Introduce Yourself! (2018-2022)

My name is Matt. On a whim I bought one of those bass packages. Never played an instrument before and thought this was a good start. Had it about 2 months and love it! I’m still green though. This course, by the way, is awesome so far. Anyways, hello everyone!

14 Likes

Welcome Matt. (that didn’t come out right) Check out the forums and enjoy.

4 Likes

Welcome @matthew.smock!

4 Likes

Welcome to the forum @matthew.smock. Hope you enjoy your time here.

4 Likes

Welcome @jerichodog2k
Sweet, and happy birthday. I am not too far behind you in the larger picture (18 mo or so), and not too far ahead of you in learning bass.
So glad you gave yourself such a great gift and found us. I started playing back in Feb. I gave myself a Birthday gift ( well, used birthday money to buy) also, when I got a Used Ibanez GSR200 that came with a small Keyboard Amp (lol, I didn’t even realize it til I sold it a few weeks ago cuz I bought an Orange Crush 20b for $40 on Let Go). My birthday is Jan 22. I spent a few weeks looking around, trying to decide New or Used, and looking for deals. I guess my birthday has not ended cuz I keep buying more Basses. I just find too many “too good to be true” deals that are actually true, and are for what I am looking for.
Really, one night, posting on a thread where somebody was showing, and saying how much they liked their Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro short scale bass, I posted “I really want an orange one to match my orange Ibanez SR300”
Not 1 hour later an orange one shows up on Let Go for $90. Yes I got it.
Next I say I want a Sterling SUB series StingRay. Next day one shows up for $90. Yes I got it.

In case you don’t already know about MBS and the GAS Ghoul, let me be the first to tell you, no, warn you (you two below as well) rather, it and he are very real, and run amok in this forum, so beware


Welcome @dgcgx2
Yeah, I played Guitar way back in the 90’s and then some, but not for a long time. I am not rich in Music Theory however, so it’s great to have another source here in our wonderful community. Glad you found us!

Beware MBS and the GAS Ghoul


Welcome @matthew.smock
Nice whim, sort of what I did, a month or two before you. So glad you are having fun and found us.

Beware MBS and the GAS Ghoul

6 Likes

Welcome @dgcgx2 - you don’t happen to speak German, do you? I need vocals for my arrangement ;( I never sang and now I’m starting to do very basic stuff and training my voice.

Welcome @matthew.smock!

5 Likes

Hey mate,
Congrats on your purchase and good luck with the course.
I reckon you’ll love it and there is some great people on here to help in anyway.

5 Likes

Lots of Quarantine Bass learning going on :slight_smile:

8 Likes

Welcome @jerichodog2k and happy birthday!

Welcome @dgcgx2 and @matthew.smock, glad you’re both digging the course!

6 Likes

Hi, I’m Miguel from Geneva, Switzerland. Almost 48 yo.

I just enrolled and hope to be able to play… One day!

My music culture is essentially classical and jazz. My favorite bass players are, of course, Jaco, Eddy Gomez (with both Chick Corea and Bill Evans), Scott Lafaro (with Bill Evans), Gary Peacock (with Keith Jarrett), Charlie Haden and so many others.

My first attempt at playing an instrument was the piano when I was 18.
Paid for private lessons but the teacher would tell me to exercise some stuff and then resume reading the newspaper. End of the story. Never got to play the piano transcription of “The Great Gate of Kiev” by Mussorgsky (almost no one does), or play Bach Glenn Gould style.

Second attempt, classical guitar at 27. Tried to learn it myself from books and stuff. I did not go very far. (I got blisters on my fingers!)

Third attempt, clarinet at 36. Had a few private lessons but didn’t like hitting the same note for 10 minutes straight, as I was told to do by the young teacher. I did however “play” quite often, jamming around with classical, jazz, but without having the slightest idea of what I was doing. Wine and candle light did help both ; the will to “play” and not knowing what I was doing (noise).

These last couple of years I’ve been playing the only two strings left from the guitar I had for 20 years. The E and the A. So without knowing it I had been “practicing” bass - plucking those two strings with the index and middle finger. When those strings snapped I decided to buy an acoustic bass (one month ago). And then I found Josh’s lessons on YouTube. I got excited enough to buy an electric bass a week ago. Managed somehow to kind-of-nail “Stand By Me” these last 3 days. My girlfriend was impressed. She said it was the first time she actually recognized something I played.

So, here I am now, ready to click on my first lesson.

Cheers!

14 Likes

Welcome aboard, @Miguel_F . . . :slight_smile:

Glad to have you with us, and good luck in the course!

Cheers, Joe

3 Likes

Welcome aboard Miguel you made a great choice, Josh is amazing. @Miguel_F :guitar: :slightly_smiling_face: :guitar:

2 Likes

Welcome @Miguel_F. That’s an awesome story!

3 Likes

Welcome @Miguel_F

I hope you pull through with bass.

