Do I need a new teacher?

[Booty Shaman]

I think there is a point when you first start out where your ears become more developed and you can start to hear how awful you sound - don't despair - this is a good thing! The advice to slow it down is really good. Also, my teacher has me first just play the root note/ first note of each bar to get the hang of things before attempting to read and play all the notes. This approach allows you to play along and learn the chord changes. Also, break down a tune into a few bars at at time and loop those until you have them down, then go to the next couple of bars and do the same thing. Concentrate on the area of the tune that is the most difficult. Unless you are planning to make a living as a professional musician, you have all the time in the world to develop your skills. The more you practice, the faster your progress will be. If it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill - do the math.

 

[PauFerro]

for me, at least, neither of these teachers were worth a grain of salt. neither ever told me that there was such a thing as a setup or that my guitar could be easier to play. i didn't know there were different nut widths or neck profiles till i was in my 40s (and the lessons were from when i was 11 to 15), and as a result, it was so hard for me to play that i barely played for 20 years. then i found out, discovered i needed low action and a wider neck, and voila!

I ran into the same problem with Upright bass. I'd try to play it in the store and it was a nightmare. But the clerks told me nothing about the fact it was set up wrong. Then I went to a stringed instrument store (violins, violas, cellos, basses) and found everything was set up properly. Still a bear to play the upright at first, but at least the setup wasn't an impediment.

 

[oldcatfish]

OK, rookie question but I've been playing 10 months and think I may need a new teacher. I'm totally new to bass but love it. I'm 50 and before this could play about 6 chords on the guitar and that was it. Never had a guitar lesson. I don't get to practice bass as often as I should but 2 small children and a full time job take up a lot of my time. I've had a lesson every 2/3 weeks for the last 10 months. I found my teacher through my wife's drum teacher. She's young but a music graduate and multi instrumentalist who majored in bass. She has great knowledge, great taste in music and is really encouraging. I'm learning to read music with her and we've covered the scales, circle of 5ths and she's challenging me to learn the fretboard (no tab) which I like. But, my technique sucks. In 10 months we've only really focussed on 4 songs, 3 of which have been too much of a stretch for me (Higher Ground, Hit me with your Rhythm Stick and Crazy Little Thing Called Love -all too fast for me). I'm finding it really discouraging and after a while I just don't want to practice. I just pick up my bass and mess around or resort to playing simple stuff from YouTube instead. Am I just a slow learner, not practicing enough (45-60 mins 3 or 4 times a week), or do I need a new teacher with a more gradual approach? I realise that she is trying to challenge me but it just feels like I suck all the time. I struggle with damping and the string noise I get with my fingering technique seems really bad. What do you think?

When I teach, I have a basic idea of what I will teach, but often a student's question will take the lesson in a different direction. When that happens, I just return to my plan at the next lesson. Whether you get Rocksmith or not, you need to learn some easy songs and play along. You really need to play music for many of the things that you've already learned to sink in. Think of the left vs right side of the brain debate...you've been training your left/logical side a lot, but have hardly touched the right/artistic side. You need more balance.

 

[Perrygoround]

If you feel the direction of the classes is nor working for you in the way you wanted, I think that it could be helpfull to tell so to your teacher.
I am sure she wants you to be happy with your lessons, because she is making money with them. If you are not totally happy, talk with her. Is very likely that she will try to find a good compromise between her methods and your needs.
Even in the case that your teacher don't understand your thinking or decided not to adapt the classes to what you say to her, that will help you in making a decission. Communication between teacher and student can not be a bad thing.

