TikTok is a confusing place - I say as a verified Old who only recently joined the popular social media app. The Almighty Algorithm drives what each user sees on their FYP (For You Page) and pays close attention to what videos you watch, what videos you like, and what content you scroll away from. Before long an FYP knows the user better than the user might know themselves - for example, you might find yourself on KinkTok or D&DTok without ever having participated in those activities just because the app sees that you’re paying attention to that content.

There are more musicians on TikTok than you can shake a stick at. Every instrument (I follow a woman who plays the Otamatone because it’s fun to hear what she does with rock and roll) and every skill level is on display. Want to feel bad about your playing? It’s even easier here than on YouTube. Want to find things to learn? Concepts are more bite-sized but they’re still there.

Jon LaTona is one such bass player, an educator who uses his videos and Lives to play music, model the learning process, and share his passion for the bass. I talked to Jon about all things TikTok.

Doug Robertson: I want to start with your bio on TikTok, it says NYCDOE. Does that mean that you're a music teacher in the New York public school system? If so, what levels do you teach? If not, what does it mean?

Jon LaTona- That is exactly correct.  I am a proud music teacher working for the NYC public school system. I work with grades 9-12 and work with four schools inside the same campus building.

DR: How long have you been a music educator and what made you want to teach music? Did you set out to be a professional musician? Or do you consider being a music educator being a professional musician?

JL- If you are defining a music educator as someone who simply gives music lessons, I have been teaching private music lessons for almost 20 years. I have been a classroom teacher for about three years now. 

When I first started teaching private lessons, my primary focus was my music career. Trying to “make it” as a musician in LA can lead to a very selfish mentality when it comes to music. Talent alone is not enough – if you don’t have the right look, or are not great at networking, that can hold you back, and also really tear you down. I had not yet come to terms with my neurodivergence, so while I was very active in the music scene, it never led to a successful career. I moved from LA to NYC in 2013. It was a hard time, I was depressed about my career and a bit lost. But everything happens for a reason, and this led me on the path I was meant to be on. 

As a full time music teacher, I’ve found my calling. I had a very challenging childhood as a student with a learning disability in the 90’s. Teachers only had one way of teaching and if you did not understand it, you were put down and left behind.  I actually had much trepidation about teaching for that reason.  When I realized there are students that are very much like I was when I was a student, I looked at this as an opportunity to flip the script. I aim to be the teacher that I needed when I was their age. In music, there are so many variables that can make a good performer. So, I focus on equity with my lesson plans. 

DR: How long have you been playing music? On TikTok I've seen you play electric bass and a stand-up bass, was bass your first instrument? How did you get started? Do you play any other instruments?

JL- I am primarily a bassist.  I started playing electric bass when I was 12, lessons followed at 13 and did my first gig at 15.  I was lucky to have supportive parents that accompanied me to the venues when I was too young to be performing without supervision.  My first music college was a two year school called Villa Maria College and was fortunate enough to study under James Kurzdorfer, the original bassist of Spyro Gyra; he helped the transition of me becoming an upright bassist.  From there even though I play other instruments as a band director, the bass has been the most important instrument for me.

DR: Was TikTok your first foray into social media bass playing? Why TikTok? 

JL- TikTok was not my first foray into social media.  To this day, I still use YouTube even though I wish my subscriber count could be higher.  I also was on Instagram too and Facebook.  Facebook was the worst though.  You would think that the people that are familiar with you on a personal basis would be more supportive of your artistic endeavors, but that has not been my experience.  Instagram is basically the same.  Getting traction has been really tough for me and the whole aspect of selling myself is just something that is no fun for me.

My wife got me into TikTok at the beginning of the pandemic. As a creator, it was a struggle at first.  Within my first couple months, I was slowly getting followers but the algorithm is really tricky.  I just kept posting though and used much trial and error.  Luckily I did have one video that reached 1.5 million views and a few that reached in the hundreds of thousands.  Even though it had some challenges, the mentality of just posting authentic videos has worked out for someone like me.  I am continuing to experiment with content and do wish to get to 100k followers on TikTok someday and grow my YouTube and Pateron as well.  

