Billie Jean is a Wicked Mistress

LOL.

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So i can’t really diagnose anything over my phone, but your technique looks pretty good. Are you maybe fretting hard because you’re counting and trying to stay in time? I do that, i still do that now learning new stuff. I don’t know that is what’s going on- but when i get this i try to play it as lightly as i can. It can be a challenge.
But all in all, it looks good! Keep going!

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Thats probably what’s going on. When playing I could kinda feel that I’m fretting too hard but there’s stuff like rhythm and strict alternating in the mix as you mentioned.
I will note this for the next practice, appreciate ya!

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Nice job. That sounds pretty good. And don’t worry about the face. Sometimes I look like I’m staring into the toilet trying to figure out if I ate corn earlier too when I play. I get a bit more animated and make less ā€œdumb faceā€ when I’m comfortable with a song and can play it more relaxed. I practiced ā€œBillie Jeanā€ all while I was completing the course too. Try dropping the F# and octave on the opening note (2nd fret E string as opposed to 4th fret on the D string) and lemme know what you think. I think it sounds sweet. Well done.

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My girl says i look like a scared squirrel when I’m playing and concentrating. You’re probably good.:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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it’s your bass face , wear it with pride! :muscle:

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Update! I got my bass back in a week, good as new! While I got used to the 5 string a bit, it’s not quite for me yet. AND I got through Billie Jean on medium!

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Congrats on tackling the dreaded BJ, Jenn!

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I’ve committed it to memory (through practise) , so occasionally when I first pick up my bass I will run through it. I am improving slowly, and I know I will get it one day.
I agree that is meant as a challenge to come back to, and not meant to frustrate us or act as a hurdle. I now see it as a fun tune to work on and master

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I hit this lesson yesterday and BJ definitely tripped me up. Thankfully I read much of the comments below the lesson video and discovered that we can slow the ā€˜slow’ lesson down to 0.5 and 0.75 so I worked on those until I got them down and after many (many, many) time through, I was finally able to complete BJ on slow at 1.0x speed. After that I was able to jump into medium and not make too many mistakes. I’ll move onto the next lesson and keep coming back to this until I can master it without mistakes. Thankful for all the good advice on here to keep me from getting too frustrated :sunglasses:

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Good on you! You’ll get there. Keep making noise!

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Oh gawd Billie …

Not only this one is tricky and asks for not only precision and timing… but I also had to decide to do the course on my new Ibby MS… because I thought it would be a good way to get familiarized with this bass… I am getting properly slapped.
Might eventually try to do it on the MM and come back at a later date.

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BJ has a tendency to spank the new suitors. Just keep at it, slowly. Then walk away and work on next lessons. With patience and slow practice, you’ll get there.

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Semi managed Billie Jean on the 4 string bass / slow workout… but not without mistakes… lots of practice needed for this…

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Mistakes are just opportunities to improve. Isolate those rough spots, one by one, until you can nail them at as slow a tempo as it takes – even if it’s at a single fretted note at a time, if necessary. Concentrate on playing with slow, clean technique and you’ll get the whole piece down with practice. You got this. :+1:

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I moved onwards to reduce frustration a bit and took as a challenge to fret it a couple of times a day… even if it is a note per second.

Daughter also heard me practice yesterday so she got interested… might be a chance to explain to her while doing :slight_smile:

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@MikeC. Is right here. That’s good advice. Move on, keep making progress. Billie Jean is a stretch lesson. It’s one of those white whale things-until it isn’t…
What i mean is you’ll find you’ve leveled up. You’ll just be playing and realize ā€œoh, i can do something i couldn’t beforeā€ and it happens without you noticing.
It’s Very easy to get frustrated here, but i trust that if you keep playing you will get it.

Turn it up, keep playing. No one gets it in one.

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Exactly that….happened to me too :+1:

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Same, still can’t quite pull it off on fast but medium is now easy vs when I started I had to take the slow workout and slow it down even further!

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Who knew you need four accomplished musicians to play this song?

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