Welcome Kenneth! This course will give you a VERY good foundation that you can build on for YEARS to come!
2 Likes
I fit in the retired guitarist, returning to music as bassist. I started at 8 yrs old on guitar and played lead guitar in rock/pop bands up until turning 40 in 2010. I tried several times to return to playing guitar in the last 10 years, but I’m just done with guitar after playing it forever.
Bought a Schecter Diamond series 5 string, Ampeg 2x10 450W amp, then my current fav - Ibanez SR870 4 string. In addition to BassBuzz, I also picked up a music teacher helping me to explore other genres I would have never had any interest as a guitar player.
I go from Sinatra, to Green Day to Elton John to The Supremes, CCR, Katie Perry,to Metallica. I love that with bass, I can play along with just about any song as almost every song in the world has bass!! Finding a good tone on bass is far simpler than guitar tone.
I’m at the point I can play technical songs like Hysteria by Muse, but I’m also content thumping along with Sinatra and improvising a unique bass line on each pass of Fly me to the Moon.
Need to finish up my BassBuzz lesson, but I get too distracted playing along with songs for hours at a time. In Module 8 at the moment.
Funny thing- dogs used to scatter when I played rock guitar. When I play bass (not too loud), they actually come into the room to listen!
Thanks for reading.
9 Likes
Welcome @garyfinfrock! Wow that is quite a long time to be playing guitar then switch to bass. Should make your transition fairly easy and hopefully as you explore the bass more you can tell your guitar friends that bass players are more than just the dude that hangs out in the back and plays a few notes while looking cool (joking!!)
It must be fascinating to REALLY see how much Bass can accentuate guitar… someone just posted this by Victor Wooten and MAN what a great bass player…and he really hits it home with how much a GOOD bass player can make a guitar player go from sounding good to AWESOME.
3 Likes
@garyfinfrock Welcome to the BassBuzz forums!
Maybe when you get a time you can tell us about some of you gigs on this thread…
The Gigs! The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Heck yeah, that’s the bass I use, completely love it! Welcome to the forums!!
1 Like
Welcome @garyfinfrock. I love a nice long introduction with a real insight into the person. With so much experience but a new perspective I can’t wait to see you posting in Post your covers!
Also, welcome to the Dark Side: where everything is cooler!
2 Likes
@PeteP I ended up purchasing the course on Friday and it’s amazing! @JoshFossgreen is a top notch teacher and his course syllabus is structured perfectly. (seriously, well done Josh). I’m so glad I purchased the course.
6 Likes
Excellent!
1 Like
@Lo Just changed the forum settings, just for you, should be able to do 2 characters now. 
I can’t handle MMOs, need to be able to play by myself, and not get too sucked into a dopamine spiral. I shudder to think how many other instruments I could have learned in the time I’ve spent playing video games. 
Welcome @hennesykenneth! Hope you enjoy the course.
Welcome @garyfinfrock! Playing along with songs for hours sounds good to me.
4 Likes
I hear ya! My game playing time has gone way down since starting my Bass addiction a year ago. I purposely keep my bass by my PC so it calls to me when I sit at my desk
And to keep this on topic WELCOME @TK-421!! This course is AMAZING. I have learned more in one month than I have in the last year trying to teach myself. I love how Josh sneaks in theory or technique and you dont even know it sometimes!
4 Likes
Thanks Josh! 
2 Likes
So I promised to update you all once I chose my bass so here I am again. After much faffing around, I’ve ordered a Fender SQ CV 60s Jazz Bass in Daphne Blue and a Fender Rumble 40.
They should arrive next week so I’ll only have to wait four weeks until I’m allowed to play with them (they’re a birthday present).
I shall endeavor to be extra nice to my wife in the hope she lets me have them early.
9 Likes
Welcome to all the new members that snuck in while I was away for a couple of weeks. There are too many for me to greet individually, but you know who you are 
Our forum is really growing!
6 Likes
Hi everyone.
I’m a re-entering vessel… I used to play bass in the seventies (yes, I’m a borderline boomer).
I was largely self-taught. I did attend a music school for which I actually paid a feee, but that was wasted money. The instructor told me to play with a pick, and to forget about using my pinkie because my hands were too small for a full-scale neck anyway. Don’t ask…
When I quit playing for various reasons, one of the reasons was that I was a talentless hack with hands too small (this wasn’t the only side of my crippling self-doubt).
So now, at age 62, I am determined to become a better bass player than I ever was. That’s gonna require some work… I’ve found that you can forget everything about how to play the bass except all the things you did wrong. 
I started the course three days ago, and I find myself going through it at breakneck speed – things are coming back, and I still know my way around the fretboard – it’s merely relearning the muscle memory stuff and the hand-ear-coordination, plus picking up on how to fix all those things I did do wrong. I now find myself having Module 3 all but finished, but I’m also still convinced that I will hit a point where things become harder than they seem now, and my progress will grind to a halt.
