How best to practice with noob wife?

[Unperson]

She took her first lesson the other day. She was given the
Amaj scale to practice, but the instructor told her to only
do it 5x per day?!?

I've been sitting in with guitar, playing the scale with her and
getting her to just cycle through 1 4 and 5, while playing over
that. It sounds like music, a bit. Hoping that keeps her
interested. Hell, she never liked Rush before, now she thinks
Geddy is god.

She doggedly practices every chance she gets. 47 year old
accountant wants to be a bass player. Does it get any better
for me? Or her?

Give me some ways to improve her finger stretch and ideas
for working in the Amaj scale that will be easy for her to pick
up? How to keep it fun for her?

Thanks!

 

[DeanT]

Keep her practicing at all costs. In addition to scales, do some intervals and string crossing exercises. They're a bit more challenging than scales and may keep her interested longer. Also, try some riffs (rock, blues, jazz, whatever she's into). This "sounds like music" and she'll get a great sense of accomplishment out of it, more so than with just scales. Though scales are not a bad place to start.

 

[Justpucky]

I have a Brahms Waltz tabbed from a cello piece. It's the first piece I learned, sounds like music on it's own, Shifts up the neck once. PM me your e-mail if you want it for her. It's in Power Tab (Or I can print it to PDF).

 

[maryhyphenbeth]

Scales are definitely a good place to start. I am fairly new myself, and I find triads are very important to practise. In my mind, memorizing triads is the best way to become familiar with the way my bass sounds.
Also, when searching for the next chord in a song, I was taught the 5th is the first place to go.

Speaking of Rush, I bought two tickets to their show this July. Do I love Rush? Not quite yet...but as a young person amazed by classic rock, there are three things I've noticed what make a rock god: talent, attitude, and TIMING. So, no matter what madame practises, be sure it's in time. They say 12 bar blues is a form many many popular songs are based on. You don't know how many songs until you listen to them and count them out. one, 2, 3, 4, two, 2, 3, 4, three, 2, 3, 4, four, 2, 3, 4 and so on to twelve, and once she knows the 12bar blues form, goodness...anything will seem playable.

 

[Chrysalis]

Presumably, her teacher has her practicing the scale straight up and down?

As another 47-year-old female noob, I'll be watching this thread with interest. I have a little guitar experience, but I'm still bass-teacherless, and I recently started looking for new ways to practice scales and set them in my head, too.

Here's one thing I've started, using the A scale as an example:

A, C#, B, D, C#, E, D, F#, E, G#, F#, A, G#, B, A (moving across the fretboard) and then reversing the pattern coming down
A, F#, G#, E, F#, D, E, C#, D, B, C#, A, B, G#, A

Please forgive me if I've made a mistake in the above as I'm short on time at the moment, but if you play it you'll hear what it is--progressing in thirds, I believe.

It can be played all as quarter notes, or then she can try syncopating it, etc.

There are a gazillion other patterns to play scales in, but I think this is a good one to start with, as your ear can easily tell you when you go wrong.

P.S. Tell your wife she ROCKS!

 

[CHILDISHGAMBINO]

Teach her some easy songs she likes. There's lots of really easy pop and rock lines that'll keep it more interesting than scales.

 

[Chronicle]

Just play some Another one bites the dust, i'm sure she can play that


Also, Day tripper by The Beatles is a good start


P.S. To keep it fun for her, tell her about every song she knows can be looked up for tabs. So the fun can go on foreverrrrr

 

[MaddAnthony_59]

Drum Machine!

It will help her get her timing down...

 

[scottbass]

Drum Machine!

It will help her get her timing down...

Wow! That's a great idea! How much more fun will it be to practice scales, triads, arpeggios, etc. with a drum machine! Assuming, of course, her goal is to become a bassist in a band, not an a capella soloist!

 

[Mark Wilson]

When she's walking anywhere, tell her to massage her hands.
It'll keep the muscles in her hands loose and warmed up so when she goes to play, BAM!

 

[40Hz_of_Love]

Built in drum machine, some effects to mess around and it's cheap.

S47 year old accountant wants to be a bass player. Does it get any better for me? Or her?

And that just made my day! :> Congratulations, man, to you and your wife.

 

[ogrossman]

Teach her the intro to "The Spirit Of Radio"

 

[hublocker]

Funny.

