Street Smarts or Book Smarts

Which do you rely on most?

  • Street Smarts (feel, instinct, listening to others)

  • Book Smarts (traditional instruction, charting, writing etc)

  • Lots o' street, bit o' book.

  • Lots o' book, bit o' street.

  • Balance of both.

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Brio

Brio

Mar 10, 2013
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#1
Lately I've been thinking a lot about my journey to and through bass.

I started with guitar and had lessons for a brief time in my early teens. I dropped music all together in my late teens and picked up bass at 30 and have been playing steadily for the last 5 years. I get the itch now and again to find a local instructor in order to round out my previous knowledge and apply it more appropriately to bass. And would eventually love to learn to play upright.

That said, I play regularly in an instrumental group. Nothing terribly complicated, mostly riff oriented rock and postrock that grows out of jamming. Nearly everything we write comes from a place of feel and instinct.

So I'm curious, how much of your day to day is based on street smarts (feel, instinct, listening to others) vs book smarts (traditional instruction, charting and writing etc)?
 
#5
carl h. said:
They are not separate things. You need all of that at the same time - even when reading stuff you've never heard before.

Don't kid yourself, learn to read.
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I definitely think they go hand in hand. Also, I never said I couldn't read. Its just not a skill I'm using in my playing at the moment. Of course, every bit of previous music instruction is informing how I play now, there's just a lot of feel and listening to what else is going on.

Nev375 said:
If you want to be smart you learn everything you possibly can.

To do anything else you are choosing to be stupid on purpose.
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No gray area there? I don't think "smart" is the goal and "stupid" certainly isn't the only other option.
 
#6
When it comes to music I have never taken a formal lesson and as of now cannot read.

I've learned by doing it. I used to attach a lot of pride to that. Until I started playing with musicians that were way ahead of me. I learned to HEAR bass. But if you wanted to show me a bassline on a keyboard, it didn't register, I had to hear it on a bass. Playing with other guys showed me how far behind I am, and I have had to overcome that.

Now I'm teaching myself scales and chords, and my hearing and distinguishing those is improving at a decent rate. I bought PreSonus Studio One with a midi keyboard so I can learn a little piano, production, etc.

I even bought an Epiphone Les Paul, but guitar feels so tiny I'm in no rush to actually be able to do anything on that haha.

Do I plan to learn to read? Yes. Do I plan to take formal lessons? Yes.
 
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#7
Brio said:
I definitely think they go hand in hand. Also, I never said I couldn't read. Its just not a skill I'm using in my playing at the moment. Of course, every bit of previous music instruction is informing how I play now, there's just a lot of feel and listening to what else is going on.



No gray area there? I don't think "smart" is the goal and "stupid" certainly isn't the only other option.
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I think you are misinterpreting what im saying.

Either you want to learn or you don't.

It sounds like you are trying to justify to yourself that street smarts is enough and you dont need any book smarts.
 
#9
Nev375 said:
It sounds like you are trying to justify to yourself that street smarts is enough and you dont need any book smarts.
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Not at all. Just trying to get some additional perspective. Like I said in the original post, I'd like to learn to play DB some day and I'm not about to pretend my way through that (though I'm sure many have).
 
#11
Don't forget, there's also practice. For instance in terms of book smarts, the theory behind music notation is easy to learn in a few hours. But fluent sight-reading takes practice. Repertoire comes from listening and practice. Improvisation requires practice.
 
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#12
I can read. I started on low brass in a band program. I know theory. I even taught lessons for several years.

However, these days it's mostly by ear and feel. I can learn most songs by ear faster than I can find the written music online. I played a lot as the house bass player for an open mic blues night. I wasn't consciously thinking about what chord was next and how to play passing notes to get me there. I just kind of felt it. Sure, chord structure knowledge played a part in it.

I voted mostly street and a bit o book. That's how I play these days.
 
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#13
Think of this way, someone started with "Street Smarts" and just happened to write it down so you can be "Book Smart."

So everything that I learned on my own, more than likely someone wrote it down years ago that could've saved me a lot of trial and error.

This whole site is based on teaching, or at least giving "street smart" anecdotes and opinions, so you or I don't make the same errors.

Street Smarts truly only works if you're dedicated to the craft of learning and hang out with musicians that challenge you to be better. If not, you're just repeating the same low-grade skills like I do as I have a balance of neither.
 
#14
Books smart simply explains street smarts.

I find that many people do not have a grid, which book smarts can provide more concisely, to filter their street smarts through and that hinders their playing.

A lot of book smarts can fall into nothing more than mental masterbation, but there is a foundational layer that could be learned in a very short amount of time that has huge carry over.

An example of the later would be transposing. Without this knowledge you essentially have to relearn a song 12 different times to play it in all keys, but with it you can learn it once, understand the function of the chords and your fretboard, and then automatically play it in any key.
 
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