JK - Evaluation: Lesson 9

Complementary Studies: Liam Marley

Pupil: Joe Kosminsky
Date: 18/02/08
Evaluating Time: 2hrs


The lesson helped to gauge how much information during the past eight lessons Joseph has retained. It enabled an analysis of the teaching methods, to see whether the lesson structure was working to improve the pupil’s bass playing, while at the same time creating interesting and enjoyable lessons.

Joseph’s knowledge was tested during the course of this lesson to see how much he has actually learnt so far. Joseph was asked to perform chromatic and octave exercises so his hand forms could be studied. While Joseph was asked to name all the E notes on the fret board to establish his knowledge of bass notation. To keep the lesson fun and practical, ‘The Ballad Of John and Yoko’ by The Beatles was introduced to the pupil. This was an adaption of all the blues bass patterns that had been learnt over the past months, but this time it combined the use of rhythm, the use of fifths (as well as other interval notes), a song arrangement and more importantly other instruments to play along with, to a tempo.


Lesson Objectives:

1.) To develop the pupil’s finger and hand forms by practicing the chromatic and octave exercises.

Outcome: Great improvement was demonstrated during the lesson with Joseph’s hand techniques. Notes were being fretted with improved articulation, with hardly any fret resonance being pronounced. This would usually occur as a result of a fret finger being too close to the fret bar causing a distasteful fret buzz. However the pupil’s fret accuracy has progressed a lot since the early lessons and Joseph is managing to hit notes in the centre of the fret.

Joseph managed to play the octaves for a short period as his stretch needs a lot of work and as not damage his fingers he persisted with practice his fret accuracy using slides.


2.) To develop the pupil’s fret board knowledge by testing their comprehension of bass notation.

Outcome: When Joseph was asked to name all the E notes possible, beginning with the lowest E that the bass can produce, he immediately recognised and played the open note on the bottom E string. Straight after that he found the E on the twelve fret and begin to search for the others. Joseph used a mixture rules to find all the E notes available on the instrument and even resorted to counting, which was not discourage. Counting the notes is a useful way of building a map of the fret board into the mind of the pupil so that they become familiar with all the notes not just the ones that Joseph has been playing, i.e. C, G, D and A.

Afterwards to build on Joseph’s confidence he was asked to name all the G notes but only on first two strings – E and A string. Once again the first two were easily found, on the E string, the lowest frequency note located on the third fret and its octave on the fifteenth fret. However Joseph quickly got confused when attempting to find the only G located on the A string, as he played the fifth of G – D. This was finally corrected by referring back to the G at the fifteenth fret (on the E string) and counting six frets backwards on the A string to find the next G. This note is of the same pitch but of different tone due to the length and thickness of the second string.

Afterwards it was decided that Joseph should quickly through the fret board just to refresh the notes in his head. Once he was reminded that as we descend down the fret board, the notes actually ascend in pitch, so a flat note would always come before a sharp note. This enabled Joseph to run through the notes naming the majority of the accidental notes, which contain sharp and flat notes, such as an E♭ and an G♯.


3.) To learn and play along to the practice material of ‘The Ballad Of John and Yoko’ by The Beatles.

Outcome: This became the last objective of the lesson as The Beatles song managed to take up nearly half the hour lesson. The tablature was shown to Joseph but it was explained in both terms of fret numbers, i.e. the fifth fret on the E string and notation form, to develop the pupil’s fret board knowledge further.

At the moment the tempo of the song is far too fast for the pupil to play along to. So instead Joseph played the arrangement at his own pace, beginning with the introduction pattern and slowly working his way through the first verse where the chord progression was E, A, E, B, E. With the bass pattern to notes E and A practiced and polished, Joseph only seemed to struggle whenever the song changed to note A. This was because of the unfamiliar pattern, as it was not the same of the E and A as they were using open notes so the structure was slightly different. This seemed to affect Joseph’s rhythm and make him hesitate as to which bass pattern was to be played next. However with more time and practice on this song Joseph will have the arrangement mastered and his fret changes will become smooth and fluid


**’The Ballad Of John and Yoko’ tablature**



4.) To explain the music theory behind fifth interval notes so the pupil fully understands this subject. After this the pupil will be demonstrated how the use of both fifth and eighth (octave) interval notes can adapt and develop a bass line.

*Outcome: Unfortunately there was no time at the end of the lesson to attempt this objective due to the time taken up for the third objective.