I started the B2B course on June 15th, with the expectation that I would complete it in one month. After all, I’m retired and have all this time on my hands. I was doing fine until June 24th when I ran into a major speed bump. That speed bump’s name is Billie Jean. I spent nearly a week trying to perfect that song, until I finally realized that I had a lot of work to do training my fingers to obey my commands. I bypassed that speed bump, and moved on, slowly and methodically, spending an enormous amount of time doing finger drills and memorizing my fretboard.
Yesterday, 96 days after starting, I completed the B2B course, but didn’t feel I deserved my graduation gift just yet, as I still had a bit of unfinished business to take care of. Today, I revisited that nasty speed bump named Billy Jean. I surprised myself, and was victorious!
What made the difference?
For one, after all these months of drills, my fingers are now better trained and more obedient on the fret board. More importantly, I’m now more familiar with where the notes are, and was able to play the piece with my eyes on the music stand instead of gazing at the fret board. But most of all, it was due to all the great training that I got from @JoshFossgreen during the B2B course!
So, what’s my graduation gift to myself? A couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of finishing the course, I designed a tee shirt and had a friend of mine print it at her tee shirt shop. I’ve had it in a drawer waiting for the day that I could proudly wear it and call myself a “Bad Ass Bass Gal”. That day has arrived. Thank you @JoshFossgreen for transforming this 70 year old rock and roll granny into a bass player!
Awesome! Now all you need to do is compose a little rock-n-roll song called, of course, “Bad Ass Bass Gal”, whose bass line starts with that B-A-B-G riff…
Congrats @PamPurrs on all your persistence. You’re killing it! And awesome shirt.
And @Boz, that’s true! I think “incorrectly” is a strong word though, as the bass line works perfectly well without that note, but “not completely true to the original recording” is certainly accurate.
Of course, I almost never hear any bass player playing cover songs exactly as recorded, so there’s that…
Great tee shirt!!! Billie Jean has emerged as a B2B right of passage, I posted about it last year, very similar to your story! Those that push thru there, I feel, are prepared to go deep! Congrats to you!
I am so glad to hear I am not the only one who stalled out on Billie Jean and on! I am spending a lot of time looking at the fret board and can’t keep up. My goal now is the 3 month plan so I finish by my 49th birthday in November.
Welcome @jillysmit! Like @Jazzbass19 mentioned, we have all hit the “Billie Jean” brick wall during the course… But, we’ve all managed to survive and make it through… As @PamPurrs mentioned, going back to revisit it after finishing the course, it was certainly easier to conquer!!
Billie Jean gets everybody. Just don’t get so hung up on it that you quit moving forward in the course. I’m halfway through and I still can’t play it at full speed. I think it’s there to keep us humble.
Yeah, and when you can play it at full speed, then try and play it the entire song through… my hand is about to fall off half-way through the song…
This whole Billie Jean thing starts to remind me more and more of this:
(Sorry, I only found a version with Swedish subtitles - but, it shouldn’t matter)
I am beginning to think this has been Master Josh’s strategy all along
