Beyond Badass!

So if I’m reading this keyboard illustration right, the open B string is B0 and the first fret of the B string is C1?

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Yes. And without transposing, open B would be the note six ledger lines below the bass clef.

Which is why notation for guitar is transposed :slight_smile:

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My two cents on this topic is that it entirely depends on your personal goals. For example, I want to be able to improvise better and be able to construct songs better. I don’t really care much about advanced techniques or slapping. Just simple solid bass fundamentals, but being able to quickly react to what others are playing in a live session. This is because every two weeks I jam with a band (excusing the lockdown madness) and want to be able to excel in that context. We also attempt to write songs together in these sessions and online using Soundtrap. Lastly, I want to know the basics of using a DAW in relation to this.

So, I’m working on music theory, reading music, and recognizing notes and chords so I can interact with other musicians easier. And I’m practicing learning how to make a verse as opposed to a chorus, etc. And I’m dabbling with recording and DAWs to get some experience in that.

Once I’m up to a decent standard on some of that stuff, I’m planning on re-doing sections of this course, but only looking at the sheet music and not the tablature. However, that’s not written in stone, so who knows.

However, the route for anyone else will likely be different than for myself, as they will have different goals to me.

I think the key is to keep playing. Whatever keeps you doing that is likely a good thing.

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It’s funny, I spent so much time getting good at slap bass, and I’m pretty good at, can double thumb and everything. Recorded an entire album with my band and there isn’t a single slapped note on that album! Lol.

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It’s funny @howard that we were talking about that topic and I was asking so many questions. When I got home today it occurred to me that I had asked myself that same question over a year and a half ago when I started playing 5 string. I had completely forgotten that I had created this chart and answered the question for myself.

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You can almost see the keyboards. Now you just need to color the open strings white and it’s going to be perfect. :slight_smile:

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That is a great way of visualizing the fretboard. I’ve seen other charts that are similar, but using simple black and white actually makes it look like a piano keyboard :+1: Which is pretty helpful visual aid for those already familiar with piano.

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I truly don’t remember why I made those black, but you are right. Perhaps I’ll go back to Photoshop and fix that.

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Also makes it really easy to find optimal shapes for all modes, and how to go beyond the octave when playing scales (that’s where I always get stuck and have to start thinking)

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When I made that chart it was only for my own study; I never had any intention of sharing it. However, if it’s helpful to others, I’m very pleased.

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That’s a cool graphic! It communicates information in a very useful way.

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Pam, that’s really cool. A nice visualization.

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Having paid for SBL almost a year ago and abandoning, I figured I would try to look at the chord tones courses they have. Why not, its free? Well, I remembered why I gave up and will take your reco and try Talking Bass instead.

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@John_E I’m sure you will enjoy the Chord Tones course at Talking Bass. Mark is a great teacher and won’t waste your time with minutia like Scott tends to do.

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Oh the words! so many many many many words!
hahahahaha

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I would also add it’s better to purchase the actual Chord Tones course than going for the monthly all-access pass (which may not even be available right now). With the All-Access you don’t get to download any of the course materials. There have been a few times where I wish I could reference some of those exercises from Chord Tones, but I let the All-Access pass lapse so out of luck unless I want to buy the full course.

I will say All-Access is great for previewing all of his courses for cheap. Now I know that Chord Tones, Scales, Sight Reading and Walking Bass courses are all definitely worth the money.

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Got through the first 5 lessons last night and really like it Pam.
I like his style, and the way he presents things is great.
I knew the theory stuff already but like how he has you visualize it on the fretboard, like a secrect decoder ring.

The one thing I kept thinking was…can we have Josh redo all of these? HAHA, Mark is great but I like Josh and the black and orange backgrounds, laid back style, and the fact that he talks slower and adds in humor.

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Yeah Mark teaches the nuts and bolts. He does add humor occasionally lol

Just wondering how many of you use Truefire as a resource?
It’s a site I used a number of years ago for guitar but I’d completely forgotten about it (no criticism of the course implied - I have a shocking memory) until an advert popped up for their sale on Facebook.

For anyone not familiar, it is an astonishing resource of tuition from 101 different tutors. Mostly guitar obviously but there are at least half a dozen bass tutors including Ariane Cap who I know some of you rate. What makes it unique is that they don’t really major of complete beginner courses although they exist (The Learn Bass 1: First steps for beginners course is currently free although I suspect it would be too basic for anyone who has completed Josh’s course) but instead they offer shorter modules on specific topics. Ariane Cap for example has modules such as Pentatonic Playground, Bass Groove Acceleration Station and Bass Fills & Thrills. There are other course such as Fretless Bass Foundations, the quite frankly bizarre sounding ‘Atomic Bass: Time Continuum by Kai Eckhart’ or quite specific genres like Focus on Latin Bass (currently on sale for $10.31). On signing up you specify your skill levels, areas of interest and learning goals and they create a players learning path of courses for you. Most of the modules seem to be reasonably priced in the $10 -$25 region although you can jump right in with an all-access pass for $149 per year (currently although they state its normally $249). This I believe also gives you access to courses in all the other instruments as well so if you are a multi-instrumentalist this would offer a brilliant playground although you might need three lifetimes to work through all the content. Another aspect of the site I like the look of is that they do multi-instrument jam packs in all sorts of genres. Each pack has separate tracks for guitar, keys, drums and bass and you can filter out whichever instruments you want. I just had a look at the British Blues rock pack as that’s an area of interest and it seems to have a lot of 60s Cream and Yardbirds style tracks and you get 20 of them for $22.00

Anyway I’m not a salesman for Truefire (honest) although it might sound like it but I am interested in hearing if anyone else has used them. I can’t recall why I didn’t continue with them on guitar - either I didn’t like the teaching style or I got distracted and went down another rabbit hole but I’m tempted to sign up for the all-access pass if other people have had good experiences.

Before getting back into bass with Josh’s course (just how much do we all owe to Josh?) I signed up to the Nathan East course on Artistworks but that’s $279 for a year and you only get access to one course with one tutor. Truefire seems to be much better value.

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Update: Having just signed up to Truefire again I got this email

Thank you for joining us! You now have a free trial of All Access, which means you can stream every course in our library for as long as you’re subscribed on our website or in the TrueFire app . You can also save 25% on your first course download with promo code “IGNITED” - check out your personalized recommendations below to get started!

It doesn’t say how long my free trial will last but I will investigate…