Have also added an Apple Music playlist if anyone is interested. Might have been done before, but could not find it in the thread. BassBuzz First 50 Songs by Russell on Apple Music
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Just to clarify, as one of the people who contributes the “extras” for the challenge (bassless version, song links, etc):
Even though @JT is posting the threads for the songs in advance, the “extras” for all those songs aren’t there as of now. I still consider my deadline for contributing the “Extras” to be the date that the song is “scheduled” according to the first post in this thread.
That said, the extras are there for up to Song 16 as of right now, and most likely, most songs will be posted early, but I’m not going to try to create the entire series of extras immediately in order to keep up with the new postings…
Obviously, if anyone else wants to contribute the “extras” ahead of time, that’d be welcome too. 
Just hoping to clear up any “Where are the files?” confusion…
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Thanks so much for putting in this massive effort! And I hope life will get less hectic and we’ll see and hear you more often again at some point.
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Is there a “schedule” somewhere for those who want to try to stick close to it? Will all the songs up, going to be hard to know what the “focus” song is. I can make one if someone tells me where we are now.
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The original post has the schedule!
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It is in the first post in this thread, but here is a link to a nicer spreadsheet version. The dates in it are the dates I would open the thread.
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I mentioned elsewhere that one of my other hobbies is beer brewing 
. Well, today I brewed a nice little Czech Pilsner and had Josh’s BassBuzz First 50 songs on Spotify as my brewing playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/418dKXgR5Bm0V9qO2BJL9B?si=8b58a4ca02c046ad At the end of the playlist Spotify did what it does and created a further playlist based on the original. That was a total cracker and I highly recommend ‘chugging’ through Josh’s playlist so you can get Spotify to algorithm you up!
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As someone who creates BI and visualizations for a living, I like your spreadsheet man. Very clean. I love your style.
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Hello!
I recently had my first 1 on 1 lesson over Zoom and as part of our lessons, we’re going through the 50 song challenge.
So I looked up the tab for Another Brick in the Wall and started playing along (I have an Ultimate Guitar Tab Pro membership, which lets you play along to a version of the song, with a scrubber and everything).
I’m able to play along pretty decently as long as I’m looking at the tab, but have trouble with knowing where the transitions are when I look away. I could take the time to try to memorize where exactly the transitions are but I’m wondering if my time would be better spent moving to the next song (and so I can finally tune back up to standard 
).
I guess my questions are these:
Is playing along to a song while looking at the tab a useful exercise? Or do you consider looking at the tab just a step towards being able to play it without one?
Note: My goal isn’t to play these songs fully independently but if I’m missing out on “the point” of the 50 song challenge I’ll take the time to do it.
Thanks for any insight!
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Well I hope looking at music- be it sheet music with tabs or “real” notation is acceptable! I sure don’t plan to memorize all songs I try to play. I have discovered I make more mistakes while staring at the tabs instead of my flying fret fingers but memorizing songs by rote doesn’t seem realistic if you are really shooting for learning how to play and exposing yourself to many different songs/challenges. I’m sure I will be memorizing some songs that are my faves but would rather work on my playing skills. And I’m working on Another Brick also so I am very early in my bass badassery!
(love your avatar. one of my favorites- shame that he quit comics)
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Definitely… That’s my end goal. Unfortunately I’m still dependent on memorisation, because if I look at the tab, then I have no idea where my fingers are.
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I saw Arlo Guthrie in concert many times, and once he pulled out a wrinkled piece of paper and placed it on a music stand, and apologized that he just wrote the song and hadn’t learned it yet.
Absolutely ok to use tabs. And normal to get confused when changing from tabs to fret and back to tabs. This is all part of the learning process that will get fixed with time and practice.
Don’t sweat the mistakes. I mis fret notes all the time on early play throughs. Goes away with practice
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Looking back and forth is a skill in and of itself that is worth knowing.
Talkingbass’ course “Simple Steps to Sight Reading” is not just about reading music, it is about learning how to play without looking at the fretboard and how to look back and forth too.
Oddly though, when I record a cover my eyes are glued to the fretboard because I am trying to do the whole song in one take wihouth mistake, but in practice I look less and less at the fretboard.
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Me too usually, the only exception so far has been Come As You Are. For whatever reason, I kept screwing it up if I looked at my fingers. I had to look away for 90% of the song, even though I had it memorised.
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I look at the fretboard a lot. Like eyeing a baseball into your glove, it’s a tough habit to break.
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Another tip: listen to the drums. Nick Mason is your friend 
. He will cue you on the transitions. There is a big crash cymbal hit right at the change to “All in all it’s just another brick in the wall.”
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Thanks for the tips, everyone! As with everything, it’s getting easier with practice 
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I memorized Another Brick in the Wall for the challenge. It was easier for me because it is one of my favourite songs and I know it well. However, if you asked me now to play it, I don’t have any of the notes in my head as I didn’t keep playing it.
One thing I’ll say though is that having the song memorized lets you focus on other aspects of your playing, which can be very useful.
My approach now is, if I think I’ll play the song more in the years to come after the challenge then I’ll memorize it fully. However, most of the time I just get familiar enough with the song where I don’t have to stare at the tab the whole time.
Ultimately, any playing is good. The more you do the better and everyone will have their own methods that works for them. Just do what works best for you. If something is preventing you from enjoyment then stop doing it.
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Wow, yeah so many lessons sites have a 50 or 100 or 500 songs thing. This is great, definitely interested.
So glad I peeked into the forum to see what posts are up. Thanks for sharing!
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