Teaching lessons

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Billy3000
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Post by Billy3000 »

They've already recommended me to one of their other friends in the neighborhood! Awesome! I'm gonna make a post on craigslist to try and get some more kids that want lessons cause this pays pretty damn well! I'm getting $25 for an hour lesson!
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theshadowofseattle
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Post by theshadowofseattle »

Mr. 3000's School of Music: From Green Day to Thursday, learn the songs of all your favorite middle school bands!
Fakir Mustache wrote:Classic Shad Deluxe.
Nick wrote:Some of Shad's favorite Teles are black.
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Billy3000
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Post by Billy3000 »

theshadowofseattle wrote:Mr. 3000's School of Music: From Green Day to Thursday, learn the songs of all your favorite middle school bands!
Haha... I'll teach whatever the kids want to learn. This kid just wanted to learn some Green Day and I knew "when I come around". He also wants me to teach him that Snow Patrol song that everyone keeps talking about but I never listened to cause I expected it to be garbage... so I have to learn that and teach it to him.
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theshadowofseattle
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Post by theshadowofseattle »

LOYNE UP

LOYNE UP

AHS IF YOU HAAAAHHHHD A CHOICE
Fakir Mustache wrote:Classic Shad Deluxe.
Nick wrote:Some of Shad's favorite Teles are black.
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Billy3000
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Post by Billy3000 »

So I taught that new girl last night for the first time. I'm teaching her bass and she already plays the Upright bass and comes from a musical family, her mom teaches guitar lessons and plays in a folk band with her dad. so she knows all the theory stuff which makes it easy on me, She picks up pretty quickly, we did some scales and she already knew that so I've basically just gone straight to teaching her songs that she wants to know. Last night I was teaching her out of her book and it had "In Bloom" by Nirvana in there and I tried to teach her that but she had problems getting the rests down in there, she was great except for those rests though. She wants to learn a lot of classic rock stuff so I told her I'd teach her "Dazed and Confused" next week since she really likes Led Zepplin. Her parents have an AWESOME collection of guitars! I thought I was getting to the point of having too many guitars but they have 26 guitars throughout their house! I only got to see the ones that they had downstairs last night but that consisted of a couple Martin acoustics, a Taylor acoustic and one of the nicest looking Les Paul Standards that I have ever seen!

The other kid that I've been teaching for 3 weeks now seems like he's not really very motivated anymore, it doesn't seem like he's really practicing during the week or anything and he gets really frustrated when he can't play something right. I told him to just slow down and take it easy until he gets it down and then to try and speed up and play along with the tempo of the song but he still just gets frustrated and tries to speed through it. Do any of you guys have suggestions on how to help him feel less frustrated with it and to just take it easy and keep practicing? When I first started teaching him he was all excited to learn it and everything but now it seems like he's all antsy to go run off and play basketball instead.
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aphasiac
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Post by aphasiac »

ha, i love the way you taught that kid to play powerchords before any open chords.

wish i'd learnt like that, tons more fun and easier! :D

I agree with another point someone made - you gotta teach em rhythm. get a metronome/drum machine in there, and for every song have them playing along with it. Cos bad timing sounds ALOT worst than bad fingering.

As for the unmotivated boy - sounds like whatever he's been given is too hard for him. slow it down - for guitar give him easy one or two chord progressions. for bass, consentrate on simple riffs and timing. also tell him playing guitar will get him tons of chicks!! :lol:
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Post by Billy3000 »

aphasiac wrote:ha, i love the way you taught that kid to play powerchords before any open chords.

wish i'd learnt like that, tons more fun and easier! :D

I agree with another point someone made - you gotta teach em rhythm. get a metronome/drum machine in there, and for every song have them playing along with it. Cos bad timing sounds ALOT worst than bad fingering.

