JEFF BERLIN BASS MASTERY TESTIMONALS
TESTIMONIALS FOR JEFF BERLIN BASS MASTERY PACKAGES
“I'm a 27-year player with a solid theory background via Alto Saxophone, but I have spent most of my 27 years playing by ear rather than utilizing my past theory knowledge and applying it to playing bass. I recently purchased Jeff's package 1, and I'm amazed at the difference it has made with my playing. I was already technically proficient, but my note association with the fretboard is getting drastically easier and I'm able to interpret the etudes and transpose to proper hand positioning easier as I review each etude, and for this, I'm extremely grateful. I never thought learning like this would drastically improve my playing, but it has, and I was already really good, technically. Thanks, Jeff. I wish I would've found you sooner.”
Zach Edd
“Hands down the best time and money I have spent on bass education. This is real musical content, and time spent with it has done more for my fretboard familiarity than anything else I've seen. By the time I was halfway through the first package, it had made tab obsolete - I can now read notation better and more easily than tab. Thanks to these lessons. So much more music is now available to me. It feels great!”
Kevin Gamble
“Huge thumbs up. The Jeff Berlin reading packages are a great way to improve your reading and playing, regardless of skill level. Even if you are an intermediate player, the first package (beginner) provides a comprehensive plan to learn and improve at reading music. The etudes are well structured and become more difficult as you progress. I have played bass for over thirty years and the Jeff Berlin reading packages are a great way to improve your music reading. I am now midway through Package Three and loving the progress. Highly recommended.” Tom Mullarkey
“I have been working on the 2nd lesson package... I really appreciate the fact that the notation is for 4-string bass (which is what I have always played). Some bass parts assume that you are playing a 5-string, causing transposition which is unnecessary. Years ago, I studied violin, viola and string bass. I remember studying etudes by Wohlfahrt and Kreutzer, which remind me a lot of your studies. Musical content... that's what classical musicians study all the time!”
Greg Gohde
“I have been working package two for the last 2 years. The benefits of that have been plentiful. Of course, my reading improved immensely, and this alone means; better sense of rhythm, better intonation (I play fretless and playing along the audio track has done wonders), better hand positions and better recorded sound. There so much stuff that I never get bored and I keep revisiting all of the lessons. I can imagine myself self-improving with them for many years to come.
I just wish these packages existed when I started!”
Laurent DeCorps
“Since I started playing bass, I had always envied the curriculum and repertoire of my friends that studied 'classical' instruments and had always been left feeling cold by learning through tab and fretboard shape diagrams - the bane of every internet-based self-taught bass player. Jeff's etude courses are so comprehensive that they really hit every area of playing. But the most obvious thing of all is knowledge of the neck and being aware of what note you are playing. It's not an exaggeration to say these etudes changed my life - from seeing the fretboard as intervallic shapes to just knowing what the note names are (and the interval) and having the freedom to play them wherever I want. My neck knowledge has improved incomparably, and key signatures have replaced fingerboard shapes in my head. There's nothing like it in terms of sheer quantity and quality of exercise designed for electric bass - and believe me I've been looking!”
Arran McSporran
Thank you for giving us this well-designed course. I bought it as I was coming to a plateau in my playing and felt that I could not advance anymore due to my lack of reading and musical knowledge. I still have a long way to go, but hopefully this course will get me there. As with most bass players, I am 90% self-taught. My attempts at formal lessons with professionals were good but did not have any structure and no emphasis on reading. I found that the full lesson package has very clear direction on what to study and the lessons are planned very well. The results are not immediate as we tend to forget what we practiced but somehow the brain registers the notes and patterns that you played and suddenly you will know where all the relevant notes are. Amazing. What a great feeling to hear all the sweet notes when playing fills and soloing.
David Ng
“I purchased all 5 packages I could already read bass clef and had some ability to sight reading before I started, however songs with more rhythmic variations always tripped me up and reading notes above more than 3 ledger lines was problematic. I needed to improve so I could play big band charts accurately. I have made it through almost all of package of 1, which is mainly learning to read notes in a wide variety of rhythms (quarter notes, eight notes, dotted quarters/eighths, 16th notes) in the key of C as well as some of package 2, which covers different keys. My reading accuracy has improved considerably. If you practice consistently, slowly and thoughtfully, then over time you will get better at reading. On top of learning to read if you make it through the entire course you will have covered a wide range of important scales and arpeggios in all keys, some approach note studies as well as some ways to connect some of these concepts together. The material can be entirely self -taught, but you need to be a motivated student. If there is any real problem Jeff Berlin and the community on Facebook page is very good about answering questions.”
