What would you teach them?

[chrisloe]

Hi everyone.

I am an elementary music teacher as well as being a bass player. I teach music to kids from Kindergarten through 5th grade.

At the end of last year, our principal said she wanted all of us to have a "Club" for some of the kids(separate from the regular music classes I have all day), I said that if I am going to do a club, I would want to do a bass guitar club since playing the bass is what I am good at.

She went for it, bought me 4 brand new Spector legends for the club and I started the bass guitar club at the beginning of the year. (I now know that I should have gotten smaller basses, these are just a hair too big for the kids, but I didn't want to get some cheep bass that played badly).

Here is the thing, I had so many kids sign up (75-80), that I see kids everyday, and they come for 1/2 hour each day before school (I see different kids each day, so they only come one day a week).

I started them on basic technique stuff, playing with their right hand, fretting left hand notes, stuff like that. I now have them playing a simple 12 bar blues that some of them are getting. The problem is only 1-2 of them have instruments at home, and I am not trying to turn 75 kids into bass players, just give them a taste of what it is like to play an instrument. So the only time they get to play is the 30 minutes once a week.

So my brilliant talk bass brothers and sisters, what would you teach them if you had the chance?

Thanks in advance for all of your ideas. Chris.

[jschwalls]

i teach alot of very young kids.. they seem to respond very well to simple fun tunes such as happy birthday, twinkle star, amazing grace, when you wish upon a star, over the rainbow, this old man, etc..

when they progress i eventually give them pink panther theme which usually takes awhile.. but they enjoy the challenge

i also NEVR play a tune up to speed when i play it for them I try to play it slowly so when they play it they will feel like they aren't that far away from where i was playing it.. its a confidence booster..

jschwalls@comcast.net

if you need some simple tabs or whatever..

[BigOldHarry]

1) How to count rhythm. I can't tell you have many young "musicians" I've tried to teach couldn't count 8th notes - - couldn't listen to a piece of music and tell me where the "one" is. Once you get that nailed down, introduce the concept of swung 8th notes (split triplets). It's not as hard as you'd think - I've taught plenty of young players how to hear/feel/play that.

2) THEORY. Get them started on understanding the bass cleff, etc. Good stuff to know (as you well know).

3) Get the kids hooked up with other musicians as soon as you can. Bass can be a pretty uninspring instrument to a young player without someone to play with. Talk to other teachers who might also be musicians - see if you can't get the "Guitar" club to meet up with the "bass" club...

4) Concerts: Nothing will inspire a young player like seeing a great musician play. If a good artist is in town, set up a concert field trip. At night? Get the parents involved.

5) Clinics: Find out who the local "cats" are and invite one to the school to do a clinic. Hell, if a name act is coming to town, right them a letter and ask for their bassist to come to your school - - why not?? The worst they might say is NO. The best? You could get Stanley Clarke talking to your kids!!!!

As far as Basses.... She shoulda bought a bunch of SX short-scales. I'll be a school could get quantity pricing from Rondo - at $100 a bass, you could have lotsa basses for kids. It's not too late - Get $500 bux from the budget and make it happen!

[DeluxeRed]

Do you have a way to record and play back what they are playing?

A drum machine might be helpful. (Might be evil, too...)

I'd expose them to how and where bass is used in (popular) music.

"Walking" is also a good place to start. (You mentioned you were using the Blues--excellent.)

Thank goodness for folks like you. Go get 'em, bro!

<T

[MalcolmAmos]

When I read your post I thought -- what other instrument could you use that would let the kids have something they can take home and get some practice time. Thirty minutes once a week with no practice at home is not ideal - as you mentioned.

Something to give some thought to. Something less expensive than a bass and amp:
Drum sticks - less the drum. I know, I know - thinking out of the box here.
$3 to $5 harmonica all in the same key.
Penny whistle again all in the same key.
Ocarina, items like this......... I'm sure you have catalogs ........

Does your school have a Kiwanis sponsored K-Kids Club? If so get with the teacher that is the sponsor of the K-Kids she/he may have some ideas how the Kiwanis Club of Los Vegas could help furnish some inexpensive take home instruments. If you do not have a K-Kids club at your school I know the local Kiwanis Club would jump at the chance to establish one. Could be the start of the K-Kids band.

If it's going to help kids I know you could count on our local club for a couple hundred dollar donation just about any time. We just gave every third grader, at two local ISD's, a $5 dictionary. The Kiwanis Club in a city the size of Los Vegas will have a budget, for that age group. Cost nothing to ask.

Good luck.

[chrisloe]

Some great idea's thanks! I do rhythms with the kids in regular music class, the Kodaly rhythms (ta, Ti-ti, etc...) and we do transfer those over.

[kevoh]

thats a really cool thing youre doing. hopefully your setting the path for some future geddys. heres an idea...see if there are any songs they would like to learn. i remember being young and wanting to show off any cool new song i just learned, and alot of popular songs tend to be pretty simple. so maybe they could get into that. keep it up!

[chrisloe]

I actually started playing by learning "Talk Dirty To Me" by Poison, so yes, I have been asking them, so far have got Slipknot, which the kid said he would like to learn but it wasn't school appropriate. I told him the bass line is school appropriate, so I learned that at home and have been showing him little bits of it. Then I got a request for a Black Eyed Peas song, listened to it, no bass line...

[TimXSweeney]

There is actually a new section in the works on the DB side of this forum for just this thing. It has a tentative title of "pedagogy" and it is being designed for educators to exchange ideas on teaching bass (slab and double) both in and out of schools. It is currently in the Admins congress trying to pass the test. I know that it could use the extra push. You can find the thread in the Jazz Technique section on the double bass side and it should be called "Bass Teachers Section" Check it out! this site needs that kind of thing.

[Skeet]

Originally Posted by BigOldHarry

1)
2) THEORY. Get them started on understanding the bass cleff, etc. Good stuff to know (as you well know).

3) Get the kids hooked up with other musicians as soon as you can. Bass can be a pretty uninspring instrument to a young player without someone to play with. Talk to other teachers who might also be musicians - see if you can't get the "Guitar" club to meet up with the "bass" club...

4) Concerts: Nothing will inspire a young player like seeing a great musician play. If a good artist is in town, set up a concert field trip. At night? Get the parents involved.

This^^^^

Dude A bass club is awesome I wish i had that at primary school.

[N.F.A.]

I wish I taught at your school.. Sounds like too much fun.
I would say basic rhythms in 2, 3, and 4. Also maybe some classic grooves like Sunshine of Your Love, Come Together or something of that ilk.

[MalcolmAmos]

Just remembered something that may help with that take home practice thing.

Back in my banjo days there was a small piece of fretboard with strings you could take on trips to practice fingering. I think it was called a "Whacker".

Just a thought.

[deckard]

This is just me, and I'm not a teacher or parent, etc., but I think it would be beneficial to try & teach them little about good "biomechanics" for each hand, as in avoiding extreme bent-wrist positions for each hand, etc.

Some of these kids may continue their interest in bass; so getting them started on the right foot biomechanically, in a gentle way of course, could definitely help them now and in the future.

You may already be doing this - just thought I'd mention it...

JMHO

Good luck!!



edit/p.s.: how about no tabs, real written music only? But you're probably already doing that, too...

[JOE_MARSH]

Major scale and minor scale..wish someone would of explained it to me when I was young..instead, they started me on Cello and I had no clue what was going on..but if they had explained...id be a hundred thousand times better then I am now