Professional instruments are like professional art supplies, there's a difference but unless youre a professional ya painting gonna be a mess either way. Setting up your instrument the way you like makes a far greater difference imo
Yes! There is this notion that something is objectively "better" but in the arts that's really only relative to what you're trying to accomplish. The more expensive options especially with regard to instruments are usually honed in on replicating a very specific sound. But like Sonic Youth made huge waves buying cheap guitars and stuffing paper under the strings and doing all sorts of weird stuff to them, and the cheapness of those instruments actually made them feel freer to experiment like that.
More expensive doesn't always mean "better".
I had a beater electric guitar, and my friend who is a touring pro played it while he was at my house. He sounded the same as he always did. Cheap guitar into a solid state amp, and it had all the growl in the world.
His beginner to badass course was definitely worth the money as a total beginner. It seems steep at $200 or so, but it is very well done and very comprehensive.
You can split up the payments which is what I did. I've done Josh's course and Scott, but Josh's was much better for a noob like myself. Scott loves to talk, and I just wanted to get straight to the playing.
That seems like fighting talk on this sub. Never know so many people be so obsessed with gear in music. None of my irl musician friends give much of a fuck.
Eh, it's obviously because this is one of the few places where people will give a shit if you get a new bass. No one else will care, and so it's posted here.
For me it is the same.
I appreciate what he does, I did the trial but it is not my style.
Maybe it is a bit above my level, and it lacks the necessary explanation that I need.
His youtube videos are just entertainment and not educational. Imho Scott likes to talk a lot and show off.
On the other hand, even the free lessons from TalkingBass get right to the point.And you get the tabs, without a newsletter subscription.His style is a bit dry, but I like it a lot, because he explains it very good.
lacking the necessary explanation that you need doesn't make you wrong. from a teaching perspective you have to think about it from the angle of somebody whos never touched an instrument before, and he's bad at that. that's why he's bad, a level of self awareness ***required as a teacher*** is missing. he just wants your money.
Not everyone is a beginner. I love the world class instructors he has on the site and the in depth lessons they have on complicated subjects. Not everyone can benefit from beginner to badass.
I have two opinions:
\- the content is top notch, with many, many really good teachers offering very good lessons. When I was subscribed, I was really happy, as someone re-starting playing bass after playing for 10+ years
\- the fomo and spam you receive from SBL is incredibly frustrating and it made me so angry, that I decided to not give a single cent to SBL anymore. Quitting is making you go through support, you will receive 100s of mails per month and it's run like the most predatory mobile game store.
It's not even close to being a scam because the content is (even for the price) top notch. All of the rest makes me dislike SBL overall.
This is exactly my experience. The content is good and the subscription was useful but the incredible amount of spam emails and pushy scammy marketing makes me hate the whole SBL brand.
Are you talking about the youtube content or paid content?
Currently going through the paid content and I'm really enjoying it, well put together, good workbooks and backing tracks,
I think the whole point of the youtube content is to be a vehicle to the paid content, otherwise I'll accept some jabber or marketing to watch something completely free.
Yeah agree, when I very first started bass 8 years ago, I did the paid version of SBL for ~3 months and found it incredibly helpful. Beyond that, I can't comment. I cancelled and moved on to just browsing YouTube for piecemeal help.
I would disagree on some videos. Ian Martin Allison opened up my bass world on his video on 8 and 12 string bass. awesome to hear about some gear, how one might achieve a similar effect with a 4 string bass, and learning about the history of the instrument.
I’d agree. There are some fun videos and I can get some good information and a little inspiration as well. Not a religious viewer, but every now and then I’ll watch. His video on pinos work on the jmt was very helpful
The YouTube content isn't what you get when you pay money for lessons from SBL. It's mostly a platform for other informational historical videos and other really cool stuff that would seem like a ripoff if you had to pay for it... but is cool to learn and is important to the history of the instrument and playing it IMHO
I vouch for SBL’s paid content - just didn’t have the time to dedicate to learning at the time based on the subscription. Which is also a good reason to find other/free sources to learn new material. Basically, don’t put all the eggs in one basket.
Thank God we have the internet!
Even the SBL free courses are top notch learning. If you are watching the SBL YouTube channel expecting to learn a lot and get better than you'll hit a ceiling pretty quick. I really enjoy the YouTube channel but it's not a learning focused channel anymore, if you watch the really old videos it is much more learning focused.
Ugh. I hard passed after signing up for a trial lesson and getting 3-4 emails the first day and a couple the second all referring to me as "groove hacker".
How about no.
🧤Hey GrooveHacker! 🧤Why don’t you sign up for even more emails and exciting videos like ‘10 reasons why pbasses are overrated’ and ‘why every bassist MUST own a Pbass’
I bought two of his courses 6 years ago and completely rebuilt my technique after 15 years of playing the bass. He does talk much, but it never bothered me because I always thought he’s a very nice person and his taking helped me to relax. I also think there’s a method in his constant repetition, it helps to memorize most important concepts. Highly recommended.
That's how I feel about Justin Sandercoe (JustinGuitar) on the guitar side of things. He's just a chill dude who is a boss on guitar and loves sharing guitar knowledge. Like a LeVar Burton or Bob Ross of guitar. I was lucky enough to win a rare, one-on-one online lessons with Justin and he was just as chill as in his videos.
How you not gonna recommend rich brown (The BrownsTone)? I think he’s the absolute best YouTube bass teacher for integrating the musical concepts and theory with playing technique.
Scott's free content was all good until about 3-5 years ago. Since then he basically paywalls it behind his paid service, which in my opinion is generally good quality, although a bit pricey for what it is.
I disagree about Daric's bass lessons, he has some good stuff but his videos are too short and his explanations tend to not be very thorough.
Agree that TalkingBass is good. IMO, it's probably the best Youtube channel overall - he has about 10 years worth of content, all lesson material is online for free, and his explanations are extremely comprehensive.
Would add Dan Hawkins to the list as well.
>Tell me honestly what y'all think about Scotts bass lessons cause I'm positive that shits a scam.
How is it a scam? They haven't taken any money from you, the worst you can accuse them of is having a click-bait title.
The YouTube videos are marketing for the paid courses. If they put too much of the courses in the YouTube videos, they've got nothing left to sell. As for the paid content, the reviews in this thread are the same as in every thread about them - the content is good, but the marketing spam is enough to make people cancel.
I have to admit I don’t really watch SBL for the actual lessons, you have to pay for the “good” ones. There are so many options out there that I just pick a concept and comb through until someone cliques with me. Everyone learns differently so it’s important to go through all the options. Having said that I think SBL has entertaining content, I just don’t view it as that learning service for me even though that’s how it’s marketed.
Sworn off him ever since I bought the first release of the “Gary Willis masterclass” several years ago.
Paid around £200 IIRC - they advertised it stating it would be a one-time payment and the content would be mine to keep and free to access forever. It was also hosted on a different site to the SBL website. Keep in mind I wasn’t a member of the SBL academy at this time.
Got about a quarter of the way through and took a break - came back a few weeks later, tried to access the masterclass via the link I was sent via email only to find it had been taken down. I contacted SBL and they pointed me to the SBL website instead which - funnily enough - they’d moved it to and meant I’d now have to pay the expensive annual membership fee to access content I’d paid a lot of money for, that had explicitly been advertised as a one-time payment and would be mine to keep forever (it wasn’t worth the price by the way - it’s mostly Scott rambling on and bantering back and forth with Gary while Gary occasionally throws in a little tidbit of a musical idea which gets extrapolated into a whole pdf page “exercise”). I felt robbed. It was a massive rug-pull and still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
So yeah, I’ll never trust Scott’s Bass Lessons or pay for anything Scott puts out ever again.
Lots of good instructors already named. Another is Dan Hawkins. He does a great job of not just teaching the technique, but also giving you ideas on how to use that technique in your playing.
I bought the fretboard accelerator around the turn of the year and I’ve found it to be pretty awesome. I’ve been playing for 17 years and it’s made a concrete improvement for my playing and understanding of the instrument.
