You’ve probably noticed: 1/5 of the 50 songs are out there! Well done everyone!!!
So I was curious about some stats.
Looking at songs 1 to 10, as of today, we’ve had 130 contributions by 36 badass bassists!
21 people contributed 1 to 3 songs. 9 people recorded 4 to 6 songs. 6 people actually had the stamina to play 8 to 10 songs.
This is amazing and even though we know that this is not a competition, I think we can all agree on a huge round of applause for @Barney, @BigAl, @John_E, @JT, @Reo and @RuknRole. Keep on rocking!
Participation for the three following songs roughly halved and then halved again for the last four as we moved further into better weather and fewer lockdowns. So if you’d like to stand out, have a look at Song 9 - “My Girl” by The Temptations, which has only seen 3 covers so far.
I want to thank @JT for creating this wonderful project and I hope this will grow into the most awesome and biggest collection of the most badass bassbuzz bass players playing the best covers ever!
And finally, I want to thank all those of you who take the time to comment on these videos and never seem to get tired of listening to the same song over and over again. I don’t have any stats on that but we all know who is meant here. Without you, this whole thing wouldn’t stay alive!
Another interesting fact and something I hope would change: As far as I can gather from names and faces, only 3 women have taken part in the challenge, contributing 6 videos in total. That’s like 4.6 % and doesn’t really reflect the awesomeness of Women on Bass.
That doesn’t surprise me, given the fact that the women who have joined the BassBuzz forum since I’ve been here have mostly come and gone. In fact, to my knowledge, I’m the only female to participate regularly (or at all) in the Post your Covers thread. I’ve tried in vain to get the ladies more involved in the forum with post such as this one.
Doesn’t surprise me either, to be honest, but I still like pointing it out and not just accepting it as normality. It really is a pity because this has got to be one of the friendliest and warmest corners of the internet. There are a lot of factors that come into play here, I guess: music culture in general, not wanting to expose yourself, a certain level and culture of nerdiness, … . I’d love to see some statistics on how many women actually take the course, @JoshFossgreen. And honestly, I’d really appreciate more women represented in the course and related materials. Anyway, this is getting a bit off topic .
These are great stats! Thanks @Regina foe doing the homework. Maybe when fall/winter comes we can try to publicize even more. Summer has definitely been a distraction with the whole “I can go outside thing”.
It’s very interesting. I was wondering this stuff myself actually so thanks for putting it together. It’s a shame the numbers went down after the first month, but great that it is still going. For anyone that isn’t aware, people are always welcome to join in whenever they want and do whatever songs they want to do.
I wonder if @JoshFossgreen would link to the challenge in the course extras?
I would assume there are a lot of course takers that don’t really care much about forums.
I would violate my own rule of not following the herd and support this effort; but the only song on the list that I’d be interested in doing, I’ve already done (December 2020) and posted in the Post your Covers thread.
My song is not on the 50 songs schedule until September 2022 (Ironically right after Billie Jean). At my age, it’s impossible to predict if I’ll even still be alive then LOL.
Thank you, Regina for these stats. Glad to see you back posting Videos. Hopefully you will motivate more women to post videos on this Forum. Thanks again.
I get so much more joy out of learning a song because I just heard it on the radio or it popped into my head and I proclaimed to myself, “I’m going to learn that song”, than I possibly could out of forcing myself to learn a list of songs that someone thrust upon me. (However, if a band hired me and thrust a list of songs upon me, that would be a totally different story! )
I guess my point is: Cheers to all who have participated in this challenge, but I’d love to see some of our female Buzzers use their imagination and post some covers of songs they love in the Post your Covers thread as well.
I was just thinking that this challange to me is more of an extension of the course vs. learning songs I don’t want to learn.
I think Josh is much more clever than we think and selected each song because it teaches slightly different things that build on your skillset to play entire songs.
I wish I had started a log of each song and what I had trouble with on each one. I bet 1/2 or more of the things that I stumbled on in each are now easier when I hit them in another song. I do remember on the first few panicing a bit near the ends of the song because the end had a slightly different embelishment to it and I had to remember when to do it and what it was. Now, that is commonplace and easy. Or 3 or 4 fret leaps which are now commonplace and I don’t even think about it.
There are still loads of songs I want to learn that I just don’t have the skills for, but I think Josh’s picks are not random at all, and help me learn other songs a lot faster.
+1 on this. I think exactly the same thing. I consider it ‘enjoyable homework’ or eating my vegetables rather than goofing around.
The eighth note rhythm on the Chorus of Song 12 has taken me about a week to get under my fingers. But I can see the value in a song I don’t particularly like.
Funny, I played it the first time through, no issues.
This is very interesting to me what some people find easy and others find hard.
You banged out House of the Rising Sun and looked bored, I struggled for a long time to nail that one.
The brain works (or, more aptly, dosen’t) in mysterious ways.
Totally agree - most of them are not my favourite songs, but they definitely build on each other and are reinforcing things we’ve learnt in the course (plus teaching us a bit more). Left to my own devices I’d most likely pick songs that may not challenge me in the right ways. @JoshFossgreen knew exactly what he was doing when he selected these songs and put them in the order he’s put them in.
Not to say I’m not picking my own songs to learn from time to time, I’m totally doing that too.
Just want to pop in and give a bravo to everybody taking the challenge to learn songs and post covers, in whatever capacity you’re doing it! Awesome.
Also…
I’ve noticed some of that too @PamPurrs, I hope it’s just unrelated circumstances. My mom is a musician, and was told many times in her younger years things along the lines of “the world’s not ready for a female saxophonist.” So it’s part of my mission to make my little corner of music education fully accessible to anybody who wants to learn bass, and for them to feel encouraged and welcome. If anybody witnesses ways that’s not happening, please let me know via DM!
Totally. Me too. I’ve gotten that feedback a few times, and it is firmly in my notes for future course improvements.
I would too! We don’t have that information though, there’s no gender field to sign up for the course.
There are a lot of factors that come into play here, I guess: music culture in general, not wanting to expose yourself, a certain level and culture of nerdiness, … . I’d love to see some statistics on how many women actually take the course, 
)
So it’s part of my mission to make my little corner of music education fully accessible to anybody who wants to learn bass, and for them to feel encouraged and welcome. If anybody witnesses ways that’s not happening, please let me know via DM!