Hey Josh, thank you very much for the Beginner to Badass! I learned a lot with you, not only about bass, but also on teaching techniques! You are truly one of the best teachers I had in my life.
Keep the groove! See you mate =)
I tried to learn to play bass in high school, but it was just jamming with some friends, I never really learned technique or theory in any way. I got discouraged by my own inabilities and sold my basses before I even graduated college. Jump forward close to 20 years, I decided to correct that failure. I wasnāt sure if Iād be able to really learn anything, but that is where Josh and Bass Buzz came into my life.
I very much enjoyed the course, finished it in 3 easy (for the most part) months. Yeah, there were a few fast workouts that were hard and even frustrating at first, but I got through them all. I feel like I learned a ton, and I now know what I want to go deeper on and how to learn it. This is by far the best money Iāve spent on my bass hobby, and Iād love to take the next course, whenever that may become available.
Thank you Josh, you made a really big impact on my musical life!
As a little boy I had a piano teacher. He didnāt have a knack for helping a six year old getting started so it became horror and I hated him, hated the piano and the music in general.
As a teenager, I taught myself a little guitar and bass, than I never touched an instrument for four decades. I have never had bass or guitar lessons in my entire life. But a few months ago it got obvious, I would need a lot of input to improve my play. Because of my previous experiences I was looking for an online course instead taking lessons from local bass teacher. Just to clear off in a second if it sucksā¦
The B2B course was my best idea ever! Your teaching style is great, your explanations are short, perfect on the point and extremely helpful. More than once, half a sentence you said in a lesson helped me more, than hours of practising for my own.
The didactic structure of the course is great. I always felt challenged, but never felt overtaxed. Your tips and your bass playing disclosed my self-taught bad habits and you enabled me to get rid of them. My playing technique has significantly improved throuout the course.
I love your explanations on music theory, on scales, triades and diatonic chord progressions. I understand music much better than I did before.
I used the practice songs āfull speed without bassā intensively and they were very helpful. Thanks for this addition. I am still using some of them to warm up.
Would I book the course again? Yes! The very day you bring your āAdvanced Badass Courseā online, I will subscribe. I look forward to the advanced rock bass course, the jazz course, the soul and funk course. And more music theory is needed too. More tips on improvs. Looks, you got some work ahead, @JoshFossgreen
You could be onto an idea here! Since it is not easy to design a course which is the spiritual successor of the B2B one (since there are several levels of āno longer beginnerā players) maybe a thematic course (or better, courses) could be the way to goā¦
Hey Josh & team,
First of all, thanks for such a great course. I enjoyed it all the way through and it kept me excited so much so that I finished it in just about a monthās time. I had played the acoustic guitar for a few years, but very sporadically and completely self-taught, so my technique and music theory knowledge was lacking, to say the least. This was my first time on bass. A few things that come to mind about the experience:
In general, the course had an excellent structure, with each lesson building on the previous one, with the level of difficulty and mastery gradually increasing (except for Billie Jean ). Josh, you have a good teacherās personality, with palpable excitement about the subject and empathy for the studentās POV. You always put things into context, so we always knew why we were learning something and what level of mastery we should expect from ourselves. A good balance of satisfaction and reality checks.
It was really useful to play along with actual backing tracks, because now I have (relatively) good sense of time and groove thanks to that. Beforehand, this was completely lacking when independently noodling tabs found online on the guitar.
The tracks we played along to were a good mix of modern/more classic music and various genres. I would have welcomed a bit of classical, though. That Bach demo of yours looked great.
On top of all this, it was really helpful to receive guidance at the end of the course as to how to continue on our own. Suggestions, such as ear training and setting goals, were great. I feel like most other courses just end and youāre just sitting there with little to no idea as to where to go from there. Not the case here. (Also, watching some of the videos on Joshās own Youtube channel, such as the ones about chords, is also pretty good for going into intermediate territory.)
Playing at the three speeds was an ideal way to learn, not just to make difficult songs more easily playable, but for us to have much better technique and sense of rhythm by the time we get to the fast workout. Now I cannot even imagine getting any song right without first doing it at a slower bpm.
Two minor suggestions to improve future courses you make would be to have the shots of the neck with the red/green fret dots (seen mostly in the beginning of the course) upside down, as thatās how we see our guitar necks, so our feeble human brains donāt have to do the flipping and reading at the same time. The other would be to have a couple of lessons where the letter of each note being played is written above their corresponding notes in the sheet or tab. I know the letters normally denote the chords in the progression, but this could be a helpful way for students to see what theyāre playing.
So, thanks a lot, Josh & team, I believe this course gave a lasting foundation for my development in music/on the bass.
Congrats on finishing!
Check out this if you have not alreadyā¦
I started B2B just ahead of turning 47, as as my covid project and a way to enhance our wedding anniversary by playing her favorite song.
In addition to being those things, it was also a solid middle finger to 47 years of detractors telling me Iād never learn an instrument.