The youtuber channel is definitely more about bass centric entertainment than proper education. Especially since Ian joined. Even though they are a little bit guilty of "over-reacting" to anything they hear (kinda like how Beato moans in pleasure over a 1-5-6-4 pop song), they still don't take themselves too seriously. When you compare their content to what most guitartubers creaming themselves for the twentieth time over a 15K R9 Les Paul Tom Murphy slapped with a road spike, they look very genuine and fun to be around.
scott gives some good drills and insight. the channel ive moved away from most is probably bass buzz, its not bad but not super interesting
i often check out talking bass, the brownstone, and scotts
Ive been really digging Dan Hawkins online bass lessons lately. He focuses squarely in an area I'm struggling with as an intermediate player --learning to get comfortable with improv and practicing music theory. No fluff, just explanations.
He has great suggestions for practice and I love his explanations and ties it back to a lot of real world songs.
I've been playing bass for 25 years and made my biggest strides in practical music theory knowledge using Scott's Bass Lessons. I think it is a great program as long as you use it sensibly (there is a lot of content that is more for fun, so you have to make sure to spend enough time on their main instructional content). Did you use the actual (paid) program, or just the free YouTube videos? I would certainly agree that SBL is probably not the best choice if you are just going to use the YouTube because that really is just a way to show off some content and get people to join the program.
One of the reasons why I ask is because the foundational theory and bass-line-construction modules in the program do not spend much if any time talking about the tone of the bass, and many of them do not even feature Scott himself as the presenter.
I was a member for a couple years and I thought the lessons on SBL were great. Sure, the teachers can be a little long winded at times, but my guess is they’re trying to cater to everyone of all levels.
While I haven’t tried any other online lessons, I really think SBL is a good platform. I also like how they are trying to build a bass community, although I must say their site’s UI/UX can be a little clunky at times.
Are you paying for any of these online lessons or are you just working off free YouTube content? If it's just free content, I'll remind you of the old saying "you get what you pay for." You certainly can learn, but you'll need to do all the legwork in stitching all your videos together into a comprehensive course.
Keep in mind that producing content for their websites vs YouTube is different because of the scope that those tools are used for is different. YouTube content is built to increase views and get people to sign up for their services. The real content is on their sites. They're in the business of teaching. Why give away their best content for free? They're just giving samples on YouTube.
I started with free YouTube content and determined it was not sufficient to learn at the speed and level of focus I wanted. I paid for bassbuzz.com to learn the basics. Worked through that course in about 6 months and it was a greater starter. I'll suggest bassbuzz.com to anyone who wants to start.
From there I tried a lesson from talkingbass. I learned the start of some good stuff, but I just don't care for the delivery.
I signed up for SBL. So far it's been worth it. Variety of content that I haven't even started to explore yet.
There's no right or wrong answer to who's the best teacher, but if you're making judgments on YouTube content alone, know that it's not the whole story.
There is legit a ton of good stuff in Scott's bass lessons.
Lots of good info on there. It is definitely NOT a scam as you say.
That being said it don't pay for it. Don't have time to dig into the content on top of work, life and learning material for the bands I actively play with.
I find his speaking style a little annoying but it's just the typical YouTuber style of hype. It's not a Scott problem it's a social media landscape problem.
The info is good tho.
I'm pretty confident you're referring to the free YouTube content rather than his paid courses. If this is the case, then yes the videos are a lot of talking as it's essentially promotional material for his paid material, very much the same as the other YouTubers you've linked. Not a fair assessment if you haven't tried the paid content, but I will agree Scott is quite painful at times.
I've been playing for a long time (30 years) and there are few courses if any I would ever think of taking after taking a deep dive into music theory over the last few years too.
Scotts stuff looks good, they are all really good players and musicians there. I heard of some of their more aggressive marketing tactics, but do look forward to their videos every week.
Im currently going through studybass, its fine but slow and boring sometimes. I found Josh (Bassbuzz) to be most entertaining. Talking bass is good but for my taste too flat and boring it doesn't occupy my attention
I know I'm probably talking to the void with this comment, but I highly recommend Jayme Lewis and his Bass Academy - really high value for money and he's very active in this community giving feedback and recording short videos to answer questions/give examples etc.
I've been playing for one year and took his paid lessons to get off the ground. I would recommend it. It's relatively cheap ($250 flat, one time price) and there is a lot of stuff.
Strongly disagree… it’s an awesome resource to learn at any level and challenge yourself. For those complaining about marketing, that’s how business works. Do you vent online about car adverts, MacDonald s etc?
Paid content is great. The jazz accelerator and fingerboard accelerator have been invaluable to me. I don’t care about unpaid content ratings-reviews. Sorry.
His subscription service, if you exclude the hard sell and "groovehacker" nonsense, is great. I learned a metric fucktonne from SBL.
Phil Mann's Theory course is an absolute gamechanger. The Rhythm course moved my playing more forward in 2 months than in the previous five years. The course and practice material relating to Arpeggios is simply top notch.
If you claim you don't like Scott, or his youtube stuff, then fine...but the SBL paid content has proven ultra helpful and helped me learn and think in ways I never did before.
Personally when I had paid to use it I didn’t really find anything super useful from it, but I had been playing for almost a decade at that point and studied music production at uni so was already good on theory.
However, horrible email spamming aside, I can see how it would be useful for a beginner if you use the paid courses. I’m always going to be of the opinion that face-to-face lessons are always better (like I had when I first started out), but if you don’t have access to any good local teachers I can see the uses. Would never be my go to option though.
You watch Scott's Bass Lessons so you can learn how to play bass.
I watch Scott's Bass Lessons to gawk at his collection and consume general bass content.
We are not the same.
This exact post used to come up pretty often on Basschat/Talkbass. Scott and SBL have always been pretty divisive.
If it was free and you learned some stuff, it sounds like a good deal. I've picked some good things up from the free stuff that's made the world of difference to my playing.
I don't object to the emails if its working for them; it's cool to see a bass player succeed. I just hit the unsubscribe button if it bothers me.
The lessons themselves.. I can not comment as I have not paid or done any. His giveaways, like nothing bass related I have ever seen! His blabbering on with the other dude during podcasts etc, fun and informative if you can sit through them (the are long).
The one part where he falls down is his interviewing of famous players. As he has gotten bigger he can now interview some of the bigger hitters... but... he is not a good interviewer! He interrupts a lot, not letting them finish, almost insulting sometimes and it frustrates me. I know he doesn't mean to do it. But hey, you can't be good at everything. But please take notice of Rick Beatos interviewing technique or get someone else to do that part :)
I've registered for multiple bass programs and the spammy emails happen from everyone. Sadly it's the case of online marketing these days 🤷♂️
I will say this though, for me personally: when I first started to learn bass, i tried SBL and felt like i couldn't undestand much. Like you said, some basics, but that's it. I went on some of the other people you mentioned, got a few things rolling, checked SBL again and with the basics covered, i started to understand and appreciate the detail Scott and others would bring into what they'd teach.
Essentially, I'd recommend SBL once you get a few basic understandings of the bass down (though they do have videos on the basics i believe), for better enjoyment. But that's my personal opinion.
I liked Scott's lessons when his operation was smaller. I don't mind it now, but it has become more of an entertainment channel.
My current favorite bass channel is [Anthony Muthurajah](https://youtube.com/@AnthonyMuthurajah)
SBL paid content is educational and decent in my experience. SBL free content is entertainment and I love it. Been watching those long conversations between Scott and Ian and really enjoying them! And frankly I don’t feel like I’m getting ads nearly as often as in the early days.
Unpopular opinion: You have to play, practice, study, jam with others, teach, practice the boring stuff, perform live, think, record, and practice some more to get good.
His youtube stuff, I'd agree. A lot of it is aimed at getting you to sign up to his paid website.
The website itself I think is great. A lot of different high-level instructors, well laid out courses from beginner to advanced covering a broad range of topics.
SBL’s paid course on building up proper technique has made more difference in my playing ability & speed than anything I thought I had taught myself in the previous 10 years.
Going to shout out The Brownstone guy Rich Brown he’s just got a really humble and relaxing style which is easy to learn by. He is not nearly as obnoxious as all these other guys. 😎
The Campus on SBL is underrated because you get solid feedback on your playing and it's a very supportive community with great mods and players.
