If you happen to live in Melbourne, Australia, you can learn in the comfort of Mike’s teaching studio with instant access to a large and diverse collection of music, including hundreds of unique hand-written transcriptions covering all styles. If not, you may wish to learn online. Information can be sent in the form of text, music notation, ‘tab’ and fretboard diagrams via the net. ‘One on one’ lessons can be organised at a mutually convenient time via Zoom. Just contact Mike to arrange this. Whether you want to learn bass lines from the music you love, learn how to create your own, hone your technical skills or prepare for formal examinations, Mike can can help you.

Teaching is important to Mike as both an opportunity to inspire and guide his students, and a way to organise and clarify his own musical study.

“To be effective requires a balance between being flexible and sensitive a student’s goals, while guiding them via suitable material and exercises to most effectively progress their musical understanding and playing. An experienced electric bass player has usually gone down many ”blind allies” before arriving at better and more effective solutions to musical problems and hurdles. As the electric bass is a relatively new instrument, only really emerging in the 1950’s, there is still very little in the way of established technical material available, in contrast to, for example, the double bass. A teacher’s depth of musical and technical experience, along with the ability to convey this knowledge in a way that is logical and cohesive, is therefore particularly important for such a new instrument”.

Mike has experience with students of all ages ranging from absolute beginners to advanced professionals. A love of music and an enthusiasm for the bass is all that is required.

“I came to Mike Mathews to learn about jazz bass. Not only did I get this. I learnt an appreciation of music and chord structures. I also got a great friend and mentor in music and life. I highly recommend him”.

Mark Tanti – bass student

“I have been receiving bass lessons from Mike Mathews for over 6 months and could not be happier with my progress. Mike’s teaching style is extremely effective and articulate. It is backed up by a massive amount of experience and knowledge. He is a great guy to just have a chat to about all things music. I have been gigging regularly for the last 15 years. Mike has tailored his approach to directly meet my specific needs as a mature student with great results. Highly recommended”.

Andrew Tsindos – bass student