@JoshFossgreen , you have constructed the clearest, most logical and ācompletableā music course. Ever. While Iām no bassist yet, I have learned enough to follow some songs, and the bug has bitten me hard. I now own two basses, and building a third (fretless this time). I am also continuing with learning new songs by doing the 50 song challenge, as well as learning theory. B2B has finally broken me through the āwill never learn musicā barrier and has given me a solid foundation to all these things. I sincerely hope you will do the Beyond Badass course one day.
Best regards
MC-Canadastan
Finished the course today, but I was losing interest near the end. The last three modules were a bit tedious.
What a horrible attitude. Well done for proving them wrong!
Tedious? I canāt support this at all. āJamming with the bandā and the ultimate groove lessons were thrilling and extremely helpful. These exercises bring together what was learned in the course to enable us to play with a band. Iād love to do more of those .
Yeah actually the last few modules were my favorites.
For me, B2B is the best online Bass beginnerās course out there. Hands down!
Prior to B2B, I tried Jamplay for about a month and quit. Then I tried Hal Leonardās Bass Method, Complete Edition by Ed Friedland, and got bored in the middle of book 2 and quit.
Then I found B2B and the rest is history. @JoshFossgreenās teaching style and personality kept me interested and engaged, and I started seeing real results right away. The only part of the course I did not like too much was the improvisation part (and that is subjective), but overall I give it a 10 out of 10.
@RuknRole, did you know how to read music before you took up the bass? I ask because the Ed Friedland book apparently teaches the notes on the bass clef from the start, which seems like a Good ThingĀ®.
No I didnāt know how to read Bass Clef. What I learned I learned going through book 1.
Yes that is a good thing about the book., but 3/4 down book 2, page 87, he introduces TAB and your eye automatically draws to it. Wish it didnāt do that.
I will probably revisit the book again at some point and finish it up.
B2B is a great online course.
It drives you through the very basics up to intermediate bass playing, with the exactly right mix of music theory and reading, all of that with the constant presence of Josh who really has a gift for teaching and pointing out the really important things.
I am 52 and as a former piano player (decades ago) and having studied some harmony and theory in the past I can just appreciate the way Josh seems to always present some of ātheoricalā subjects as something āeasyā (which they actually are, but most people seem to be scared just of the thought of them) while driving the audience to build on them. That is particularly true in the matter of reading sheet music over tabs. Both are provided and Josh always cares to point that if someone just likes to follow tabs that is perfectly fineā¦ just to remind a second later that maybe taking a second look at the sheet wouldnāt be that bad of an ideaā¦
The course structure is meant to avoid unnecessary frustrations (even the ever present āBillie Jeanā nightmare tends to dissolve overnightā¦and realizing that, after going on with the course, you have become able to play it just fine gives you a bump in self confidence) but not at the expense of ājumping overā things you really have to learn and practice if you want to play the bass.
B2B also gives you āpillsā of different styles and grooves, which is a good way of exploring music one might have not yet listened to or appreciate.
I have completed the course in about 2 months, playing the bass as a real beginner about 2 hours per day almost every day which, I admit, is a lot of dedication. I could have completed it earlier had I not chosen (as I did) to follow in the same time another course by an Italian bass teacher and an Italian bass manual - both good, actually progressing similarly to B2B - just because I like to have different points of view for things and trying to play something aside from the courses. I think some of the more ātheoricalā modules went by as a breeze for me because of my former musical studies, so maybe I could have been quicker than others around them.
Am I a badass now? I would say I definitely am not (I spectacularly suck at slapping, just to say one, which is something I am going to work on) but I can say that what Josh teaches you in the B2B course is just what you need to become a badass with time and patience.
B2B is the perfect way of acquiring the tools a bass players has to have into his arsenal. Rome wasnāt build in a dayā¦ nor can be a bass player. But having solid fundamentals is the first, most important step of the process.
I would recommend B2B to anyone, not only to beginners. From the very beginnig up to the end I have never ever considered asking for the refund, as in the refund policy. That is very well invested (and very well earned by Josh and his organization) money. I would love having Josh produce a BSB (Badass to Super Badass) course (canāt be that hard, can it? It just needs to revert the 2 to a S ): I would buy it the day it got to the market .
Great course. In 3 months time I was able to complete the course and I hate to say it, but this is definitely more effective and efficient than working with a live teacher. The course is built up very clever, to acquire one skill after another. A lot to learn still, but thatās the beauty of making music. From this level on, as you summarized @JoshFossgreen working with a teacher could be a good follow up, but I will certainly look into a follow up course as well.
As a saxophone player this course / playing bass has enriched my understanding of music and during these months my sax playing has improved as well (timing, ears). Thnx! Would certainly recommend the course.
The only comments worth sharing on possible improvements: the musical intro for each lesson promoting the course can be skipped, the demo you give each lesson at the start is on such a high level of bass playing that instead of inspirational it might feel overwhelming. And I would have appreciated a longer duration of the extra practice clipsā¦
Glad you are here @Gijs and congrats on finishing the course.
Also good to see another horn player on here!