When you first start the course and you are rubbish, how did people stay motivated? Also did people practice more Inbetween the lessons.
6 Likes
I feel like playing rubbish almost every time!
What keeps me motivated is playing along real songs (with the bass removed) ⌠and the few moments where everything comes together and I feel like Iâm part of the band.
Thatâs a most excellent feeling, and it keeps me goingâŚ
So my advice: start playing along songs that you really like (and are simple enough). Everything else will fall in place eventuallyâŚ
7 Likes
Never felt like rubbish, mostly because itâs an unfamiliar term Iâve never used. 
But, seriously, every beginner is going to sound/feel bad at first, and possibly later, because beginners do that sometimes. Itâs just a fact of playing life.
But thatâs OK. It is the natural order of things.
Beginners of any activity will naturally not be as good at that activity as others who have acquired time and experience practicing the self same activity. That is an immutable fact.
But so what?
Just put that negative notion out of your head, do your best with the lessons, and practice. After that, enjoy the journey and practice some more. Expect absolutely nothing and enjoy yourself.
Yes, you will suck. Literally everyone does. And thatâs fine. Itâs natural, and to be expected.
As Nike profoundly stated years ago: Just Do It.
Your time, heart and effort will pay off, believe me. It certainly has for every Buzzer here. Trust the process and carry on. 
2 Likes
Simple, the motivation is the desire to improve. As with so much in life, the trick is to enjoy the journey, rather than fixate on a specific destination. My general goal is to be better than I was a day ago, a week, a month, a year ago. The goals isnât defined as to be âas good as [insert name of famous bass player]â, but to be as good as I can be at the particular stage Iâm at.
There are external goals, the primary one of which is to be in a band and play live. I that context, once again, the immediate goal is to play as well as I can (know the songs, support the required team effort, be a good bandmate, etc.)
I started playing 2 years ago, with no prior experience. It was these goals that helped, and continue to help me through the âsuckâ.
6 Likes
Iâve learned lots of new skills and hobbies. Iâm used to the initial frustration and struggle. I know that learning is a never-ending process of improvement. I enjoy that PROCESS. I enjoy making ongoing discoveries.
Thatâs also how I would stay motivated in those early struggles. Focus on the wins. Focus on the discoveries. Focus on all the things you succeed at today that you werenât able to do yesterday.
I practiced other things in between the lessons. I broke up my practice between different elements to mix things up when I hit my âsaturation pointâ on one element of my practice.
I learned simple songs and riffs. This is great. Lots of fun. Made me feel good and put things in context. This gives those âwinsâ that are highly motivating.
I picked two skills exercises - one for plucking/rhythm/muting skill, and one for fretting skill. I started my practice sessions with these and came back to them during breaks.
2 Likes
Like with any new endeavor, you have to enjoy the process. Go to Songsterr, find a song you like and play it. Something easy, something very familiar. An easy âwinâ like that will definitely excite you and demonstrate that you can indeed play an instrument.
1 Like
Keep working at it with a desire to improve. Realizing I am where I am supposed to be and enjoying the journey. Relishing in the little break throughs that comes with practice. Yes I practice in between lessons. When concepts are difficult I break it down into smaller pieces and add on to it.
1 Like
Learning to embrace the suck is an important skill to bring when learning a new instrument (or anything really). Just understand that youâre going to be bad for awhile and enjoy the little victories along the way to being less bad.
2 Likes
My philosophy for learning is basically that Adventure Time quote, âSucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something.â Youâre new at this. Of course you suck at it. So did everyone else when they were new. Yes, even that amazing bassist who inspired you to pick up the instrument.
I didnât at first. For one thing, Josh says practice time is built in to the lessons and I took that to heart. But I was also doing 2 lessons a day for the first few modules so I was putting in plenty of time, and I wasnât finding the workouts difficult, even the fast workouts. I think through the whole course there were only 5 or 6 fast workouts I couldnât finish.
If I werenât doing at least one lesson a day, or if I were having more trouble with the workouts? I probably would have made time to revisit past workouts at least once in between, or spend 10-15 minutes with some beginner exercise from youtube to reinforce what Iâve been learning.
During some later lesson Josh says itâs time to branch out and start learning full songs on your own. At this point I dropped to one lesson per day and used the extra time for song learning. Eventually I worked in a couple of âwarmupâ exercises to limber up the fingers and reinforce basic skills like proper fretting and string crossing, which Iâd do before the dayâs lesson.
2 Likes
The course is called Beginner to Badass. You start at beginner, go through bad and come out badass.
2 Likes
At a minimum, less bad 
1 Like
the only way to get past noob is to play so play. and donât worry about it
2 Likes
I try to look further into the future. I know for a fact that if I keep putting in the work, even just 30 minutes a day in 3 years, Iâll be doing something really nice! Iâve been playing for 8 months now, and even though I feel rubbish sometimes, that doesnât mean itâll always be like that.
I do my lessons in the morning and jam along to music I like in the afternoon. Just be patient, progress takes time.
4 Likes
Pete Townshend, lead guitarist of the Who and generally iconic musician, said recently itâs only now he feels competent enough on guitar to play with other musicians comfortably.
So that rubbish feeling may or may not go away. But itâs okay.
2 Likes