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Double Bass How much do you pay for lessons?

#22
Les Fret said:
120$ is a very high price unless your teacher is really famous or so. With today's crisis not many people are going to pay that I think. I pay 30 euros an hour. 30-40 euros seems to be the price in my country for a good (but not famous) teacher.
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It's actually not that high when you think about it. For instance, if you have a lesson, where you cover alot of ground, and you are given a whole lot of things to through, that lesson could last you a month or two (even more), while some other lesson (for more or less money) could only give you enough food for practice for a week or two. It all depends on the teacher. If you could spend $35,000 on a bass, why not spend around $100 for priceless knowledge?
 
#23
DC Bass said:
Fifty or sixty dollars for an hour lesson is a good price, provided the teacher is qualified. Many people, to include myself, pay a great deal more than that and still feel they have received a bargain!

Many, many years ago I was lucky enough to attend a master class with the great classical guitarist Bejamin Verdery. He passed on this most profound bit of advice:

You do NOT pay for lessons with money, you reserve your teachers TIME with money.

You really pay your teacher by being a good, attentive student who works hard, completes assignments, exhibits a positive attitude and shows musical growth.

Best of luck!

Joe
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Great quote! I have a few students but don't actively seek them out. They find me. (for electric bass). I charge $50 per hour and only really want the students who are interested in becoming better musicians and bassists. I have to discipline myself from going overtime though.
 
#24
Just for comparison, I pay $80 for 5 (actually 8 because he gives either three extra or one Skype for buying 5) Correspondent lessons. What I get is a big stack of pdf's with the stuff, some listening tracks, about 30 min to an hour of recorded instruction (yes I can tell that much of it is pre-recorded and then pasted together with me in mind.) And lessons come every two weeks, although twice I've asked for an extra week because of my schedule. Also I have e-mail contact and chat contact with him any time I need it.

FYI I'm at least 6 hours from any bass teachers.
 
#25
jandscotten said:
Just for comparison, I pay $80 for 5 (actually 8 because he gives either three extra or one Skype for buying 5) Correspondent lessons. What I get is a big stack of pdf's with the stuff, some listening tracks, about 30 min to an hour of recorded instruction (yes I can tell that much of it is pre-recorded and then pasted together with me in mind.) And lessons come every two weeks, although twice I've asked for an extra week because of my schedule. Also I have e-mail contact and chat contact with him any time I need it.

FYI I'm at least 6 hours from any bass teachers.
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That sounds like a pretty sweet deal. :cool:
 
#26
jandscotten said:
Just for comparison, I pay $80 for 5 (actually 8 because he gives either three extra or one Skype for buying 5) Correspondent lessons. What I get is a big stack of pdf's with the stuff, some listening tracks, about 30 min to an hour of recorded instruction (yes I can tell that much of it is pre-recorded and then pasted together with me in mind.) And lessons come every two weeks, although twice I've asked for an extra week because of my schedule. Also I have e-mail contact and chat contact with him any time I need it.

FYI I'm at least 6 hours from any bass teachers.
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That's a good point. When I do Skype lessons, I charge the same but I spend several more hours send materials and doing follow questions / answers afterwards.
 
#27
Expensive? It all depends upon how one uses the information provided.

I pay $25 @ 1/2 hour here in the metro-Detroit area. My teacher has helped me immeasurably. I think it's been beneficial.

In '79, I took a Jazz Guitar course at WCC in Ann Arbor. $35.00 a semester for a 2-hour a week class. That's a deal!

Plus, the teacher, John Lawrence is/was excellent. I haven't looked at a chord book since. Modes, theory, scales. It was all covered.
 
#28
My 2 cents:
I work in sessions of 60 to 90 minutes.

I charge 25€/ s in Lyon, France.
50 to 75€/ s in Stockholm or Oslo.

Masterclasses and specific workshops go up to 85€/ s

All students are given a 10% discount.

Of course I have the pedagogical degrees to go with my rates, but tbh the prices are pretty standard even for students teaching after their classes here in France :)

I also reserve the right to part ways with a student who lacks motivation and insists on skipping steps.

Someone here said you pay for the teacher's time and I think that's a pretty cool analogy. You have people who use two words to say something and others whom for one word will be enough. Some people will take twice as much time to say something that will take another person half the time.
What's your gear, that's your teacher.
 