As for the unmotivated boy - sounds like whatever he's been given is too hard for him. slow it down - for guitar give him easy one or two chord progressions. for bass, consentrate on simple riffs and timing. also tell him playing guitar will get him tons of chicks!! :lol:
He has actually taken acoustic lessons for about a year now, so he knows a few open chords, but the stuff that he told me he actually wants to learn is all power chords so that's what I'm trying to teach him. He's having problems holding the strings down though, he doesn't really like guitar as much as bass so I suspect that he isn't practicing it at all. I've taught him "When I come around" and "holiday" on bass so far, he was having trouble with when i come around so I taught him holiday thinking it would be easier for him, and he's doing better with that one, but he's still having trouble. I think I might try out the metronome idea for next time too, and I've told him to try and play the song slowly and work on his technique and then to start worrying about playing on the tempo with the song. I gave him some simple exercises on bass to work on also, but he didn't practice them, and then didn't have his book with him last night so I couldn't go over them with him again.
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theshadowofseattle
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Post by theshadowofseattle »

Billy3000 wrote:
aphasiac wrote:ha, i love the way you taught that kid to play powerchords before any open chords.

wish i'd learnt like that, tons more fun and easier! :D

I agree with another point someone made - you gotta teach em rhythm. get a metronome/drum machine in there, and for every song have them playing along with it. Cos bad timing sounds ALOT worst than bad fingering.

As for the unmotivated boy - sounds like whatever he's been given is too hard for him. slow it down - for guitar give him easy one or two chord progressions. for bass, consentrate on simple riffs and timing. also tell him playing guitar will get him tons of chicks!! :lol:
He has actually taken acoustic lessons for about a year now, so he knows a few open chords, but the stuff that he told me he actually wants to learn is all power chords so that's what I'm trying to teach him. He's having problems holding the strings down though, he doesn't really like guitar as much as bass so I suspect that he isn't practicing it at all. I've taught him "When I come around" and "holiday" on bass so far, he was having trouble with when i come around so I taught him holiday thinking it would be easier for him, and he's doing better with that one, but he's still having trouble. I think I might try out the metronome idea for next time too, and I've told him to try and play the song slowly and work on his technique and then to start worrying about playing on the tempo with the song. I gave him some simple exercises on bass to work on also, but he didn't practice them, and then didn't have his book with him last night so I couldn't go over them with him again.

My nephew does the same shit! HE NEVER PRACTICES CHORDS.
Fakir Mustache wrote:Classic Shad Deluxe.
Nick wrote:Some of Shad's favorite Teles are black.
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aphasiac
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Post by aphasiac »

theshadowofseattle wrote: My nephew does the same shit! HE NEVER PRACTICES CHORDS.
haha i got the same problem - i'm teaching my 11 year old niece to play, and it's difficult cos her hands are tiny and can't reach (even on her 22" duo-sonic), plus i's impossible to get her to practise. just cos she's got more fun things to do i guess.

Doesn't help that i'm an awful teacher - "thats it..almost..argh..OH FOR F'#CK SAKE JUST PLAY IT..COME ON, IT ISN'T THAT HARD!!"

to be fair though, she's almost learnt the main riff to Lil Chris - Checkin It Out!! Man when she hit that i was so proud :D
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Post by theshadowofseattle »

My nephew learned "The Sweater Song" perfectly within 9 minutes of having a guitar in his hands for the first time in his life.


...It's taken me a month to teach him "Teen Spirit" because he refuses to learn anything resembling a chord!!
Fakir Mustache wrote:Classic Shad Deluxe.
Nick wrote:Some of Shad's favorite Teles are black.
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Billy3000
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Post by Billy3000 »

aphasiac wrote:
theshadowofseattle wrote: My nephew does the same shit! HE NEVER PRACTICES CHORDS.
haha i got the same problem - i'm teaching my 11 year old niece to play, and it's difficult cos her hands are tiny and can't reach (even on her 22" duo-sonic), plus i's impossible to get her to practise. just cos she's got more fun things to do i guess.

Doesn't help that i'm an awful teacher - "thats it..almost..argh..OH FOR F'#CK SAKE JUST PLAY IT..COME ON, IT ISN'T THAT HARD!!"

to be fair though, she's almost learnt the main riff to Lil Chris - Checkin It Out!! Man when she hit that i was so proud :D
Yea, this kid is pretty small and has problems stretching his fingers to make the chords, but he can still do it.. he just doesn't practice it. His mom said she wishes that they had bought him a 3/4 sized acoustic, if he ever goes electric I'm going to try to suggest a shortscale to him.
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Bacchus
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Post by Bacchus »

Malik wrote:
Doog wrote:
theshadowofseattle wrote:Teach him American Idiot as an example of a riff in the major scale.
It's not, though.
It's F#, G# and C#. Those notes are in A major, E major, B major, F# major and C# major.
It's G sharp minor. The seventh is flattened, as it usually is in rock music. It's a riff on the minor pentatonic, which, in the case of G sharp, is G#, B, C# D#, and F#.
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