Hey Matt In Buffalo here again! Making slow progress

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Hi, some of you may know me from my first post. I introduced myself here: New guy here. Hi! First time bassist - Bass - BassBuzz Forum and got some good advice and tips and opinions.

So I’ve been playing a couple more weeks now. Don’t get enough time into it that I need, but I’m trying. I signed up for the Fender Play online bass course. So far its pretty good. I’m about half way thru lesson 3 on it. The strings and notes are starting to become a little more familiar to me. My finger work still sucks bad, but practice makes perfect I guess. I can now play 3 whole songs, very crappily and slow. 7 Nation Army was my first, Another One Bites the Dust was number 2, and She Talks to Angels by the Black Crows is number 3. I’m not GOOD at playing any of them, by any means, but I can butcher my way on through, nice and choppy.

I started the Fender Play online course. I am about through most of lesson 3. Its a fairly good, and noob oriented program. I like it so far.

People keep telling me to do the lessons and practice the scales before I try to learn songs, but I get bored with that, so I have to try to learn a song or two to keep me motivated in between lessons. Youtube is great.

I also bought a nice strap, and a nice case, and a music stand. I fixed some busted amps my prodigy brother left at my Dads 10 years ago too. I’m now playing on a 12" speaker with a 50 watt “Stage” amp headunit. Sounds way better than the garbage picked 10 watt amp with the 4" speaker I was using.

I am sort of surprised that I seem to be maintaining an interest in this, despite no natural skill. My hobbies jump around a lot.

Anyways, hope everyone is trying to have fun, and improving their skills! Thanks all!

Matt Willard (40yrs old, 1 month playing the bass, not a lot of hours)
Buffalo NY

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Sounds as if you’re making some real progress, Matt @IIIQuaZIII . . . :slight_smile:

Good for you, and see you around the Forums!

Cheers
Joe

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Keep up the good work Matt!
Have you done the BassBuzz course?
One of the reasons I like it (among many) is that Josh uses real song riffs as exercises, which keeps it interesting as well.
Haven’t tried Fender Play, so cannot comment there.

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@IIIQuaZIII - Sounds like you’re enjoying it and making progress - that’s great. keep it up…

I will say, I joined Fender Play prior to joining Beginner-to-badass, and if you haven’t signed up for B2B, I really can’t recommend it highly enough. I gained so much more from Josh’s style and teaching methods compared to the lessons on FP. Josh mixes in songs and riffs along with the scales/theory and always keeps it interesting. Everything is in bite-sized chunks, and there’s no “now go repeat this until you get it right and then come back” type of lessons.

In my opinion, if you’re interested in making progress as a player, consider B2B - my progress improved substantially as I worked through the course (and I haven’t completed it yet).

Just wanted to throw that out there… But keep progressing and good luck!

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Agreed. B2B is the way to go. Don’t waste time on Fender Play.

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You guys have sold me on the B2b Course. I am signing up for it now… I hope its as good as you guys say!

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Signed up for Beginner to Badass as recommended. I’ve done a few lessons. I like the way this is taught, but this guy hurts my hand…lol. I’m getting all kinds of weird cramps in my hand I didn’t even know were possible. haha.

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take it slow, if it hurts take a break, shake it off, etc. Tendonitis comes faster than you think unitl you build up those fingers and hands.

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