My musical background:
I was raised on a diet of impressionism and jazz. In the late '60’s, my mother got into what we now call progressive rock. I binged for years on a self-titled album from The Nice, with a live rendition of Rondo '69 as performed in Fillmore East. This weird, hyperactive, super-energetic, schizophrenic fusion of baroque-classic, jazz and pure unadulterated rock-on-a-Hammond-organ completely changed the way I, as a prepubescent primary-school-kid, listened to music.
At age 18 or thereabouts, I wasn’t adverse to jazzrock, but only really got into it in 1976, when I first heard Brand X. To my (European) tastes, that sounded like jazz was supposed to sound: a bunch of guys having fun!
And a year later, I would make a much more cathartic discovery - I hit upon the guy who would be my favourite musician ever since, up to and including today… the opening notes of Gong’s album Gazeuse intrigued me, but the guitar solo from that same track left me in a pool of tears, unable to recover my breath. Everything I thought I knew about music was disintegrating in those few moments. I didn’t understand one iota of what this guy was doing, but the sheer ecstatic beauty of it had me sobbing uncontrollably. It was only much, much later than I understood how hard it was, technically as well as harmonically.
Ever since then, Allan Holdsworth has been my musical hero.
Anyway, back to bass.
My main influences on bass playing have been Chris Squire, Geddy Lee (hence the Rick I got in 1977), Percy Jones, Gary Willis and Mick Karn (hence the fretless). If you are interested in hearing how to make a bass guitar sound like the leading melodic instrument, you may want to listen to Mick Karn, specifically his solo album called ‘Titles’.
I also get along very well with drummers. Sebastiaan Cornelissen is not only one of Europe’s best jazz drummers, composers and arrangers, he’s also one of my best friends. We share an admiration of Holdsworth, and I learn a lot from him. His dad was a contrabass player for the Dutch Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as an accomplished bass guitar player, and while Sebastiaan is primarily a drummer, he also plays a mean bass guitar and upright bass (better than I, but I’ll be working on that).
That’s about it. I’m not a vegan, but I am into NVC. I’m also a Krazy Cat Lady, male corollary, as well as a lover of a nice red wine, preferably Merlot.
13 Likes
Welcome @peterhuppertz. The end of module 4 is where you probably take a bit to get through… I have been working on it for a week. And probably need another week because my pinky and ring finger are having differences of opinion on who should play on what string! (even though Josh says to move on after you get thru the slow workout). Billie Jean is definitely a finger twister that will test you!!!
4 Likes
We’ve made it into a bit of a joke around here. It’s actually not as hard as we make it out to be but it is definitely a finger twister, and kind of an endurance battle at full speed. Mostly it’s hard because it is so early in the course.
If you’re like many of us, it will eventually become a permanent part of your practice routine - it’s an excellent technique exercise. And don’t worry, you’ll be able to do it!
I’d recommend not spending too much time trying to nail the fast workout - it’s super challenging that early in the course - and just come back to it later.
I like using it to demo heavily distorted metal tones from my pedalboard, because it just sounds so wrong
3 Likes
Hi Josh and team,
I’m from Canada, have just joined and digging it already.
Like a few other people here, I’ve never played an instrument (aside from the recorder in high school and some harmonica I taught myself as a 10-year-old at home in the basement).
I’ve always felt deep inside that I need to play an instrument and that somehow, playing music should be in my life.
So, at 50, I thought I’d try the banjo. Ahem. I soon discovered I’d bitten off a bit more than I could chew.
So I’ve switched to the bass with the understanding that I needed to give it a fair shot, take it seriously, apply myself and invest in a proper course rather than watch random, out-of-sequence Youtube videos .
I feel I’m on the right path here and feel true joy taking these modules.
I’ve been practically running home from work to practise and continue my lessons.
Thanks so much for your instruction, Josh.
Erica
10 Likes
Hi Josh and team,
I’m from Canada, have just joined and digging it already.
Like a few other people here, I’ve never played an instrument (aside from the recorder in high school and some harmonica I taught myself as a 10-year-old at home in the basement).
I’ve always felt deep inside that I need to play an instrument and that somehow, playing music should be in my life.
So, at 50, I thought I’d try the banjo. Ahem. I soon discovered I’d bitten off a bit more than I could chew.
So I’ve switched to the bass with the understanding that I needed to give it a fair shot, take it seriously, apply myself and invest in a proper course rather than watch random, out-of-sequence Youtube videos .
I feel I’m on the right path here and feel true joy taking these modules.
I’ve been practically running home from work to practise and continue my lessons.
Thanks so much for your instruction, Josh.
Erica
2 Likes
