Already before the quarantine days, I loved to give online-music-lessons. While touring and traveling, online lessons are always a great opportunity to stay in contact with my students, wherever we are at that moment.
Now I'm of course not on tour and I teach from my home studio. And my setup is not just a webcam and the laptop microphone – a bass student wants to experience the sound of his teacher fat, deep and solid. And the playback-beats to play with should sound punchy and appealing as well. This is why my skype/facetime is directly connected to my studio gear and delivers a high-end sound for the student. Neve-circuit, high-end-compressor and top-notch digital conversion directly into your home! And for the video, I use my concert streaming setup including Full-HD-camera and lights. Only the smoke machine stays off...
In addition to my work as a sideman, soloist and producer, I have been a bass teacher for 20 years now. Whether online, 1on1, in workshops and at the Music University in Mannheim: my goal is that the student finds his/her or his perfect groove. I have taught master students and talented beginners, young and old – I know for everyone there is an individual path to reach the desired musicality.
A profound repertoire, rich sound, solid timing, excellent technique and, if desired, badass chops … in my bass lessons the student learns to sustainably expand her/his playing and musicality. With the right mix of exercises, songs, workouts and recording projects as well as a practice plan tailored onto the student's individual needs. So that she/he has all the skills you need for your music. So that one isn't just successfully participating in the daily music-social-media-competition. It is about being able to fill a room with a tasteful and musical atmosphere, create something exciting and accessible for the audience.
I also have my specialties in teaching. First, that is rhythmical expansion into different styles, odd time signatures, and cross-rhythms. I use these quarantine days to finish my upcoming book about this subject. And second, I have great concepts for creative slapping and soloing. For those subjects, I designed power modules: units of 4 to 5 lessons with a structured schedule, exercises and PDF- and audio-material.
Let me still say this: I love giving online lessons, it is a great way of learning and getting together in a teacher-student-situation. It's flexible and handy. But I also hope, that live music, live teaching and workshops will be possible soon again. I know it will, I believe in a good mix of music in the online world and the real world. And having a band in the real world means getting together, interacting with each other, feeling the thrill of standing in front of a real audience and yes: it also smells sometimes in a rehearsal room...
Here are some of my practice videos. Some have the music score underneath, the PDF are available on my website as well...
