I’m in the last module of B2B. Finished 104 of 109 lessons. I’ve paused the lessons because I’m on a trip to visit friends and family, all of whom play something.
The family are guitarists and piano players. We’ve mostly played through songs, along with jamming over some chord progressions. Sometimes I find and hear the key/chords. Other times they’ll call out the chords. Regardless, for the most part, I’m making my own bass lines except in some instances where they say, “Play this.”
And I’m keeping up. When a cousin joined us, he asked, “Is he a bass player?” My brother said, “Yeah, he’s learning.” We started the first song and the cousin said, “He sure sounds like he’s a bass player.”
And a couple of them mentioned they’re shocked at how quickly I’ve learned. I played the bass for the first time ever mid-January of this year. And unless you count the piano, it’s my first stringed instrument. Regardless of speed, I can play and keep up with other musicians playing live.
The friend is a multi-instrumentalist and a song writer. We did some of the same, playing through songs. But we also did quite a bit of 12-bar blues progressions, just jamming and playing off each other. He’s in the middle of writing a song and asked me to write a bass line for it. So far it’s just the verses, but I came up with a bass line that he loves.
And after doing some rhythm guitar with it so we could refine the line he had me continue to play while he improved some guitar solo over it. Said it was super helpful. From my perspective it was great because without drums or his rhythm guitar, I was able to keep a consistent beat.
That line was super exciting. It’s because I hear distinctively how the line should go, and can make my fingers do it. It’s like it’s the only line that would work there (which I don’t believe, but it still feels that way.)
Playing with others is amazing. And while I thought I could do it, now I know that I can.
Thanks B2B and @JoshFossgreen .