@MikeC watching that video you posted (or was it @jacq) of the guy playing all the parts is just mad. Watching that guy is half inspiring and half the opposite as well.
What is the chance we could get Josh to make a vid like that? I would love to see him completely cut loose with all those play styles.
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I posted that video last year as inspiration and entertainment.
Berthoud is a very talented multi-instrumentalist. He had years of piano mastery under his belt before he picked up a bass, and his tapping skills show it. Heâs a composer and arranger as well as a player.
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Oh yeah! Iâm going to try that, ty for the suggestion. It feels like Iâm half mashing the ring finger on top of the pinkie finger, instead of hitting the string cleanly.
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Just IMHO, Charles is the most talented bassist alive at the moment (Donât flame me and bring up Les or Geddy) He has seemingly mastered so many different styles of playing and he makes it look so easy. He has a video of himself practicing at 360 bpm and it is insane.
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In many technical and musical respects, I agree, @EddieJones. I hope he gets the recognition heâs due beyond the YT circus environment.
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I have listened to his streaming CD and he does make and arrange some beautiful music
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He absolutely does.
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When I started bass with Joshâs course, Billie Jean was a nightmare. So was James Brownâs Papaâs got a Brand New Bag. They felt awful. Quite a while and a lot of playing later, I came back to playing both of them, and they were very comfortable. So donât let them stop you. Move on and keep playing, and come back to them every now and then.
A couple of tips - keep a light touch! When I started, I was jamming the strings down hard on the frets and plucking hard. You canât play fast if youâre working that hard. It took a lot of time to get comfortable with much lighter playing. Also, it can help playing closer to the bridge where the strings flex less.
There are some good exercises that can help - just repeatedly pluck the C on the A string at something like 80 beats per minute and slowly speed up. How much pressure do you really need on the fret? Alternate C and D and go as light as you can. Do the same pressure variation with your right hand - try both digging in and just gently stroking the strings. How does that affect your speed? Play near the bridge and near the neck - what feels better and fits the sound you want? Joshâs format of teaching through songs is fantastic and motivating and I loved it, but doing some very basic exercises can really help along the way.
Joshâs course was the absolute best experience I could have asked for in a remote learning experience, but itâs just the beginning of a journey. Play lots, get through the course and then check out a bunch of other material out there. There is a lot of good stuff once you have the basics down - but nobody does the basics and intro to playing as well as Josh!
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One more comment. Playing Billie Jean with a high action can be extremely difficult. Getting the action right is very important - if you are comfortable doing a setup, take it down to the point where you get fret buzz when playing normally, then back off some. Youâll find it much less work to press down the strings and that translates to playing lighter and faster. If youâre not comfortable doing the work, try to find a luthier that will work with you and hopefully teach you some adjustments!
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I went back and played it. When I fret with my ring finger, I am using both my middle and ring finger together and still doing a bit of a roll with the pinky. I know at the beginning it took me a lot of time getting comfortable using the âhigherâ fingers on the frets, but it does let you play faster and it is far less tiring. So I guess I am doing both a pinky roll and having the ring finger and middle finger on the A string.
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I do that. I consider it backup. It actually feels really natural to me to do in that instance.
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Might be a bit late to the discussion but Iâd like to give my $0.02. I could not for the life of me get this pattern down at first. It was frustrating. I could barely keep the pattern and every time I used my pinkie the buzz was louder than any of the notes I was fumbling through.
So I paused my lessons for a week and just practiced it over and over again. It was all I played. Over and over, every waking minute that I had time to practice. My family now starts screaming in terror if Billie Jean comes on the radio like some twisted Pavlovian experiment.
And you know what? 8 months later I still canât do the fast workout with a passing grade. I get slightly better with each attempt and I can sure as heck nail the medium workout.
So I use Billie Jean as one of my warmups.
Whenever I pick up the bass, I do the following:
- Play a couple rounds of Feel Good, Inc.
- Play that awesome bass part from Chains by Fleetwood Mac (the one that goes âbuuuum bu bu bum bu bu bu bu bu buuuuuuuumâ).
- Money by Pink Floyd
- Then I do a few runs of the main scales (Major, Minor, Major Pent, Minor Pent and Minor Blues)
- Finally a few run throughs of Billie Jean.
Thatâs my warmup. Then I do lessons, or work on new songs, or what have you. Every time, I put the bass down, even if itâs just to run grab a soda or whatever, I go through the warmup again when I pick it back up. When I finish the practice session, I close out with 2 more bars of Billie Jean.
Iâm getting closer to being able to do the fast Billie Jean workout every time I try it.
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Very cool. Keep up the good work.
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Itâs probably been said here before, but imo this is the first example in the course where you have to sleep on it. I saw a video from Charles Berthoud where he mentioned heâs been practicing his arrangement of Victor Wootenâs âThe Lessonâ for 12 years to finally get it where he wants it to be.
Up until Billie Jean, most were likely making it through the fast tempo on all the lessons with a bit of effort. I donât think any beginner is going to nail this line on the fast (or even medium) tempo their first night. I was fumbling the slow tempo the first night. Sleep cements the muscle memory and having fresh fingers that arenât aching from trying the line makes a huge difference. As mr. crispy said, I just put this as a warm up thing before starting other lessons. After a week or so I was able to have a decent showing on the fast tempo, but not great. I still get buzzing and sometimes fumble the line near the end as my fingers get tired.
I know Josh mentions moving on if itâs too hard, but it might be worth it for him to edit an intro section to that video thatâs more direct like, âIf you are a beginner following this course you will not get this in one sitting. Sleep on it and practice it a bit as you move on and come back.â. I saw a lot of comments where people were jaded by that lesson, because itâs the first wall and they donât realize not getting it the first night doesnât make them a failure. Itâs sad to think of how many people drop the course at that point when so much good stuff comes after.
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I am kind of curious if @JoshFossgreen has analytics on course completion. Would be interesting to know.
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I got to Billie Jean Saturday. By far the best lesson to date (I wasnât a true beginner).
The challenge for me is keeping my right hand doing the right stuff instead of going auto pilot. Tendency is to pluck index alone⌠probably a bad habit.
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I read the course book ahead of time warning of the temporary jump in difficulty. Until this point, I had nailed all fast workouts with minimal fuss. While I knew it woud be a jump, I never imagined it would kick my ass so hard 
.
I also use it as a warmup and revisit the workouts frequently. Last attempt was 2 weeks ago, did ok on slow workout, poor on medium, didnt try fast. As so many others have said, every time I revisit I do a little bit better, but I am definitely not nailing it yet.
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This really forced me to address alternating vs raking. This lesson prompted me to do a ton of reading on the pros and cons on the two. Ultimately, I decided that raking leads me to fumble the line due to getting crossed up. Obviously, raking is a useful tool, but from what Josh and others have said itâs better to get really clean alternation dialed in before messing with raking.
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Ahah! I broke my cruddy index dominant right hand technique! All it took was about two hours worth of practice during which I resolved to go as slowly as necessary to make my right hand do the right thing, and two good nights sleep.
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now thats just showing off , lol
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