I'd start with asking him
what kind of MUSIC he likes.

I think the "start with the
bass cleff in relation to
the fretboard " idea is good.

Intervals and Chord components.

Get a metronome.

Wayne

Those are all good ideas.

Introduce a blues type bass run at some point soon. Thats the basis of blues, rock and jazz.

Thanks Ken - at some stage I was planning to introduce him to basic runs, just not sure when in the process.

Gumby

Thanks Wayne - I know he likes Metal and Rap??? He really likes Metallica, so I was planning on getting him started on his fretboard and then introducing some songs he knows to illustrate chord progressions, majors, minors, arpeggios etc.

Gumby

As technique is more of a habit...this should be explained, very first thing. Then worked on while learning other things, like bass clef, circle of 5ths/chord theory, scales/modes. Most of the instructors I've met, will teach, the above stuff, by using songs the student likes, then breaking them down and explaining how that bassist "used" certain, scales, modes...etc to create the bassline.

Thanks Jeff,

I can only teach him technique as I know it, the basics - 1 finger per fret, alternating right hand fingers (I assume I teach him to use finger technique????) etc.

As I mentioned I only hope I don't teach him any bad habits.

Gumby

First a background story:

Ages ago I had a teacher...Larry was his name.
He's the first teacher that actually taught me to
play. The others wanted to teach me to read
music, Larry got me in a band. Was it the
"correct" way to learn? I don't know, but it did
keep me interested and now here I am. I've been
actually playing bass since I was about 13 years
old...in two years I'll have been a bassist for 30
years.

Here's my thought; people want to learn to play.
Your average person--in my estimation--doesn't
want to write the next great symphony. Those
things are left to the gifted ones
(Mozart/Beethoven types). Their path is different
from "Bob" who just wants to be in a band on the
weekends.

/ backstory...now to my point...

What Larry did was get me hooked right away. We
sat down in the back room of his store and he
taught me patterns for any key, any position.
Simply put, he gave me snapshots of what to play
in any key using chord diagrams.

I did not learn to read, I learned to play and
picked up so much from him. As per my requests,
he also taught to pick up songs that I wanted to
learn. "Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden was the first
one I learned. He didn't try to discourage it and
steer me towards something simpler, he challenged
me to do it and helped me pick it up.

He taught me to look for patterns in music like I-
V-vi-IV chord patterns and stuff like that.

I know this is a long post but I hope something in
here will help you get a good start. Since my
browser won't support AB's audio I can't post any
of the cool stuff he taught me but maybe you can
search Google for blues/rock bass patterns and
other things to help you.

I don't want to discourage you from teaching your
students reading/writing because that stuff is
important to anyone looking to scratch a living
out of this as a studio or sub musician. I just
wanted to share my experience.

Hope all goes well for you.

Bo

Thanks Bo,

You have described the basis of how I would have liked to have been taught, but I suppose I was interested in learning to read, so my lessons took on a bit of a differrent spin then.

The idea of getting him interested first is how I think I will go, I will find out some of his favourite songs and try to work them into lessons to demonstrate examples of technique, patterns, scales etc.

Thanks again for your insight.

Gumby

I'm self taught...so I learned what I needed. I'd say basic scales, and blues scales, along with pentatonics should be taught. I wish I would have spent more time training my ear...to be able to pick up which note is played, just by hearing it. Also, learning chord progressions, and of course...the fretboard. This will help him communicate with other musicians.

Thanks Rog, I'm mostly self taught myself. I blundered away for 4 -5 years by myself and then decided I wanted to learn to read. I started to get lessons, but as I had a few bad habits we went over technique and scales and then did theory. My teacher then got sick and I had to stop anyway so I still did not learn to read completely.

But I will be just be doing the basics for him to see how he goes.

Gumby

I think that learning enough to communicate with other musicians in a band situation is most important. That basically requires knowing the fretboard, and some basic chords, and modulation. That's just to play in your run of the mill local bands, with people who all have real careers. Brad Mock tends to play with many bands...has he given any advice?