alexb

I had bass lessons with Tom via Zoom for about 1.5 years and mirroring the comments above, he is a brilliant teacher. I was 29 when I started getting lessons with Tom, and had been playing bass since I was 13. I have played in semi-professional level wedding bands and originals bands, so I would say my playing is at a reasonably high level when compared to the general population of bass players, although nowhere near the level of a professional session bassist. It really is difficult to fault Toms teaching in any way -- he was extremely professional and friendly in our lessons, he had a great audio/video setup, he prepared and shared .pdf files for the lessons with personalised content on whatever i was working on at the time, and also made notes after the lesson so I would know what I should work on in between. He was also very responsive to any questions or emails I sent him between our lessons, and flexible to moving lessons when I needed to. One of my favourite things about the lessons was that I felt like I had complete control over the direction we went in. Because Tom is so knowledgeable about all areas of bass/music theory/music as-a-whole I could essentially discuss any songs i'd been listening to (or just anything music-related thing I had been thinking about), and without any preparation, Tom would have something informative to say about it, or make tailored exercises so that I could practise and improve in the areas I had been thinking about. If I was interested in a particular bass solo, he would often go away and listen to it and learn it himself, and then breakdown the various concepts and techniques for me at the next lesson and have a plan on how I could get these techniques in my own playing. This was way beyond anything I'd reasonably expect from a teacher, and is testament to his passion for bass and teaching. Most of all, Tom is just an extremely friendly and humble guy. I think musically we had very similar tastes and interests, and I really enjoyed just chatting with him and nerding out about music/bass. Unfortunately with work/band/family commitments my practise dwindled, which meant despite Tom's best efforts I wasn't making the most of the lessons I had with him. However, I think for anyone with the motivation and commitment to bass, Tom's lessons could really help in getting to a much higher level of bass playing, and I cannot recommed him highly enough.