It has done well. Cut it some slack.
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I made the same error - It hurt even into the next day. I took a break then.
I was able to sometimes nail the fast workout today. Not good enough to record it but itās huge progress already. Iām happy with that.
I know most of you arenāt into the whole youtube culture and all but I was on a youtube spree and noticed an older Davie504 video: āTop 10 EASIEST Bass Lines (number 2 will SHOCK YOU so much that youāll need therapy for 5 years)ā
Wellā¦ you can guess what he put as number 2 in the video otherwise I wouldnāt be posting here. Iām still not sure if heās kidding or not. To him itās probably ājust 8thsā.
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Wtf is he thinking. Did he play it right?
Idk, didnāt watch
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No, heās not doing the octave thing.
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But otherwise he is playing it how we were taught?
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Yes .
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Thanks
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Itās not that the bassline is hard. Itās actually in this nice little box, very convenient.
Itās that it is a supreme finger-twister for where it lands in the course. Module 4, lol 
By the end of the course it wonāt be hard for likely most people. Maybe if you blitz the course you might still need to work up to it. It will still be a good warmup though for, as far as I can tell, ever.
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Hi @howard,
I agree, it all in one area on the bass, just maintaining the tempo is the key.
Cheers Brian
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Started B2B almost exactly 3 weeks ago and it was cruising right along, then came Mod 4 and Billy Jean LOL. However, I finally got Billy Jean on Slow workout all the way through. I can get through most of medium but generally screw up on the last workout in the medium video. My fingers forget where they are supposed to be. At this point Iām just happy I was able to get through the slow workout. Backed away slowly and moved to Mod 5 tonight and going to come back to BJ later.
Canāt really complain about that much progress in 3 weeks.
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Thank you
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Great work in just 3 weeks.
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Thank you. just started Mod 6 now. Thunderstruck here I come.
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I just had the funniest Billie Jean experience. I picked up my bass tonight and realized I hadnāt tried it in two months, so I looked up the tabs and worked on that riff a little. Not a big deal. Then I went to my method book that Iām also learning from and I started working on this page, about the ābox shape.ā
So I started playing this pattern exactly as shown, and it immediately became the riff from Billie Jean. Seriously, try it yourself. Itās really obvious how to play that riff from this pattern. You do need one extra note near the end - an open A - but itās very obvious.
That was just a really odd coincidence! Or maybe I thought of Billie Jean because yesterday I played this pattern up and down in every key.
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After a great start to the B2B course a week ago Sunday I managed to keep working my way through the lessons last week, spending half an hour or so after finishing work winding down with the next lesson. All was going well and then on Friday evening, a bit tired after a busy week and with fingers feeling very stiff I clicked on Resume and Module 4 Lesson 6 opened. Yikes - felt like I had just driven in to a brick wall! Iād get going for a couple of bars and then realise that I was only using my index finger. When I tried to fix that my left hand would lose the plot. Or I would get everything going, get through the top line move to the G string okay and then lose it going back down to the D string. The more I battled the worse it got. Finally called it a night and walked away having managed a couple of half decent attempts at slow tempo but nothing else.
I returned on Saturday with a great sense of trepidation but, remembering Joshās advice, moved on to Module 5 and then put the bass straight back on the stand as we delved in to music theory. Didnāt have much time over the weekend for the lessons so by last night Billie Jean was still preying on my mind. Should I keep going or should I go back and have another crack at it? Itās only Module 4 so surely I should be able to nail this - there are after all another 12 modules left. Then I logged on to the forum, flicked through the Intro thread and saw @eric.kiser post about Billie Jean and the link to this thread. Now I feel much better and ready to crack on - it wasnāt just me! I was just another traveller on the path to bass righteousness who had fallen foul of this devilishly tricky riff.
For now she can live in my rear view mirror as we roll on down the B2B road but I will be back, oh yes, we will meet again and next timeā¦
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Good you figured that out!
Some advices that helped me a lot though.
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Get the fingering straight and remember to use the ring finger first on A4 and Pinky the second time on A4. this feels much easier to me at least.
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Do it SLOOOOOOOOOW and just get used to the shape. If spacing is too hard, you may try it on higher frets first, maybe 7&9.
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I started doing BJ as a warm up when I progressed through the course and whenever I picked up the bass I was just doing this as an excersie while Josh introduced new modules to me.
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I had the same feeling watching the Blues Box video
There Josh mentions that this is widely used and in fact it is!
All the PTS that Billy Jean left me is now a little tingling sensation when ever I notice the box!
Most recently I noticed it at RHCP Canāt Stop
It was also there at I feel good just for an inside B2B exampleā¦
X Files Music Outro
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I wrapped up the course a few days ago. Coming back to the songs I wasnāt able to do. Billie Jeannnn! My fingers are fast enough now. I still slip up a little and I canāt quite play it all the way through yet. But itās riiiiight there. I still have a few modules to wrap up, but I think Iāll finish Billie Jean in the next day or so.
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I knew this was coming and finally faced Billie Jean today.
Honestly? It felt much more daunting because Iād read about it here than it actually turned out to be. Once I started working with the fingering and plucking Iād say I made it through the slow workout without too many errors, and through through the medium workout with a fair amount of errors but a minimum amount of swearing.
My biggest hangup is that Iāll miss one note and get flustered trying to catch up instead of resetting and picking up at the next bar. Once that happens itās bye-bye concentration. On the odd times I can catch myself doing it and force myself to just give up and pick back up at the next bar I tend to make it through. I suspect that once the speed of my fretting gets better this will solve itself.
My plucking also needs some work. I caught myself twice in the first 30 minutes of practice plucking with only one finger mid-song and I couldnāt really tell when the middle finger stopped participating. I think Iāll need to start setting up the gopro so I can see my own bad habits, but might also be good to get feedback from everyone here.
Anyway, Iām pretty psyched about Billie Jean to be honest. Definitely HARD, but not as hard as I expected and based on how Iāve improved from lesson one to today I absolutely see it as achievable!
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