#29
Where you live definitely affects cost of everything. I pay $35 for an hour and that includes printed handouts. I take them in Lancaster City PA by Jim Trostle a cum laude graduate of Berkley who majored in theory and education. He has well over 30+ experience in teaching and is an amazing guitar, bass, and pianist. I have in the past paid more and got much less out of my lessons. I wasn’t looking for a barging he just happens to be inexpensive.

Also I give him the respect of letting him know I am super busy with work and work like 70+ hours and have two daughters and house blah blah. I can read at home but do not have a whole lot of time for homework. We do most of the work in the lesson so we spend more time reviewing material and playing together so for me he is the best. We approach Real Book charts and I play them in different ways walking so it takes longer but it’s so thorough I never move on with feeling I completely understand what we are working on. Means more lessons but for me it’s not a race it’s about digesting and fully understanding the information so I wind up going for more lessons than some for the same material but he is the right teacher for me and I grateful he works around my situation.
 
#30
I pay $25 for 45 minutes (usually goes longer, though, and that's an absolute STEAL for an actual university music professor). I love my teacher. He's very good. He reminds me of the way my dad taught math. There are several ways to get from here to there and he teaches them all so you can pick what works best for you. If I get stuck in something, he seems to always have another avenue, especially conceptually (because I tend to over-analyze). Jazz has a ton of choices and pathways, and he seems to know them all....
If you're in the metro-Detroit area, Dan Pliskow is superb!

Josh
 
#31
Respectfully,

To those posting the names of their teachers and the amount they are charged for lessons: Please make sure that your teacher does not mind this information being posted on the interwebz. :)

There are a variety of reasons a teacher may choose to charge a differing rate from one student to another or the next, which is their right and their business.

Thank you for your consideration.

Joe
 
#32
DC Bass said:
Respectfully,

To those posting the names of their teachers and the amount they are charged for lessons: Please make sure that your teacher does not mind this information being posted on the interwebz. :)

There are a variety of reasons a teacher may choose to charge a differing rate from one student to another or the next, which is their right and their business.

Thank you for your consideration.

Joe
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+1
 
#33
I received lessons from a good friend. It was great - we started out as acquaintances, but then became good friends. He started charging me $40 an hour when I started seeing him, and we´d stop after an hour. I was a beginner, so I didn´t always have much to work on.

However, because I was very interested in learning, we ended up doing 2 or even 3 lessons a week at some points, and they always went on for almost 3 hours. This lasted for three years about. After a while, he stopped charging me because I was so set on achieving a goal. I progressed so much in that time, and his help is invaluable. He's one of the best people I've ever met, and is always very, very helpful. He even skype chats with me when I need guidance (on more topics than just bass!), and we get together for a lesson or a beer whenever I come back to Montreal.

Now, after his guidance, I freelance in Quebec on a semi-professional level while studying Music Performance, and whenever I teach, I try to follow how he taught me.
 
#34
DC Bass said:
Respectfully,

To those posting the names of their teachers and the amount they are charged for lessons: Please make sure that your teacher does not mind this information being posted on the interwebz. :)

There are a variety of reasons a teacher may choose to charge a differing rate from one student to another or the next, which is their right and their business.

Thank you for your consideration.

Joe
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Agreed good mention. My teacher charges everyone the same just mentioning that because I thought about before I posted.
 
#35
DC Bass said:
Respectfully,

To those posting the names of their teachers and the amount they are charged for lessons: Please make sure that your teacher does not mind this information being posted on the interwebz. :)

There are a variety of reasons a teacher may choose to charge a differing rate from one student to another or the next, which is their right and their business.

Thank you for your consideration.

Joe
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Really? I don't see anything wrong with transparency and if you charge different amounts and there's a good reason, one shouldn't have a problem disclosing what that is.
 
#36
I think in high school I paid roughly $100 / 90 minutes, so about a dollar a minute. When considering the range of prices you can pay for lessons, just take into consideration that lessons don't have an expiration date -- there are times when I'm playing and have a sudden moment of clarity when I realize that I'm about to stumble upon something my teacher told me to do 2, 3 years ago. Sometimes they say things that don't make a lot of sense, but the topics tend to come up later in life. In that sense, they are an investment for your future, just like going to college or being on a sports team that requires fees (registration, coaching, etc.).
 
#37
The local music store has space they rent out to instructors. I pay $90 a month for 4 half hour lessons for my daughter. If there are 5 weekly lessons in a month we pay an extra $22.50. Keep in mind most of those in lessons are kids. Most parents cannot afford to pay more than $100 a month for lessons. Most of the instructors in a shop around here charge $85-$100 a month for 4 lessons.
 

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