I am taking weekly 1/2 hr bass lessons during which I sit at a kitchen table with my guitar (unplugged) on my lap while he teaches me how to read music for the entire lesson. When he wants to show me something, he uses my guitar.I am curious to know how other students or teachers have their lessons structured and if it is important to have your bass plugged in when learning. I am also getting tired of only learning theory.

that sounds really boring. when i took lessons the better teachers (i had many) would teach me theory for part of the lesson but they would also teach me a song i wanted to learn or one they thought i should learn and apply my theory lesson to that. i always had my bass and the instructor had his own bass, both amplified.

Several things.

One, how is learning to read learning theory? It isn't by any stretch of the imagination. You might find it boring, but learning how to read isn't theoretical.

Two, you should always play/practice/take lessons/whatever plugged in. When you play unplugged, you will always have a tendency to dig in more so that you can be heard, which isn't necessary when you're plugged in. This is especially true if there's other noise going on in the background.

Three, the teacher should always have an instrument. Period. Expecting to use your instrument is kind of ridiculous in my opinion.

I don't like lessons without my bass amplified. Furthermore I think its rather silly your teacher is apparently too lazy to bring his own bass. Switching around all the time must be a hassle and slows things down.

Finaly I like to say that a good teacher will try to keep you interested in the music, so he wouldn't spend all your time on practicing theory. Part of filling in your lesson program should be you telling him you want to spend time on a song you find hard to tackle and him teaching you songs to improve feel, groove, technique etc.

I suggest you discuss this with your teacher or find someone else. Just my two cents though.

~ Dennis

that sounds really boring. when i took lessons the better teachers (i had many) would teach me theory for part of the lesson but they would also teach me a song i wanted to learn or one they thought i should learn and apply my theory lesson to that. i always had my bass and the instructor had his own bass, both amplified.

+1

Have him drawn and quartered immediately

Yeah, I agree with others. I don't know all the details, but to me this does not sound like a positive and constructive learning environment. Lessons can sometimes focus on just one goal, (sight reading, theory, technique, etc.), if requested by the student and deemed by the teacher to be a reasonable request; however, I have always favored a comprehensive approach to lessons that is diverse. I favor a variety of approaches in lessons that includes ear training, theory, technique, sight reading, and a number of other practical aspects of musicality. Above all, it's hard for me to think of occassions when playing unplugged is a good idea. And further, thinking of situations where the teacher doesn't have an instrument is even harder. It might be time to look for a new teacher. At the very least, address your concerns with the teacher. It's your time and money. If the teacher hears your concerns and presents reasonable arguments for his approach, so be it, decide if it works for you. If the teacher doesn't really hear your concerns, or can't defend his approach, it's definitely time for a new teacher.

Holy Crap.
I'd be bored out of my mind too. Try taking a look at http://www.studybass.com. (This is NOT my site, nor do I have ANYTHING interest in it's success)
Andrew really applies some fun bass lines and exercises to the lessons he teaches. The best part - it's free!
Aaron

Thanks for all the great replies and Pendergasta, I've added "studybass" to my favorites. As for being bored during the lessons, after 20 minutes, I thought I'd been there for an hour and couldn't wait to leave.

I would have to agree with the general view that this doesn't sound like a very constructive environment for learning. The student and teacher really should be able to watch each other play their instruments throughout the lesson. The student gets to see the teacher using correct technique and the teacher gets to see what changes need to be made in the student's technique. I often play along with my students so they can mimic me until they get the idea on their own as well. I think teaching with only one instrument is unproductive for the most part, on bass at least. The whole sitting at the kithcen table thing sounds bad too. You should be able to sit face to face with your teacher. I also think you should definitely have your bass plugged in. Unplugged is fine for some practice in my opinion, but you need to hear what you are doing properly and so does your teacher.

As for the theory, as anyone who has read anything I say on here knows I think teaching theory, and relative theory is first and foremost in setting up any teaching regime. However I would say that teaching theory should be relative and appropriate to what the student is doing with technical development and creatively as well. Also I will point out that if you are being taught to read notes on a page without being instructed in relative tonal theory as well, you are really not learning much in the way of theory at all anyway.

My advice; get someone that knows what they are doing.

I won't comment on your teacher's methods as there have been a good many excellent posts regarding them. I take 1/2 hour lessons weekly as well. My teacher starts out with a few minutes of jamming (he'll play guitar and I'll play bass, or we'll just work together on bass), he's got a B-dec 30 in the studio so sometimes he'll put in a drum track, then we'll work on walking lines and sight-reading for about 10-15 minutes and finish up with ear training whether picking lines out from a song or something as simple as interval recognition. I've been studying music theory for the better part of 10 years, though, so there's not a ton of straightforward theory during my lessons.

Edit: Sorry, typed integral instead of interval, doing calc homework.

I took lessons about 5 years ago. I was playing for only six months back then, and all the guy did was show me some scales and chord progressions that I already knew and make me read thats all he did. I would go there for a half an hour he would sit there and be like read this and id do it and that was it. Waste of money.