[EDIT] 9 months, no wait, 18 months playing!

I’ve reached 9 months playing bass now, rehearsing almost everyday, and I can’t believe how far I am now !
This course has jet packed me to some quick heights, and now I am still rising up and up and up !
Just a word for beginners: there will be frustrating times, days, or weeks even, where you’ll feel you are stuck on some level, unable to go any further, but PATIENCE ! With some rehearsing, simply some sleep (yes ! sleep incredibly helps !) and again PATIENCE, you’ll manage eventually, believe me !

Just be kind with yourself, try hard stuff if you wish, but get back on basics sometimes, improve slowly, forbid yourself nothing, and remember: bass is all about practice and precision.

Good luck all with your starting, and know you are at the right place here !

Thanks Josh again for it all !
(When is the intermediate course coming out ? :grin: )

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:100:

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great update and encouragement @xdelanoy !

May I ask please, what did you do after B2B ended? I finished B2B and am about halfway through repeating it, but I also bought four courses on sale from Truefire however they seem to assume a level of knowledge and ability I don’t have yet so it’s a little frustrating. Still, something good to use for practice.

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SBL (Scott’s Bass Lessons) Players Path. You’ll thank me later. Start at Level One.

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Check out TalkingBass.net. Mark Smith is a great teacher, although very different than Josh.

Still, Mark’s “Bassic Fundamentals” is a good gateway course to prepare you for going from B2B to intermediate lessons, and beyond.

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Thanks @EddieJones and @MikeC I’ve combed through the ‘after B2B’ discussions and those you both recommend are at the top of my list. But I’m being a bit of a stickybeak here and curious as to what @xdelanoy has done :smile: I feel kinda aimless some days with practice, so this 9 months update has been a great boost to keep in mind what I can look forward to :slight_smile:

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@StartedAt48 Mark at talking Bass or a goal oriented Course from Truefire .

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nice update and thx for sharing

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I would recommend to just start recording, and playing lots of songs. Strongly recommend the “post your covers” thread :slight_smile:

Not all learning requires courses.

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Thanks folks. I think I hijacked this thread, my apologies. Back to my B2B lesson!

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Well let me hijack you further on then @StartedAt48 (I started at 46)

After i finished the course, i did feel a bit “orphean like”, i admit.
Not so sure where to go, i was repeating BassBuzz’s courses a bit aimlessly.

Then i “ran” for many covers, testing myself on much, trying to nail extra some (and did overtime). I saved songs on Youtube lists, and picked a few I wanted learn for real, and succeeded with patience and time. (some remains on the “to be practising on” list, though, obviously these requires me to measure my learning greed :stuck_out_tongue: )

I had checked online courses, but truly i felt the need to check on some “real” one-one lesson, traditional way, with a bass teacher offline.
It had cost me some budget -rougly 80 $ a month, for two lessons a month.
The teacher managed to teach me some, he had experience for sure, but as a human being, he was not a good person. (much in his own ego, craving my cash a little too much, fakely friendly)
So i stopped after 3-4 months, after he charged me half a lesson price as I had to cancel it: I had some hospital emergency, and you expect someone to be understanding some, especially since he knew i had budget issues…

I resumed on my own, focusing on BassBuzz exercizes, and some I had handpicked on inspirational videos over the internet, & more covers.

Yet, theory I found a pain to invest on my own, and I felt I was going a bit looplike, shuffling in my learning path too much: I needed more assistance, and a “line” to work on.

I then with curiosity checked on Fiverr. After a long time checking, I came accross some Argentinian guy, that is a professional, and which videos hinted me that he owned some high level of human skills.
After a short trial, and for a very reasonable sum (about half I had paid for my offline courses), I am now taking weekly lessons with him, live from Argentina, with the best teacher I could hope for.
Patient, optimistic, cheerful, serious and precise, I am in being efficient in my daily training, thanks to him.
And overal, he is someone I am looking forward each week to meet on my own private bass lessons !

