Hello everyone!
Finally decided to take the plunge and start the course. Setting myself up for the 1 month schedule since I’m on my summer break and have loads of time (and motivation!).
I play and teach piano, and also do bandcoaching for mostly kids around high-school age. I usually end up playing bass in those bands which is tons of fun to do! But I want to level up from having no proper technique and sticking to the very basics.
Also just remembering which strings and frets I have to pluck during the song instead of knowing the notes and where I can go from there feels just wrong.
Especially when I know I can sit behind a piano and have al the tools and knowledge to express myself, I want more of that feeling and freedom on bass.
Who knows, maybe when I start feeling too old to lug all of my keyboards around I can become the bass player of my main band 
(will have to do something about my current bass player by then haha)
Welcome @andrew2
Have fun!
Welcome @Martijn
Have fun!
Welkom @Martijn 
enjoy the course
Welcome, @andrew2. Glad you’re here. Congrats on your Sire V5 24. It’s a great instrument. With B2B, you’re all set for blast-off. Enjoy the lessons!
Welcome, @Martijn. Glad you’re here. There have been several other Buzzers who are accomplished on other instruments. You’re going to love Josh’s teaching style and content. Plus, you’ll be playing bass properly in no time. Enjoy!
Hello Bass Buddies.
My name is Lex, and I’ve been playing bass off and on for 9 years or so. I haven’t played it much in the past year or so, and I’m wanting to get back into it.
I played trumped for 20 years or so. Played concert music, jazz, big band, etc. Also played some French horn for a couple years in a college concert band. I tried to learn guitar but never really got that into it.
I’ve loved bass since high school, and whether or not I like a song is almost always determined by how much I like the bass line.
So I finally took the plunge and got a bass 9 years ago. It was a black Squier that I got on Amazon. 
I upgraded to a 5-string Ibanez around 3 years ago, which I love. I love being able to play songs in alternate tunings without having to change the tuning of my bass. As I’ve played a lot of songs in drop D and Eb tuning, as well as standard, the 5 string made things a lot easier. Also I gotta say I love those few notes below the low E. 
I’ve taken lessons off and on here and there through the years, but I’m largely self taught via YouTube videos. I used to work for a music school, and I played bass for an adult band class they had (the teacher of the class was a drummer I learned a lot from, and he paid me to play bass for them). It was fun, and we played everything from classic rock, to folk music, to country, to pop. Ultimately most of the music wasn’t my cup of tea, though, because we played whatever people taking the class wanted to play.
We spent so little time learning each song that I usually didn’t learn the actual bass line. Instead I would make up my own bass line on the spot using just the chord progression. That was a lot of fun, and I’m already more comfortable improvising on bass than I ever was on trumpet. I actually prefer playing that way as opposed to learning other people’s bass lines, although I enjoy learning covers I like too. Most covers I’ve learned by ear, because finding decent tab is such a crap shoot, and I’ve gotten more comfortable with that too.
I’m at an intermediate level, however I think my biggest weaknesses are some of the basics that I didn’t learn right and learned bad habits (self taught). Things like flying fingers, I never rake. I usually alternate pluck, but sometimes my plucking fingers get a mind of their own, and I don’t know what they’re doing. I’ve also never learned slapping & popping, which isn’t a huge deal to me, because most of my favorite music doesn’t use it, but it would still be nice to be able to do it.
I also am not very good at reading music on bass. My biggest issue there is I always played treble cleff instruments before, so I don’t know the bass cleff as well as I should.
I also am not as solid at rhythm as I should be, because as a lead trumpet player, I could just follow the band and/or fake it, but obviously you can’t do that on bass! My pulse is good, pretty rock steady, but it’s in reading complex written rhythms and knowing how to play them where I struggle. On trumpet I often just “felt” it and only counted when I was resting, but again, can’t get away with that on bass!
I’ve watched so many bass channels and videos, and Josh’s have become my favorite. He’s a great teacher, and he makes it funny and entertaining. That’s really important, I think, because we can often take music too seriously and be too hard on ourselves. I have to often remind myself of something that drummer taught me: “Relax. It’s just music. No one’s going to die if you screw up!”
So I’m planning to take Josh’s course as soon as I can carve out the time on the regular. I probably know a lot of it already, but I want to start at the beginning again and really focus on the basics and breaking those bad habits.
I really hope Josh does do an intermediate level course follow up, because I would be all over that. Once I finish beginner to bad ass, I think I’ll be ready to start working toward the next level, and maybe even gigging as a gun for hire, because I think that would be a lot of fun.
Hi Matty! I’m excited to meet another EDM lover here! I’ve often gotten weird looks from musicians when they ask what music I like and I start with EDM. I don’t know. I like danceable music I guess, and really, they had me at “four on the floor”! (I’ve wondered if drummers hate that, it if they think it’s fun.)
Yeah that Billie Jean bass line is deceptively hard. Doesn’t seem so bad playing a few bars of it, but keeping it going the whole song is rough!
Edit: I’ve come nowhere close myself. I can manage it at tempo for maybe 4 bars. One day I’ll get it. Maybe after I finish Josh’s course.
I’m not a dancer, but I’ve often thought a dancer would make a great bass player. So much of playing bass in a group comes down to feeling the pulse and locking into it, feeling it in/with your body. I imagine that’s something dancers are really good at. I could be wrong though, as I know nothing of dancing.
Either way, best of luck on your journey with the bass.
Checkout drummers covering drum and bass songs on YouTube it’s wild
Welcome @Martijn and @GingerBug !
I love the steady flow of new people showing up! Welcome in both @Martijn and @GingerBug!
If you want, feel free to show us your basses over in Show Us Your Basses (Part 2)
Welcomr. @GingerBug
I’m not a huge EDM fan. It’s okay imo, but there’s at least a few of us who are big industrial fans kicking around here that can probably relate. I’ve grown a huge fondness for trip hop (downbeat depending on your age) over the last 20 years. I would never, ever look down on another musicians tastes as long as we can agree on what we’re playing together in that moment. Anything outside that just adds some fun and unique (hopefully good) possible sounds.
Welcome @GingerBug
Have fun!
Wow…welcome along @MattyD , @andrew2 , @Martijn and @GingerBug !!