Privately teaching bass - ethics, anecdotes, etc.

[Aaron]

Hello Bass Instructors-

Down the line, I'd like to get into teaching bass. What are the biggest challenges? What advice do you wish you had heard when you started teaching? How long had you played bass/how much experience have you had before you started teaching?

[Aaron]

bump...

[Asa Samuel]

would also be interested in this thread, bump.

[jonathan_matos5]

also a curious future music educator

[DistortedBass]

What are the biggest challenges?

Finding and keeping students.The harsh reality is most people don't have the dedication you do and won't stick with it. Many students will drop off after 4 or 5 lessons, some after just one.
If you lucky and good you'll get more serious students that become your bread and butter while the others become bonus money.

What advice do you wish you had heard when you started teaching?

Don't undervalue yourself. When i started I thought if i gave bargain rates I would attract more students. It's the worst strategy ever!

People look at teachers like anything else. If its cheap it can't be good. Good things cost money. Things that are cheap are not worth respecting. I had the hardest time when I was charging less and offering incentives to people to get students. I had more frequent cancellations, late arrivals, drop outs, and even people wanting to haggle the lesson price! " I spent alot of money in vegas this weekend, can you take like, 10 bucks less this week? I'm really broke".

When i raised my rates, stopped lobbying people to sign on with me as much and made a strict set of rules about late policies, cancellations and payment methods, I got more students that stayed longer, and more word of mouth advertising.

Finally, find a niche. Highlight something you do that sets you apart. There's a teacher every ten feet in most cities. You'll do best by focusing your appeal to specific audience.

Cast your net too wide and you'll spend too much time trying to be all things to all people. It will help you cut down lesson plan time as well.

How long had you played bass/how much experience have you had before you started teaching?

I started teaching after about 6 years of playing. That included professional touring time and spending alot of time getting lessons of my own.

Hope that helps some.

[Aaron]

Thanks for the advice.

Can you give any examples as a niche in teaching? I have a vague idea of this in the Double Bass world (classical, jazz, rockabilly/slap, etc.), but to me, electric teachers seem to be a bit more 'homogeneous'. Maybe it is because I've only studied with electric players with jazz backgrounds.

How would a niche as a teacher be different than a niche as a player?

[steve66]

sorry for the long post. you can apply this to the bass.

I havent taught bass, but I have taught Drums for many years.

I was a tough teacher, but gave some slack when I knew the student was trying the best they can. I turned down plenty of students. My motto was, you can pay for my time, but your not going to waste my time. or, if they were teens, dont waste your parents money. It was harsh at first, but got the message across. Music is a tough business...

I agree that keeping a students interest and patience is the key to sucessfully teach. My first lesson was always free where I would meet the student, chat about how great Neil Peart is and let the student just play. I would check out their form, make sure they are holding the sticks correctly, check their timing and fix any problems that I see. I would prepare some basic lessons from that and work it into the warm up (below), or tell them that we werent a good match and it would be best to find another teacher. (generally teenagers)

The student would pay me bi monthly on the 1st and 3rd week. I charged for 45 minutes and I ran my lessons for 1 hour. the first 10 minutes were to properly warm up and get the student to relax. While we did the warm up (sticking combinations, rudiments, feet tapping) I would drill theory. How many 16th notes in a quarter note..etc

The lesson consisted of reading rythmns and drum charts that I provided and do coordination independence exercises.

The last 5 minutes I called freestyle, It gave my students a chance to just bang away at something they worked on away from the lesson material. Since this was their favorite part of the lesson, I used it as leverage so if they didnt practice the lesson material, Id take away that time.

I would tape (back in those days a cassette tape) every lesson and keep track of a students progress

For kids (9-12 yrs old) - lessons were a half hour total and I taught in slooow mode. Some kids who stuck with it were quite good

I never had a problem getting students. I was booked all the time. Some students knew each other and they had some secret competition between them (more leverage for me to use). I had some of the same students for years some for minutes

It was very rewarding for me to be able to teach and I really felt good when a student was serious about learning. Some became so good because of their committment, I had to recommend another teacher to them cause I honestly couldnt keep up !. Some continued further with music in college and one made it pro, touring and selling records in a famous late 80's band today.

[DistortedBass]

By niche I mean what are you known for? what sets you apart from other players? You have to put yourself in the role of the student and figure out why they would want to come to you instead of the other teachers in the area.

Figure out what you like to do that's different from most and that's usually gonna be your niche.

I'll use myself as an example. I graduated from, and taught at musicians institute in Hollywood. While there I noticed i was approached for specific talents / ability to teach certain things well.

In the general education part, I had a method of teaching scales and modes that seemed to really help players get it down quickly. Alot of my private counselings were with guys having trouble with modes and fretboard / scale visualation.

I taught all styles there from Jazz to funk to metal. I soon realized that the bulk of the well educated teachers and graduates were Jazz guys. I've played metal most of my life and enjoy it, so apealing to a metal audience was the obvious choice. I have less competition as I'm not up against all the jazz guys and I offer an answer to the common complaint "my teacher shows me metal songs and technique, but doesn't know the style or get what I'm really after".

I bring alot of outside influence into what i do to set myself apart musically and as a teacher.

I studied eastern music and also use effects and less common appraches to bass tone.

So in the end my niche is a metal bassist that helps develop original style and sound, plus has solid technique and won't neglect the theory and essential musical understanding that you would get from most jazz and fusion teachers.

I'm known for my sound, innovation and technique applied to metal, so i target that audience in my ads and clinics.

Hope that helps.