Now has said on previous comment, i believe it is each his own path to go for.
Just in my own case, I am truly content I found this later alternative: weekly lesson keeps me involved and linked with my bass, and the progresses I can clearly identify on a month timeline this way !

Oh and i forgot to mention ! I did meet on this forum some “bass buddy”, that I chat with several times a week with on some social app, sharing documents, exercises, challenges and song to practice on: we started the course roughly the same time, and while we have evolded in different ways of learning, it is a good thing we have each other in this !

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Outstanding, glad to hear it! After 3 years of near literal stagnation (my fault, very busy plus excuses), I’ve hired a local instructor to give me more reason to practice more often and to tune my instruction to my long term goals.

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Keep it going Sir ! Best therapy out there ! (at least for me)

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Hi folks !
I’ve reached now 18 months playing bass !

Believe me or not, but Billie Jean now a piece of cake, while initially it kind off discouraged me to tears…

As explained 9 months ago, I had continued on private lessons given through the internet with a professor located in Argentina.
He has been a major help, and kept my motivation intact along the months !
With a weekly lesson, I have greatly improved myself playing (I should really find the time and will to record something eventually !)

While initially i had thought music theory would be massively boring to me, I have grown fond of it, learning bits by bits how I can make myself sound better improvising, and/or the ability to decrypt within minutes the main pattern of a bass line by ear !
(Like: “Oh I see, 5th’s, and octave packed with a D/E/G line”)

Without me to really have tried hard, I can name within a couple second what note I am playing on my fret, with 90% accuracy !

I’ve started to play complicated and fast bass lines such as this one (not the hardest I learned to play, but for real beginners it is quite of a challenge already I trust)

I’ve taken the time to post here so you that just started on the course, please please, don’t lose faith and hope: I recall myself thinking as totally unable to ever play an instrument in my life, and after only 18 months playing, I now can proudly claim i am some fresh intermediate bassist player

I’d end saying this, coming from my online teacher: put love into all this, don’t blame or punish yourself when you feel you haven’t given bass enough time. Forgive, take it easy, and enjoy !

Huge bass-kissing to all, and keep up the good work!

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Out of curiosity, what is your setup with your instructor? I assume you’re doing this via zoom or something similar. Are you plugged into your amp and your instructor is hearing you’re playing via your webcam or is there something more sophisticated going on? It pains me to say, but after coming back to bass after ~20 years I am so out of touch with available tech that I feel like a caveman.

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That’s great to hear @xdelanoy ! Really cool you found such an inspiring teacher. Coming far enough to be considered Intermediate is a huge step. Congratulations.

I’m also curious about how the setup with your instructor works. Even things like, you’re French and the instructor is Argentinian, what language do you speak during classes?

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Hi Brandon, yes we are doing it through Zoom indeed !
And really ? You only need to tick off noise limiter option on it, for the teacher to hear you through your microphone.
On my side, i am only playing plugged in my own amp. You don’t need your bass to scream through the house either. (yet enough to have my wife grumbling for an hour !)

So clearly, a setup that doesn’t need you to leave your cave ! :stuck_out_tongue:

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Hi Eric !
I am being lucky to be proficient enough in english to share with my teacher in…english too !
I am not exactly sure if I should promote the plateform were i found my teacher (will tell you on MP).

But basically, I had found a list of bass teachers. He just offered 30 min trial, and I got a very nice feeling with that man, who is a fairly notorious professional in his own country.

What pleased me on top of everything, is on how easy he has been with me, encouraging and forgiving. He has lifted off all the self pressure I had put in my practice (not blaming me when I hadn’t got time to rehearse on some exercise), while remaining very efficient in making me improve along the way.

And last, in this difficult era, the $/pesos conversion allows me to enjoy a very decent price, while him to enjoy a comfortable income from those lessons on his side. (else i couldn’t have afforded a weekly lesson otherwise)

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Keep up the great work. TOXIC is a great bass play.
I started going to Yamaha Music School. Needed accountability

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