Just this past week I have been showing my 40-something friends, one guy, one woman, bass things.

Scales are great, and as soon as each of them gets an instrument of their own I'll show them the basics.

But for now, to get and keep the interest up, I show them three chord classic rock songs and how to play the root note in rhythm with me as I play the guitar, which I just do to make it sound like music i hope.

I like to use:

1. Gloria

2. Louie Louie

3. you ain't goin' nowhere

4. All along the Watchtower


Last week we got toether in a basement and our drummer was absent, so my guitar player played drums, I played guitar and I showed Spike (the gal) Gloria and we wanked away for 15 minutes, sounding like a bunchof 14 year olds with their first garage band, not several 54 year olds and a few young pups in their 40s!

 

[BobWestbrook]

Built in drum machine, some effects to mess around and it's cheap.

I agree, it's got some nice drum parts to groove with.

 

[wazzel]

I'll throw in learn some 3 chord rock songs also. It will keep her interested. Scales get booring quick.

Brown Eyed Gril is a good one and Margaritaville is also a fair beginner song,

 

[Chrysalis]

+1 on the drum machine idea!

A beat inspires me to create original bass lines, and I can sit and groove by myself for a while, getting lots of good practice while having fun. (I just moved up from a little battery-operated drummer to a GNX 3000 today. )

To keep it fun, jam together as often as you can. Let her come up with a bass line and you play over it, then you come up with a guitar riff and let her find a bass line to play under it. After all, that's what it's all about, isn't it? Making music with others?

I just spent an hour jamming online with a friend, and I got a lot of finger exercise, some practice improvising, and practice keeping my rhythm regardless of what the lead played.

 

[slagbass]

Not that it should be a replacement for learning theory and working with a metronome, but get her to play along with songs she likes. It's fun, helps improve timing and helps develop your ear.

If she is a complete newb, I HOPE her instructor is spending some time teaching her proper technique. Lots of playing time is great. Lots of playing time with poor technique will only cause injury. (note - this may be where the instructor's "5x per day" comment comes from - the instructor may think she still needs to work on her technique a bit)

 

[steve66]

Practice should be fun. Definately start her on songs as soon as possible.

 

[srptopdog]

You've obviously sought out a teacher for her rather than teach her yourself. This is good. Assuming you both have some faith in the teacher, give the teacher the benefit of the doubt. Don't give her too much at first.

Let her get that A major scale down pat! She shold practice it slowly and evenly. Each note should have the same degree of pluck and tone. She should practice with a metronome certainly (or drum machine pattern). Then gradually work up the tempo. It should sound smooth and even going up the scale as well as going down. She should learn to play it softly (p) at all tempos, and loud at all tempos (ff).

When you consider all of the iterations above, that should take about a half hour of concentration, and this is plently for a beginner. But you're on the right track... now for some fun...

After a good practice session, get out your guitar and have her play around with the A major scale while you improvise - as you have been doing. This is great, and is the reward portion of practicing. Soon enough the week will go by and she will have another lesson with new things to practice. Before long she will have enough material to practice and she will begin to make music too!

If she wants to pick up the instrument throughout the day and experiement (after she has put in a daily practice session), then by all means encourage her to do so.

I have taught private music lessons for years, and I've more than once met well-meaning parents who wanted to redirect my teaching methods. If you have faith in the teacher then give the teacher a chance to do what they do.

Above all... keep it fun.

Cheers!

 

[Chebass88]

Above all else, ENCOURAGE her!! Learning a new instrument is hard & frustrating - if she gets burdened down with a list of what NOT to do, it can become pretty negative quickly.

I learned this one the hard way - My GF said many times that she wanted a banjo, so I got her one for Christmas. I went above & beyond, though, a I bought an instructional DVD, a set fo finger picks, a thing to make pitches for tuning, and a case. I also mentioned that we could be like Bela Fleck & Edgar Meyer. It turns out that the DVD is very difficult - she has trouble putting her fingers for different chords & my suggestion about Bela Fleck was too overwhelming. She took it to mean that she'd have to become a virtuoso to play with me. I'm working now to undo this, so hopefully we can play some stuff together!

Remember - it took us YEARS to be able to play how we do - we were beginners once too & the encouragement from others helped!

imp