Teaching lessons

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:04 am

So I'm going to be teaching this kid bass lessons and acoustic lessons starting this week. He's new to bass and has played guitar for about a year his mom said. She gave me a list of his favorite bands (Green Day, My chemical romance, the fray) so I'm gonna learn some of those songs to teach him themto make it fun for him and also teach him the basic stuff. I think I remember a couple of you guys mentioning that you teach lessons so I figured I'd ask if any of you guys had any tips. Any help would be appreciated.

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:07 am

Teach them scales and jam with them on it, let them do rhythm and then try lead for while. They fucking love that shit.

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 5:15 am

get a blow job

Post by **Doog** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 11:12 am

This is what I'd do, yo:

-Stick whatever songs you're looking at on a CD-R for him for home use.

-Get him working on some 1-2-3-4 (one finger per fret) exercises to promote the use and muscle build-up of all 4 fingers

-The major scale and it's degrees are way important in understanding how music works (dunno how much you're gonna go into theory, but a little explaination goes a LONG way).

-Always stay positive and encouraging, no matter how many times he's played the wrong note in a row and you wanna smack him the head with a snare drum ala screamo beatdown.

-Good technique makes playing easier, don't gloss over left or right hand technique too fast.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:33 pm

Doog wrote:This is what I'd do, yo:

-Stick whatever songs you're looking at on a CD-R for him for home use.

-Get him working on some 1-2-3-4 (one finger per fret) exercises to promote the use and muscle build-up of all 4 fingers

-The major scale and it's degrees are way important in understanding how music works (dunno how much you're gonna go into theory, but a little explaination goes a LONG way).

-Always stay positive and encouraging, no matter how many times he's played the wrong note in a row and you wanna smack him the head with a snare drum ala screamo beatdown.

-Good technique makes playing easier, don't gloss over left or right hand technique too fast.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am going to go into theory, not too much of it because I don't even know how old the kid is. I do plan on teaching him the major scale and then once he gets that I'll go over the minor scale. I need to try and find some good finger exercises... I can't even remember what I did when I was teaching myself, I'll probably just dig up my old "guitar for dummies" book that I used and look at that for some examples. I definitely want to make sure that he can get rythm and technique down for the first thing.

euan · Post by **euan** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 1:53 pm

One that always does me wonders when I'm learning new chord progressions and shapes not to fret the chord but merely place my fingers in the right place. Doing it slowly and making sure my fingers are all moving correctly.

It's great for muscle memory and building coordination between the fingers.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Thu Feb 08, 2007 2:15 pm

euan wrote:One that always does me wonders when I'm learning new chord progressions and shapes not to fret the chord but merely place my fingers in the right place. Doing it slowly and making sure my fingers are all moving correctly.

It's great for muscle memory and building coordination between the fingers.

That's what I did while learning too. That's another of the small tips that I probably wouldn't have remembered though.. thanks!

euan · Post by **euan** » Fri Feb 09, 2007 12:06 am

I still use it. I'm reteaching myself the neck at the moment and I'm using the E,A,C and G barre chords to do it. Basically I'm fretting the open chord then the next one up the neck, back to the open, then the next highest and so on.

It has improved my accuracy a wee bit in a week or so already. Also when playing the chords its training my ear to listen to the different voicings a little bit better too.

The C and G barre chords might be too much for a young one, but it is good to at least make them aware of them. I'm still working on my D barre, but even after a few years of trying I still haven't built the muscle coordination or memory for it.

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Sat Feb 10, 2007 3:39 pm

i started teaching some a few kids at wabbash.
i always put alot of emphesis on rythm.
i want them to keep a beat for years. and do all that offbeat up stroke spastic shit but still stay in time.
scales come later becuz honestly what good is being a great soloist if you can;t stay in time with the rest of the band and you play like a moneky with tourets.

one of my students is learning a come as you are and i taught a few chords, im trying to get him to get really comfy with moving the chords around and what not.
the others suck too back to even start to learn any songs, and they never pratice so i will be teaching them the same thing 1once a week for proby three threa years.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:03 am

So I just taught him his first lesson today. It went pretty well, I spent about 40 minutes on bass with him and 20 on acoustic. He wanted to focuse more on bass because that's what he plays in his band. He wanted to learn some Green Day songs so I taught him "When I come around" cause it's easy and one of the only songs I know by them! I also taught him the major scale and ran him through that. He had taken guitar lessons before so he knew the very very basics and stuff so explaining the whole step and half step thing was easy. I tried to teach him "when i come around" on guitar too, but he had never learned power chords before so I had to teach him that. I just told him to play along with that song and to practice the scales this week, and then next week I'm gonna see how well he does with it, and maybe teach him another song that he wants to learn.

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:12 am

Teach him American Idiot as an example of a riff in the major scale.

Or even better, Boys Don't Cry by the Cure.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:15 am

theshadowofseattle wrote:Teach him American Idiot as an example of a riff in the major scale.

Or even better, Boys Don't Cry by the Cure.

Those are good examples actually... thanks! This kid's in 8th grade though, I don't think he even knows who the cure is!

Post by **Doog** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:46 am

theshadowofseattle wrote:Teach him American Idiot as an example of a riff in the major scale.

It's not, though.

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:50 am

Doog wrote:
theshadowofseattle wrote:Teach him American Idiot as an example of a riff in the major scale.
It's not, though.

It isn't? To the best of my knowledge, the root notes are in the major AND minor scale.

luke · Post by **luke** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:55 am

Doog wrote:
theshadowofseattle wrote:Teach him American Idiot as an example of a riff in the major scale.
It's not, though.

It's F#, G# and C#. Those notes are in A major, E major, B major, F# major and C# major.

Billy3000 · Post by **Billy3000** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:18 am

This kid can seriously rock some fucking individual notes, I could teach him to kick ass at some lead stuff, and then he can be like Casey from Hot Rod and just do some crazy ass solos over the rest of the band! He needs to work on his chords a lot though.

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:41 am

Malik wrote:
Doog wrote:
theshadowofseattle wrote:Teach him American Idiot as an example of a riff in the major scale.
It's not, though.
It's F#, G# and C#. Those notes are in A major, E major, B major, F# major and C# major.

YEAH DOOG FUCKING SUCKS

GIVE ME THE TELE

I'MMA UPROOT THIS TREE

Post by **Doog** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:37 am

The way I saw it, the song is in the key of G#. Ain't no F# in G# major.

F# would be a flattened 7th, so it's not the major scale.

Post by **Mike** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:42 am

Green Day don't write songs in keys.

Post by **Doog** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:46 am

Uhh..

G# MIXOLYDIAN, BITCHES!