Hey, James here!
Today, I want to do something a little counterintuitive. More often than not, you watch videos on "5 reasons you SHOULD hire a bass guitar instructor". But in certain circumstances, I actually think it's best that some people do not hire one! I want to talk about those situations today. Here are the 5 reasons why:
1. You don't have time.
I know, shocker, right? Having taught hundreds of students in person and now thousands upon thousands of students online, this is the most common reason I hear, and I think there are two elements to this.
If you are like me and you're a busy family man, I know how things can stack up. If you've got multiple children, a busy job, and lots and lots of commitments. Perhaps learning the bass guitar and taking on an instructor isn't the best thing to do.
The second element to this, which I've seen many times over the years, is students say they simply do not have time, but when you dig a little deeper, what it transpires is they're struggling to regularly get time on the bass guitar and build the practice habit.
Here's the thing, building a practice habit and starting to make progress on the bass guitar can happen in as little as five minutes per day. The time on the instrument isn't the key thing, it's the consistency. So to help you with that, I want to give you a tool that we use with our students over at eBassGuitar, and this is our practice tracker.
What I want you to do is grab your bass guitar, find five minutes every single day (I mean, who doesn't have five minutes?), and literally when you've done your five minutes, you can practice anything you want. You just tick it off day by day! What you'll discover is once you've got a few days down, maybe ten days down, you will not want to miss a practice day. You will not wanna miss ticking that box off. This is a really powerful way to start making progress.
So download our free eBassGuitar Practice Tracker simply by clicking the download button above this blog post! I guarantee this will help you move forward.
2. You don't want to leave your comfort zone.
Let's talk about these zones. There are three zones that I want to make sure that you are familiar with. Imagine a circle in the middle, that is your comfort zone. Then the next ring outside is what's called the stretch zone, and then the third and last zone out from there is the impossible zone. There are a few different names for this, but the concept is broadly the same.
The first zone, the comfort zone, is where we play the stuff that we know. But if we stay in that place, we do not make progress. The next, the stretch zone, is where we start to make progress. But the last zone, the impossible zone, is where we take on too much and get overwhelmed. It gets too much for us and we stop, and we do not make any progress.
The zone where we need to sit in the stretch zone. If you are uncomfortable leaving the comfort zone, perhaps it's best that you do not hire a bass guitar instructor because what a really great bass guitar instructor will do is start pushing you very gently and lovingly into the stretch. Because they know, that's where you start making progress.
Understanding these zones is crucial, and what I've often discovered is when I start pushing students just gently into these areas, they discover it's not quite as uncomfortable as they first thought!
3. You don't want to spend money.
There are two elements to this. In this day and age, with just a few clicks you can easily get the information on any topic you want. We are well in the information age. Whether it be YouTube, Google, or TikTok, you name it! There is every piece of bass guitar information you can possibly imagine out there.
Just take a look at the eBassGuitar YouTube channel for instance which has an extensive library of information on the bass guitar! But what you do not have is someone experienced who can curate this for you and show you the path and roadmap to go down. This is the crucial thing that you get with an instructor. There's a good chance that you could spend hours and hours of time going down rabbit holes and starting to learn only to research the wrong thing. It will make the path to success that much simpler.
The second element I want to drill into now is a little bit more subtle. When you start investing money, it's a commitment to yourself that you're going to get the results. There've been times in my life when I've spent extraordinary amounts of money because I'm committed to getting the result and spending that money will ensure I do.
That's what I encourage you to think about here now. So whether you join a program like the Bass Lab PLUS over at eBassGuitar, which is a couple of hundred bucks a year. Or maybe you join a one-to-one program where maybe you are spending hundreds of bucks a month, it doesn't really matter! Whatever you are doing, you are making a commitment to yourself that you want to get these results, and by spending the money, you are much, much more likely to become a better bass player, which is why I always encourage students to invest in them. Because they will see the results when they do so.
4. You can't take criticism.
Believe it or not, it's only in the last ten years or so that I've learned the word criticism is both a positive and negative word. But more often in life, we hear the word criticism in a negative context.
Criticism or feedback simply, as I prefer to call it, is absolutely crucial to move forward. When you play any instrument or learn any new skill for that matter, a student always needs to know. What they're doing well and what they could work on so that they can move forward. Now, I do empathize and understand why some students find taking feedback tough.
It can be really like you are bearing your soul, particularly if you've worked really hard on a piece of music when you take it to an instructor. But what I encourage all of our instructors to do over eBassGuitar and myself included, is always give feedback in a gentle, loving, and positive. Because one of our core values at eBassGuitar is that we always want students to be moving forward. For me, that is the hallmark of a great instructor. If you, as a student, can get comfortable just finding out where you can improve your bass playing, you will make stratospheric leaps forward.
5. You don't want to put the work in.
This is one I absolutely have to cover because it's critical. Sometimes there's this notion that I've heard over the years that when a student hires an instructor, they will do the work for them and just impart the information, and by osmosis, they will get there. Unfortunately, that's simply not true.
To move forward, you have to put the work in and spend some time on the instrument, perhaps not as much time as you might. But the key is to do it regularly and often. So I'm telling you right now to download that practice tracker! I promise you won't regret it. If you are ready to start making progress moving forward, there are many great instructors, teachers, and programs out there, which will give you the roadmap to move forward.
That is a critical piece, knowing where you're going. That's what a great instructor can absolutely help you with. If you are ready to move forward, I would love you to check out the Bass Lab PLUS. It's a program that I've put together with my team of instructors, and we've seen fantastic results over the years with our students Take out a free trial, and see if it works for you.
These are the five reasons why you should not hire a bass guitar instructor. Whether or not you agree with them, I hope you find the drive and inspiration to keep moving forward in your bass journey! And if you have other reasons for not hiring an instructor, I encourage you to share them in the comments below!
I'll see you next week!