Mark Globerson
“I began Package One at the beginning of 2018, completed it and began Package Two in 2019, which I am still working on. Began playing bass when I got out of college, self-taught of course like most bass players. Three years ago, I was interested into going to a Big Band Summer Camp for adults (I played sax in High School and really enjoyed jazz band). I contacted the camp director and was told that "You need to be able to read music at an Intermediate level". Not long after that I saw that Jeff was going to be teaching online. I have followed his career since 1987 (even before I picked up a bass) and was very aware of his philosophy on music education, and bass education in particular. I don't make (or keep) New Year's resolutions but every year I try to develop a new skill or pursue something that interests me. So 2018 became the year to learn to read music. Learning to read has greatly increased my interest in, and love of music. Wasn't sure that was even possible as it has been my major non-personal love and interest since I was a child. Last year I began lessons in Functional (Jazz) Harmony with a teacher. There's is no way on earth I would've been able to undertake these lessons (the most difficult thing I've ever done musically) without the ability to read. I also had a whole shelf of music books that I had purchased over the years that were collecting dust that I couldn't benefit from because I couldn't read. No longer a problem!! Looking forward to continuing Package Two and continuing on. Keep up the good work!”
Joe Iriana
“Had a "eureka moment" while I played thru a lesson! The logical progression and presentation that was formulated is brilliant.”
Mike Carr
“I got package 1 about three weeks ago. The lessons are laid out perfectly. After about a week I found I was no longer looking at my fret board. That is something in my 30 odd years of playing I have always done. I am playing the exercises in every position on my fret board and have never moved around my fret board so easily. Thank you, Jeff.”
Frank Gallagher
“Best purchase I ever made in my entire musical adventure."
Peter L.
“I am achieving what I have not been able to achieve in all these years. It's like all my life I've been seeing in black and white and now I'm seeing in color."
Gabriel AE
“Working through Booklet 1 - Lesson 5 right now. Highly recommended! Thanks, Jeff!"
Ron Pretli
“Can't recommend this highly enough. The progressive, structured approach to these lessons has in 3 weeks and at lesson 8, seen my reading advance to a level way beyond my previous haphazard attempts over the years.”
Paul McElroy
“Cannot recommend this package enough. My students are reading at an improved level since introducing them to the lessons. It's the best reading material out there for bass without question. Thanks for your work Jeff.”
Lawson Kennard
“I only wish I started earlier! It will surprise you as it has me, what a difference you will experience with these packages. You will not regret following the path so carefully set by Jeff Berlin, as well as finding these packages to be by far the best money invested in your education as a bass player."
John Reilly
“Thanks to you I am learning to read music again after not doing it for over 35 years.”
Raul Campo
“Almost every exercise I've done in the past from other sources has just felt like finger exercises. The melodic content in these etudes, and the way they each build and develop within each page, feels great to work through. I started on YouTube, then purchased a one-year membership in an online school… but I felt like I was getting nowhere. Jeff’s lessons got me to read and play basic etudes. Great results! If you are reading this and thinking about it: Huge value, go for it!”
Dmitri Kilishek
“I am loving it. Highly recommended. Practicing has become a joy once again.”
Gareth MT
“This is incredible value for the material provided. These reading packages brought my playing on a great deal.”
Chris Kemp
“The books I've bought has been amazing. Change is afoot and I can see it! Even my wife says 'I'm really starting to see progress in your playing. It used to annoy the ******* out of me, but you're really sounding good!" LOL!”
Anthony Miley
“Working through Package 1 -Lesson 5 right now. Highly recommended! Thanks, Jeff!”
Ron Presti
“Musically life changing! Nothing but notes and bass. Jeff's is right! The fat is cut out.”
O. R.
“I’ve always found it difficult to really know where the notes are on the fretboard. Jeff’s Reading Packages are helping enormously with that, and they are really enjoyable to work through."
Ben Littlewood
“Nothing I've done over the past 40 years has progressed my playing as much as Jeff's Reading Packages. Simple as that.”
Phill Spona
“I disagreed with Jeff for years about his take on learning music. So, when my playing stalled, I broke down and got his lessons. They completely changed my playing. Best investment into learning I ever made." N.L.P.