Last night I had my first date with Billie Jean. I know there already are a number of threads about that lesson but maybe an additional thread from the viewpoint of a complete newbie who encounters this lesson might be helpful to other beginners and increases the chances that someone else in desperate need of help and motivation will find something that helps.
Ok, here we go…
Of course I had already heard about this infamous lesson and I was a bit nervous. Then I looked at the sheet music and thought: „Come on, these are just eight notest. I can not be THAT hard, right?“ WRONG!
When I started the video with Josh explaining everything I wasn‘t even able to follow him along and I had to pause and rewind the video multiple times because I stumbled all over the place. Even at his explanations at a slow pace I got completely lost…
I managed somehow to get through the video, feeling that I had accomplished nothing at all. This was the first time in the course that I thought „Maybe I should just skip this lesson all together and forget about it“.
Then this morning I read some threads about that lesson and decided to give it another try, grabbed my bass and VEEEEEEERY SLOOOOOOWLY practiced just the first eight notes. To my surprise I had memorized the left hand pattern. Still a lot of mistakes but by dialing down the speed a LOT, I finally managed to first play the first four notes again and again. Then I practiced the second group of four notes a number of times veeeery slooooowly…and then put it all together.
And it worked!
This morning I was able to play the first eight notes EXTREMELY slow (about 30 bpm) but I got through! I decided that this was enough and I stopped there. This way I would have a positive experience and not frustrate myself.
This evening I will continue where I left of and continue the slow practice. I don’t even think about playing along with Josh in the slow workout, before having memorized the other part where you skip to the G-string. If I can manage to get through the two parts at my suuuuuuuper slow pace tonight, this is already a huge progress for me.
Billie Jean is a song no beginner can play within a few days. This one takes some time but once you master the main riff you can play along all verses.
Play it slow, again and again.
One day you will play along the full song just to warm up before playing “Good times”.
Be patient and keep practicing.
My Billie Jean “Eureka!”* moment was when I switched from my first bass, Ibanez GSR200, to my second one, a P-clone part-way through the course (about 5-10 lessons after Billie Jean).
For some reason, the extra 1/8" of nut width really helped get my fingers sorted for this riff. Of course, I’m no master but I can work my way through it now, even on my skinny-necked Peavey…
*Eureka! - ancient Greek for “Help, help! I need a towel!”
This is one of those “it’s the journey that matters, not the destination” kind of deals!
In time, you will find that it is no longer really hard to play, and the main challenge will become how to prevent your hand from cramping up when playing the entire song through
Remember, Billie Jean touches on on a number of bass playing skills . . . not just playing a set of notes. Theres’s the notes of course, correct speed, the stamina to keep playing in spite of cramping, muting as needed, and so on.
Most importantly, Josh is trying to teach us that there are times when you will NOT be able to push through and complete a lesson 100% before moving on. Do the best you can, and come back to it again later on.
It’s no accident that he put Billie Jean where he did in the B2B course . . .
It’s nice to read another story about how someone conquered BJ. She is not as tough as she thinks, and as you now know, can be taken down. We each have out own method by which we did it, and you have yours. For me, it was facing up to her once again after finishing the B2B course, this time armed with the sheet music instead of tab.
Well done @Snoopy .
The hard part comes, when you mastered fingering and tempo… To get nice groove all 8ths are played staccato!
BTW: in MJ’s original version there is NO BASS, the riff is played by a syntie.
The method you used is exactly what I did too. “Can’t be that hard - all the notes are locally placed within each other - what’s everyone going on about?”
And then I started to attempt to play it
Doing your method of just slowing it right down you can learn the basics and it clicks a bit.
Just keep doing exactly what you’re doing and you’ll get better - good luck
Apparently, this is debated a lot… probably there is a synth doubling the bass line (or parts of it). I think there is a Nate Navarro video on this out there on the interwebs…
I started doing some plucking excercises as a warmup. Just chugging on the A-string and then plucking other strings to mix things up a bit. I varied the tempo a bit and when I felt a light burn in my right hand I stopped. Feels good. I will start doing this every day just for 2-3 minutes as a regular practice to improve my right hand coordination.
I then continued practicing BJ on A- and D-string. Still extremely slooooooow. It felt a little better, right hand still too cramped and coordination problems with alternating fingers.
I did 3 or 4 sessions for about 1 minute, then I tried to play along with Josh in the first half of the lesson (not the slow excercise! This is still way too fast!). This time I was able to play along with Josh, which is an improvement! Yay!
Then I practiced on my own again with a slow drumbeat. I could feel how I got a little more relaxed and confident. I can now play the first eight notes in a loop at a very sloooow pace without making a lot of mistakes. And the right hand alternating start to feel more natural. This lesson is a great excercise! So many tiny details hidden in there!
I decided to finish the practice for today. I want to leave the excercise with a positive mindset and the feeling that I have improved! I call that a success for today. Very happy!
no question it was played with bass several times. But on the Thriller recording it was a syntie IIRC