3 Likes

This is a good place to be :slight_smile: Welcome

3 Likes

Welcome @Miguel_F, and congratulations on your first acoustic bass, your first Electric Bass, and for starting the lessons. But really congratulations on finally playing something your girlfriend recognized!!!

3 Likes

Welcome to the forum @Miguel_F!

3 Likes

Hello im Roland from Copenhagen Denmark 52 years old.
So now that you have seen my bass, i better introduce myself :slight_smile:
I startet playing guitar when i was 14 and played for some years , joined a band who had 2 guitar players who where way better than me, so i picked up the bass in the corner and was i love right away. I played till i was 18 and then quit music and spent all my time on sports.
At the age 50 ( 2 years ago) i picked up the bass again. I played it when time was there, but here at coroana times i decided to get serious. Then i found @JoshFossgreen at youtube and here i am now at module 13 after 5 days :slight_smile:
I grew up with Jazz,Funk/soul music and theres where i want to go :slight_smile:
Cant wait to see where this will take me, but let me tell you that i allready feel like 500% more bass player !
Sorry for my bad english, i am from Denmark

10 Likes

Welcome, @RolandDehli . . . :slight_smile:

4 Likes

Hi everyone,

Sending greetings from Essen/ Germany to all you wonderful people around here. I thought I’d be an unlikely person to take up learning the bass, at age 41, but after reading through this whole thread (yes, seriously) I already feel at home (don’t worry, I’ll be keeping my shoes on… for now :wink:).

Unlike others, who due to the virus that must not be named now find themselves with lots of time to practice on their hands, I mostly find myself with my head buried in my hands trying to homeschool my 8yo twin boys. Trying to carve out some time between my kids falling asleep and myself collapsing. I guess I won’t be on the fast track, but I’m really enjoying lessons so far.

I’ve been toying with the idea of learning to play an instrument for many years, but being a total amateur when it comes to music (even listening to music apparently), and asking my very musically gifted hubby for advice, conversations usually would run as follows:

Me: “I wish I had learned to play the sax as a kid. Think I could still learn it?”
Hubby: “Isn’t that a little bit too complex?”

Me: “That upright bass is amazing. What a cool instrument!”
Hubby: “That 5000€ instrument better be pretty darn cool.”

Me, at a concert, going crazy over a drum solo, looking at my hubby a little nervously…
Hubby: “You’re kidding, right?”

Ok, now before you get the impression that he’s kind of an, ummm unpleasant person, which he absolutely isn’t, let’s fast forward to last year.

Me, noticing how most of the songs that I like have nice bass lines.
Hubby: “Why don’t you learn to play the bass?”
Me: “Come again? … … … Ummm … … … Isn’t that too expensive? And I’m too old, and don’t have time to practice, and no musical talent, and… And yes, that would be awesome!”

Summer 2019. Hubby: “Happy birthday. It’s a little early, but I managed to get my hands on this Sire Marcus Miller M7 in blue Alder finish and just couldn’t wait. We’ll need to get you a decent amp.” (My birthday is in November, btw)
Me: :astonished::astonished::astonished:

So this beauty has been sitting around for a while now, while we’ve been busy renovating our 117yo house that we bought last year and generally trying to keep our heads above water.

Around my birthday, I felt like I should really get started, so I asked a friend, who is a pro bass player in several bands, for advice on how to find a teacher. He said not to tell his students, because he needed the income from teaching, but it was best to find someone on YouTube. There’d be tons of good bass teachers out there, and I’d surely find someone that I liked. A little bewildered, I started watching bass tutorials on YT wondering how that was supposed to work out. And found lots of stuff that looked pretty cool, but didn’t help me one bit. And then I found BassBuzz. From then on, conversations with my hubby would go like this:

Him, noticing a sudden surge of heavy binge watching on YT: “Have you found something you like?”
Me: “Oh yes!!! This is Josh. Josh is totally amazing. You’ll have to watch this… And now I finally get that concept… And did you know that… And I’ve watched this video like ten times, it’s so much fun… And…” (I might have jumped up and down like a 3yo opening her Christmas presents here and there, but shhhh, don’t tell anyone)
Him: “So how’s your actual playing coming along?”
Me: “Erm…”

So I just treated myself to the B2B class for a more structured approach last week (guess that’ll be my birthday present then :wink:). I’m in module 2 now and really happy to make progress. Hubby is happy to watch me practice and has noted more than once how great it is to see me practice the bass with so much enthusiasm (wondering if I would have preferred “listen” over “see” here, but let’s not split hairs over this). The kids are happy because mommy is a little more relaxed now. Our kittens doze happily on the sofa whenever I practice. And I guess even the neighbors are happy because they live far enough away to not listen to me practice.

Thank you @JoshFossgreen for spreading all this happiness and getting even musical nitwits like myself to feel good about learning to play the bass!

Up the irons!
Andrea

PS: Meet Odin and Valhalla, they’re 9 months old and we adopted them from an animal shelter 3 weeks ago. Life is so much fluffier now :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

14 Likes