… has anyone not felt confident enough to jam/improvise basslines, or play with a band?
For context I’m coming up to half way through the course now and I’m enjoying it immensely. There’s nothing (Billie Jean aside) that I’ve struggled with hugely, although some of the theory fails to lodge in my addled brain at times.
My end goal is to be able to pick up a bass and noodle about and jam with friends with a degree of competence, but I’m keen to manage my expectations 
yes you should be able to. im on module 10 now and have played with a couple of guitarist mates. not perfect by any means but a bit of fun. after a couple of drinks id even be confident enough to be called up by his band to maybe play blitzkrieg bop with them, but they havent asked me yet 
Somewhere around module 7 I recall Josh mentioned that you should be able to play some simple stuff with a group. For me, it was not even close. I read here someone jamming with a band after M6 or so, so it’s entirely possible. I am about to begin M9 and am able to play some songs I am familiar with. My opinion is that at the end it’s entirely possible to play with a band.
Just to clarify, even if it was highly unlikely I’d be at that level I’d certainly continue with the course - it’s too much fun and too interesting not to.
I’m interested to know what to expect, however …
I think I’m right there with you. I’m on Module 11 and I’m nowhere close either. I can replicate riffs, but can’t imagine a world where I’m making them up. I do plan on going through the course again when I’m through because it took me much, much longer to get through it than I wanted and I think more consistency will help.
I finished the course (first time) last April. I’m still not confident that I could improvise / create bass lines out of thin air now. I just started private lessons and that’s a major point of emphasis because my goal is to play in a band, doing originals. He had me play what I was feeling in the moment yesterday to prove to myself that I could. A lot of it is self confidence. You can do it. Being creative is like anything with playing bass. You have to practice it to get good. Just spend a few minutes every day just making something up and record it.
@Jenn_L @this_is_a_carl well if you were told ‘this ones in the key of C major, then we move to A’ for instance, would you be happy finding suitable notes to noodle away at?
so say a 1-3-5-3 or even just a 1-5-8 for each chord theyre playing?
itd take me a few seconds to locate the note and get set with a pattern, but then i think id be ok. if it was a slower one anyway
One thing that helped me get over this phobia of not being able to play with others is learning the first 5 notes on each string from the nut to the 5th fret. That’s only 20 notes and you’ll be amazed how much more confident you’ll feel if you know these note positions on the strings.
When you start playing with others and the throw out “It’s in the key of C#” you’ll know that’s the A string, 4th fret. Once you start playing you’ll realize so many songs have a repeating base pattern that’s just over and over. It’ll become second nature and if your up front with the other players and let 'em know your new, it’ll go well. I’d play with you! We all have to start somewhere.
i mean the world is full of stories of famous bands playing together for the first time and NOBODY really knowing how to play anything. so it’s more a matter of confidence then skill.
What I find ironic is that you really improve by playing with/in a band, but most of us won’t feel confident to do so. Much of this has to do with temperament. In other words, some of us are just shy, not confident, etc. by nature. I remember being told when I took Spanish in college that the best way to improve speaking Spanish was to speak it with Spanish-speaking people. But I was too shy to do it, so I got rusty and eventually forgot most of it.
I’d say this: push yourself. If you have a chance to play with/in a band, just do it and don’t worry about the initial results. You’ll learn. If the band is cool, you’ll learn IMMENSELY! 
For some of you, this advice is pointless because you’re already jamming and not reading this reply. LOL
I’d differentiate two things here, a) jamming to a chord progression that you’ve not previously learnt and b) playing an agreed song with others.
For a) if you are told the progression, then, providing you know where the notes are on the first few frets, you can simply play the root, or root / fifth, or root / fifth / octave. Always play the root on the 1 and you’re kind’a good to go. 
For b) if you’ve agreed the song, the learn the bass line, or your version of it. Make sure you’ve agreed the version of the song you’re going to do (yep, there can be multiple versions flood a song, as I’ve found out 
). Learn the song’s structure, its chord progression and practice, ‘home alone’, then play with others. This is where I’m at. Am I good at theory? No. Can I write engaging bass lines myself? No. Can I learn a song and stand in a room with others and hold my own? Yes!! And at present, that’s good enough for me.
Those are skills the course touches on, but doesn’t deep dive on. The only way to do this things is… to just do them. The course absolutely gives you the tools you need to start doing those things, but if you ONLY do the lessons in the course you will not be ready.
In much the same way that the course teaches lines from songs, but you won’t learn the whole song unless you practice the whole song.
Go on YouTube and pull up some “12 bar blues backing tracks”.
If you can chug root notes, you can play with a band.
Don’t worry about all the theory not sticking on the first pass through.
