As I began to think about retiring from thirty years at Berklee College Of Music, I decided I wanted to create an online classroom for teaching bass.
Real Bass Lessons 1 was posted May 29, 2015. I had already created and posted dozens of lessons and concerts on YouTube, but these offerings were not presented with a structured process in mind. I couldn't settle on a name. I posted for a couple of years as "Bass Teacher." There are some excellent lessons under that name. I also posted using the names "Bass Workout" and "New Hampshire Bass Fest." Tons of these videos featured my dedicated students' performances.
When I finally hit on the name Real Bass Lessons, I started at the beginning, with Major Scale Construction. After few more theory lessons I taught the Cycle of 4ths. Then I jumped into Jamerson. Who doesn't like Motown bass? I decided that I needed some transcriptions, but not jazz. I wanted to appeal to a wider group of bass enthusiasts so I posted Real Bass Lessons 6 - Transcription - Sugar by Maroon 5 .
The response to my first few weeks of posts was very positive. So, now in my sixth year of weekly lessons on Real Bass Lessons YouTube I am still having great fun!
At this point our channel has roughly 2,000,000 views and 22,000 subscribers. I know, the popular bass teachers get those kind of numbers weekly. My teaching has never been real "popular," but is severely effective and beneficial. Plus the person who gets the biggest reward from my efforts is me. Ha! Yes, I get to put out the highest quality bass instruction I can, and there are many students who learn and appreciate my dedication.
Before the newness of my presentations of "just" plain old bass teaching wore off, I would receive thousands of views within twenty-four hours of posting. Now that the dust has settled, about a thousand students pounce on every lesson. They comment, practice, and send me questions. This is a comfortable sized classroom of bass players.
I have organized my 223 weekly lessons and about 200 other bass videos into categories using the "playlist" tool on YouTube. It is interesting to see the specific groups of players who gravitate to each category. The most popular by far is Motown/Jamerson. Second favorite among students is Jazz, particularly walking lines. Third is probably the Bass Demos. I do many of those. All demos are of my basses. I am not sponsored, or paid to do them. As I build a new Stinnett Custom Bass, I make a playing demo. Sometimes I do verbal reviews as well.
In the last five years I have really enjoyed sharing my expertise with all who visit my channel. Besides, making all those videos keeps me off the streets. ;)
