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Double Bass Average lesson stats?

#2
Blacksheep said:
Hi, just want to get some insight into some lesson related numbers.
How much do you pay for your lessons (per hour)?
How often do you have lessons?

And on a side note, what do you study most at lessons?
Thanks
Click to expand...

I have 3 Teachers at the Moment
1. is affiliated with the school, so i get lessons as long as I play tuition.
2. costs me 65 dollars an hour
3. costs me 50 an hour

My 4th teacher will cost me 70 an hour. Haven't started taking lessons with him yet

I have lessons once a month. a.k.a whenever i have the money.

teacher 1. deals with my chops and getting around on the bass.
teacher 2. rips me up on left hand technique and theory
teacher 3. gives me a more general look in terms of playing, touching on new exercises but also just playing and giving me ideas on what to do with my solos and walking.

4. is a drummer and he will deal with me on learning polyrhythms and working on my internal pulse.
 
#3
Kevin, I listened to that tune on your myspace page and it sounds great! Just thought I'd mention...


When I was in school, my lessons were covered by my tuition expenses, but I'm on a bit of a 'hiatus' now, so i've been paying $45/hr and taking a lessons every couple weeks. Lately, we've been working a lot on composing and the more 'philosophical' or 'metaphysical' (for lack of a better word) aspects of music. My teacher is great at forcing me to try to play beyond what I know and outside my box.

Once in a while, I grab a lesson with another guy for $40/hr and we usually look at soloing concepts or technique.
 
#6
My teacher in Kansas City was only $35.00 an hour. A tremendous bargain considering he is a bona fide 'A list' jazz player and would be well known if he were on the east coast.

He taught me proper Simandl technique, theory soloing concepts and was/is a good mentor.

I always thought he should have charged me more.
 
#7
Runs me about $65 for a 1 hr, 15 min. lesson. I go for a lesson every 2-3 weeks. We've been working on general music theory, harmonic analysis, building better walking lines, concepts in soloing, technique, etc.
 
#8
I have had a lot of range. $100 for real big shots, to free. I had an apprentice type thing with my first teacher, I had to watch his kid and give him strings and such.
When I had to pay a lot the lesson were infrequent since even $60 for classical lesson was tough to scrape together in my early 20s.

Now that I teach, I charge just a bit below standard ($40) to real cheap ($100) if they go by the month, a stack of $100 bills on the first is better than $50 here and there. I could get more for my time, but I find my students are much more steady which is best for both of us.

I worked on nearly everything with my teachers and try to do the same with my students.
Professional double bass teachers will put a high priority on arco regardless of your interests.
 
#9
I pay $60 for an hour lesson currently. We mainly work on arco technique and "classical" repertoire. I have paid anywhere between $20 - $100 per one hour lesson in the past.

I charge $25 for a half hour DB lesson (my students are not grown up, and a half hour is usually fine for them). That's pretty much the going rate around here, and what I pay for my own daughter's piano lessons.
 
#10
1. about $56 per - I get a couple of breaks for paying for the month at the beginning and because I'm a long time/long term student. I think he charges $65 a week now.
2. weekly
3. well, right now ear training - I've just finished the part where I sing open position triads in all inversions and am moving to listening to them and identifying them without singing, arco playing - some work on physical approach (long tones, bow control, phrasing control etc.), some playing melodies, and pretty much anything I play the melody on I have to solo arco over. This is not a "pretty" part of the lesson.

In the past, lessons have also included singing/playing solos I'm transcribing, parameterized improv exercises (see REALLY LEARNING A TUNE) etc.
 
#12
Kevin Hsieh said:
4. is a drummer and he will deal with me on learning polyrhythms and working on my internal pulse.
Click to expand...

I did this when I was playing Chapman stick. It worked great and really sped up my ability to learn new material and fit right into a band situation. I highly recommend it.

I'm a newbie to DB (had my first lesson last night) but I plan to hook up with my drum teacher again to work on some latin stuff once a get a bit of endurance.

Back on topic: I pay $25/half hour.
 
#13
My last bunch of lessons cost $100 each. I'm not sure if my teacher charged everybody that much, but he knew I'm a lawyer and I knew that he was an all-time jazz master.

I considered it well worth the coin and still do. Thanks every time, professor!
 
#14
Currently, my lessons are covered as part of tuition.
We split the lesson into 3 parts-scales/technique, ear training/transcriptions, and playing tunes. We have a lesson every week.

Last time i studied outside of school, i paid $50/hr [electric bass w/an emphasis in pop/theater playing]. Most of the time we ran over. I think our longest lesson went for a little over 4 hours. The lessons normally went for about 2hrs depending on what else he was doing that day.

We had a similar format to my DB lessons. We focused on technique-scales & other bass techniques, ear training/transcribing, reading [SITSOM & Slap It books], and general groove development.
 
#18
The people I study with charge around $50/hour.

What we work on depends mostly on what I need to do at the time (audition preparation, etc.)

I charge $40/hour with my students.

With my students we work on scales, technique, solo rep and orchestral rep when they are ready, and theory/improv if they are interested and willing to do the work.
 
#19
I'm new to DB (10 years on electric). My first lesson is Wednesday of this week, teacher is a DB grad student and a friend of my g/f (who is a professional violinist).

$40/hour probably 2 lessons per month. Topics will include day 1 stuff like how to hold the bow/bass, pizz & arco technique, setup & construction, positions, fingering, reading, scales, tempo, counting, etc. We've discussed methods a bit, he's worked through Simandl and is currently big into another one which I don't recall. I'm deferring to him on which method(s) to learn.
 

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