Today I finished the lesson “Pride And Joy” in module 8. The slow and medium workout worked pretty good, the fast workout gave me some problems (as expected) but overall I am super excited!
Just 5 weeks ago, I was plucking along on my bass, when I tried it out in the store, without even knowing what I was doing and now you can show me a chord progression and I can figure out a bass line by myself! I know that this is simple stuff, but when I look back what I knew when I was starting the course I have to say that I am amazed at the progress I have made in such a short time. (In the beginning, just the thought of skipping strings gave me an uneasy feeling…)
I am not a genius and I would call myself a slow learner with little technical skill, but the lessons are so well put together that you can´t help but improve very quickly. I remember in the beginner having doubts, if I will be able to finish the course or if the material would quickly become too difficult and complex for me to understand and too technical for my limited skills. But after a few modules (especially after the infamous module 4 with Billie Jean) I started to trust Josh’s method.
If you put in the work and have the patience to practice, I believe everyone can get through this course. In the past, music theory always gave me an uneasy feeling. I always thought that this is highly complicated and that I am too old to grasp the concept, because, whenever I was reading something about music theory, most of it sounded like complicated algebra to me.
Now I can´t wait to learn the next music theory concept and scales suddenly start to make sense, because I have learned how to use them in an actual musical context! I am still amazed that I was able to play along to a Stevie Ray Vaughn song, without even having tabulature in front of me and not only understanding perfectly what I was doing but it also made sense in a musical way and sounded halfway decent.
I guess the last time I felt like that was when I learned to ride a bicycle as a child.
Love it! Because when I started 7 months ago I felt exactly the same. Same thing, no musical background, fear of failure, lack of confidence in my ability.
You’ve found the right place here. Lessons at your pace, in a shame-free learning environment-taught by an amazing musician and teacher.
So keep it up! Glad you are here!
I’m still having great difficulty memorizing notes and where they are on the fretboard. For some reason, that’s a sore spot for me. I know with practice I’ll eventually get the hang of reading music, but the slow progress is quite frustrating for me
If it helps…(it may not be helpful)…
I have been playing either trumpet or sax or bass for over 10 years, memorization has been the hardest thing I have had to deal with.
I think when we are hobbyist learners, we don’t do a very good job of engraving things through rote learning until they stick properly. I think at times we THINK they stick, but then the rest of life’s info and data push them aside.
It still takes me a long time to memorize anything, but, it is getting better over the past two years.
Why - repeated practice without much down days in between.
To me, the down days or 'not enough brain write/over-write/over-write until it is engraved into my brain is the problem.
No different than real life when my wife tells me something then asks me why I forgot 3 days later (cause I didn’t write it down, put a reminder in my phone, etc.
Successive repetition for much longer than you think you need may help. Down days do not.
Kinda like all the stuff kids forget over the summer breaks that they have to reteach at the beginning of each school year.
It will come, but it will come slowly.
Be persistent, try thinking about the notes when not playing, print out the tab and stare at it when you can. Anything to help the imprint.
When I was learning all the major scales on sax i wrote the circle of 5ths and each scale out 100s of times over weeks and weeks. I can play them on sax, but not on bass - meaning I know the finger movements but not the actual notes of each scale (I do know them but takes time to generate v. just reciting immediately).
The other advice i would give is learn a few notes, then do not look at the tab for them and ‘find’ the next few (can cheat and look at the tab for next note) but then look away and play with the next note added. If you can’t find it, don’t look back at the tab, find it by finding the note by pitch, and repeat that until you know it, add the next. The reliance on the printed notes takes away from the ability to memorize as well. If you look to your fingers and get it under your fingers you will memorize it much quicker, at least that is my experience.
I read this and thought to myself what is more important, memorizing the notes on the fretboard or memorizing patterns?
I have played lead and rhythm guitar since 1972, and still did at times , until covid hit.
I took up Bass at the start of 2021 and my approach to the fretboard, related to Bass, changed.
If you can find the root note of the chord on the fretboard the pattern for the 3rd 5th and octave are always the same. At first I would pick a song and get, or create, a lead sheet for it. I would them play over a backing track just playing the root to each chord. I would then take the same song and play the root and third of each chord as they came. Then the Root Third and Fifth. And finally the same song with the Root, Third, Fifth and Octave of each chord.
I believe a lot of the time we overthink things. Just my 2 cents worth.