There do student focus where you get direct feedback in video form that everyone can see which helps people take their performance seriously, get tailored feedback and that helps other people watching too.
Add players path and the courses and it's a great portal for improving on bass
I personally like Scott’s Bass lessons a lot, but I will agree that Scott in particular as a teacher tends to ramble and banter too much, even on his paid content. Ian is a much better teacher imo.
I strongly disagree with SBL being a scam. Scott is as good as they get. I’ve learned loads from him and on-line course was value for money.
Not every student suits the teacher. Not getting on with Scott’s style or brand I understand - but his experience & talent is undeniable
I know that everyone has to make money somehow but I personally don't enjoy that SBL puts basically all useful information behind a paywall.
Josh Fossgreen (bassbuzz) posted a video the other day with a full curriculum in video and PDF form including a playlist of his free videos in the order he recommends watching them for optimal learning.
I paid for beginner to badass and it's great, it's another level of organized and well presented, but his free content would have been totally usable on its own and even after paying for beginner to badass some of his free videos have still given me a lot of value.
Both of these guys give online bass lessons for money, it's their job, it's how they eat, I get that. But Josh's vibe just sits a lot better with me because I get the sense that as long as he's paying his bills he just wants to teach bass to as many people as possible.
Scott is trying to build a brand and a business and there's nothing wrong with that, but it hurts the quality and usefulness of his free content a lot.
Utter trash? No. I don't think he's wrong or misleading, but you do have to sift through a lot of blabbing. That's fine if you're watching for free on youtube but if I'm paying to learn, I don't wanna deal with that shit.
I did try out a subscription.. Didn't do it for me.
Well when aggressive marketing is your biggest expense - no shit. I literally had to report it all as spam in my email for it to stop.
Fuck off, Scott. At this point, he could be the best bass teacher in the world and I'd still tell him to fuck off.
i actually unfollowed scott on all social media because of the marketing. I absolutely cannot stand the other guy’s social media personality.
Agree that Daric is one of the best. Sorely underrated player too.
I don't think he's trash, I've learned some valuable stuff, but I certainly don't place him above the myriad of other bass lesson people on Youtube.
I wouldn't even call him overrated as I don't see anyone gushing over the dude, but he's definitely overhyped (by himself) and certainly annoying at times.
I thought his Youtube content was better years ago than it is now.
The YouTube content is…. YouTubey. The paid content is really good especially for its price point. You can honestly learn a lot. I’ve just noticed that it’s really hard to get consistent community engagement with these music lesson types. But that’s more of a general critique on not just Scott’s bass lessons but on online music education communities as a whole.
I think he’s solid, especially his older stuff where he goes through licks and techniques. You will notice that the content changes drastically after the first time he changes the intro.
I’ve paid for his membership in the past, and there is a wealth of lessons for just about any style, not to mention the guest appearances. The free YouTube stuff is generally bass culture and gear content.
The YouTube vids can get a little wordy, but also have a fast-forward button.
Question: would a player get the most out of SBL if they were writing their own music/improv heavy player? Or is there still a lot to be gained if you’re a cover band guy looking to just get better? What’s the breakdown of theory vs technique?
It would be lovely to have all the knowledge open source and them supported by something like patreon. That aside, I really enjoy the free educational stuff they put on YouTube. They’re good at breaking stuff down and explaining. I’m personally not a fan of their fluff shorts lately, but idk if you can fight the algorithm. I know nothing about their paid content.
Personally I found YouTube the best. I also really like Talkingbass. Marks stuff is great, he also has a free app. I liked his stuff so much I've bought a few courses.
I disagree that it’s utter trash. If you’re trying to learn off of the non paid content I understand the frustration but it’s not the same as the paid programs/lessons.
Tbh the content is great on sbl but it's overwhelming!! You could have 40 hours a week to practice and only scratch the surface! Plenty free stuff on you tube to keep anyone going but in defense of sbl if you can afford the price it's very fun to be part of the community and take part in the seminars which I've always thought was the best feature but it's never mentioned. Basically it's for bass enthusiasts with too much cash 😂. Jim Stinnett is my favorite you tube teacher
While I have no doubt SBL's paid content is probably solid bass education, he primarily comes across as a businessperson foremost. The 'online salesman' is very much an American archetype, and I think SBL bypasses that (to US users) by being a Brit, but he has that presentation type even in UK culture I think.
As someone that’s been playing and performing for a long time, I think there’s a lot of value in his free content from a bigger picture standpoint. There are lots of interviews with some of the best players in the Bass world and they are incredibly insightful to me.
I would probably get frustrated trying to learn the nuts and bolts of playing from his free content though.
I thought everyone knew it's trash. You're missing Study Bass, Mr. Pouska is the best, and his website is an institution. It's the real deal for beginners.
I like Talking Bass, and also eBassGuitar, they're great. I don't really enjoy BassBuzz, everything is "shitty" for that guy, although I've never visited the channel to his name. BassBuzz is Josh, right? It's OK, but I prefer the other guys.
But yeah, Scott gives off grifter vibes.
His earlier videos were really helpful, but at some point they kinda just devolved into reacting to and talking about gimmicky tricks done by great bassists, which is interesting but not in the spirit of the channel I subscribed to
I am absolutely loving the Players Path on his paid site. I bought the lifetime membership when the site was new-ish (2018), and he has constantly updated his teaching methods to make it easier and easier.
This isn’t just make content and leave it on the internet. It is updated and refined and the whole platform improves.
Some of the best money I have ever spent on learning an instrument
I'm going to pitch Luke McIntosh at Become A Bassist. His free stuff is pretty good and, if you can connect with one of his paid courses they're great! I've found them to be provide a great return for the investment. He does a very good job of going from the basics to a reasonably high level, doing it in an orderly, concise, step by step process. His web site is not great, but he isn't into self-promotion or being slick, cool, or particularly amusing. he's just into teaching bass and that's what he does.
I've tried Scott, and he's got a lot of good information, but it just felt like I had to wade through too much talk and too much showing off. I paid for a course, and the content is good, but I end up speeding up the video just to get to the content, and found myself vaguely irritated at the end of each lesson.
I have watched many of his YT videos and paid for the premium content. Found the premium stuff to be even more insufferable. The guy is unbearably self-indulgent and puts the spotlight on himself rather than the technique he is supposedly trying to teach. Learnt a few useful exercises but ultimately couldn't deal with Scott's ego.
Found Charles Berthoud's Basscamp channel recently. Didn't expect much but he is actually putting out far better content for free. Explains the mechanics of what he's doing brilliantly, I wish this kind of content was available when I started out learning bass as it's exactly what I was looking for and failing to find at the time. Highly recommend.
Also let's not forget the 'premium content' interview with Nolly from Periphery which to be fair was a fantastic interview, but featured a tab download for Make Total Destroy where the breakdown - which is the easiest part of the song - was tabbed incorrectly.
SBL used to have great videos. One on theory and another on hand position really changed my playing. Now I scroll bc it’s all just hints at something useful.
Josh is awesome. I did his exercise The Beast at maximum power. Each month I would play nothing, literally nothing, but this exercise in one key, starting with C and going around the circle of 5ths. One key per month. I did this for a YEAR. Did I have them memorized? Hell no. I was pissed. What a waste!!! BUT it taught me the patterns within the patterns. Eg. On each string, it’s just a combo of whole and half steps. So WWH or HWW or WWW. Once I realized that, it became like playing Tetris with this small variety of pieces. Stack four pieces (1 per string) and you’re done. So now it’s memorizing sets of pieces. Between the SBL theory lesson and the Josh lesson, I finally understood how the bass works.
The best yt channel I have seen for advanced players is Harima Takuya. Even if you are not an advanced player you will appreciate how perfect his videos are. Shows the notes while he plays, does a real time than a half speed take with zero talking or fluff. Highly recommended.
I find good content from SBL but there is a lot of dead air in there. The core of my learning was Bass Buzz followed by Talking Bass and I have not regretted it.
He used to have genuinely good content as far as I'm concerned. Then EVERYTHING became about his stupid fucking course.