Now, my experience. I had 4 different teachers over the years (2 taugh me bass, 2 guitar; I had so many because I relocated myself many times over the last few years). Each of them had a different approach. At some point, I felt a bit lost with almost all of them, but in the long run I was happy with them all, and I learn usefull skills under all the approaches.
First of them, when I was just starting bass, focused a lot on technique and theory, adding some songs in the mix. He taugh me too many scales for what I needed in that moment. Some times I was surpassed by being requested to learn a new greek mode in the 3 positions everyweek, when I did not even know what was that... But in the long run they ended up being usefull, at least as musical knowledge.
Then, when I first started guitar lessons, this other guy focused in teaching me songs that I liked, little theory, but at the end, the theory came out from the songs. He told me his approach with older people (I was 33) was focusing on songs, not theory, because older people do it just for fun and their goal is usually just to be able of playing some songs they like. Whereas with kids he focused more on theory. I felt a bit like a parrot repeating things without understanding, but I was having fun so I kept on playing those songs and I got better as a player.
My second bass teacher focused a lot on teaching me how to read. Because I was slow at sight reading while playing, I did´nt developed much technically speaking, and I don't think I will ever be playing in situations were I will need to follow music sheets... but the knowledge I adquired on reading music is helping me nowadays when trying to learn new songs.
Now, I am attending guitar lessons with another guy. For the first year it was mainly learning songs (but this time more in depth, following the complete music sheets and learning the solos), and for the last few months we started to pay a lot of attention in theory. And I am very happy with that, I was in a point where I felt I needed to know more theory rather than keeping on learning songs, as now I feel I have the tools to do that on my own. Also, all the things I have learned in the past gave the tools so I can get the new information more easily than if I had never attended to those past classes. Thing I did not understood then, now start to make sense and are helpfull.

 

[travep]

Hopefully not straying too far off topic, but I see value in learning to read music at any age for anyone who is serious enough to want lessons, whatever their musical aspirations, even if you will only be playing covers. I say this from personal experience: by learning to recognize the various rhythmic patterns and syncopations while sightreading, I was able to improve the precision of my timing and accuracy of playing covers. You end up internalizing and cataloging the various rhythms, so that you instantly recognize them as "familiar friends", and can play back what's on the record more closely. Sure, this is not the only way to train your ear, but for me it beats calling the rhythms "ba doop", "bum de bum", etc.

Although I might have been seeming to disagree with you, I am not. I do see value in it completely. However, for many (I was one of them) that get into this hobby late and wasn't trying to fill up my days with an hour and a half of daily practice, I felt this to be too much. Much is to be learned and I did learn things by sight reading. However, my goal was not to play in an orchestral pit or to be a session guy. My goal was definitely not to add stress in an effort to maximize my practicing efforts. My goal was to maximize the amount of fun I had and to get a perspective that was deeper than youtube clips. My only point was that many teachers have a way they do it and it doesn't always fit everyone. When the OP states that he's been at it for months and is not making much progress (how he measures it), some changes are in order. As a software guy, my first reaction on how to change things is to simplify. I would cut the extra (albeit potentially valuable) exercises and start with what minimally will get him to the first goal...playing with others. IMO, that minimal path does not involve sight reading. This will socialize his hobby and increase the desire to play more and learn more. Once he has some confidence and satisfaction of playing with others (my understanding of his first goal) then he can always add sight reading back into the mix.

 

[Yonni]

So, that was a bit of an awkward lesson. I raised the issue. I think she understands but didn't really seem to want to talk it out. Maybe she felt like I was questioning her ability as a teacher. I hope not. I like her and trust her and she knows her stuff. I could tell that she was thinking on her feet and trying to adapt her planned lesson on the fly. It made for a bit of a weird lesson but the outcome is that we're going to concentrate more on being able to improvise and jam and make the learning more fun. I'm good with that as it's something I've been itching to do for myself. Was thinking of getting a looper just to try stuff out, so this will help. I may ask her advice on songs to learn for myself outside lessons. I've picked "I want you back" Jackson 5 just to keep me happy in the meantime.
Thanks for all your thoughts on this it's been a useful reflection on my learning experience.

