Share your music teaching stories!

[Inca]

I absolutely love teaching others new things. Yes, my profession is as a teacher, but this relates specifically to music.

I have two specific stories to share.

First, is getting my mom addicted to pro tools. ha. She is really active in her church as a bass player, children's music director, and head of the accapella group. She needed a cool way to record these various acts in her church. She went on Ebay and picked up an old Digi 001.

I recently taught her how to use compression and verb on an aux. track. It was really cool seeing her get so excited about music. Yes, I did try to be responsible while teaching her to use comps on the 2 bus. It's really funny hearing her talk about the "2 bus"now. Too cool. The best part is that she is going to use the Digi hardware exchange and might be picking up an 003 system. She can absolutely shred the bass, and used to play in S.F. in a band in the 60's. I taught her how to DI a track and reamp through her old Silverface. She went out and bought and Xamp! haha.

Lastly, I recently got back to church after all of these years. I was invited to help out with the youth group band. So, I'm playing bass for them and just showing them the ins and outs of working as a group. We had our first show on Saturday and it was great seeing how stoked they were during the performance. I've really helped the guitar player come a long way with his leads and rhythm work.

Being a guitar player myself, playing bass so much has been an awesome experience. I got invited to play bass during this past Sundays worship service. It was a great learning experience for me. I really had to brush up on chart reading skills and improving when I got lost to cover all of my bases. Gee, learning that circle of fifths does come in handy Mr. guitar teacher. haha.


So, any cool stories to share? Keep on teaching, we have to save music one person at a time. thumbsup

[StarfishMusic]

I teach engineering freelance in my area. I'll give you one of those nightmare stories lol. mind you I've taught hundreds of people... about 8 years ago before I knew the right questions to ask before going to a teaching gig this rediculous situation happened:

I drove about 50 miles to what I thought would be a normal 3 hour setup and teaching gig. I mostly teach 1 on 1 but occasionally 2 people. When i got there I was startled to see a room of 8 people! Fine, whatever, so they wanted to learn to make beats (of course) and record them in logic. They had a keyboard, a few modules and a alesis sr16 drum machine. One of the members of the audience had gone to school for music theory and apparently had been the one who knew slightly how to use the system. He argued with almost everything I said or tried to help me teach by adding in helpful statements that were of course wrong. He wasn't the one paying by the way.

Basically he wouldn't believe me that they should do the drum sequencing in logic instead of in the sr16 drum machine. He was convinced the sound would be different coming from the computer, that the sr16 had real samples of real drums in it. No convincing on my part would get him to believe me that the midi triggering the sr16 drum machine from logic was just like hitting the pads on it or recording within the sr16. Of course I explained the sound still comes from the sr16. Even when I did it and played it back he wouldn't shut up about it. if he mentioned hardware midi timing maybe... but trust me this guy was saying the sound was different for god's sake. Of course the guy paying didn't know quite who to believe. and I had a room full of people looking at me like I might be a liar.

Eventually i couldn't take him anymore and told him to f--k off. We almost got into a fight and then I said to myself I refuse to get into a fight over midi lol and walked out. The paying guy followed me and apologized. he told the other guy to cut it out and we finished the session.

I learned a valuable lesson that day. that it was my fault for blindly walking into that situation. You need to ask questions before you go or they show up at your studio. no matter how good you are ya gotta know what your getting yourself into. Had I done that I would have only agreed to teach the one guy who knew a little something and the guy paying, that's it.

teaching can be downright difficult sometimes, you need mega patience. but the reward is i have many people that make great sounding music or run a commercial studio and thank me for getting them started.

[wesarvin]

One of my guitar students is a trip. He always says the darndest things when you'd least expect it. I've trained him to have an interest in all kinds of music, not just disney and mtv crap. Keep in mind that he's seven!

Some of my favorite quotes by him:

When showing how easy a Jonas Brothers song was, he replied with "This stuff is stupid, let's do some Randy Rhoads"

"Can I borrow a guitar pick? Yesterday the elf on my shelf stole it."

"Today I got a part in our school play. It has a scene where I kiss a girl on the cheek...but it sucks because she's the fat chick."

[JoaT]

Originally Posted by guitarwes

"Can I borrow a guitar pick? Yesterday the elf on my shelf stole it."

This will be my only excuse for anything I've forgotten and need to borrow from now on. Pure genius.

[JustinAiken]

I remember teaching a lesson to a 14 year old student of mine wearing a Judas Priest T-shirt that told me he didn't like Queen because the singer was gay...

[Inca]

funny stuff guys, keep in coming!

don't you just love the comments from the kids.....priceless stuff!

[kyle barton]

after giving my 11 year old daughter first bass lesson, she came up to me a few days later and said "Daddy, i want to learn how to play the guitar"

i said "but what about your bass lessons?"

she replied "oh, i already know how to play bass"