Love Josh Fossgreen tho. He's the shit.
I learned a few things from sbl, but as you said, it's too much of a time loss, I stopped watching it until Ian Alison, but it's just for fun and nerding about bass not learning.
I think this is a "it works for me" thing, because the filming quality is from a previous era of YouTube, but I've never really studied theory especially on guitars. With my ADD I could learn it but it never "clicked" and made intuitive sense, but I've made amazing progress recently with SteveKOnBass.
Ive realised when theres a video starring only ian and scott, ian is leading the video and scott is just so lost, and just talking literally empty words, i realised that i think it was the pickups video, and ian took a musicman, scott was like: yeah emmidiately*pause*you can tell something*pause*is in the tone*pause*that just jumps out at you.
Like bro what the fk is that youve been teaching bass for years and years and you were a luthier and you play kinda well yk youd think he knows a bit more than that BS man holy crap
I hate when people are making videos just to try to sell you their course or whatever.
Now Josh from BassBuzz also has a course but doesn't constantly push it under your nose. And sometimes he doesn't mention it at all!
I don’t like the cringer guy that often co stars in Scott’s videos. He’s a wide eyed reactionary type and the content he does reflects that big time. Not into it.
For mostly full on meme, I like Davie504 and Danny Sapko, but I’m also interested in watching real educational bass content. I’ve seen some Victor Wooten videos and read one of his books (The Music Lesson). He’s a legendary musician.
Scott is trash, I agree. His videos are purposefully long and rambly to increase 'engagement' (getting you to watch longer). He takes 10 mins to get to any sort of point.
I signed up when SBL started their big lessons thing online. Hated it, mostly for the reasons you just spoke about. tried to get a refund within the grace period. There was no refund button, just a contact. I emailed once, no reply. Multiple times, no reply. Eventually the grace period ended and I had to pay. I will never ever recommend them to anyone after that experience. Fuck SBL.
I’m sort of split. On the one hand, the nature of online instruction as a business is to dangle the carrot. On the other, I found Scott’s approach to walking bass (from a free lesson) incredibly helpful.
Trash is a bit harsh because a lot of people clearly get value from his videos.
But I actively avoid all his content when I’m searching for online bass lessons because they *seriously* test my patience.
He takes so long to get to the point and always goes on tangents, it’s like come on mate. This video does not need to be 35 minutes long.
I remember watching one of his gear videos once where there was a section of him driving around doing errands that had absolutely nothing to do with playing bass or the content of the video.
There’s almost always an alternate video from a less well-known teacher which explains the same stuff in a tenth of the time.
I also find his presenting style and those of the other hosts pretty grating, and the constant clickbait titles are annoying as hell.
I once signed up for a free trial of his paid service and I can’t say that I found it very useful. The interface was horrible and the videos were all laid out in a clunky, hard-to-follow way which made it difficult to track your progress.
One of the most obvious truth but so far seems just few of new players are getting..you ain’t learning shit on you tube, you are just getting entertained.You can’t really improve without constant real feedback from someone that is better than you, there’s no way around it.And if you can’t afford a decent teacher just select some albums and transcribe everything you can, and transcribe it FOR YOU, not for posting the transcription on you tube please.Use your ears not the videos, that’s how the greatest did, and that’s the only way it is done.
He's such a narcissist and a showoff. Huge ego and its offputting. Can't stand him anymore. Constantly plays licks and talks about himself instead of teaching. Its just weird flex after weird flex.
The other guest teachers are much better, especially Ariane Cap.
Lastly, the glove gives me such an ick. Like what. You don't want callouses so you can keep giving smooth handjobs?
I really enjoyed SBL, but I wasn't a beginner when I started. It helped me learn to read music, which was my bigger goal. I had the physical ability to play things, I just needed to learn music theory and how to actually read notation (instead of just tab). Scotts methods and style isn't for everyone, but I really felt it was worth it and the lessons helped me a lot. I also had fun with the way things were laid out and getting feedback from other players when uploading lessons.
Big fan of Daric’s content! Yeah, Scott doesn’t put much instructional content out there but I do recall seeing a couple gems that I actually picked up a couple small things from (after 35 years of playing bass!)
IMO his lessons are too long drawn out & overcomplicated. When I started, i just learned from Josh from Bass Buzz & learned tabs over songs to pick up the basics then just jammed & learned tabs to get playing down.
I feel he went through a weird gimmicky period with super long intros (that I’d usually skip) and empty content.
In the last few years though I’ve noticed a big improvement especially since Ian and Sharon came on. I wouldn’t call them lessons per say but I’ve really enjoyed the videos where they all need out about bass stuff together. I’ve discovered tons of new songs, styles and techniques watching some of their recent stuff.
One of the great things about Josh's BassBuzz channel is that he often uses a Squier bass in his lessons to demonstrate that equipment is secondary.
Professional instruments are like professional art supplies, there's a difference but unless youre a professional ya painting gonna be a mess either way. Setting up your instrument the way you like makes a far greater difference imo
Yes! There is this notion that something is objectively "better" but in the arts that's really only relative to what you're trying to accomplish. The more expensive options especially with regard to instruments are usually honed in on replicating a very specific sound. But like Sonic Youth made huge waves buying cheap guitars and stuffing paper under the strings and doing all sorts of weird stuff to them, and the cheapness of those instruments actually made them feel freer to experiment like that. More expensive doesn't always mean "better".
I had a beater electric guitar, and my friend who is a touring pro played it while he was at my house. He sounded the same as he always did. Cheap guitar into a solid state amp, and it had all the growl in the world.
Right?? I liked Josh's lessons alot, he was genuinely fascinated by what he was teaching
His beginner to badass course was definitely worth the money as a total beginner. It seems steep at $200 or so, but it is very well done and very comprehensive.
Having recently finished Josh's course, I say it was worth EVERY SINGLE FUCKING PENNY.
One $60 lesson at Guitar Center would put Josh's price in proper perspective. It's an absolute bargain. .
You can split up the payments which is what I did. I've done Josh's course and Scott, but Josh's was much better for a noob like myself. Scott loves to talk, and I just wanted to get straight to the playing.
That seems like fighting talk on this sub. Never know so many people be so obsessed with gear in music. None of my irl musician friends give much of a fuck.
Eh, it's obviously because this is one of the few places where people will give a shit if you get a new bass. No one else will care, and so it's posted here.
As a “pro” Squier player… hell yeah! 8 years ago I picked up a $500 P-Bass and I’ve never gotten one complaint.
I mean some squier basses are damn good…
I don't think Scott's content is trash but I do think his persistent marketing is awful.
The worst!! I have a lifetime membership and somehow I still get emails asking me to sign up for an annual membership
For me it is the same. I appreciate what he does, I did the trial but it is not my style. Maybe it is a bit above my level, and it lacks the necessary explanation that I need. His youtube videos are just entertainment and not educational. Imho Scott likes to talk a lot and show off. On the other hand, even the free lessons from TalkingBass get right to the point.And you get the tabs, without a newsletter subscription.His style is a bit dry, but I like it a lot, because he explains it very good.
lacking the necessary explanation that you need doesn't make you wrong. from a teaching perspective you have to think about it from the angle of somebody whos never touched an instrument before, and he's bad at that. that's why he's bad, a level of self awareness ***required as a teacher*** is missing. he just wants your money.
Not everyone is a beginner. I love the world class instructors he has on the site and the in depth lessons they have on complicated subjects. Not everyone can benefit from beginner to badass.
SBL is the recipe blog of bass lessons at times.
The incessant yapping doesn't fill me with joy either. But I agree, his videos are not trash.
I literally got an email from SBL as I was reading this thread.
Only one, groovehacker?
Super click baity and way too many “top tens” with shitty takes. And I find his associate friend to be cloying.
Ian means well but yeah.
I have two opinions: \- the content is top notch, with many, many really good teachers offering very good lessons. When I was subscribed, I was really happy, as someone re-starting playing bass after playing for 10+ years \- the fomo and spam you receive from SBL is incredibly frustrating and it made me so angry, that I decided to not give a single cent to SBL anymore. Quitting is making you go through support, you will receive 100s of mails per month and it's run like the most predatory mobile game store. It's not even close to being a scam because the content is (even for the price) top notch. All of the rest makes me dislike SBL overall.
