Of course I didn't think that was typical. I understand a little bit about music, having played several instruments throughout my early years. I hadn't had a face-to-face music lesson in a few years (as in over 30), but I know I did not learn as much as I thought I would. I left this dude a few weeks ago and will not go back.
For those of you who can remember your first lessons, what did you cover at first? Scales? Basic technique? How to actually hold the instrument?
Well, this is a good one for me, since I DO remember my first lessons. Mainly because it was only a few months ago. (I had been self-learning prior to that, but only for a month or so.)
I have a drumming background, so I understand a FEW things about music, but mainly rhythmically.
First things my teacher did was watch me play for a minute or 2. He then gave me pointers on right hand technique and (A BUNCH OF) simple exercises, and I mean SIMPLE, like, "alternating first and middle fingers, play 4 notes on the open E string. Then 4 on the A. Then 4 on D. Then 4 on G. Then back down each string." He told me everything about how my fingers should move. This is all w/o a metronome; the idea is to get my fingers used to moving. He corrected where my hand was, where my fingers hit the strings, everything. Also on day one, he gave me the name of a guy to help me setup my bass. And, how I should wear it and hold it.
Later lessons focused on the left hand and how IT should move, and some simple exercises for that.
Only then did we move into any sort of real music, and he has 4 major sub-categories; scales and chords, "reading", styles, and fitness. The exercises mentioned above are in the fitness part.
We do a little of a couple of those sections each week. I play very little while I'm there, other than for him to check progress. He asks if I have questions, go over those, and if I'm ready to move on in a section, we move on. If not, we don't. We don't hit every section every week. He lets me drive in terms of where I want to focus during the lesson. It boils down to, "Do you understand what you are supposed to do?", "Do you think you are ready to move on?", and "What do you want to focus on today?" The answers (and me proving my "ready to move on" answer) determine the lesson for the week. He doesn't let me skip stuff though; if I'm not ready for something, we'll work on the fundamentals or prerequisites until I am.
As a rank beginner, I'm overwhelmed, but he is AWESOME; sounds like just the opposite of the guy you got.
We recently got into scales. If you read Pacman's sure-fire scale exercise thread, that's where we started (I got lucky; the guy who taught Pacman that method is the same guy I'm taking lessons from). So, really before I understood much of what I was practicing, I was able to play basically every major scale, starting from any note IN that scale. I'm now learning a little about modes and have added the Major Pentatonic and Dorian scales.
The reading part is basically putting the right notes to the right frets. He also has a separate track of rhythm reading, but since I was a reading drummer years ago, I'm a bit ahead on that part compared to where I am everywhere else.
The styles part he's started me off with blues, and I'm learning a few simple songs; one's a 1-4-5 12 bar blues thing, and I just started another one that sounds a bit like "The Thrill is Gone". The idea here isn't to learn the songs, as such, but to get practice at playing SOMETHING other than scales and exercises. He gives me fingerings and I learn them. He (slowly) asks me to improvise here and there and gives me pointers on that.
One of his big rules is that there are no absolutes in music. We discuss something, even as simple as how high on my body to wear the bass, then we discuss alternatives. I'm taking his advice 100% since I don't know any better yet, but he is totally open to exploring other ways of doing anything. I don't know the rules enough to break them yet.
You didn't say where you were, but if you are in the Atlanta area, his name is Russ Rodgers and teaches out of the Roswell area. (
http://russrodgersbassguitar.com/)
