I never said their content was worthless. Did say it was not designed for the starter and nothing was clearly defined. I only didn’t like Scott’s teaching methods… but tbh Mann is the man
I don’t hate anyone(ok… maybe funny moustache man and copycats)… but I despise this behaviour. Comparison with Netflix isn’t even fair, because you can watch Netflix in the hospital. But you can’t play bass with a broken hand.
Force majeure is a force majeure, you should not be penalized for it. If you cater for consumers, you get more consumers and loyalty.
Let me give you this example… I got a 30 day trial of Musora… did a few lessons of Drumeo, tapping on legs… tried singeo and my kid Guitareo.
A few days later in a live someone mentioned bass was coming so I messaged support and asked if I could save the remainder trial for when bass came out… they said “Obviously, just email us back through this email”.
I now have premium because kids got a drumkit that came with 3 months.
Before I subbed, I Googled about drumeo and sub pausing:
It’s simple, clean and respectful.
SBL is a good platform… I have my grudge against it, some people understood, some didn’t even try. I am glad that you are enjoying it and you should. But it’s also important that other people’s experience is taken into consideration.
Well, it depends why you’re in hospital. I’ve been there last January and I won’t go into detail but I can tell you that I was far from being able to watch Netflix during that time…
Force majeure is force majeure for you, but also for them. Why should they pay for other people’s bad luck? That’s just not possible and also not fair for them.
I do take your experience into consideration. I’m just trying to see things rationally from both points of view, and, last but not least, this thread was about my personal experience and my recordings from the SBL lessons, at least that’s what I tried to do with the thread… Maybe I’ll make a new one just for the recordings.
Just a last and I promise on next will only comment on videos!
True. It’s not that they should pay… because my traffic wouldn’t be there, my consumption wouldn’t be there. And if they had paused, perhaps I would’ve bought lifetime during the sale… instead I cancelled… that’s why in the aggressive markets that we have now, you need to make a difference, you can’t just be slightly better, you have to be much better.
In light of the business adage “The customer is always right,” the handling of your situation was a lame miscalculation by SBL. They easily (and quietly) could have accommodated you in this instance. It’s not a difficult concept to comprehend. I wish they had made another, better decision than they did.
I recently visited the SBL site and there indeed have been some changes compared to the last time I checked it out three years ago.
Their free trial was only 14 days back then; now it’s 30, which is much better. The subscription structure seems revamped to accommodate folks who want to try membership for only a while.
All to say, the SBL business model seems to have evolved somewhat. Maybe their customer service has, too? One can only hope a student such as yourself would be accommodated for unforeseen circumstances.
It seems to me that if you’re offering a monthly subscription model to anything, offering a pause, for whatever reason, is just sound business practice, and you lose nothing because by definition Pause = I’ll be back.
How much does player’s path cost? I looked on their site and for the life of me could not find anything about cost. I don’t want to start a free trial without knowing what the eventual commitment would cost me…
If you have time today (Feb 13) - Sharon and Ian are hosting the monthly hang; it’s at 10 am EST.
I am not sure if you need to be a member!? Perhaps though…
I’ve taken/taking SBL accelerator courses-learning fretboard and technique to be specific-and loved them. They genuinely helped my get better. Pricey but I feel like I got 10x my money’s worth.
After I finished B2B, I needed something to keep me going, so I am doing SBL. I am not finding it very motivating, though. With B2B I practiced every day because I looked forward to every lesson, but I just don’t feel that same vibe with SBL. I will keep plugging along (sadly, not as often), until @JoshFossgreen puts a 2nd course out there (PLEASE PLEASE).
I switched to B2B after trying the beginner path on SBL. I didn’t make it too many lessons before getting frustrated. Ultimately, I found B2B to be much better presented and enjoyable.
My main issues:
The SBL site has a bunch of stuff and it wasn’t as clear where to start as a beginner.
I didn’t like Ian’s presentation style. It felt very patronizing or pandering. Like someone talking down to children and pretending to be interested. Contrast with Josh who keeps things lighthearted and fun, but it feels genuine.
I hated the presentation of play-along tabs. No preview of the second half. So I’d get halfway through and be lost when it switched to the second half.
Because there was no lead-in to what the exercise song was going to be. Contrast with B2B where Josh walks through the exercise and shows you how to play it before jumping ahead.
Yes, I know I could just go through and watch/listen to what gets played and then back up, but that gets annoying. Sometimes Josh’s play-through demos are simple and unnecessary for me. But it is both easier and much more confidence boosting to skip ahead because you understand what the lesson is trying to teach, than having to backtrack repeatedly because you didn’t get it.
Looks like Musora has a nice way to deal with the possible interruptions.
I never thought about signing up for a year and then having a life event that wouldn’t allow me to continue for a while. That’s a policy I’ll look into at the different online platforms if/when that’s the way I go for bass or drum learning in the future. I took in-person bass lessons for a year and a half - and stopped, to take in-person drum lessons, because I felt like my ability to play the rhythms I saw in bass sheet-music was what was holding back my bass progress. I knew how to read the sheet music rhythms but I never internalized the counting such that I got the rhythm correct when playing. My thought is that once I’ve got a good foundation from in-person situations I’ll look into an online format - like SBL, B2B, Mark Smith, Dan Hawkins, Ryan Madora, etc. I chose the in-person option initially because of the feedback I get. I want to know what I’m doing wrong - so that I don’t continue to do it, until it becomes a bad habit that may be difficult to correct, and that seeing what I’m doing an instructor can guide me what to do to fix it. The in-person option also forces me to attend the lesson, every Wednesday at 5pm, for example - whereas an online option can easily be put-off/missed because things are busy at home etc. I really intend to try one of the above-mentioned online courses - I just don’t want to take that at the same time as in-person lessons - so I can put all my bass focus into one of those at a time. I also don’t want to put out the funds for an online course while paying (the much more expensive) in-person lesson fees.
It has been said and attested to in this forum and elsewhere, many, many times: There is no better way for newbies to learn bass than the Beginner to Badass course. Josh is an excellent teacher and the combination of his format and material just work brilliantly.
My biggest complaint about SBL, beyond the constant stream of marketing emails, is this whole “join my site to learn bass but pay a huge amount money to REALLY learn bass”. I get these are advanced courses but I’m already paying 30 bucks a month for your membership and now you tell me that’s not the real learning?
As a business owner, I understand the principle of the thing, mind you. Doesn’t mean I like it. I don’t like being flat out told that I’m paying for an inferior product (technically) and I need to pay more to get the real good stuff. Also, let me friggin’ sign up for it whenever I want instead of waiting once a year to join because you NEVER release at a time where it’s financially convenient for me.
I hadn’t paid this topic much attention as I have seen SBL’s youtube videos and just really couldn’t stand his style and personality. But, today I saw a free 4 hour Jazz Bass class he put on youtube and clicked on it. Of course, you need to download the pdf, so now he has my email address. I am only 1/4 a way through it, and I gotta say - it is REALLY good. I have learned (and re-learned) quite a bit. I am very impressed with this video. I didn’t want to put a link here, but it is easy enough to find. I sure wish Josh had a subscription program. I would join in a heartbeat. Not sure I will give SBL a shot…but I am kinda impressed with this one.
Maybe I’ll make a new one just for the recordings. 