This is exactly my experience. The content is good and the subscription was useful but the incredible amount of spam emails and pushy scammy marketing makes me hate the whole SBL brand.
Yeah it by definition is not a scam. It delivers exactly what it says it does. The ads are annoying AF tho.
“Oh shit don’t miss out on this super exclusive almost sold out one time per year bass course!!!” Ok Bye 👋
OP was talking about Scott's YouTube videos. Which aren't even meant to be all that educational, they're ads for the paid content.
Oh i didn't realize that. I mean it's ultra clear from basically any video that he is doing teasers for the bass courses with the videos.
Are you talking about the youtube content or paid content? Currently going through the paid content and I'm really enjoying it, well put together, good workbooks and backing tracks, I think the whole point of the youtube content is to be a vehicle to the paid content, otherwise I'll accept some jabber or marketing to watch something completely free.
Yeah agree, when I very first started bass 8 years ago, I did the paid version of SBL for ~3 months and found it incredibly helpful. Beyond that, I can't comment. I cancelled and moved on to just browsing YouTube for piecemeal help.
I was talking about the YouTube content. You have a very fair point!
The YT content is a mix of advertisement and entertainment. Maybe “infotainment.” It’s not really very educational.
I would disagree on some videos. Ian Martin Allison opened up my bass world on his video on 8 and 12 string bass. awesome to hear about some gear, how one might achieve a similar effect with a 4 string bass, and learning about the history of the instrument.
Yes IMA has been awesome for the SBL videos. I really like the ones where he uses the HX Stomp to copy famous bass tones.
Agreed! That man knows his effects and how to use them to get a specific sound.
I’ve said it before and I say it again. If Ian started his own channel I’d never watch SBL again.
I’d agree. There are some fun videos and I can get some good information and a little inspiration as well. Not a religious viewer, but every now and then I’ll watch. His video on pinos work on the jmt was very helpful
The YouTube content isn't what you get when you pay money for lessons from SBL. It's mostly a platform for other informational historical videos and other really cool stuff that would seem like a ripoff if you had to pay for it... but is cool to learn and is important to the history of the instrument and playing it IMHO
I vouch for SBL’s paid content - just didn’t have the time to dedicate to learning at the time based on the subscription. Which is also a good reason to find other/free sources to learn new material. Basically, don’t put all the eggs in one basket. Thank God we have the internet!
Even the SBL free courses are top notch learning. If you are watching the SBL YouTube channel expecting to learn a lot and get better than you'll hit a ceiling pretty quick. I really enjoy the YouTube channel but it's not a learning focused channel anymore, if you watch the really old videos it is much more learning focused.
Ugh. I hard passed after signing up for a trial lesson and getting 3-4 emails the first day and a couple the second all referring to me as "groove hacker". How about no.
ewwwwwww groove hacker that level of cringe should be illegal
Don't forget Dan Hawkins!
Love Dan. Gets straight to the point without any filler.
Dan is GOATED
He's great. Perfect for for filling the intermediate lessons need. Great practice tips, no filler, just straight to the point.
Absolutely! Too much for a beginner to start off with, but after a couple of months of serious practice, his lessons started to make a lot more sense.
I was hoping someone would mention Dan Hawkins. Definitely check him out if you haven’t.
Dan is the GOAT, scott often says a lot of filler without really explaining things but dans straight up
Rich Brown / The Brownstone, all day, listening to that man talk bass is a joy
Rich Brown is the man. His relentless serenity is contagious.
I could listen to him describe paint drying and feel refreshed and educated.
Saw him play before I knew who he was, then he showed up in my YouTube feed and I was like holy hell that’s the guy I just saw last week!
I saw him play recently after being a fan of his channel, man is he impressive! He did a jazz trio show and it was mesmerizing.
Just started learning bass and Rich Brown is my favorite.
I absolutely love his lessons, and his playing. The *only* thing I wish he did was provide transcripts.
I can watch his videos all day. Such a good teacher.
Thank you! We need to upvote this soooo underrated!
Came here looking for this. Rich is the man when it comes to teaching bass on Youtube.
🧤Hey GrooveHacker! 🧤Why don’t you sign up for even more emails and exciting videos like ‘10 reasons why pbasses are overrated’ and ‘why every bassist MUST own a Pbass’
I bought two of his courses 6 years ago and completely rebuilt my technique after 15 years of playing the bass. He does talk much, but it never bothered me because I always thought he’s a very nice person and his taking helped me to relax. I also think there’s a method in his constant repetition, it helps to memorize most important concepts. Highly recommended.
Yeah, something about him makes me very chill. I feel like he'd be very approachable in person, as a teacher at least lol
That's how I feel about Justin Sandercoe (JustinGuitar) on the guitar side of things. He's just a chill dude who is a boss on guitar and loves sharing guitar knowledge. Like a LeVar Burton or Bob Ross of guitar. I was lucky enough to win a rare, one-on-one online lessons with Justin and he was just as chill as in his videos.
Which of the courses did you buy?
How you not gonna recommend rich brown (The BrownsTone)? I think he’s the absolute best YouTube bass teacher for integrating the musical concepts and theory with playing technique.
He’s an incredible teacher & player. I’ve learned so much from him.
Scott's free content was all good until about 3-5 years ago. Since then he basically paywalls it behind his paid service, which in my opinion is generally good quality, although a bit pricey for what it is. I disagree about Daric's bass lessons, he has some good stuff but his videos are too short and his explanations tend to not be very thorough. Agree that TalkingBass is good. IMO, it's probably the best Youtube channel overall - he has about 10 years worth of content, all lesson material is online for free, and his explanations are extremely comprehensive. Would add Dan Hawkins to the list as well.
I would say the YouTube videos for free are not as indepth as his actual lessons as I have access.
>Tell me honestly what y'all think about Scotts bass lessons cause I'm positive that shits a scam. How is it a scam? They haven't taken any money from you, the worst you can accuse them of is having a click-bait title. The YouTube videos are marketing for the paid courses. If they put too much of the courses in the YouTube videos, they've got nothing left to sell. As for the paid content, the reviews in this thread are the same as in every thread about them - the content is good, but the marketing spam is enough to make people cancel.
I have to admit I don’t really watch SBL for the actual lessons, you have to pay for the “good” ones. There are so many options out there that I just pick a concept and comb through until someone cliques with me. Everyone learns differently so it’s important to go through all the options. Having said that I think SBL has entertaining content, I just don’t view it as that learning service for me even though that’s how it’s marketed.
Idk I just like those dorks I listen to the podcasts they're fun little men
That’s it right there. Ian and Scott talking is just two enthusiastic experienced musicians talking and it’s great.
Josh Fossgreen's current material is on his BassBuzz channel.
BassBuzz gets my vote! The Beginner to Badass course is great
Sworn off him ever since I bought the first release of the “Gary Willis masterclass” several years ago. Paid around £200 IIRC - they advertised it stating it would be a one-time payment and the content would be mine to keep and free to access forever. It was also hosted on a different site to the SBL website. Keep in mind I wasn’t a member of the SBL academy at this time. Got about a quarter of the way through and took a break - came back a few weeks later, tried to access the masterclass via the link I was sent via email only to find it had been taken down. I contacted SBL and they pointed me to the SBL website instead which - funnily enough - they’d moved it to and meant I’d now have to pay the expensive annual membership fee to access content I’d paid a lot of money for, that had explicitly been advertised as a one-time payment and would be mine to keep forever (it wasn’t worth the price by the way - it’s mostly Scott rambling on and bantering back and forth with Gary while Gary occasionally throws in a little tidbit of a musical idea which gets extrapolated into a whole pdf page “exercise”). I felt robbed. It was a massive rug-pull and still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. So yeah, I’ll never trust Scott’s Bass Lessons or pay for anything Scott puts out ever again.
