously weak digit, so the 3rd helps to provide pressure on the strings when finger with the 4th digit. The distance between notes when you get to the octave til the thumb position is small enough to where you don't need to use your pinky anymore, plus the way that your hand begins to move towards also makes it more functional/comfortable to use the 3rd finger at the octave +.
Or, at least that's what my upright instructor has taught me. ;)
Now, as to your point, I kind of have to agree. He was kind of sloppy in his presentation/explanation... but then again, it's a free lesson video online, so you can't really expect the same quality of having a teacher right in front of you telling you these things, or a professional putting a video onlie. I also noticed that he slips up and fudges on what he is saying v. what he means to say... but again, hey, what can you expect?
To me it's a matter of learning the What, without necessarily ever picking up the How or the Why. Then again, I'm pretty darned anal about those things, and whenever I've taught lessons I think maybe sometimes I spend too much time explaining... :o
But what he is telling you isn't wrong either. It's just not presented in the best of manners... In the spirit of teaching I think what this guy is doing is good, though personally I wish he'd give the caveat of This is a free lesson so take it with a grain of salt, the best way to learn is to take lessons in person!. Like I said, to me he is forgetting to put in the small bits of information that I think can sometimes be critical/really round out an explanation.
Besides, would you go to a website that was called Novice Village or Beginner Village for some free insights on bass? :p
Sat, 01/10/2009 - 1:32pm
#3
Ugh... Expert village: never ceases to annoy me.
Most of the pseudo experts on the site are not only awful as teachers, they are also pretty bad at what they do. As a rule of thumb, dont pay too much attention nor rely on what you see there too much. It might be a good source of really-really basic info on some things, but not something to base your entire learning on.
I dont know about all things they teach, but when it comes to bass lessons, my experience has taught me that.
lol its the internet, anyone that can access it becomes an expert lol....
while the net is one of the best things to happen to mankind, it is also one of the worst. on any given topic you have a 1000 experts saying one thing and another 1000 saying the other. with such a low entry bar,7-8 bucks for a domain, and 10 bucks a month for cheap hosting and you can share your opinons with the world, whether they should be shared is another topic lol. with such low overheads crap can live indefinetly,where as in media and print, arguably crap can't live, as it takes alot of cash to print a newspaper, or broadcast a show. if there's no revenue the plug gets pulled.
fighting back