Giving lessons (complete beginner)

[Rowka]

My first lesson ever as bass teacher, his first lesson ever as bass student. Where to start.

I'm real big on the whole "wax on, wax off" idea, but realize that gets boring fast and I want to keep it interesting. Maybe I can just work out a simple song he can learn a few notes on the neck and ride quarters or eighths with his alternating fingers.

Any suggestions?

[burdizzos]

What worked for me when I was a beginner was that I had a teacher who would break out the fake book and show me how to read the notation to make bass lines, then he would play the melody while I stumbled through the chord progressions. After I could do quarter note progressions while keeping time, we moved on to learning rhythmic patterns for various styles of music and how the various scales and modes worked for the different styles.

That made learning very interesting and fun. After a year of that, I had the tools to play just about anything.

[degroove]

First, basics:

What do they want to learn? What kind of music do they want to be able to play? Contact Info, payment info, schedule for lessons

Then:

I would also focus on tehnique:

1 finger per fret, four finger, four fret fingering. left hand

Mechanics of playing open strings and muting as you cross strings to get clean note playing. right hand

Finding a resting place for thumb on right hand.

Names of open strings

[takeout]

The stuff that helped me the most starting out was technique. Being able to get the sounds in my head kept me interested.

- Alternating fingers
- One fret per left hand finger wherever possible
- Muting, both left and right-hand (a BIG one for me)
- Position shifting (ties in with scales and theory)
- Use of open strings as "transition notes"
- Chording/double-stops
- Right hand picking location (demonstrating the tonal differences)

The theory stuff I mostly sought out on my own.

[Emprov]

The first thing that I'd do is teach him proper technique, put him on a metronome and have him do some alternate finger plucking. Tell him to focus on getting the duration and attack of the notes as constitant as possible. Then, show him some basic scales, (major/generic blues) to get his fingers moving up and down the strings. You may want to throw him a bone by showing him a basic walking blues line also.

[ivanthetrble]

*Rowka voice on*

Hey kid, learn this! (hands noob a copy of Wooten's Show of Hands) Come back when you can play it. That will be $100 please and don't slam the door on your way out.

*Rowka voice off*

[Rowka]

ITT,
That's kinda my approach to teaching anything. I allways behave like the student knows almost as much as I do.

[Jazz Ad]

I never work on full songs with my students. I'm against it. I prefer to give them tools rather than readymade stuff to play.
Sometimes a riff, a complicated lick they can't work out by themselves or a chord chart, that's about it.

Lessons always include a question session, some theory, a technical point, rythmic work and at least one record recommendation. That's unless they really have nothing to learn in a specific area. Some of my students are much more proficient than I am. They don't come to hear my half decent tapping.

I always makes sure they go home with more work than they can achieve for the next lesson but I will never pick on them if they didn't do their homework. It's their hobby dammit, I get paid to help them enjoying it, not give wise ass lessons.

[Bassius]

Originally posted by ivanthetrble *Rowka voice on* Hey kid, learn this! (hands noob a copy of Wooten's Show of Hands) Come back when you can play it. That will be $200 please and don't slam the door on your way out. *Rowka voice off*

sounds like a bassius lesson

j/k

[4string]

Originally posted by Jazz Ad I always makes sure they go home with more work than they can achieve for the next lesson but I will never pick on them if they didn't do their homework. It's their hobby dammit, I get paid to help them enjoying it, not give wise ass lessons.

I never thought of it that way. I will try to incorporate that into how I teach my students.

[One Bad Monkey]

When I used to teach, I was in the mentality of "I am not here to teach you specific songs. I am here to teach you the tools so you can learn those songs yourself." But after a while of kids quitting because it wasn't "fun" for them, I tailored it a little so that I would show them technique and then pick a song or two that the technique was used in. That made a difference, and a lot of kids really took to that, because as they were learning a lot of the techy part of it, some of them would say "You know, I learned _______ the other day. I didn't realize how easy it was."