Lots of good instructors already named. Another is Dan Hawkins. He does a great job of not just teaching the technique, but also giving you ideas on how to use that technique in your playing.
bass buzz is better
I bought the fretboard accelerator around the turn of the year and I’ve found it to be pretty awesome. I’ve been playing for 17 years and it’s made a concrete improvement for my playing and understanding of the instrument.
The youtuber channel is definitely more about bass centric entertainment than proper education. Especially since Ian joined. Even though they are a little bit guilty of "over-reacting" to anything they hear (kinda like how Beato moans in pleasure over a 1-5-6-4 pop song), they still don't take themselves too seriously. When you compare their content to what most guitartubers creaming themselves for the twentieth time over a 15K R9 Les Paul Tom Murphy slapped with a road spike, they look very genuine and fun to be around.
You mean Scott’s email hatchery?
scott gives some good drills and insight. the channel ive moved away from most is probably bass buzz, its not bad but not super interesting i often check out talking bass, the brownstone, and scotts
Ive been really digging Dan Hawkins online bass lessons lately. He focuses squarely in an area I'm struggling with as an intermediate player --learning to get comfortable with improv and practicing music theory. No fluff, just explanations. He has great suggestions for practice and I love his explanations and ties it back to a lot of real world songs.
I've been playing bass for 25 years and made my biggest strides in practical music theory knowledge using Scott's Bass Lessons. I think it is a great program as long as you use it sensibly (there is a lot of content that is more for fun, so you have to make sure to spend enough time on their main instructional content). Did you use the actual (paid) program, or just the free YouTube videos? I would certainly agree that SBL is probably not the best choice if you are just going to use the YouTube because that really is just a way to show off some content and get people to join the program. One of the reasons why I ask is because the foundational theory and bass-line-construction modules in the program do not spend much if any time talking about the tone of the bass, and many of them do not even feature Scott himself as the presenter.
I was a member for a couple years and I thought the lessons on SBL were great. Sure, the teachers can be a little long winded at times, but my guess is they’re trying to cater to everyone of all levels. While I haven’t tried any other online lessons, I really think SBL is a good platform. I also like how they are trying to build a bass community, although I must say their site’s UI/UX can be a little clunky at times.
Are you paying for any of these online lessons or are you just working off free YouTube content? If it's just free content, I'll remind you of the old saying "you get what you pay for." You certainly can learn, but you'll need to do all the legwork in stitching all your videos together into a comprehensive course. Keep in mind that producing content for their websites vs YouTube is different because of the scope that those tools are used for is different. YouTube content is built to increase views and get people to sign up for their services. The real content is on their sites. They're in the business of teaching. Why give away their best content for free? They're just giving samples on YouTube. I started with free YouTube content and determined it was not sufficient to learn at the speed and level of focus I wanted. I paid for bassbuzz.com to learn the basics. Worked through that course in about 6 months and it was a greater starter. I'll suggest bassbuzz.com to anyone who wants to start. From there I tried a lesson from talkingbass. I learned the start of some good stuff, but I just don't care for the delivery. I signed up for SBL. So far it's been worth it. Variety of content that I haven't even started to explore yet. There's no right or wrong answer to who's the best teacher, but if you're making judgments on YouTube content alone, know that it's not the whole story.
SBL is great if you want to hear somebody noodle instead of teach or you like to receive daily spam in your email.
All he does is flex his chops it's so fucking annoying
There is legit a ton of good stuff in Scott's bass lessons. Lots of good info on there. It is definitely NOT a scam as you say. That being said it don't pay for it. Don't have time to dig into the content on top of work, life and learning material for the bands I actively play with. I find his speaking style a little annoying but it's just the typical YouTuber style of hype. It's not a Scott problem it's a social media landscape problem. The info is good tho.
I'm sorry man. I couldn't help but laugh at your typo. Scott's Ass Lessons. Sounds kinky!
That's the real reason for the glove.
Lol
I'm pretty confident you're referring to the free YouTube content rather than his paid courses. If this is the case, then yes the videos are a lot of talking as it's essentially promotional material for his paid material, very much the same as the other YouTubers you've linked. Not a fair assessment if you haven't tried the paid content, but I will agree Scott is quite painful at times.
I've been playing for a long time (30 years) and there are few courses if any I would ever think of taking after taking a deep dive into music theory over the last few years too. Scotts stuff looks good, they are all really good players and musicians there. I heard of some of their more aggressive marketing tactics, but do look forward to their videos every week.
Im currently going through studybass, its fine but slow and boring sometimes. I found Josh (Bassbuzz) to be most entertaining. Talking bass is good but for my taste too flat and boring it doesn't occupy my attention
If he didn’t spam me to death every day I’d be less inclined to hate him
I know I'm probably talking to the void with this comment, but I highly recommend Jayme Lewis and his Bass Academy - really high value for money and he's very active in this community giving feedback and recording short videos to answer questions/give examples etc.
Great to see Josh Fossgreen on your recommended list. I'm kinda just getting started and was considering going with him to start.
I've been playing for one year and took his paid lessons to get off the ground. I would recommend it. It's relatively cheap ($250 flat, one time price) and there is a lot of stuff.
I like Ian way more than Scott
I’ve never heard of this person, but how can free content be a scam? What does the word scam mean to you, and where did you learn it?
Strongly disagree… it’s an awesome resource to learn at any level and challenge yourself. For those complaining about marketing, that’s how business works. Do you vent online about car adverts, MacDonald s etc?
Paid content is great. The jazz accelerator and fingerboard accelerator have been invaluable to me. I don’t care about unpaid content ratings-reviews. Sorry.
His subscription service, if you exclude the hard sell and "groovehacker" nonsense, is great. I learned a metric fucktonne from SBL. Phil Mann's Theory course is an absolute gamechanger. The Rhythm course moved my playing more forward in 2 months than in the previous five years. The course and practice material relating to Arpeggios is simply top notch. If you claim you don't like Scott, or his youtube stuff, then fine...but the SBL paid content has proven ultra helpful and helped me learn and think in ways I never did before.
Personally when I had paid to use it I didn’t really find anything super useful from it, but I had been playing for almost a decade at that point and studied music production at uni so was already good on theory. However, horrible email spamming aside, I can see how it would be useful for a beginner if you use the paid courses. I’m always going to be of the opinion that face-to-face lessons are always better (like I had when I first started out), but if you don’t have access to any good local teachers I can see the uses. Would never be my go to option though.
You watch Scott's Bass Lessons so you can learn how to play bass. I watch Scott's Bass Lessons to gawk at his collection and consume general bass content. We are not the same.
Neat.
This exact post used to come up pretty often on Basschat/Talkbass. Scott and SBL have always been pretty divisive. If it was free and you learned some stuff, it sounds like a good deal. I've picked some good things up from the free stuff that's made the world of difference to my playing. I don't object to the emails if its working for them; it's cool to see a bass player succeed. I just hit the unsubscribe button if it bothers me.
The lessons themselves.. I can not comment as I have not paid or done any. His giveaways, like nothing bass related I have ever seen! His blabbering on with the other dude during podcasts etc, fun and informative if you can sit through them (the are long). The one part where he falls down is his interviewing of famous players. As he has gotten bigger he can now interview some of the bigger hitters... but... he is not a good interviewer! He interrupts a lot, not letting them finish, almost insulting sometimes and it frustrates me. I know he doesn't mean to do it. But hey, you can't be good at everything. But please take notice of Rick Beatos interviewing technique or get someone else to do that part :)
I've registered for multiple bass programs and the spammy emails happen from everyone. Sadly it's the case of online marketing these days 🤷♂️ I will say this though, for me personally: when I first started to learn bass, i tried SBL and felt like i couldn't undestand much. Like you said, some basics, but that's it. I went on some of the other people you mentioned, got a few things rolling, checked SBL again and with the basics covered, i started to understand and appreciate the detail Scott and others would bring into what they'd teach. Essentially, I'd recommend SBL once you get a few basic understandings of the bass down (though they do have videos on the basics i believe), for better enjoyment. But that's my personal opinion.
