brand new to bass and playing music entirely hence this very rudimentary question — i am going through the beginner to badass course and i am not clear on: should i be practicing outside of going through each lesson? or should i go through the entire course first? what i am doing now is going through each lesson and repeating it until i feel confident with the ‘fast’ practice — is this enough while i am just at the start? thanks!
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How often do you practice/play?
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Welcome to the Forums, @mgoldst . . . 
You go through the course, and TRY to get through the medium-fast paced section before moving on. This IS the “practice” part of the course, so you do not have to do anything outside that.
Sometimes you may not be able to go much better than the slow section (e.g. Billie Jean) and may need to go back to it later.
Sounds to me as if you are right on target, then . . . 
Good luck with the rest of the course, and we’ll see you around the Forums!
Cheers
Joe
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I think it is a good idea to work out a few easy songs to play along with…. Maybe three or four from your favorite bands, eras, etc. It’s nice to have some tunes to play outside of the lessons.
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ideally i am shooting for a short daily practice (30 min max) as i think more + shorter is better than fewer + longer when it comes to learning things.
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+1 to what @Jazzbass19 Joe said… Focus on the lessons for now would be my suggestion… Good Luck!!
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If you want to add in some fun “riffs” for music you like that are on the easy side you can do this by looking on YouTube. But keep them simple. Nothing worse than trying to do something you aren’t ready for yet. If you come across something too hard, put it on a come back to list.
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Sounds like a plan to me.
Practicing outside the course is fine as long as you remember to not let it hinder your progression through the course, or frustrate you.
Here are a couple of things to keep in mind IMHO
1 - Practice 1/2 - 1 hour at least 3 times a week. More if possible.
2 - Josh says, several times, that the main requirement of the course is to be able to play at least the slow workout.
3 - When you get to the ‘Billie Jean’ lesson do not get too frustrated. If the slow workout is too much for you just move on and come back to it later.
4 - Do not get bogged down in theory outside of the course.
5 - Ask questions on the forum after doing a search to see if that topic has already been covered. Remember the only stupid question is the one not asked. 
6 - Check out the 50 songs challenge at some point.
ABOVE ALL JUST HAVE FUN & TRY NOT TO BECOME TOO FRUSTRATED. YOU CAN LEARN TO PLAY BASS IF YOU REALLY WANT TO BUT THIS IS A JOURNEY NOT A RACE AND IT WILL TAKE TIME AND PRACTICE. 
Edited to add:
7 - Don’t waste time on the forum that could be otherwise used as practice time. Check in once or twice a day and see if there is anything you are interested in but it has been my experience that you can spend too much time in the forum when you are just starting out. 
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@mgoldst You can download the lesson backing tracks and use them for extended practice that still fits in the course schedule. Or you can give some of the songs in the easiest category of the 50 songs pack a try. It’s all about having fun, so don’t worry too much about how you should be practicing. Good luck!
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Welcome to B2B @mgoldst
This is a great approach to learning any new skill.
I’ve been “learning” guitar for quite a few years and never really achieved the daily practice. I decided to get my bass that was collecting dust out and start B2B.
You’ve picked a great course. The way the course is structured in bite size pieces, is working really well for encouraging regular practice. Learn, then immediately play is perfect for me and will hopefully keep you motivated as well.
I’m part way through module 4 and really enjoying it. Just having a mini break to record something on guitar for a YouTube fun challenge.
One thing you might like to start trying is picking one of the songs from the 50 first songs pack and learning it and try to play along with the real thing.
Also consider recording yourself even just with your phone. You can see/hear your improvement and also potentially self correct any issues.
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i have a yamaha TRBX174EW and a fender rumble 40 amp. no pedals other than a KLIQ tinytune pedal tuner.
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thank you for all the advice everyone! great community here!
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Hey dude! I just started B2B 3 days ago. Like other folks said the ‘workout’ videos are the practice, but I’ve been finding songs on YouTube to learn on the side to supplement the B2B stuff.
This channel on YouTube called ‘CoverSolutions’ posts bass tablature; you can play along with the dude in the video. The tabs are shown on the screen and highlighted on tempo. I’ve found it to be really helpful. You can also adjust the YouTube playback speed so you can mimic the slow/medium/fast workouts.
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The other great one is Constantine, he is a bass cover beast, over 1600…
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Good combination. IMHO
In the beginning I think it best to keep it simple and worry about things like pedals and other fancy add ons, that can become obsessions and quite costly, after you finish the course and have a clearer picture as to your goals with playing the Bass.
I have a Yamaha TRBX304 and TRBX504 and a Rumble 100 and am quite satisfied with them.
Good luck and stay in touch with us on the forum.
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BassBuzz? Wasted time?
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Chasing the perfect sound can be quite distracting, checking out all the knobs and sounds to be made takes time that is better spent on learning the bass itself. Do the course, time enough to gas later
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Just to be clear your partial quote gives exactly the opposite meaning to what I said.
The full quote should be.
Which is basically what I said.
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So I get this, and it’s a good question.
As for the practicing? How Much you practice is really up to you. If you just stick with the lessons in the bassbuzz program, I guarantee that by the end you will be qualified to play some bass. Fact is, you’ll actually be pretty decent at it-when you consider you started from zero.
There are a lot of places to find tabs, but remember-anyone can post a tab and they may not be correct.
If you go to bigbasstabs.com and click “beginners” it leads to josh’s YouTube videos, they are a great resource.
Another resource is the 50 song pack in your course extras. Lot of material there, a person can really get a lot of of it.
If you’re looking for some fun, off the beaten track stuff? I really like yonit speigelman and Luke from become a bassist- both are on YouTube.
Any way you do it, keep practicing!
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