In 2003 I bought my first Bass, a beautiful Tiger Eye Peavey, it spoke to me. I just knew that my Peavey and I were going to be very happy together and I would learn to play it like a pro. Fast forward to 2011, that beautiful Peavey and I never made friends and it was just an expensive piece of decoration hanging on the wall. I picked it up multiple times over the years and tried countless “learn to play” DVD’s, CD’s and books. I never found one the peaked my interest enough to stick with it. The method they had in common was all wrong for me. Who wants to learn a scale, play it a few hundred times and then on to the next scale to play it a few hundred times. When you pick up an instrument you want to learn to play music, learn something to get you excited and compel you to learn more.

Last year I discovered the eMedia Bass Method V 2 and it changed the way I look at my Bass. It went from being wall decor to something fun. The eMedia Bass Method is song oriented and it makes the lessons fun and easy to follow. You’ll be playing actual bass lines from real songs within an hour. John Arbo is an excellent teacher, easy to follow and not one of those dry boring instructors from some of the other videos. The large format videos show plenty of close ups of his hands, sometimes split screen and from various angles which was a great help when trying to figure out hand and finger positioning.

The absolute best part for me was the animated fret board. When you first start playing you can follow the fret board for positioning, when you get more comfortable you can follow the music tracking. Another great feature is the instant feedback, hook up a microphone to your computer and and this program grows ears. If you are playing the notes right they turn green, if they are wrong it tells you. It is like having an instructor in the room with you. Having trouble getting one section, no problems you can stick it on a loop and play it over and over. Still not getting it, adjust the speed and slow it down. This program has been well thought out and gives you all the tools you need to gain confidence playing your bass. Each song has three versions, the full song, bass only and my personal favorite the jam version with the bass removed.

The CD Rom has over 200 songs and exercises, a tuner, a digital metronome and as an added bonus it works on both PC and Mac. In addition to learning to play great songs like Knockin’ on Heavens Door, it also goes into reading tablature and standard music notations. Once you learn those your playing will improve greatly and it’ll open you up to a whole new world of songs.

It took me eight years and a lot of money spent on countless useless programs and books before I finally learned how to play Bass. The eMedia Bass Method had me playing along with songs in an hour and months later my interest is still peaked and I am picking up and playing my bass every day and enjoying it.