DR: What is your set-up for going live? If someone wanted to join the ranks of musicians on TikTok who do live performances, what would you suggest they do? Does a person need a huge array of cover songs? Do they need a special tech set-up? 

JL- I will start with the tech set-up to go live.  For me, it is just about having an amplifier and making sure that your amps, basses/guitars, and pedals are working just as well as they would at a live performance venue.  If you are playing to a backing track, make sure you have a separate device than the one that you are using to stream live.  For instance, I use a laptop with the speaker to provide enough volume for the viewers to hear.  There is a bit of trial and error when it comes to the mix of the volumes between the backing track and your playing.  If you are using a backing track, you still want your volume to be a bit louder than the backing track, because your viewers are stopping to hear you more.  

Generally speaking when it comes to repertoire, I stick to mainly covers because viewers generally stay when they are familiar with the material.  I tend to stay away from deep tracks from famous artists because most of the public won’t be familiar.  If I had to choose to play deep tracks versus original music, I would choose original.  However, if you want to start developing an audience, I think having an understanding of popular songs is a great start as you develop your following.  Also, try to showcase as much you can do with the songs you perform.  For instance, when I perform live on TT, I will do some solo arrangements with the thumb pick and showcase my multi-tasking skills.  I am very much influenced by Tommy Emmanuel and emulate him as much as possible when it comes to playing by myself without a backing track.  If a viewer makes a request for a particular song and I am comfortable playing the bass part, I will play to the backing track and treat it like I am playing bass in a band. 

DR: What has your experience going Live been? Have you found that a lot of people find you through your live performances? Are commenters generally nice? What should someone be prepared for mentally? How do you plan what kind of content you put out in your regular videos?

JL- It has been an enjoyable experience interacting with my audience.  Comments have been really nice for the most part and it is the main reason why I keep doing these live TTs.  Definitely mentally prepare yourself for the fact that you are not going to control every emotion/reaction from all viewers.

There are going to be people that will criticize you with little to no tact, don’t let that get the best of you.  If you stand your ground a little, most of the viewers will back you.

When it comes to content production, it is almost nothing but trial and error.  I try something in hopes that it will do well.  Sometimes it tanks, then I know not to do that idea again.  Sometimes it will do well and I will keep posting more videos that the algorithm is in favor of.  

Overall, experiment and have fun.  Try to give an experience to the viewer that they will enjoy.  As educators on this app, we should stress being as informative and helpful as much as possible.  As an entertainer, we should try to make what they are watching as enjoyable as possible.  Since I am both, I try to make the content as fun and informative as possible and in that order.  The order is important in my opinion because you could have the greatest lesson plan with a ton of information that students benefit from, but if it’s not fun/engaging, the students won’t retain the information.

DR: Given the choice, what kind of music would you play? Do you write your own?

JL- If you asked me 10 years ago, I would have said original music all the way.  However, these days, I am enjoying playing the covers that I am performing because I am testing the limits on how I perform.  Connecting with my audience is more of a priority than the material itself.  

But I do write my own music.  I have two albums out on Bandcamp now.  The first one I released has Mark Pender on trumpet (Conan O’Brian), Dave Hill on guitar and a drummer named Adam Alesi.  I was fortunate enough to have this first record win an Independent Music Award for best Jazz EP in 2013.  

My second record had Gilad Hekselman as a special guest, but mainly Sebastian Chiriboga on drums and Nick Brust on alto saxophone. If anyone wants to check out the music, the link is https://jonlatona.bandcamp.com/ 

DR: I watched one of your Lives where you were learning a song, I think it was a Tool song. That seems like a huge risk, letting an audience watch you fail and struggle as we all do when learning sometimes. Why do that?