 

[fearceol]

So, that was a bit of an awkward lesson. I raised the issue. I think she understands but didn't really seem to want to talk it out. Maybe she felt like I was questioning her ability as a teacher. I hope not. I like her and trust her and she knows her stuff. I could tell that she was thinking on her feet and trying to adapt her planned lesson on the fly. It made for a bit of a weird lesson but the outcome is that we're going to concentrate more on being able to improvise and jam and make the learning more fun. I'm good with that as it's something I've been itching to do for myself. Was thinking of getting a looper just to try stuff out, so this will help. I may ask her advice on songs to learn for myself outside lessons. I've picked "I want you back" Jackson 5 just to keep me happy in the meantime.
Thanks for all your thoughts on this it's been a useful reflection on my learning experience.

Glad you broke the ice and talked things over with her. If she is as good a teacher as you say she is, she will understand. One thing...I'd pick my own songs to work on. Music is music... and you'll get more enjoyment out of playing songs that YOU like.

Best of luck.

 

[Later_Peter]

Just because they call themselves "teacher" doesn't mean that they are. I "fired" 4 potential teachers until I found someone with whom I am comfortable... & able to learn. Seemed that some folks think that if they can play it, they can teach it, but it's not necessarily true.
After speaking with your current instructor you may decide to find another teacher... YOU make the decision. YOUR enjoyment of your instrument should be the priority... finding a good teacher who is in synchronicity with your skill level (& as it changes) is of the utmost importance... (IMO)

 

[Yonni]

I agree, up to a point. I ultimately decide whether I feel I can have a good working relationship with a teacher but WE jointly need to agree the way forward. I say jointly as I believe a student, especially a new one like me, has to accept that the teacher is more experienced in this than I am and should have a better idea of the various beneficial paths to success. As a newbie I may well have an idea of what I want but I'm not experienced enough to know whether or not that is the best approach in the long run. She still has lots to teach me. We are just beginning to really get to know each other after about 15 lessons.

 

[Later_Peter]

I agree, up to a point. I ultimately decide whether I feel I can have a good working relationship with a teacher but WE jointly need to agree the way forward. I say jointly as I believe a student, especially a new one like me, has to accept that the teacher is more experienced in this than I am and should have a better idea of the various beneficial paths to success. As a newbie I may well have an idea of what I want but I'm not experienced enough to know whether or not that is the best approach in the long run. She still has lots to teach me. We are just beginning to really get to know each other after about 15 lessons.

After 15 lessons, you already know if you two have "clicked". I do understand that as a new student, you don't know what you don't know... however, by this point, you must have realized that this path MAY NOT get you to where YOU want to go next...

 

[Lownote38]

So, that was a bit of an awkward lesson. I raised the issue. I think she understands but didn't really seem to want to talk it out. Maybe she felt like I was questioning her ability as a teacher. I hope not. I like her and trust her and she knows her stuff. I could tell that she was thinking on her feet and trying to adapt her planned lesson on the fly. It made for a bit of a weird lesson but the outcome is that we're going to concentrate more on being able to improvise and jam and make the learning more fun. I'm good with that as it's something I've been itching to do for myself. Was thinking of getting a looper just to try stuff out, so this will help. I may ask her advice on songs to learn for myself outside lessons. I've picked "I want you back" Jackson 5 just to keep me happy in the meantime.
Thanks for all your thoughts on this it's been a useful reflection on my learning experience.

I Want You Back isn't as easy as it sounds. If you were having problems learning the other songs you were given by your teacher, that one isn't a logical step. That being said, when you practice, if you sound awesome, you aren't really practicing. You're just playing. If you're truly practicing, you should sound like you suck. After 28 years of playing, I still sound terrible when I'm learning something new. I also have a degree in music, but that doesn't automatically make me a good teacher. With as much knowledge as you get out of music school, it's really easy to get frustrated when you're teaching, or give things to students that are beyond what a beginner should be working on. When I have taught, the first lesson is always spent getting a good idea about what the student wants to know, and how the student thinks. Not everyone is wired the same way, so different approaches to teaching are necessary.