Constantine Isslamow -- heard of him?

[Dave W]

A local friend asked me what I thought of him. The guy has uploaded over 1400 bass cover videos on his YT channel in the past 7 years and he started adding links to tabs at some point. He has over 50,000 subscribers. And yet I had never heard of him.

For some reason I can't link directly to his YT channel, just search his name. His website is http://bassinstructor.ca/

[4stringer77]

I checked out his cover of Rockin' into the Night by .38 special. It was ok but not completely accurate. He left out the best parts with the double stops high up the neck. I guess he's a useful resource if you're in a pinch to learn the bare bones of some covers quick.

[Barklessdog]

A person who does covers who is pretty good.

[Dave W]

I checked out his cover of Rockin' into the Night by .38 special. It was ok but not completely accurate. He left out the best parts with the double stops high up the neck. I guess he's a useful resource if you're in a pinch to learn the bare bones of some covers quick.

I don't know the song so I can't comment on the accuracy, but it's hardly fair to judge him as bare bones on the basis of one cover out of more than 1400. With as many subscribers as he has, obviously a lot of people think he's a valuable resource. Also, he doesn't claim to be doing note-for-note covers, does he? He's showing how a bass part can be played, and that's helpful.

[4stringer77]

Popularity is not an indicator of quality. Justin Bieber and rap is popular yet most of choose to play instrumental rock and not start a boy band or a rap group. I don't see the point of learning a cover that isn't as accurate as possible. All notes matter.

[uwe]

A person who does covers who is pretty good.

Uhum. Will there be advanced lessons in the future showing:

- that you can use your pinky to fret too?

- there are alternatives to sliding up and down the neck to reach higher notes? D and G string are there for a reason, you know? (When I took lessons from a fusion bassist as a beginner, he would have smacked me for wandering up and down the neck like that "when the note is right there before you".)

High marks for the skirt. 

[Dave W]

Popularity is not an indicator of quality. Justin Bieber and rap is popular yet most of choose to play instrumental rock and not start a boy band or a rap group. I don't see the point of learning a cover that isn't as accurate as possible. All notes matter.

Apples and oranges. The popularity of an artist or genre by its fans is not the same as people finding value in videos posted by a music instructor.

If you only do note-for-note covers, that's fine. I never have. And I have no idea what percentage of his videos are accurate note-for note covers, or if he cares, because he's not representing them as such.

There are plenty of songs with bass lines that can't be clearly heard all the way through. He's showing a way to play them. IMHO that's good.

[slinkp]

Yeah, to me, note-by-note perfection is useful as a learning tool sometimes: as a way to learn how other bass players do their thing, as a way to challenge the bounds of what comes to you easily and break out of lazy habits ...  But when you're actually performing a song, almost nobody is going to notice minor deviations.  They will notice at least subliminally if your feel sucks or the band's energy isn't good.

I've occasionally looked up youtube covers when my band was learning a new song that I had trouble hearing some detail on the record that seemed important.  I wish this had existed when I was starting out 35 years ago!  One thing that's always interesting is to compare multiple covers because they usually differ from each other and there's usually something that seems "wrong" to me.  Lately the band decided to play Zeppelin's "Good Times Bad Times" and there's a lot going on there, not mixed particularly well on the original, so Youtube was very helpful to figuring it out quickly. I found a few different videos and picked and chose things from each.  In the end it's all just a starting point and I go with playing whatever feels good with the band in the room.

[4stringer77]

I can't argue with what's been said above. In a performance setting, playing well using your own style is more important than trying to nail someone else's style but not quite pulling it off. Overall, the preponderance of bands playing nothing but covers and usually the same handful of covers between them doesn't further the development of the music or the growth of the musician. 

[gearHed289]

Uhum. Will there be advanced lessons in the future showing:

- that you can use your pinky to fret too?

- there are alternatives to sliding up and down the neck to reach higher notes? D and G string are there for a reason, you know? (When I took lessons from a fusion bassist as a beginner, he would have smacked me for wandering up and down the neck like that "when the note is right there before you".

High marks for the skirt. 

Excellent bass lines and solid playing. I used to adhere to the idea of minimal "sliding up and down the neck", and even almost bought a 6 string Zon to facilitate playing across the fingerboard as opposed to up and down. I eventually realized though, that an E at the 12th fret of the E string has way more balls than the 2nd fret D string.

[uwe]

It's only ok to break the rules if you know them! That is the difference between copious ignorance and great art.



Of course there are reasons why you would want to slide up the neck (it looks cooler and it sounds different), but there is no reasonable argument for doing it all the time. Here it looks like she simply doesn't know any better. (The way she plays fifths and octaves with the ring finger of her smallish hands rather than - doublebass style - with her pinky, tells me that she didn't have any formal bass schooling. And as the renowned English lute player Richard Harold B. once commented: "Playing with your pinky is much like liking the taste of innards, you learn it as a child or not at all.")

Sometimes, the greater clarity of notes played at maximum string extension (i.e. way down the neck) makes perfect musical sense.

But I do remember a comment early on in my career as a bassist when an audience member disqualified my chops with: "The bassist is crap, he is always fretting in the same place." My fusion bass teacher would have been proud of me though. 

[luve2fli]

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/whatson-story/8209737-he-was-made-for-loving-youtube-local-realtor-s-musical-hobby-attracts-millions-of-online-viewers/

Just down the road from me.

[Dave W]

https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/whatson-story/8209737-he-was-made-for-loving-youtube-local-realtor-s-musical-hobby-attracts-millions-of-online-viewers/

Just down the road from me.

Nice article. He only started uploading in 2010, had 9700 subscribers as of the 2014 article and now has over 50,000.

[Barklessdog]

Pretty amazing!

The way my lesson goes

[Dave W]

^^^

That's an act (as you probably know).  I don't understand why people thought it was funny the first time.