New player, My B2B Diary

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Background: 61 year old male, with a little musical history, early retired with so much free time on my hands.
I always say that I’m Musically gifted, but not musically talented.
I’m hoping to keep a diary of my progress of the B2B course.

My post is a bit long and maybe boring, so if you cant be bothered to read it all, by all means just jump to the sections where its written in bold text.

I played Cornet from about 13 - 16 years old, I’m not sure that I was ever any good. I played in a junior colliery band, we never won anything, we were probably rubbish to be fair. I left school started work, discovered girls, that was the end of my brass band playing.

Between 16 and 30 I tried various different instruments, like keyboards & guitars, harmonica, ukelele, but only ever self taught. Id learn a few chords or tunes, play them poorly, give up, sell up, only to try again a few years later. I seemed to go around this constant cycle of trying something then giving in.

At around 32 years I picked up cornet again and quickly realised that I’d forgotten absolutely everything.
I couldn’t even play a note, let alone a scale.
I started playing with the juniors in our local brass band, but a 30+ year old learning to play with 8 year olds is embarrassing, so it gave me the motivation to move on quickly.
Around 3 to 4 months later I was just about good enough to play with the seniors.
Admittedly, I wasn’t any good yet, and to be honest, in the 5 or 6 years I played, I never really got any good at it.
I could get by, but I could easily get lost in a piece and end up either missing notes or playing the wrong notes., repeats always got me. There were favorite pieces I’d nail, and difficult ones that I couldn’t

We did a few regional competitions came 2nd in one. This one particular competition our percussionist took ill and I volunteered to step in. I literally learned the piece in about 4 weeks, a crash course ‘parrot fashion’ on just that piece, the judge remarked that it was the best percussion piece in the whole competition. Yay… I accomplished something.

Anyhow, I think my main issue was the lack of practice, raising a family, working long hours away from home, left me with little time to really put the effort in… well that’s what I told myself when I finally gave up with the brass band aged around 38 ish.

At around 52 years old, I had this idea… remember what that judge said…

it was the best percussion piece in the whole competition

Maybe its drums that I was born to play, I’ve not tried those.

So I bought a cheap electronic kit (these can be played muted and not disturb the family/neighbours). I took weekly drumming lessons, and in 2019, I guessed that I was ready to start jamming, so I got together with a few old mates.
We formed a band (Norfolk and Goode), we jammed in my garage for about 6 weeks, and if we could get 2 or 3 songs nailed then we intended to play at a family birthday party.
In 2019, covid came, along with it restrictions and lockdown, the band Norfolk and Goode split.

That was sort of the end of my drumming career to be fair. But being honest, I wasn’t that good, I could knock up a beat and few fills, but in my previous lessons, id been sort of learning ‘parrot fashion’, repeat the same song over and over and it sinks in long enough to complete it, (like the brass band piece) before forgetting it and concentrating on a new one.

So here I am, 61 years old, tried and failed musically all my life and had this crazy idea.

Maybe its Bass that I was born to play, Ive not tried that.

So that’s my background, and I thought it might be prudent for me to document my Bass 2 Badass journey, for anyone else who’s tried and failed like me.

Mon 9th June - I bought a Bass

During the first week, Id learned the straight notes from open E, through to B on the G string. I sort of practiced index middle plucking. I found some play along guitar tunes on Youtube, where they showed the 6 string guitar chords and I played along plucking just the root notes. (C for a C chord, G for a G chord etc).
It was rough but great fun. You could say that I was playing bass within 48 hours of ownership. Admittedly extremely poorly.

Mon 16th June - I bought the B2B course.

As I’m writing this 7 days in to B2B, some of the course has been a blur. I’m currently starting Module 6, however let me try and explain the best I can recall about the first 5 modules. My intention is to hopefully come back and edit this post as I progress through the course.

Modules 1 through to 4: I found extremely simple, I think these are aimed at someone who has absolutely no musical experience what so ever, if you’ve never played, then I feel that these modules will set you up in the right direction to start understanding what’s to come.
Bearing in mind that I’ve no idea what the future modules are going to teach me, but these are my thought on M1-4.
If like myself you have some musical background (albeit poor) don’t skip any of these modules as there are little snippets and teachings in there which are specific to bass guitar, you wouldn’t want to miss them.
I felt that the very end of module 4 was really the start of me personally learning something meaningful.
There’s a challenge at the end of module 4, which absolutely flummoxed me (and many others by the sounds of things), but Josh encourages you to not dwell on it and move on, so I did.

