He Won't Learn The 'Boxes'

[tjh]

"Personally --- I like the guy a lot and I get free haircuts from him all the time, but I'm getting upset when he pays me for a lesson that went nowhere, he learned nothing and he's all squinty-eyed in the end of that time period."

... if you like the guy a lot, and he gives you free haircuts, why are you charging him anyway ... especially if you are not feeling he is getting his money worth ??

.. make it simple, this guy is a friend of yours, or at the very least he has established a 'barter' type relationship with you from the haircuts ... from his instrument and musical choices to this point, I dont think he has an interest in blues, rock, jazz or disco, R & B, fusion or even pop music, so take a half hour and show him how play the bass part to Folsum Prison or some other country song that just uses a simple 3 chord 1-5 ... let him boom-boom on that ... then after your next haircut, take another half hour and show him another boom-boom song ..

... by the time your hair has all fallen out, he will be a boom-boom pro ...

.. JMHO

[MEKer]

Hilarious------in Vietnam "Boom-Boom" was what the prostitutes offered in pigeon English. As in, "Hey, GI...you want boom-boom ..fie dollah."

Other than that---follow advice from post directly above this.

[Nev375]

It could be a case of learning style and teaching style disconnecting. Some people learn by reading, some by listening to what you tell them, some from pictures/diagrams and then others are "hands-on" first, explain what just happened later.

Everyone fits into one or two of those groups better than others, and if the teacher isn't flexible enough to cover the students particular learning mode, then you might as well be speaking in Swahili to him.

Not saying it's your fault because it cannot be understated that a student has to WANT to learn something in the first place.... not just "think" they want to.

Try a completely different approach. From the sound of things, my guess is he's the hands-on type. Try playing along to a simple slow song with him and show him where his fingers go. Give him *shudder* tabs if necessary. Once he has got the hang of it, tell him which are the root notes, which is the fifth and go to a new song. Explain one concept per song/lesson.

Maybe you can slip some knowledge in there while he is distracted playing a song thinking he already knows how to play.

[RDUB]

Something I learned in the days I was teaching is that it's just as important for the teacher to choose the student as it is for the student to choose the teacher.