Gave up?

Gotta say I was expecting this many replies and support and it’s good to know you’re not alone. Thanks for all the words of encouragement. And sounds like I’ll skip Billie Jean for now and get back in the saddle of thing. I appreciate you all. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Someone may have already suggested this, but you can slow Josh’s slow workout down even more using the tools menu. When I hit Billie F*!k#@g Jean it killed me. I slowed down the slow workout to 50% and was finally able to at least muddle through. It’s been 5 months since then, I’m in module 13, and taking other bass courses from another site in parallel and have improved by leaps and bounds. And Billie Jean on fast still kicks my ass although I can get some of it. I can finally nail it on medium. So…to echo what everyone else has said, just move on and give Billie Jean a try every so often and eventually you’ll get it. There are other workouts in B2B that I haven’t completed on fast either so it’s just par for the course here. Don’t let it get you down.

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Yeah just go on, come back to it after you finish the course, if you want to learn it. You don’t HAVE to learn every song under the sun. Literally everyone who takes the course stumbles on it.

I agree it’s good to have in the course, as it’s one of the more iconic pop bass lines. But it should’ve been much later in the course, probably at the end, because I’m pretty sure it’s the hardest riff we learn in the course.

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I had a tougher time with the James Brown one, but it’s for sure up there.

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I’m on module 10 and can’t play it at speed.

I will definitely woodshed it at some point, as I love the riff, but not until I finish the course and learn the other 50 songs. Then I’ll go back to Billie Jean and any others I put aside because they were too hard.

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Billie Jean is when the hero meets the final boss in the beginning of the movie, has very humbling moment, and then does everything they can to just escape alive.

Don’t worry, you’ll face her again in Act III at the climax, and you will defeat her. :muscle:

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Disco octaves are much harder for me than Billie Jean, but yes don’t worry- just skip for now and come back later. I did as did half the people here. No shame at all.

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Only half?! :rofl::rofl::rofl:

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I love this analogy. Now I’m picturing everyone in a hardcore practice montage with cool 80’s music until they’re ready for the boss fight.

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Lies! You may be a beginner (I am after four years :sweat_smile: ) and still learning (does it ever stop?), but you are a bass player, bassist or however you want to call it :star_struck:

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Bassiphiser

Bassologist

Basstrumentaluist

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Don’t give up. I’ve got halfway thru the course and realised that my fretting technique was awful.
So I’ve stopped and now just play songs very slowly with correct technique. It was initially depressing. It now I begin to see progress

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That is the way for improving.

Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

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i would ask for a 2.5 year refund. and i’m not joking. some people should never be allowed to teach.

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Tbh it wasn’t my teacher, it was a candidate for a substitute teacher. I considered signing up with someone new to get a different perspective. But it turned out rather badly :see_no_evil:

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There are three types of B2B people:

  • Those who skipped Billie Jean
  • Those who will skip Billie Jean
  • Liars
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Fourth Type of Buzzer: Nailed at least the slow workout, moved on, revisited BJ several times, and can now play it.

There are more of this type than you might think.

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Yeah this is closer to me, I got up through nailing medium and then moved on; went back after the end and nailed fast. I now use it full speed as a warmup.

You can all get to this point over time, if you like. If you don’t want to that’s fine too, there’s lots of other songs. MJ isn’t my thing either, I just took this particular one as a challenge. You don’t have to. Move on when you feel stuck.

Five years after the course and I still can’t play sustained disco octaves well. I am ok with that.

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No, as probably everybody else said - maybe even Josh if you watch the video again - move onto the next section (provided you got the basic concepts down from the lessons before it).

Billie Jean is rough. Practice the basics a lot. Don’t move on from the basic lessons unless you have those down really well. Use a metronome when practicing. Stop (not quit) if your hands hurt. Return to Billie Jean (or other problem songs) occasionally, get it down slow with the metronome and gradually increase the tempo to normal. At least that is what works for me.

If it were easy, everyone would be doing it.

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there will be NO ringing howard’s bell :expressionless:

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