Have been asked to give lessons to a "brand new into the fold" guy, who, although has had some piano lessons, has never had any bass lessons, and who has a bass on loan. I've never given a formal lesson as such (going through different scales, some theory with other bassists, but all quite hap hazzard). Anyway... lesson one (one hour).... what do I do? Tuning, notation, scale (major & chromatic), and maybe run through a simple song to practice. Is that enough? Or too much? Or too little?

Make sure to teach him proper fingering technique so he doesn't give himself a case of carpal tunnel. Bad habits now are much harder to break later.

I think you're on a good track. He needs to learn scales and such, but make some fun out of it so it doesn't feel like it's all dreck. You want the guy to pick up the bass between today's lesson and his next one. Maybe teach him "Come Together" by The Beatles or something.

Got my lesson plan sorted!! Thinking of setting either U2's "With or WIthout You" or White Stripe's "Seven Nation Army" as a piece to rehearse. Not too difficult but gives a bit of practice to get into the swing of it!!

Trying to bear in mind to make it fun and practical for him..... had piano lessons as a kid and never took the instrument up as an adult due to the use of a cane accross the knuckles ("F major has one flat!! What is it?" "eh, b?" "then why aren't you playing it?" - whack!)........

maybe some other classic bass lines like mac's the chain or another one bites the dust...

or Low Rider
or the Barney Miller theme if the guy watched 70's TV. :)

start basics, dont just throw songs at him, work on left and right hand technique first and come up with an exercise to give him. thats how i start kids on upright.

Well, lesson one went well!! Spent about 80% going through excercises, fingering, tuning (he copped onto what the actual notes were quite quicky!! His piano lessons stood to him in this regard!). For the last ten minutes, I decided I'd go through With or Without You with him (incidentally, I had put a few songs and scales on a CD for him to practice to), and seemed tp pick it up well, with a few fingering corrections. The one thing that struck me was that he - and I await your gasps - had never heard the song!! In fairness, he is only 14, and considering he hadn't heard it and was a fresh song, he was able to play it quie well, and in time, and he was tapping his foot to it (he was taking my advise on that, which gave me a bizz!!). Lesson two to come on Saturday!!

Update on my first student "proper"

Had lesson number two last Saturday. First question before plugging anything in. Was there anything he had any issues with since the last time I was with him?

No - not really..... "But when I was playing With Or Without You...... can I not just play the open d rather than the fifth fret on the a-string?".... To myself: "This guy's being practicing, and actually thinking about what he's doing - yeah me!!"

Well, we reviewed what we did & made a few minor corrections with him (fingering etc.), but he seems to be picking it up well.

I was only a little concerned whether or not I was throwing too much or too little at him in one go, but having two lessons with him already, I think I've guaged the middle ground.

Lesson Three to follow!!