Module 5 is where the musical magic starts to happen for me, M5 has slowed things down a little, its challenging me and now making me think harder. I’m no longer ploughing through it like I did with m1-4.
M5 is where we start to see musical notation, and moving bass tabs. I feel that this is the point where I’m starting to learn music again.
However, one particular thing which brought me down with a crash… remember the cornet playing ?,
Id learned treble clef. Of course, I know all the musical notes right, … wrong, we are now playing in bass clef.
Now if you’re new to music and actually reading this, and dont understand what i just said, then at this stage you don’t need to worry about it, as it will all make sense later, but to someone with a little musical experience, all the notes are in the wrong place :slight_smile:
One other thing I may or may not have experienced in M5.
All through the course, I keep finding my thumb over the top of the neck. I think the riff from the song ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ might have just fixed this. Lets see, time will tell.
The course so far as been at a good pace, nothing too complex all at once which could put you off. Its been nice and steady.

Module 5 bonus track - Bad Moon Rising 20.06.25
Stretching between fret 3 index finger and fret 5 pinky for prolonged period kills my forearm, so either I’m doing something wrong or I don’t yet have the muscle strength to pull it off. I can’t hold this for more than about 45 seconds. Also some of the the note changes are currently too fast for me, so I quickly lose a beat, then lose 2 or 3 more trying to figure out where to catch up.

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Welcome to the forum, and thanks for sharing your story. My first instrument was a tenor horn at school, and I was in the County band!
That was it for me though, I hadn’t touched an instrument in years, until trying keyboard/piano in 2020 at 51…yeah, covid lol.
You’ve had a go at all sorts, I bet it was fun going through those different phases of your musical journey.
Good luck with the rest of the course, it sounds like you are enjoying it :slight_smile:

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You’re going at a fair old pace for 61. Things are bound to go wrong or hurt after just 7 days of B2B especially using the pinkie. Things can be a little tense when you concentrate too much. Do you do any warms up stretches or fretboard exercises first? Have a shakeout if things hurt.

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I think you may want to find a private instructor to take lessons from in parallel with B2B. Someone who can look at exactly what you are doing and make personal corrections to your technique. Probably not for long. A month or two would be enough to be sure you’re starting on the right path.

What you’re talking about with pain making the span from the 3rd to the 5th fret sounds like you’re doing something weird, but we can’t diagnose it over text. That is a span that should easily fall between index and pinky fingers, with maybe only minimal shifting.

Or maybe… starting out, my hands got sore on the lowest frets, and I realized it was from fretting too far from the frets. Being right on top of the frets takes the least effort.

I had comparable broad general musical experience to you. That is what I did, and it helped me be sure I was doing things right, even though B2B was the main source of lessons and exercises for me.

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M1-4 were pretty straight forward to be honest, just basic stuff that i remember from previous attempts at learning. M5 did offer a little more of a challenge.

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I feel that it all comes down to thumb and bass neck position. At 6ft tall i dont have the largest of frames. Im tall but skinny. Ive got long arms but short fingers.

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There are lots of people a lot smaller than you having no problem with that kind of shift. There is probably a technique issue that you should have someone actually watch you play to identify.

Maybe post a video of yourself up here for critique.

Or your pinky just isn’t used to this yet and needs to get comfortable and stronger.

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Good for you @keat-r

Don’t worry about your thumb or the extremely unique situation you find yourself as a beginner bassist, :rofl:

No private lessons needed at this time. Rule number 1, the student must be ready for the teacher. You’d probably need a few dozens songs under your belt and have already made countless of mistakes along the way by that point. You’ll know what you need to learn and the right questions to ask.

Right now just take the B2B and start on your 50 songs challenge or come up with your own list. Playing songs is your task number 1 right now.

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I gently disagree with this.

Although an in-person instructor is not necessary, they are often very valuable especially when you are just starting out.

It takes more work to unlearn a bad habit than it does to learn a good one. In person instructors can catch the bad habits before they become ingrained, and promote good habits that will make learning quicker and easier.

Spending your first month with an instructor can be hugely valuable.

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This is HIGHLY dependent on the skill level AND the teaching ability of the instructor. There are some excellent ones out there. There are also plenty of poor ones. In my case, it wasn’t a bass instructor, it was a chiropractor in a new town. It took me 3 weeks to recover from the first treatment. I never went back.

