One-off lesson?

[emor]

I was on a website of a noted bass player and teacher and this individual mentioned that students frequently fly in for a single hour and a half lesson. The fee seemed very reasonable.

It got me to wondering what one could accomplish and take away from a single lesson.
Has anyone done this before and what was the experience like?
If you were to consider doing this, with whom would you study and what would your agenda be?

Technique?
Theory?
Insight into the music biz?

[JimmyM]

I wouldn't do a one-shot lesson with someone like that unless I had built up a certain level of fluency on the bass. If you're a beginner, it's doubtful you'll get anything out of it except a very expensive meet-n-greet.

[emor]

Let's assume I'm not talking about beginners.

[JimmyM]

I think I would let the teacher set the agenda, or else I'd pick some problem areas I had and mention them to him and see what he could do.

[Hoover]

When I was in grad school studying composition I had the privledge of taking master classes with some of the most reknown composers of the 20th Century: Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt, Toru Takemitsu, & Luciano Berio. These one-off "lessons" were by far the most memorable, most powerfully informative events in my entire higher education.

And not a single one of these esteemed gentleman talked about concrete craft. Nobody said "play this note" or "use this voicing when you want to get this sound" or anything nuts&bolts-ish. It was all abstractions: how they generate ideas, how they look at things differently, how they make inspiration into reality, how they maintain audible unity throughout development... big concepts that I took home and chewed on for days, months, years before I felt like I'd gotten enough out of them.

If yer gonna do a one-off lesson, that's what you have to expect to take from it. Heck, that's what you should demand from it.