Teachers using published bass method books?

[Palle]

From forum discussions it seems that teachers in the US often used published bass methods books. Here in Denmark I've had 4 guitar teachers, 2 piano teachers and now a bass teacher, and none ofte them have used published methods books - although all were dedicated teachers. My teacher of classical guitar had made - and even published - some good material himself, with good progression in difficulty (so I learned to read music) and enjoyable melodies (own compositions and simplified small classical pieces), but ran out of material one day, and then used half of each session to search for suitable material. Also, we never practiced scales or right hand technique. I think it is a consequence of a Danish pedagogical tradition (back to the principles of Grundtvig and the "folk high schools" more than 150 years ago and an ideal of spoken teaching - "living word") and maybe an ideal of "creativity". What are the experiences in other countries, and does it in fact work better using published bass method books?

 

[emmadangerheart]

I'm in north America. I have used a bass instruction book with my teacher once, but he actually can changed what was in the book and it was old book as well. My teacher is very well versed in music theory, music reading, and techniques/methods though. He is really amazing and we never really use a book as I said. Also if you want to learn scales, the major scale is really essential and a lot of music theory revolves around it.

 

[Palle]

Thank you emmadangerheart.
Now I actually asked my teacher, and his reply is, that following a book cannot take my level into account. I asked a leader of a music school, I know, and got the same answer.
However, I had very little music theory and no scale training with any of my guitar teachers or my current bass teacher. I got very good and essential rhythm and right hand alternating finger picking training with my bass teacher, as well a useful patterns, but at end of third session it is: "what song do you want to learn". But it is hard for me to know the level of difficulty of different songs I like.

 

[Les Fret]

I use parts or pages from bass books in my teaching, but never follow a method book completely. Just because there aren’t many good bass method books I think. There are good bass books, but not many good method books that you can use from start to end when teaching. Same goes for electric guitar. It’s different in the classical world.

 

[Palle]

@Les Fret - that makes sense, I could use a bass teacher like that...

 

[longfinger]

I started making my own PDF notes with Finale, using them with students... then found it challenging... basically I was writing a book.

I currently use the "Hal Leonard Bass Method Book (Complete Edition)" by Ed Friedland, for my bass students and the guitar version for my guitar students. They start from zero, takes the students somewhere progressively... maybe to hero! I use them, plus other material I make or find from other authors.

Once students can play a little bit, then we can start learning specific easy songs..

I learned guitar with the Mel Bay Modern Method, but they are hard to get and surprisingly, they still look like they were published in the 1960s. So now, I use Hal Leonard.

I think the method books give structure and a feeling of progression of skills. They still need to be explained and sometimes corrected, and then will serve as a good launching pad to other repertoire. It's also important to do non-book studies. "do it like this... remember"

 

[Palle]

@longfinger - I've been using the "Hal Leonard Bass Method Book (Complete Edition)" by Ed Friedland before getting a teacher. The teacher, however, could correct things I could'n get from a book. Unfortunately, he doesn't want to use a method book.
My more systematic previous classical guitar teacher taught me how to learn a musical piece: small section at a time and very slowly in the beginning, ideally avoiding making errors at all. In spite of that I was slow to realize, that when a small part kept being difficult I should practice just that small part - I could play the whole piece again and again without improving on that part, but when playing the small difficult part in isolation, I only needed to do that a few times.
One thing I was never told, however, is the difference between learning a musical piece and learning to sight read. I learned that on the piano using the PianoMarvel software: when learning to sight read, you play pieces you don't know, fast, even though then making lots of errors (SASR). I haven't found similar software for guitar or bass. I use Yousician which I think basically have an entirely wrong approach (starting with a game concept rather than a music learning method), but it can be set up to show music notation rather than tabs, and then you get the pacing and registration of errors like in PianoMarvel SASR - but unfortunately without any systematic progression in the difficulty when reading notation, like there is in PianoMarvel SASR. Among other things I found a piece helping me to be confident with the notes on the upper part of the fretboard.