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teaching a child

M

Metallideth

Feb 19, 2004
56
2
#1
I have a 10 year old sister who has expressed intrests in wanting to play, and i want to know what to show her. I thought about doing a few finger excercise and fretting excercises seeing has she inst strong enough yet, maybe even a simple walking line. What would you start off with?
 
#4
Don't immediately start with theory. There needs to be a physical comfortability with your instrument. Teach her a scale so what she's practicing is at least musical, and then get her to do physical exercises until she's comfortable with the finger-per-fret thing for the left hand. Make sure she's being VERY economical with her hand movements. Make sure she has low action, and talk to her about getting low-tension strings.
 
#6
Metallideth said:
I have a 10 year old sister who has expressed intrests in wanting to play, and i want to know what to show her. I thought about doing a few finger excercise and fretting excercises seeing has she inst strong enough yet, maybe even a simple walking line. What would you start off with?
Click to expand...

I had a couple of students that age. The first things I taught her them were
  • the role of the bassist
  • the parts of the bass guitar
  • how to proporly hold the bass
  • the open strings
  • how to tune
  • right and left hand fingering technique
  • chromatic scale

You can omit the role of the bassist, parts of the bass guitar, but I felt it important because it gives them a more in depth knowledge of their instrument.

IMO the chromatic scale is the best of the scales to teach a child. It covers every note on the board & is an excellent left hand dexterity builder. IMO it also helps instil the one finger per fret method much better than major/minor scales.

The most important thing to remember when teaching a child of that age is that it has to stay fun for them. Once they get bored they loose intrest very quickly and seek out anything they can for a distraction. (at least mine did)

Id also hold off on any theory for the moment. Just until they get some of the physical aspects of the instrument down. What I would also do is write out the chromatic scale on a piece of staff paper, and incorporate into the lesson. This way they would get a visual representation of where the notes where on the staff.
 
#7
Yeah thanks guys it means alot. I' started her off with the chromatic scale but she cant stretch it that far. So i'm looking into getting her a short scale, I think its important for a child to have music in there lives. So thanks for all the Suggestions. I'll draw up a few general lessons tonight and hopefully we will have another bassist in the world. :D
 
#8
If you do nothing else. Make it fun for her. Remember she's 10. Teach her a couple of simple melodies--the theme song from her favorite TV show or Frosty the Snow Man. Get her playing some things and enjoying the music first. Theory and finger excersises will send her right back to her Play Station, I guarantee it.

Good Luck,

Pontz
 
#9
I might get kicked in the head for saying this, but what the hell. Personally I'd also get her started on guitar: I benefitted a lot from having played guitar for two years. It makes it easier to think of chords and chord progressions having actually played them. And also, bass is tough to play alone. It sounds like crap playing without any other instruments (or maybe that's just me, but even my teacher says so). Guitar doesn't. You might start her off on bass, and she'll end up thinking it's boring to play a musical instrument and quit.

Just my 0.02€
 

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