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I need some advice from Double Bass players.

6 replies

FiveHoursSleep · 25/06/2013 12:46

DD is in Year 6 and just about to sit her Grade 3. She has a very nice DB teacher and learns through school. BUT she's off to secondary school and we've just been allocated her teacher for next year. The trouble is her new teacher plays the cello, not the bass.
Is this a real problem? If your child learns the double bass, is their teacher a cello or a db player? If they are taught by a cellist; have they made progress with them?
It's a lot of money to shell out if they are not going to be taught correctly!

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YDdraigGoch · 25/06/2013 20:45

My DB teacher taught cello and DB when I was in school. Cello was his first instrument, but lots of instrumental teachers double up on instruments. Unless she's a musical genius, I think she'll be fine. Once you've learned the notes, a lot of music teaching is the same across all instruments - it's about interpreting the music etc, and if course, the theory is the same.

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gd1976 · 29/06/2013 03:09

I would say at the level she has now reached she should definitely have a bass teacher rather than cello. My husband and I are both professional musicians in orchestras and he's a bass player actually! The technique is very different so if you can at all I would try and hunt out a bass teacher. Having said that, a bad bass teacher won't be as good as a good cello teacher! Where do you live?

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FiveHoursSleep · 29/06/2013 13:32

We are in Middlesex, London. Her current school teacher has offered to keep teaching her but obviously this will be more expensive than something subsidised through school.
We have no idea if she is a 'good' teacher or not, but DD seems to have done well under her. She will also be teaching our 7 year old from September as she wants to learn as well and there is no one else interested in her year.

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cheaspicks · 01/07/2013 12:31

I am a professional oboist, but had lessons from a clarinetist at a similar stage to your dd. Assuming the cello teacher is good and that your dd gets on with her, then I doubt it would matter hugely for the next couple of years - say until post grade 6. I suppose another thing to consider is whether your dd is only interested in classical music, as db players are much more likely than cellists to be involved in playing jazz, etc.

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Theas18 · 02/07/2013 22:15

it's normal to do this. the schools can't afford a teacher for each instrument when they might only have one or 2 players.

ds for instance ifs a French horn player and didn't have a specialist teacher at primary, and only got one at secondary because she was the brass teacher for the school but happened to be a horn specialist.

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FiveHoursSleep · 03/07/2013 14:18

Thanks for all your advice. I know it's quite normal to do it, but I wanted to know if it was a problem.
I've had advice from a few bassists and they all say a cello teacher is fine up until grade 3-4, but after that you really need a bass teacher, so it's private lessons for us from September!

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