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Yes absolutely :100: Especially when you can find someone with Josh teaching experience or someone like Justin @justing guitar their level of teaching beginners are supreme.

Depending on where you are, most of the time the first bass instructors are usually guitar players as even in SoCal where there’s more bass players the ratio is still 10 to 1. Some place it could be up to 20 to 1. I’ve never have to try hard to find a band.

You and I can spot a bassist VS guitarist easily enough but a beginner has no chance and bass beginner lesson needs bass specific drills to instill the good habit, heck you and I would probably do better job of the first crucial 5 hours in person lesson than the guitarist instructor.

That’s the teacher part. The student part is much easier.

Like everything else, when you start, everything is hard. What you see, what you hear and what you perceive and understand are totally different. That’s why each time you re-do B2B is different and you learn something new.

A beginners only needs 2 may be 3, 5 minutes instruction in forms and time, with 10 minutes of observation a week apart. Not only that’s all a new student can absorb but that’s the path. A minimum in person lesson is probably 30 minutes if not worse one hour. That’s a lot of pressure on both parties to fill that time. My lesson is 15 minutes and 15 minutes observation, because I can’t master or get even close to what I’m trying to accomplish in front of a teacher in one hour. :joy:

There’s no short cuts here when it comes to learning, the Bass Goddess requires your blood, sweat and tears on the fingerboard for your rite of passage. The only way is through eliminating a boat load of mistakes along the way.

Many of the good habits come from self discovery and not shown and imitate. These are the ones that last.

I’m not disagreeing with you about having private instructor but the reality is that it’s tough to find a good one in the neighborhood.

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It would have been good to edit my original post as I go through the course, but for some reason, this no longer seems possible. So i’ll add to it in the form of a reply.

23.06.25 Module 6:
Module 6 was another nice a steady course at a balanced pace. Here we get to learn about different notes on the neck and how to identify them. I’m most certainly at a point in the course where I now need to perform a bit of homework, to take in what I’ve just learned particularly the notes on the neck. I found lesson #4 and the fingering particularly difficult, I’d suggest to the point that I was a little disappointed in my ability. So rather than me jumping in the M7, I’m going to spend a day or two practicing what I learned in M6.
However, the course is somewhat addictive, i cant seem to put it down for more than 10 minutes.

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Not sure why you are disappointed with your ability? You’ve only been B2B for 9 days.

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I think more the fact that the pinky just doesnt move. I cant stretch for more than half a fret between ring and pinky. If i grab hold with my right hand and force the stretch, i cant hold it, the pinky just goes straight back to the ring finger. I appreciate that time and practice may fix this, just a bit annoyed that it wont do anything straight out of the bag.

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Keep practicing and you will gain more control over it.

Hand shift.

Hand shift a lot. Even playing “One Finger Per Fret”. You don’t need to (and almost never want to) hold your fingers in place over frets. Especially lower on the neck. It’s not enough to reach your pinky, you also need to be able to press down with control.

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I can’t perform 1 finger per fret, and i’m getting annoyed with it. If i’m using 4 fingers, then the best I can do is 2 frets, so when i try to play anything, I might as well be bowing a violin, my hand is all over the place. I’ve watched countless videos online and I keep shouting the same thing… ‘that’s easy for you to say’.
I’m ploughing on through the course, but I’m now getting to the point where I think this is hindering me, as I’m starting to struggle on the workouts.

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(Reshot video)

Here is video of me demonstrating 1-finger-per-fret while keeping my fingers all touching each other.

I fret each note with a different finger. I position each finger directly above each fret using microshifting.

1-FpF does not mean keeping fingers locked in position over the frets.

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Nice demo. Thanks.

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No problem. I hope that helps.

I have a pretty wide span on my hands, but still rely more on hand shifting than my finger span.

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There are bassists who have perfectly good pinky fingers on their fretting hand and don’t use them. There are bassists missing fingers on their fretting hand. James Jamerson, one of the most influential bass players of all time, only used his index finger to fret. Tim Commerford (Rage Against the Machine) and Geddy Lee (Rush) also use a single finger most or all of the time.

Edit: I believe I mixed up fretting and plucking fingers on some or all of these guys, I don’t want to leave misinfo but I can’t spend the time diving into it right now. However, there are accomplished bassists who don’t use or don’t have a pinky, or other fingers, and they get by.

You’ve got this. You just need to adapt the instructions a little to fit your unique situation.

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