Keeping a student organized and motivated

[Bardolph]

There's one bass student of mine who is 12 years old and making tremendous progress, but there are two issues I'm running into.

The first is that as weeks go by, the paperwork keeps increasing and getting harder to keep track of. I'm having him write out bass lines on staff paper and I'm writing down lesson plans in a notebook. I don't expect a 12 year old to be an organization expert, but I need a better way to help him keep track of things. Sometimes I'll ask about a piece of music we've been working on and he's not sure where it is.

The second issue is motivating him to practice everything that he should. Like all of us, he's more inclined to practice stuff he really likes. He loves slap, so I'm including that in our lessons, but other more boring stuff sometimes gets neglected. I've told him to practice the less exciting stuff first and then reward himself with the more fun things, but who knows exactly how well that works when I'm not around watching?

[dalkowski]

1. Use a spiral manuscript paper book instead of loose papers. OR put the loose papers in clear sheet protectors in a loose-leaf binder.

2. Motivation has to come from the student, but perhaps you're loading him up too much. My teacher (I'm 47) does that and I have to ask him to dial it down sometimes, because he gives me so much that I don't know what to practice first. My ADD kicks in and I end up not practicing.

Also, maybe you two just do slap exclusively for a few weeks to let him get it out of his system.

One more thing: Ask HIM if HE wants to set some non-slap goals for himself. Doing this will foster self-motivation.

[mambo4]

I'm no teacher, but my first reaction is that the onus is on the student to be organized and motivated. But that's not helpful.

For organization maybe request that he have a music folder , keep his lessons in it and bring it every lesson. Reward success with slap lessons. Otehrwise stick to basics

I think the best motivator is curiosity, personally...it's what motivates me.
Maybe give him problems to solve on his own that would illustrate the lesson?
Here's a riff, see if you can notate it
Here's a notated riff, see if you can learn it
here's a riff in C, see if you can figure it out in G
here's a slap figure see if you can play it finger style etcetc