Make no mistake: Everyone who plays music is a musician.
The guy in question likely knows how to play music, but he doesn’t know how to teach someone to play music. It’s an unfortunately common occurrence.
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Wow. After hearing “Love Games” you probably want to find another teacher or stay with your 3 books and go at your own pace. I’ve never heard level 42 “Love games”, but 40 sec. into , listening to the complicated bass slapping and popping even if you’re a musical child prodigy and you’re able to pick up the notes fast; but having only 6 hrs. to actually get all of what the Level 42 bassist doing will make a lot of beginners frustrated. A good teacher want to know that his student is getting it, and if he’s having a problem with a song or a technique then slow it down and give more of his attention with his student in that area. You’re paying him to work with you on learning to play bass. He meet you half way and slow it down to slower pace, because he should want to encourage you on your bass learning and playing journey, and not be a road block. Just sayin’
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What’s with people and Level 42?
I was given Dune Tune
I do agree that your teacher needs some pedagogy skills. And also… remember… you are paying… if you are facing challenges, he has to help you overcome them.
My teacher… while still a kid (less than half my age), has some decency and doesn’t throw me under the bus… gave me hints and tips. (I still can’t play the song… I’m just not good enough … YET).
Unfortunately life has been so hectic that I can’t even schedule lessons… and I do need and miss them! Love BassBuzz and TalkingBass… but need help with a bit more things. 
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Sounds like your teacher worked out a curriculum but doesn’t change according to his students.
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i don’t really want to crush the guy (your teacher), because god knows it isn’t easy to be good at it. which is why there doesn’t seem to be many outstanding ones in any field. people just assume if you are really great at X then you are naturally very good at teaching X. that is why the whole bassbuzz thing is so valuable to us.
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This is a massive problem in almost any area of teaching but particularly higher education. Consider: if you want to study subject X at University then obviously you want the top experts in X to teach you and pass on their expertise, but unfortunately they are often, in fact most probably, far from the best educators and probably would much rather be doing their research than teaching a bunch of snotty nosed undergrads. The picture changes a little when you start post grad work when, hopefully, student and professor are now talking the same language!
Not sure there will ever be a solution to this particular problem other than sometimes you get lucky (@JoshFossgreen )
Disclaimer: I spent over 25 years teaching software.
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right. Cici, the bass player in andertons all about the bass videos recently asked on her FB page if there was interest in her giving online lessons. she’s a good player and has a really fun personality. does that make her a good teacher 
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True, but it is always fair to call a spade a spade.
Based on the anecdotal evidence presented by the OP, this dude is projecting expectations on his student rather than observing, listening and adjusting his curriculum to instruct and inspire his charge. It indeed is hard to do, but there are many teachers out there who do just that every day.
My wife is a university professor who routinely has to juke and jive with individual students to tailor the curriculum to their respective needs so it is effectively presented and, hopefully, absorbed. There are good teachers working in the trenches.
That said, it is the responsibility of the student to practice a caveat emptor approach to choosing one. As is true with deciding on a keeper bass, it takes trying several to find the right one.
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No thanks. I’m not into racist jokes.
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You made the racist comment not me 
Absolutely wrong, dude. If you’re not familiar with a non-racist common phrase that has been used for hundreds of years, that’s on you.
Erasmus, the renowned humanist and classical scholar, translated the phrase “to call a fig a fig and a trough a trough” from Greek to Latin. And in so doing he dramaticallyc changed the phrase to “call a spade a spade.” (This may have been an incorrect translation but seems more likely to have been a creative interpretation and a deliberate choice.) “Spade” stuck because of Erasmus’ considerable influence in European intellectual circles, writes the University of Vermont’s Wolfgang Mieder in his 2002 case study Call a Spade a Spade: From Classical Phrase to Racial Slur.
“To call a spade a spade” entered the English language when Nicholas Udall translated Erasmus in 1542. Famous authors who have used it in their works include Charles Dickens and W. Somerset Maugham, among others.
To be clear, the “spade” in the Erasmus translation has nothing to do with a deck of cards, but rather the gardening tool. In fact, one form of the expression that emerged later was “to call a spade a bloody shovel.” The early usages of the word “spade” did not refer to either race or skin color.
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Fair enough but if you read to the bottom of the article you’ve copied from…
Jumping to incorrect assumptions is neither difficult nor clever. Still this behavior persists.
Immediately jumping to a racist interpretation of what I clearly did not mean while ignoring the spirit and intent of the advice I offered in good will to the poster is, quite frankly, lame. I’m done with this waste of time.
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Returning to the topic…
I think it’s important to remember that that student can make their life a lot easier by being clear about when they expect from the lessons. I taught Egnlish for a few years and it was always a lot easier when a student said something like “I want to go for a job interview in a couple of months” . It was a pain when they just sat there and waited for you to read their mind.
Having said that though, a good teacher should try to draw this out of them at the beginning so they know where they’re going…
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Well, I’m prejudice, because Josh is my hero.
So, I’d say it is you.
Sorry.
Josh isn’t the teacher he’s talking about 
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Yeah. In general I recommend reading the actual post before replying to it 
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I have a suggestion for you, too.