I often think about how to expand the forum in ways to help new bass players and came up with this.
Simple Bass Line Repository
Since new (and some not so new) players are always looking for fun simple songs, post them here. Below is what I had in mind.
Keep it simple, these are for beginners.
It can be any song you think is fun.
It can be any genre of music. The more varied the better.
Include a link to the song (i.e., YouTube if possible).
Include tablature for the song.
There seems to be a lot of potential here. Simpler songs are easier to transcribe, good tabs are hard to find, and everybody looks for new songs to play.
Also, Iām hoping, after four years of people posting songs in the Post your covers! (2023) threads, most of the hard work will already be done.
By simple songs, Iām talking about With or Without You by U2 or La Grange by ZZ Top. Something along those lines.
Here is what I need feedback onā¦
Does this sound interesting enough for people to want to participate?
What about doing something with this to encourage people into transcribing some simple songs.
Include all original transcriptions, links to tab, or both?
What about a community challenge to transcribe 50 (or 100) simple songs to support something like this.
@eric.kiser Eric, thanks for the work you put into the forum, and for thinking about how to improve it for new(er) bass players. Iām kind of agnostic about this specific suggestion, but have some general thoughts about the forum and new Buzzers.
The forum has undergone a natural evolution which unintentionally has shifted its focus from Beginner2Badass students to B2B alumni.
This is NOT a criticismā¦itās an observation about a natural growth transition that many forums go through. In this specific case, the early members here were beginners going through the course and built this forum as they were learning and sharing ideas and encouragement and support. Plus many went through the COVID period together. And Josh was personally involved in many threads. Any new members here owe it to themselves to read through the old posts to see how the forum and its members grew and improved over time.
However, the Bass Buzz course is like a conveyor belt, continuously processing new players who have the same challenges, questions, frustrations, epiphanies, etc. over and over. They come to the forum, but instead of finding fellow newbies with whom to commiserate (like the early members did), they find mostly advanced players who are now some years past their novice issues. The most active members are now discussing advanced topics and playing techniques, expensive basses, comparing and encouraging GAS acquisitions, etc. Most are wonderful about answering questions and sharing their experience when asked. But itās not their focus anymore.
This evolution is so normal that in most forums it wouldnāt even be worth discussing. The unique issue for our forum is that ours is supposed to complement a beginnerās course. If we no longer have a beginnerās focus, it is out of sync with its intended audience.
These thoughts have been swirling around in the back of my mind for a while and this is the first time Iāve tried to articulate them. I donāt have any suggestions or solutions to offer. Yet.
I guess I would like to get a sense of whether anybody else has similar observations.
Again, thanks to Eric for being one of those senior members who is always welcoming and empathetic towards novice players.
I think you are right, the forum has probably evolved. It probably took me a good handful of months to be more than a quiet observer here. But this forum is where I knew I could go to get the answers I needed. And at its core the forum knows that itās here to aid beginners and everyone is very friendly and patient.
Now that Iāve been around for a couple years I feel like I am a contributing member who is able to answer a few questions rather than just ask them.
Thank you and yes, others have said the same thing. I donāt think itās a bad thing either, itās just a thing.
I find this surprising considering how advanced your playing is. Was there anything in particular that made you hold back. I know I get this way on talkbass.com. Itās not really about the community but the fact somebody has usually said the same thing I would have said. Now that I think about it, that has happened here. The larger the forum has become, the more people contributing, more often that someone has said the same thing I would say.
Josh recommends Transcribe! but other people have their preferences. Iāll add a link when I get home.
Or, if you are talking about how to share it on here, there are some basic text options. Something like this but I would need to look up the code for preserving the text so it doesnāt get messed up like thisā¦
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SONG NAME - Band Name
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Tabbed By:
Tuning:
(x2)
G|-------------------|-----------------|-----------------|
D|*---------4-4-----*|-----------------|-----------------|
A|*-----5-7-----7-5-*|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-|-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-7-|
E|--7-7--------------|-----------------|-----------------|
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
| / slide up
| \ slide down
| h hammer-on
| p pull-off
| ~ vibrato
| + harmonic
| x Mute note
@bfrederi1, youāre absolutely correct about how this forum has evolved as early adopters grew in their ability, confidence and knowledge of bass playing and the intricacies of more sophisticated gear, recording techniques, music theory, performing dynamics, etc.
