And a lot of shared commiserating. 
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So just letting you know last night I did,ā¦ scratch that, -tried- the Billy Jean lesson.
I already saw some posts before on the forum about how people got discouraged and I must say, I failed spectacularly but had a big laugh about it.
Primarily because of my complete ineptitude even after rewinding the lesson multiple times, which I havenāt done up till now.
But also because of the amount of times Josh emphasized not to get stuck on it and just move on.
Iām confident in about a month or two Ill look back and will actually be able to do the slow version. Right now Iām just very much surprised that it actually haunted my dreams last night, I can vividly remember a half sleep state where I was fiddling around with my fretting fingers and getting frustrated the plucking fingers werenāt keeping up.
I guess that was my brain trying to figure things out, I hope it rewires itself in time for the next lesson today!
I will, ofcourse, keep this thread in mind when I finally have been able to play it though. Iām very much looking forward to it!
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Props for trying, though! I didnāt even try the slow workout; just went through the fretting at a snails pace on my own. That was rough enough!
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But did you eventually nail the slow workout and further? And how long after you tried it the first time around?
Iām curious if my āmonth or twoā is a generous enough estimate, or if Iām being very optimistic 
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Thatās the spiritā¦you wil certainly get it , probably faster by laughing at your attempts than to get frustrated 
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Nope, I just fretted the notes at a snails pace and moved on. Iāll come back to it (maybe) in the future.
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Thanks, Iāll try to keep it up!
Keep us updated, Iāll try to come back to this thread when I eventually made progress as well in the coming weeks. We got this 
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Moving on from Billy Jean is amazing, sure first you get hit by a theory bomb but the next regular workout makes you feel like youāre progressing again 
Now Iāve noticed Iām returning to Ska people to nail that perfectly, the first time Iām letting myself get stuck on a single riff. Got it 90% now though on the full speed, so Iām allowing myself to continue.
Donāt get me wrong, I was already continuing but came back for 3 days straight every day an extra 15 minutes to get the ska riff done. Itās a feisty one.
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Today was Billie Jean day for me. I was curious to see how it would go, since I had weekly lessons for about 6 months before starting the course and the first four modules were pretty easy. I was able to do the slow workout, kind of muddled through the medium workout, but could not keep up with the full workout. So, itās definitely a good benchmark. I didnāt worry too much about using the ācorrectā fingering.
For me, the hardest part is pressing way too hard on the frets until my fingers and wrist hurt. I was forced to lighten up the pressure. It turns out, it sounds fine with a much lighter touch and doesnāt hurt. My pinky still gets tired, but hopefully it will get stronger.
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Iām on module 13 and decided to go and try it again slowly, man I donāt know how yāall do it, Iām very much a noob but can get most things going slowly. This one here is still a no go, I canāt seem to get my fingers right for the fretting, it is very much deceptive as someone said, gonna attempt again at a later date. Maybe after my second time through the course?
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Play around with which fingers you fret with to play Billie Jean.
I can play the line using Joshās fretting (i.e., using ring, little finger and index finger), but it feels unnatural to me. Instead, I roll my ring finger. In fact, I just use my index and ring finger to play the line.
Just keep trying to play the line very slowly, and experiment with different fretting fingers to see what works best for you. Whichever technique you use to hit the notes at the right time is the technique for you.
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I tried to to finger roll but I may have to use individual fingers at least at first, thanks for the advice!
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Hello everybody,
itās my second time around in the B2B-course and now Iām back with Billie Jean, yay 
The first time was with the original course where Josh explicitly haves us start plucking on the middle finger. I put in a good amount of work and even came up with specific exercises to teach my fingers to act independently, e.g. fretting with the middle finger but plucking with the index finger. Thatās why I got along pretty good now with Billie Jean. But NOW he wants us to start plucking on the index finger. Iām am happy to do that, even if itās only for me to become more flexible, but still my question is:
Whatās the reason for the change? Are there advantages in starting with the index finger?
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Iām no pro, and I only recently finished the course, so take what Iām about to say with about as much salt as you expect to get on mcdonaldās french fries. That said, I never actually gave any thought to being specific with plucking patterns, I pretty much strictly alternated, and I think Iād subconsciously reset during long gaps.
I canāt think of a way that starting on a particular finger would have any affect aside from what finger you end on, but Billie Jean is just straight eighth notes for the most part, so I donāt think thereād be any good opportunities for a reset.
If Iām way off and super wrong here, Iād be happy to be corrected by someone more experienced than me lol.
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There are lines that offer economy of motion when started with a particular plucking finger. And that is the name of the game: economy of motion.
Josh and other instructors might teach starting a line or fingering a chord shift with a certain finger because doing so will facilitate playing the rest of the line, switching to upcoming chord tones, etc. In other words, there is most often a method to the madness.
Of course, anyone can play a line however it works best for that person, because we each have different physiologies. But it is also often a great idea to at least give a good shot at trying a trusted instructorās technique.
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In the original version of the course, Josh had us start plucking on the middle finger so that when you get to the switch in the pattern from D/A strings to G/D strings, the middle finger is making that reach up to the G string for the first note. As the longer finger, supposedly the middle finger can make that reach a little easier.
Why the change on the redone course? Donāt know. But as Josh has commented in a couple other places about the updateāhe learned a lot about teaching in the decade between versions. Maybe it was as simple as realizing that the ātongue-twisterā of fretting fingering was enough of a challenge without also throwing in the first āstart on middleā at the same time.
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Hey @JoshFossgreen !
Do you have any insight on why you made the change?
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Ah yes, the Billie Jean plucking pattern.
Hereās the deal - as is often the case, there are multiple āgoodā approaches to plucking this bass line.
In the original B2B, I recommended a middle finger start because it leads to slightly less awkward string crossing. How? Because the middle finger is longer than the index, itās a little easier to reach up to higher-pitched / further-away strings with the middle than the index.
So by starting on the middle, the string crosses from A string to D string come out as index-middle, which feels nice.
HOWEVER - over the years, many people found a middle finger start to add another layer of challenge and confusion, because itās unfamiliar. So I dropped it for the reboot, but also gave a nod to āfind a fingering you like, and do whatever you want on this one, itās crazy.ā
So the three āgoodā options as I see it areā¦
Middle Start Alternating: Nice feeling string crossing, but potential awkward/unfamiliar if you always start index.
Index Start Alternating: Familiar, totally works, might require the least thought. But slightly clunky feeling string crossing due to reaching the index past the middle a couple times.
Raking: Another āillegalā fingering that I made legal for this particular lesson, for anyone who finds it makes it easier. The raking works out well on this bass line because there are two downward string crosses (from D to A), so the first rake flips your plucking pattern ābackwardsā and then the second rake unflips you, so youāre back on whatever finger you started on at the end of the pattern.
Hope this helps! Iāll be writing a full 300 page book on Billie Jean fingerings, estimated publish date 2073.
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Now youāre just being wildly optimistic.
I anticipate the release of not only BassBuzz t-shirts before then ā but also the BassBuzz Onesieā¢ (for the cozy bedroom bassist) and a BassBuzz Tuxedoā¢ (with cummerbund and tails, but of course).
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