JL- Okay this is a great question!  There is a philosophy that music is only for the talented and little work goes into instrumental performance.  My main goal is to show that anyone can do music and that even professional musicians will have their moments where they become frustrated.  I want people new to music to be comfortable with the fact that musicianship does take time to develop. Part of learning to play a song is embracing and working through your mistakes, so I want people to see that in real time. My intention is to inspire people even when things get tough, and let them know that we all go through this.  

Is this smart, don’t know for sure.  But I did get some comments from viewers saying that this process is actually inspiring.  My only suggestion based on my experience is that maybe I should not do that for the entire live feed.  But I don’t think it’s a bad thing to let your viewers occasionally see what it’s like to see the sausage being made.  Otherwise, if they don’t see the process or don’t know how the experience is, how will future musicians know how to practice?

DR: Your profile says "neurodivergent". If you're comfortable with it, do you mind sharing what that means for you and why it was important for you to list it? 

JL- Don’t mind at all.  So I was always a special ed student (and in some ways still am).  But when it came to what my learning disability was, no one could ever define it.  Doctors have made comparisons for autism, but no doctor was comfortable giving me a diagnosis because my symptoms were not “severe” and I had capabilities that were considered “normal.”

However, when I have watched some documentaries on people with autism and hearing their stories, I identified with many of the experiences they went through.  One of the main issues was socially speaking, I was ostracized from many groups because of the mannerisms I exhibited.  I felt “wrong” and out of place with social interactions with my peers.  I also had language development issues as I stuttered frequently, took a lot of time reading passages, and worst of all; had issues with articulating what was really on my mind.  Any time a teacher asked “can you put it in your own words?” it was an extreme struggle for me.

The reason why it is so important to me is that I want students who want to learn to play music to not be held back. I truly believe that anyone can play music.  If one strategy did not work for a student, let's figure out another one.  As long as you are passionate and have perseverance, you too can accomplish anything musically speaking.  So in short, I put it up to let people know that people with disabilities can accomplish what I can.  I hope that it inspires others. 

DR: What do you practice?

JL- On the upright:

Scales/arpeggios

Sometimes I will do double arpeggios like playing an F# minor than E minor in different inversions.

Love me some Bach!  On upright I am working on the Bouree’s in the 3rd cello suite with a bow (on a side note, I did the first piano invention on a six string bass without any overdubs, link for that is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ldOu0WJZyg )

I will also practice legendary guitar solos with a bow on double bass.  In the past I have posted myself doing the solo to Stairway to Heaven and Bohemian Rhapsody.  These days, I am working on the intro solo to Hendrix’ Red House.

I will also practice jazz tunes with a backing track like Giant Steps, Donna Lee, and any up tempo rhythm changes tune.

On electric bass, just trying to expand my solo arrangement repertoire as much as possible.  These days I have about a dozen songs.  The long term goal is to get about three dozen songs in which I can choose from.

DR: Is there anything else you'd like to add?

If you choose to play an instrument, be patient with yourself and try to enjoy the journey as much as possible.  If you made it this far into the interview, I really appreciate it. I would love anyone’s support by visiting my YT (Jon LaTona Music Education), my TT (jonlatonabass), my https://www.patreon.com/jonlatona and my Bandcamp https://jonlatona.bandcamp.com/ 

I am an artist for Phil Jones Bass Amps and Labella strings. And I do have a book called Giant Steps for Bass on Amazon.

And if you happen to be a fan, I really appreciate all of you out there.  I am truly grateful for all of you.

Doug Robertson is the editor of The Bass Blog, the blog component of The Bass Channel, your one stop YouTube channel for all things bass. His number one is a Mexican Geddy Lee Signature Jazz and his boomer is a BEAD tuned T-Bird, and his band is Red Hoof. Find books by Doug here and pre-order his next book here. If you’re interested in contributing to The Bass Blog please reach out to Doug at doug@thebasschannel.net. We would love to hear from you.