But all that also speaks to how beginners evolve as musicians. Each bit of knowledge builds over time upon the body of knowledge accumulated before.
That said, all of the more experienced folks on this forum are more than happy to welcome beginners and help them along their journeys. No oneās ever ignored or left to fend for him/herself. That philosophy comes directly from Josh and is baked into the B2B fam mindset.
One way to view the often esoteric discussions that more experienced Buzzers participate in is that they are windows into the future for beginners. Not always, of course, because topics here are sometimes very esoteric and topic-specific. And that says nothing about the way too often occurrences of rabbit holes that abandon the original OP question/comment altogether. I know Iāve bailed on a thread way more than once when a few hijack its topic to have an ultra-specific, very personal discussion that would be better served as a PM chat or a phone call.
Still, all of that is just part of a familyās interaction dynamics. People talk about whatās on their minds at the moment. Itās the perfect imperfection of being part of a family. Some naturally gravitate towards each other. Others are naturally repulsed by some others. Iāve experienced both phenomena in the forum. Weāre just human. Whaddya gonna do?
Some of us haveā¦ā¦ Many of us from early on (pre-Covid) have left or only stop in every so often - myself included here latelyā¦. @Korrigan, @Vik, @PeteP, just to name a fewā¦.
This IS a great forum,ā¦. And I loved being a part of it going through the B2B course, and then going through further development with everyone else back in the day - but - then I realized that many new players were not experiencing the same satisfaction, enjoyment, comradeship, etc that I had experienced so,ā¦ā¦ decided to āback offā (especially with the āCoversā thread) in hopes that the new players could get the experience and the same chance that I didā¦. Besides, new players learning with other new players is such a cool experienceā¦ā¦!!!...
Not sure if any of this makes any sense at all to anyone, but for those of you who know me, know that I am forever grateful for @JoshFossgreenās B2B course, @Gioās professional guidance and input,ā¦. and this forumā¦. Not to mention those like @eric.kiser whoās heart has always been into the historic preservation of this forumā¦ā¦ Maybe thereās some sort of āHappy Mediumā that could take place??ā¦ā¦ I (as an āalumniā, would like to be more involved, but I do refrain because I donāt want to hinder the learning or development of (possibly) the next Geddy Lee, James Jamerson, or Sting having had their beginnings here on the B2B course and forumā¦ā¦.
Yep. I remember when you first brought that up about two years ago and have thought about it often.
Thatās largely what inspired this thread.
Unfortunately, my best ideas seem to come back to getting others to do a bunch of work they didnāt sign up for.
Like the idea in the original post. Im not trying to volunteer or pressure anyone. That would suck. I thought it might be cool if we all had something we could colaborate on.
I hope not. Thatās not what I was thinking. Iād rather see the forum adapt through growth and innovation rather than attrition.
Iām wondering if thereās some way to provide an environment for new players that captures the growing experience of 2018-2020, while retaining the participation and resources of the more senior members.
I hate regimentation, but just to bluesky an idea: maybe build āClass ofā¦ā threads or areas where folks who start around the same time can flock and compare notes and build friendships. Iām not talking about anything rigid - newbies would still be welcome to participate in GAS and advanced technique threads, and senior members would be welcome to opine and share their knowledge within newbie threads.
I honestly donāt know if this would work. Iām just throwing out an ideaā¦some way to bridge the gap between the wonderful āWelcomes!ā in the Introduce Yourself thread and the point where new members feel comfortable posting what they think might be an overly simple or commonly seen question or comment.
something that might be worth a thought is to define an āadvancedā section for each of the main topics here (bass, gear, etc), that way stuff thatās a little beyond the purview of new players/new B2B people has a spot clearly defined and not mixed in with more introductory topics, and rudimentary questions and answers.
and/or maybe there is a way to flag some threads as āadvancedā or whatever word we want to use.