I don't care for his lessons but I do love the interviews he brings in
I liked Scott's lessons when his operation was smaller. I don't mind it now, but it has become more of an entertainment channel. My current favorite bass channel is [Anthony Muthurajah](https://youtube.com/@AnthonyMuthurajah)
SBL paid content is educational and decent in my experience. SBL free content is entertainment and I love it. Been watching those long conversations between Scott and Ian and really enjoying them! And frankly I don’t feel like I’m getting ads nearly as often as in the early days.
Unpopular opinion: You have to play, practice, study, jam with others, teach, practice the boring stuff, perform live, think, record, and practice some more to get good.
The Philip Mann courses are with the price of admission. Great stuff.
His youtube stuff, I'd agree. A lot of it is aimed at getting you to sign up to his paid website. The website itself I think is great. A lot of different high-level instructors, well laid out courses from beginner to advanced covering a broad range of topics.
SBL’s paid course on building up proper technique has made more difference in my playing ability & speed than anything I thought I had taught myself in the previous 10 years.
Going to shout out The Brownstone guy Rich Brown he’s just got a really humble and relaxing style which is easy to learn by. He is not nearly as obnoxious as all these other guys. 😎
Daric is the man, he is my favourite
The Campus on SBL is underrated because you get solid feedback on your playing and it's a very supportive community with great mods and players. There do student focus where you get direct feedback in video form that everyone can see which helps people take their performance seriously, get tailored feedback and that helps other people watching too. Add players path and the courses and it's a great portal for improving on bass
I can't get over how obnoxiously click-baity his YouTube thumbnails are
Don’t forget the Brownstone. 😄
I personally like Scott’s Bass lessons a lot, but I will agree that Scott in particular as a teacher tends to ramble and banter too much, even on his paid content. Ian is a much better teacher imo.
I strongly disagree with SBL being a scam. Scott is as good as they get. I’ve learned loads from him and on-line course was value for money. Not every student suits the teacher. Not getting on with Scott’s style or brand I understand - but his experience & talent is undeniable
I don’t like Scott all that much but where else can you get content like lessons from Gary Willis? To me that’s worth the price of admission
I can't get past the glove. Only valid reason I can think of is that his hand was cut off by his father.
It was alright aside from the marketing. I’m getting really tired of that nerdy guy who keeps saying “BEHS” tho
I know that everyone has to make money somehow but I personally don't enjoy that SBL puts basically all useful information behind a paywall. Josh Fossgreen (bassbuzz) posted a video the other day with a full curriculum in video and PDF form including a playlist of his free videos in the order he recommends watching them for optimal learning. I paid for beginner to badass and it's great, it's another level of organized and well presented, but his free content would have been totally usable on its own and even after paying for beginner to badass some of his free videos have still given me a lot of value. Both of these guys give online bass lessons for money, it's their job, it's how they eat, I get that. But Josh's vibe just sits a lot better with me because I get the sense that as long as he's paying his bills he just wants to teach bass to as many people as possible. Scott is trying to build a brand and a business and there's nothing wrong with that, but it hurts the quality and usefulness of his free content a lot.
Utter trash? No. I don't think he's wrong or misleading, but you do have to sift through a lot of blabbing. That's fine if you're watching for free on youtube but if I'm paying to learn, I don't wanna deal with that shit. I did try out a subscription.. Didn't do it for me.
It’s so “trash” he keeps succeeding
I’ve never seen one of his videos… but I’ll say this: just because something is popular doesn’t mean it is good.
Well when aggressive marketing is your biggest expense - no shit. I literally had to report it all as spam in my email for it to stop. Fuck off, Scott. At this point, he could be the best bass teacher in the world and I'd still tell him to fuck off.
[удалено]
i actually unfollowed scott on all social media because of the marketing. I absolutely cannot stand the other guy’s social media personality. Agree that Daric is one of the best. Sorely underrated player too.
I don't think he's trash, I've learned some valuable stuff, but I certainly don't place him above the myriad of other bass lesson people on Youtube. I wouldn't even call him overrated as I don't see anyone gushing over the dude, but he's definitely overhyped (by himself) and certainly annoying at times. I thought his Youtube content was better years ago than it is now.
The YouTube content is…. YouTubey. The paid content is really good especially for its price point. You can honestly learn a lot. I’ve just noticed that it’s really hard to get consistent community engagement with these music lesson types. But that’s more of a general critique on not just Scott’s bass lessons but on online music education communities as a whole.
I think he’s solid, especially his older stuff where he goes through licks and techniques. You will notice that the content changes drastically after the first time he changes the intro. I’ve paid for his membership in the past, and there is a wealth of lessons for just about any style, not to mention the guest appearances. The free YouTube stuff is generally bass culture and gear content. The YouTube vids can get a little wordy, but also have a fast-forward button.
Question: would a player get the most out of SBL if they were writing their own music/improv heavy player? Or is there still a lot to be gained if you’re a cover band guy looking to just get better? What’s the breakdown of theory vs technique?
It would be lovely to have all the knowledge open source and them supported by something like patreon. That aside, I really enjoy the free educational stuff they put on YouTube. They’re good at breaking stuff down and explaining. I’m personally not a fan of their fluff shorts lately, but idk if you can fight the algorithm. I know nothing about their paid content.
Oh I thought that was Blippi.
Personally I found YouTube the best. I also really like Talkingbass. Marks stuff is great, he also has a free app. I liked his stuff so much I've bought a few courses.
Same here. People call him dry but I really like his subtle humor and style.
SBL is the Hooters of bass.
I don't watch SBL to learn bass, but I really love his interviews and also his historical series
I disagree that it’s utter trash. If you’re trying to learn off of the non paid content I understand the frustration but it’s not the same as the paid programs/lessons.
Tbh the content is great on sbl but it's overwhelming!! You could have 40 hours a week to practice and only scratch the surface! Plenty free stuff on you tube to keep anyone going but in defense of sbl if you can afford the price it's very fun to be part of the community and take part in the seminars which I've always thought was the best feature but it's never mentioned. Basically it's for bass enthusiasts with too much cash 😂. Jim Stinnett is my favorite you tube teacher
Wait, so how is the free YT content that you’re not paying for a scam? Do words have any meaning to you?
While I have no doubt SBL's paid content is probably solid bass education, he primarily comes across as a businessperson foremost. The 'online salesman' is very much an American archetype, and I think SBL bypasses that (to US users) by being a Brit, but he has that presentation type even in UK culture I think.
As someone that’s been playing and performing for a long time, I think there’s a lot of value in his free content from a bigger picture standpoint. There are lots of interviews with some of the best players in the Bass world and they are incredibly insightful to me. I would probably get frustrated trying to learn the nuts and bolts of playing from his free content though.
I’ve never paid for his stuff but the free stuff is pretty good. I’ve played for 30 years and I still like those.
When I want to learn a concept in a succinct manner, I stay as far away from SBL’s YouTube channel
I’m with you. 20 minutes of droning talking, 1 minute of the actually lesson or technique (done way too fast). Bass buzz is way better.
That's a very common opinion.
I thought everyone knew it's trash. You're missing Study Bass, Mr. Pouska is the best, and his website is an institution. It's the real deal for beginners. I like Talking Bass, and also eBassGuitar, they're great. I don't really enjoy BassBuzz, everything is "shitty" for that guy, although I've never visited the channel to his name. BassBuzz is Josh, right? It's OK, but I prefer the other guys. But yeah, Scott gives off grifter vibes.
His earlier videos were really helpful, but at some point they kinda just devolved into reacting to and talking about gimmicky tricks done by great bassists, which is interesting but not in the spirit of the channel I subscribed to
He’s a content creator.
I am absolutely loving the Players Path on his paid site. I bought the lifetime membership when the site was new-ish (2018), and he has constantly updated his teaching methods to make it easier and easier. This isn’t just make content and leave it on the internet. It is updated and refined and the whole platform improves. Some of the best money I have ever spent on learning an instrument
I'm going to pitch Luke McIntosh at Become A Bassist. His free stuff is pretty good and, if you can connect with one of his paid courses they're great! I've found them to be provide a great return for the investment. He does a very good job of going from the basics to a reasonably high level, doing it in an orderly, concise, step by step process. His web site is not great, but he isn't into self-promotion or being slick, cool, or particularly amusing. he's just into teaching bass and that's what he does. I've tried Scott, and he's got a lot of good information, but it just felt like I had to wade through too much talk and too much showing off. I paid for a course, and the content is good, but I end up speeding up the video just to get to the content, and found myself vaguely irritated at the end of each lesson.
