Well, I finally made it.
I started in Jan 2024 and got to the slap bass section (this was when slap bass was part of the core course). Life happened and I lost interest in everyhing. I tried again in late 2024 but that was a false start.
Last October, I got some news and have made and continue to make a lot of positive changes in my life and here I am. having finished the course. A big thank you to all the people I have interacted with, however small. Sometimes even the smallest piece of advice can go a long way.
Of course, my biggest thanks goes to Josh for providing a course that was so enjoyable I actually finished it, a rare occurance indeed. I know my bass journey has just begun.
My wife was ordering some things online and needed to spend like an additional $15 to get free shipping - so, I had her order that book. Plenty of decent songs - but Iāve always used (and would have preferred) standard notation. I think Iām open- minded enough to use the tab and try some of the more interesting (to me) songs in the book. My son, whoās not a big Aerosmith fan, was learning Sweet Emotion, on guitar. He was visiting at Christmas so I used the book to start playing the song. The intro is a bit difficult to get under my fingers - as I donāt typically play up on frets 11-14 for an extended period. Getting better though.
I started this course on Feb 07 2025 and I just graduated yesterday, 29 Dec 2025.
I took a huge break of several months (starting from the summer of ā25) after the āVamping with the drummerā lesson of module 15, because I was getting a bit tired and I honestly wanted to start āhaving funā asap. So I started improv as soon as I could after the beginning of the final module; I even bought a drum machine and a fuzz pedal and recorded myself on some catchy tunes.
This couldnāt have been possible without bassbuzz, so, thank you!
That being said, I have a strong feeling the road ahead to be an actual ābass playerā is still long and if there were another intermediate course I think I will gladly pay for it ahahah
But the good news is that, after the final video, I still have so much work to do (checklists, theory review, second pass of the course, songs, exercises, etc.), so I donāt feel completely lost and without guidance!
As I previously said, I took a huge pause during the course and tried improvising on my own - on the style of music that I like the most - and tried learning some of my favourite not-too-complicated songs (dragonaut from sleep, iron man from sabbath). This break, anyway, has showed me that I still have to improve a lot on the tecnique, but I am confident the to-do-list I have made after the final video can help me a lot in this direction.
I hope I can find the time to be more active on the forum the following months so to be a better member of the community. Thanks to all!
Not sure about graduation date , I know I started in March of 24 and graduated a month or 2 ago. When I started the course I was working as a long distance truck driver. I often worked 16 hr days/6days a week. I bought a bass, signed up for the course and practiced during waiting times. End of day I was to tired to concentrate. Sometimes I got to play 30 minutes first thing in the morning, sometimes Iād be so exhausted I couldnāt even think about trying for a few days or sometimes a few weeks. So it took awhile. I loved every minute of it. Regardless of my less than ideal learning situation and the fact that Iām ADHD, was able to finish the course and play songs with ease that I didnāt dare even dream about before. It was all worth it to play along with the full song pack at the end. When I was a teenager, my fave music wasā¦ CCR, AC/DC and yup James Brown. I can only describe the smile on my face as face splitting. During High Way To Hell, when Josh says. āhow cool is that?ā it was a split second after I had just said the same thing to myself, which was double cool. Iām a psych student with a strong interest to use music therapy as a tool in Cognitive Behavioral therapy. I think Bass Buzz has done half of the research for me, lol. I strongly suspect someone involved with Bass Buzz (Josh Iām guessing) has been working a bit of music therapy on himself, and incorporated it into the course. Well Done. Love you guys, like really, youāre all awesome.
Might I suggest looking through the free You tube videos. Those videos where made to entice people to take the course, it looks like to me. Which means some of them are designed to give enough info to develop confidence that you could learn if your (theory, technique, bass face) was up to parā¦ So some of them have extra material that Iāve been having a lot of fun with, if you havenāt given that a look through, I would suggest it. Especially the 10 minute slap practice video, Game changer, Thought I was becoming proficient at slap, oh there is so much room for improvement, lol.
I finished the course today, Jan 19 2026!
It took me a bit longer than originally planned (almost a year, but due some injuries I had to take breaks), but I powered through and managed it!
Though it does feel sad and satisfactory at the same time to have finished the course! But Iām excited to continue my bass journey, and Iām definitely going to repeat the course again and plan to go to some jam sessions in the future!
I graduated a couple of month ago and today once more. I will go for a third run while I practice the songs from the song pack.
I finished the first run within 2 or 3 month. The secound run took me 5 month. Of course I am happy to spend some further hours again with Josh with my third run : ) I am thrilled to get basics more right and understand them better. I think back how I started and my skillset at this point and now where I currently am. Yeah, still a lot to do, but I see so much progress. Everything gets a tiny bit easier every week/month.
There is so much to write but I need to leave some space for the next guys ; )
Greetings from Germany.
(Sorry if my English is a bit off)
