April 2021 Update

StudyBassers! I want to give you an update on StudyBass.

Where Have You Been?

I know I've been quiet for some time and some of you are wondering, "What is he up to?"

After I launched the completely overhauled version of StudyBass, most people had no trouble and everything was working much better than before.

Still, after the launch, I was flooded with many bugs and issues, comments, questions. At one point I was answering over a hundred emails a day. Various features were working for some browsers and some devices, but not others. It was a lot to work out.

Now I'm not going to lie after coding something like 20 apps for the site in the span of about a year and then working to fix all of the bugs, I felt pretty burnt out.

Now I've fixed most of the worst problems and the site is working well for most users and systems. It's not perfect, but it's good enough that StudyBass can start moving into its next phases.

The new things coming to StudyBass were impossible until I did this massive update.

What's Next?

Now, I would not have worked so hard to update the website if I didn't have some big plans. So, what's next?

Well, the way I teach my private students is I first give them a broad overview of music. I always feel like a travel agent in the beginning. I explain, these are all of the places you'll be visiting. These are the brochures... And, this is StudyBass Fundamentals I, II, and III. The fundamentals curricula contain a lot of introductory explaining a various concepts on technique, rhythm, harmony, reading music, all of that.

And, you can do a lot with this basic foundation. You can play in bands. You can go to jam sessions, write your own music and analyze songs. There are endless things you can build on top of this foundation.

What I do next with students is we dive into each of these individual topics at deeper and deeper levels.

I have dozens of my own little courses that I've developed and I guide students through. Each of these courses addresses different topics. Things like: musical styles, rhythm, fretboard, knowledge, creating baselines, etc.

I've taught these one-on-one courses to hundreds of people. I have the method, material exercises and the pace down. Some of these courses can be pretty intense and focused and students have to work on them one at a time, but other ones you can work on simultaneously with others.

On StudyBass you'll start seeing these courses appear as new curricula. It's going to be a lot of work formatting them for StudyBass, but I expect it's going to be faster to create them than the first three curriculum.

While StudyBass Fundamentals I, II, and III were a lot of explaining, many of the future curricula will be a lot of doing. There's just going to be a lot to practice.

In the Very Near Future

In the immediate future, expect more in StudyBass Fundamentals III. I'm currently writing and recording the next lesson block and its 40 or so exercises. And after that, there are still several big lesson blocks left to finish off Fundamentals III.

My Other Projects

Now, in addition to more curricula, I will be working on several other site projects at the same time.

I'll be re-recording and re-mixing, many of the existing exercises and jam tracks. Thanks to your support, I've been able to make some upgrades to the studio, and I'm making a lot of progress with my mixing skills, too.

I'll be adding more videos to existing lessons. Eventually I want a video on almost every lesson. These can take a while to put together depending on the content.

I'll also be adding more gear articles. There's a lot missing there.

I'll be adding more study tips and blog type posts.

And, there are still a number of features on the website that I haven't finalized or released.

And of course, more bug fixes and whatever issues crop up.

You know, just a few things.

As always, I appreciate your support and patience. There's so much to do, and there's only one of me. I promise no one wants all of this to happen faster than I do.

This new site update has been a huge step forward, and I'm really glad to be moving beyond that.

Keep making music, and I'll keep making StudyBass.

Andrew