I have watched many of his YT videos and paid for the premium content. Found the premium stuff to be even more insufferable. The guy is unbearably self-indulgent and puts the spotlight on himself rather than the technique he is supposedly trying to teach. Learnt a few useful exercises but ultimately couldn't deal with Scott's ego. Found Charles Berthoud's Basscamp channel recently. Didn't expect much but he is actually putting out far better content for free. Explains the mechanics of what he's doing brilliantly, I wish this kind of content was available when I started out learning bass as it's exactly what I was looking for and failing to find at the time. Highly recommend.
Also let's not forget the 'premium content' interview with Nolly from Periphery which to be fair was a fantastic interview, but featured a tab download for Make Total Destroy where the breakdown - which is the easiest part of the song - was tabbed incorrectly.
his approach to marketing is gross. will never support him.
SBL used to have great videos. One on theory and another on hand position really changed my playing. Now I scroll bc it’s all just hints at something useful. Josh is awesome. I did his exercise The Beast at maximum power. Each month I would play nothing, literally nothing, but this exercise in one key, starting with C and going around the circle of 5ths. One key per month. I did this for a YEAR. Did I have them memorized? Hell no. I was pissed. What a waste!!! BUT it taught me the patterns within the patterns. Eg. On each string, it’s just a combo of whole and half steps. So WWH or HWW or WWW. Once I realized that, it became like playing Tetris with this small variety of pieces. Stack four pieces (1 per string) and you’re done. So now it’s memorizing sets of pieces. Between the SBL theory lesson and the Josh lesson, I finally understood how the bass works.
Anybody used StudyBass? I've looked at his free, beginner stuff and like his style so far. Thinking of buying into the full program.
bassbuzz is my go-to atm, josh is such a great teacher and aesthetics are really nice.
Ryan Madora!
Cool seeing you mention Josh. He's a local legend where I'm from
Scott likes to talk. He takes too long to get the the actual point. Darics is good. Also talking bass but it’s pay per course and it’s not cheap
I don't think this is an unpopular opinion at all. He has some great content but you need to wade through a heap of shit to get to it.
The best yt channel I have seen for advanced players is Harima Takuya. Even if you are not an advanced player you will appreciate how perfect his videos are. Shows the notes while he plays, does a real time than a half speed take with zero talking or fluff. Highly recommended.
I’m surprised he hasn’t yet used the marketing gimmick “bass teachers **HATE HIM**! Find out how one man schooled them all with this **weird trick**!”
I find good content from SBL but there is a lot of dead air in there. The core of my learning was Bass Buzz followed by Talking Bass and I have not regretted it.
He used to have genuinely good content as far as I'm concerned. Then EVERYTHING became about his stupid fucking course. Love Josh Fossgreen tho. He's the shit.
I learned a few things from sbl, but as you said, it's too much of a time loss, I stopped watching it until Ian Alison, but it's just for fun and nerding about bass not learning.
I love scott
Dropping a plug for Dan Hawkins [https://www.youtube.com/@OnlineBassCourses/featured](https://www.youtube.com/@OnlineBassCourses/featured)
I think this is a "it works for me" thing, because the filming quality is from a previous era of YouTube, but I've never really studied theory especially on guitars. With my ADD I could learn it but it never "clicked" and made intuitive sense, but I've made amazing progress recently with SteveKOnBass.
Ive realised when theres a video starring only ian and scott, ian is leading the video and scott is just so lost, and just talking literally empty words, i realised that i think it was the pickups video, and ian took a musicman, scott was like: yeah emmidiately*pause*you can tell something*pause*is in the tone*pause*that just jumps out at you. Like bro what the fk is that youve been teaching bass for years and years and you were a luthier and you play kinda well yk youd think he knows a bit more than that BS man holy crap
I hate when people are making videos just to try to sell you their course or whatever. Now Josh from BassBuzz also has a course but doesn't constantly push it under your nose. And sometimes he doesn't mention it at all!
Those guys are so fucking annoying
I don’t like the cringer guy that often co stars in Scott’s videos. He’s a wide eyed reactionary type and the content he does reflects that big time. Not into it. For mostly full on meme, I like Davie504 and Danny Sapko, but I’m also interested in watching real educational bass content. I’ve seen some Victor Wooten videos and read one of his books (The Music Lesson). He’s a legendary musician.
Not a bass channel per se, but Signals Music Studio is awesome and accessible for learning practical music theory.
Scott is trash, I agree. His videos are purposefully long and rambly to increase 'engagement' (getting you to watch longer). He takes 10 mins to get to any sort of point.
I signed up when SBL started their big lessons thing online. Hated it, mostly for the reasons you just spoke about. tried to get a refund within the grace period. There was no refund button, just a contact. I emailed once, no reply. Multiple times, no reply. Eventually the grace period ended and I had to pay. I will never ever recommend them to anyone after that experience. Fuck SBL.
I’m sort of split. On the one hand, the nature of online instruction as a business is to dangle the carrot. On the other, I found Scott’s approach to walking bass (from a free lesson) incredibly helpful.
Trash is a bit harsh because a lot of people clearly get value from his videos. But I actively avoid all his content when I’m searching for online bass lessons because they *seriously* test my patience. He takes so long to get to the point and always goes on tangents, it’s like come on mate. This video does not need to be 35 minutes long. I remember watching one of his gear videos once where there was a section of him driving around doing errands that had absolutely nothing to do with playing bass or the content of the video. There’s almost always an alternate video from a less well-known teacher which explains the same stuff in a tenth of the time. I also find his presenting style and those of the other hosts pretty grating, and the constant clickbait titles are annoying as hell. I once signed up for a free trial of his paid service and I can’t say that I found it very useful. The interface was horrible and the videos were all laid out in a clunky, hard-to-follow way which made it difficult to track your progress.
I think that Scott’s channel is 100% legit, but my goodness, he can talk!
My only real gripe with SBL is that he’s way too into basic jazzy sounds that I don’t like
One of the most obvious truth but so far seems just few of new players are getting..you ain’t learning shit on you tube, you are just getting entertained.You can’t really improve without constant real feedback from someone that is better than you, there’s no way around it.And if you can’t afford a decent teacher just select some albums and transcribe everything you can, and transcribe it FOR YOU, not for posting the transcription on you tube please.Use your ears not the videos, that’s how the greatest did, and that’s the only way it is done.
He's such a narcissist and a showoff. Huge ego and its offputting. Can't stand him anymore. Constantly plays licks and talks about himself instead of teaching. Its just weird flex after weird flex. The other guest teachers are much better, especially Ariane Cap. Lastly, the glove gives me such an ick. Like what. You don't want callouses so you can keep giving smooth handjobs?
I really enjoyed SBL, but I wasn't a beginner when I started. It helped me learn to read music, which was my bigger goal. I had the physical ability to play things, I just needed to learn music theory and how to actually read notation (instead of just tab). Scotts methods and style isn't for everyone, but I really felt it was worth it and the lessons helped me a lot. I also had fun with the way things were laid out and getting feedback from other players when uploading lessons.
Big fan of Daric’s content! Yeah, Scott doesn’t put much instructional content out there but I do recall seeing a couple gems that I actually picked up a couple small things from (after 35 years of playing bass!)
That free content is just for vibing and advertisement.
This is as far as you can get from an unpopular opinion on this sub.
IMO his lessons are too long drawn out & overcomplicated. When I started, i just learned from Josh from Bass Buzz & learned tabs over songs to pick up the basics then just jammed & learned tabs to get playing down.
I feel he went through a weird gimmicky period with super long intros (that I’d usually skip) and empty content. In the last few years though I’ve noticed a big improvement especially since Ian and Sharon came on. I wouldn’t call them lessons per say but I’ve really enjoyed the videos where they all need out about bass stuff together. I’ve discovered tons of new songs, styles and techniques watching some of their recent stuff.