I haven’t done the course, but I should. I’ve just been looking up song covers and such on YouTube and learning that way. I know learning but and isn’t awesome, but it works and there’s lots of resources out there for this. When I started about a year and a half ago I watched tons of videos about theory, learning the fretboard, etc. It’s all good stuff to learn, but it didn’t get me playing songs like tabs have.
I have a playlist on my Pandora account with about 50 songs on it now, my bass play along playlist. When I hear a song I like I just learn that song via tab or whatever resource I can find. Sometimes all I can find is the chord progression, so I’ll just come up with my own bass line and enjoy playing along whether my bass line is “right” or not.
When actually playing songs vs doing drills I started noticing patterns. For example, there’s a little fill in Jet Airliner that’s identical to a main riff in another song I play. So when you’ve already learned a riff and then you see it in another song, and how it’s the “same” but sounds completely different because of timing or whatever, there’s an “ah ha” moment where you start developing a feel for improvising stuff.
Also, occasionally just stop the drills and just play for fun. Just play whatever random riff and wherever that riff ends on the fretboard start playing another riff you already know. Like a medley. Smashing random riffs together and mixing up the tempo will have you discovering nest little combinations that you aren’t gonna find in any YouTube video.
I’m not saying I can improvise on stage. But my play along playlist, I could bust out any of those songs at a moments notice with full confidence. I can’t tell you most of the notes, but I know the feel of those songs by heart and some days, depending on the mood, I can squeeze in a familiar riff that didn’t originally belong there.
I really need to do better with learning notes and theory, but the vast majority of my progress came from just goofing off smashing previously learned riffs together and seeing what felt good, or bad. I gained a lot of confidence from building that familiarity in a fun setting vs pounding out a drill or lesson. Everything’s easier when it’s fun…
I do more or less the same. What I find though is that while I can mimic other people’s work now, I haven’t learned how to find my own voice. If you’re in a cover band, that’s probably fine but if the goal is to improv or write your own material, that isn’t going to be enough imo.
Well said! Everyone starts somewhere. I recently went to a jam session to sing and wanted to at least have a better map of note names in my head before trying to jam with the bass. But then the bass player there said: Well, you start jamming by starting to jam so, here’s my bass! And I was like. Weellll. WHATEVER! And it was fun!
My experience was that I told people that I’ve started to play bass and they invited me to jams or told me about sessions. If you’re open about your skill level you can find people who will welcome you or even help you get started.
You don’t need the B2B course - but it will make jamming more fun and less stressful if you have any skills. When I went to the first jam, I gave people a setlist and said “that’s what I can do”, and they went with it.
Next, when they told me “this is in Eb minor”, I was back to root notes and 1-2-3-4, but that’s ok. Personally, I find that really complicated jamming requires a lot more skills than you would assume. But … no need, just do what you can and play for the people you play with. It’s called playing, right? 
I do more or less the same. What I find though is that while I can mimic other people’s work now, I haven’t learned how to find my own voice. If you’re in a cover band, that’s probably fine but if the goal is to improv or write your own material, that isn’t going to be enough imo.
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Yeah, mimicking just gets your feet wet, but we have to start somewhere and learning a song that already exists extra gives you a goal to achieve with already established goal posts, such as notes, timing, etc.
Now learn 50 other songs from different genres and start combining them.
For example, take a 12 bars blues and think, “how can I make this sound like funk”. So take that 12 bars blue and just add in whatever funk riffs you learned. It’s probably gonna sound like trash at first, but keep messing around and things will start coming together. Keep at it and you’ll discover some pretty cool sounds. Remember those sounds and they’ll come out later in your playing.
My point is, I don’t think every YouTube bass virtuoso is always coming up with every note of those mind-blowing “improv” bass lines they post. I guarantee you they spent hours noodling around, stumbled on to something and was like, “oh, yeah…let’s polish this”.
For lack of a better term, I’ve got a couple songs I “wrote” doing this. At first it was basic, but months later they’ve become more and more complex. Now when I play them I know it’s my own voice, even though my jumping off point was just mashing together little fills and riffs I learned from somewhere else. I’m not good at explaining via text though 
Lots of good advice here! I’d add to focus more on “when” to play notes and less on “what” notes to play. Note selection can be kept super simple (roots and fifths) but if you lock in with the drummer, you’ll still sound great. I just remembered this fun “jam scenario” post from @Gio, if you haven’t tried it, it’s a lot of fun and zero pressure
You are overthinking the entire concept–way overthinking. Just go and do. The clock’s ticking and nobody’s hanging around for your perception of perfection. You shouldn’t either. “Run what you brung” and move forward.