As far as talent is concerned ever here the saying talent is highly over rated
Motivation and practice is where it’s at for most people starting out. That’s what makes the B2B course so great.
When all this Covid crap gets a bit better I suggest you attend a couple of jam sessions.
Don’t even take your Bass if you don’t want to. Just go, sit, listen and talk to like minded people.
You’d be surprised at how much you already know and how much fun it is. I’d bet after a couple of visits you will be bringing your Bass along and joining in.
I have a couple of questions for you:
When did you start to learn the Bass?
What lesson are you on in the B2B course?
Literally, every other service and person doing internet bass teaching that isn’t @JoshFossgreen.
If I won the lottery, after taking care of life stuff, my first call would be to see how I could support BassBuzz to bring more Josh lessons to the world. I’m not kidding. If I win, expect my call.
I haven’t. I don’t. I’m still trying, and I still struggle through every bit of learning since I finished the course. As soon as I can get the money together, I plan to contact you for private lessons. For now, I’m going to go through the course again.
I just did it. Tonight felt like the night, and I started Module 13. As per usual, the lesson broke it down into easily adjustable chunks, and while I had to retreat to my 4-string, I got through it (although I need to slap over the neck itself; on my basses the neck pickup is close to the neck so I sometimes hit it with that joint connecting the thumb to the hand lol)
But yeah, I didn’t do anything special. I just told myself “Josh has practically held your hand through everything so far. What’s going to be different here?”
This is how I judge myself compared to people I know… As previously mentioned, this is a “realistic” approach, but I am fully aware that a lot can be achieved with hard work alone.
I am slowly preparing myself mentally to share my progress with you all, so you will have the opportunity to see (or rather hear) for yourself
And don’t worry, I’m not going to give up, never!! I’m ready to work hard and exercise a lot!
As for your questions - I bought my bass on October 16th* and started the course on November 4*. and right now just finishing module 12.
First post on these forums and I’m not sure this is the right place. I’m about ready to give up and sell my bass after 3 days of Billie Jean as I can’t even get through the slow exercise on 50% speed. I’m practicing enough that my fingers hurt most of the day now. I wasn’t having many real problems on even the fast lessons up to this point. This isn’t fun anymore, I don’t think I’m coordinated enough to reach even the “good enough at slow” level to move ahead. I failed at guitar 20 years ago, don’t know why I thought this would be any different. I just wanted to know if there’s a point to skipping ahead or is everything going to be at this level of stress now.
@McBob I missed out Billie Jean. Completed the course and came back 6 months later. In a shock turn of events. It’s way easier after playing for 6 months.
Move on and Let it Go
Don’t get mad coz you can’t play Billie Jean after three days. No beginner can play it after three days, I couldn’t play it after three days.
Billie Jean is a really tricky riff and it hits you very early in the course. Skip it if it demotivates you at this stage, much easier riffs are ahead.
Come back to it someday and there will be a day, you enjoy adding the octave to the F#…
+1 on what @thomas said @McBob…. We’ve all had to deal with the same thing during the course…. Just move on and come back to it later, and focus on having fun playing your bass.
I was at the same point @McBob
After getting frustrated with it, I put the bass down for a couple months until EVERYONE on here said to skip it and go back to it, even @JoshFossgreen
I’m almost done bass on yousician (I started 6 months ago) so I decided to go back to all the songs songs where I didn’t get gold stars on everything to finish them all off… I think I’m up to level 6/9 so far.
What helped for me was doing it really slow, use a metronome and set a very slow tempo, slow enough that you can get through it. I took me a while to build up enough muscle memory to be able to do it. I was struggling as I have to think about what note I am playing next, what fretting finger to use and where to put it, and by the time my brain went through this process I would get left behind.
So I used a metronome and very slowly upped the tempo when I was happy with the current tempo, and by doing this helped build that muscle memory.
Don’t give up mate, I almost did and I’m glad I didn’t. I will likely never have the ability to play with others (except maybe my son who is a guitar player) but from where I started not too long ago to where I am now I never thought I would have been able to achieve what I have… being almost 50 and never playing any instrument before, having little feeling in the tips of my fingers and poor dexterity and a slow brain-to-finger circuit I feel like every time I practice or start a new lesson that I have slightly improved from the day before.
Give it time and plenty of patience, there is no rush to get through the course but like the others have said, move on and then come back to it. You may surprise yourself.
It is often the case that the more you get frustrated, the worse your performance is, despite repeated attempts. Leave it and move on, there are so many fantastic moments of satisfaction and fun waiting for you! It would be a pity to quit at this point, it really is the best beginner course you can find. Trust us
