I am about to finish module 11 but I am wondering If I should step back from the course to improve some things. The course is fantastic but there are two areas where I feel like I am not up to speed:
Fills; I can play along with most tracks up to fast, but fills consistently throw me off and I am struggling with some songs on slow. Is this something I could fix with targeted practice?
Diatonic progressions: I dont get it, should I stop and learn the theory again? Every time the diatonic chords come back it goes over my head.
You certainly donāt have to, butā¦
If youāre really bothered by it, and if you have the dedication to go back and try and focus in on some of the things that are bothering you, Iād say sure - do it.
The fact that itās bugging you is the evidence, I think. Most people that arenāt bothered by it would just keep on truckinā.
You might be able to find some lovely BB videos that will help focus in on the things that are tricky.
For fills, this one is great:
For diatonic harmony, I donāt have a go-to video, but you might find some things on this forum for some theory clarification:
Module 11 is really where I had to slow down my speed in going through lessons so donāt be too hard on yourself! Youāre not alone. As much as itās against my completionist ways I found some lessons I just was not going to be able to do up to the full workout on my first go round. Josh mentions it pretty regularly, but moving on to the next lesson can really actually can help with making long term progress. Sometimes working on something else can make the thing youāre having a hard time with click better. Having more practice hours under your belt helps a lot too. For me, a lot of times Iāll feel like Iāve hit a wall only to step away, focus on a different skill, and then come back to find it was just a temporary plateau. It can take a while for new knowledge to integrate.
Yes, targeted practice with fills will definitely help. Thereās backing tracks that are quite fun to play with in the course extras. If you want to continue momentum on the course however, personally I found Modules 13-15 is where I did a TON of levelling up on my skills overall.
As far as the Diatonic progressions I would recommend watching a few different approaches to teaching them on YouTube. I often find that that coming at something that Iām not quite understanding from a different angle can make things click.
Dunno if any of that is helpful but keep on keepinā on! Youāll get there!
I might work on B2B more slowly, and broaden what I was working on to include learning more songs and doing more play-along jamming.
I wrapped up the course (pre-refresh). I play in a band. I donāt fully understand diatonic chords. Iām working on it, but it hasnāt really impeded my progress. Just understanding that there is such a thing as diatonic chords and roughly what that means is like 2/3 of what you need to know.
I would make a note of what you want to understand more deeply after you finish the course, and keep going.
The great thing about fills is that you can just leave them out. Or do something simpler. Or something totally different. Do not stress about fills.
I wonder if a better approach than stepping back, is adjusting from doing one or more lessons a day, to doing it every 2 or 3 days and doing some stuff that targets these issues in between b2b lessons?
I am keen on progressing through the course either way.
I know diatonic chords is part of the theory i dont completely need but i want to get it.
Fills are really tricky though, it is a common issue that fills throw me off track.
I feel like Iāve been getting better with fills. The thing about them is that less is usually more.
What seems to be working for me is to work on them from two completely opposite directions - doing way too much, and doing the bare minimum that could be considered a āfillā.
First is to go nuts and overdo them. When I put on music to play along with in the evening, Iāll try to do the biggest, most complicated fills I can manage. They usually stink. Theyāre overly busy. This is fine. It gets me used to it. Mistakes are an important part of the learning process and figuring out what works and what doesnāt. Forcing myself out of my comfort zone.
Secondly, playing in a band (and especially also doing vocals). Iāll have a few places where it makes sense to sneak in a fill, and then I do only what I know I can get away with in the limited amount of time I can get away with. This usually ends up being only 1 or 2 notes. Like a quick 4-5 hammer-on, or a 5-8 roll, or a 5-7. Or even just grabbing a quick octave or a quick 5.
I wouldnāt recommend stepping back personally. Itās really easy to say youāll take time to focus on something or to just play songs to marinate and let your muscle memory develop but the minute you do, out comes the resistance! Was practicing regularly from August to Christmas last year but then wanted to take a step back to let muscle memory catch up because I was starting to struggle to keep up and now Iām sitting here 6 months later trying to remember how Seven Nation Army went. (Thanks Josh btw for incorporating F1 into the videos to drag me back!)
Long story short, stepping away means you can start getting lost really easy, especially if you donāt have a musical social circle to keep you practicing.
Taking frequent short (few days or so) breaks is a great idea and the single most effective way to solidify accumulated knowledge is to rest periodically while doing it.
Even just getting more sleep for a few days is huge.
Taking some time between lessons is not a bad idea. It worked for me.
I intentionally took my time with the course, finishing it in five months.
Again, this was intentional. I already knew music theory and I had decades of playing guitar, bass and other instruments under my belt. Still, I wanted to savor Joshās teaching of the course, so I took my time and let the info sink in deep before I moved on.
Thinking on it, sleeping on it, works. Donāt be afraid to take your time. Your mind and body need space to process all the stuff Josh lays out. Just relax, absorb and be cool. It will come.
I think my next big challenge is, how do I really fix the fact that I lose the plot when a fill shows up? I have an easy time delivering rhythms and progressions when there are no pesky fills around.
Ryan Madora is a teacher and working studio bassist from Nashville. She has a casual and informative way of teaching thatās geared towards beginner/intermediate players.
Check out this video, where she breaks down how newbies can approach fills:
This is what I was getting at above. Intermittent breaks solidify learning. Constant practice and just driving to āget the hours inā is counterproductive.
Music is not a race or a contest. Pace your cadence, get enough rest, take breaks, and have a good time with it.
Stepping back is never bad, as long as you step up again
If youāre just jamming with other people, fills are never required.
If you are doing a cover, the only fills that are needed are any āiconicā ones. But if youāre working on a cover, maybe it would help to not think of it as a āfillā since that apparently overloads your brain right now, and just think of it as āsome more notes to learnā.
So I am talking specifically about the course, where I am struggling to play slow workouts in full when the song has a fill in it. I know I can chunk etc. but I am often not able to play the song properly at the slow speed which is the passing grade, when a fill or something equivalent throws me off.
Is it an attention/processing thing? You get into a groove and canāt shift mental gears fast enough and then fall behind?
Or is it a technique/speed thing? You just canāt play them at that speed?
Iām guessing the former if itās on slow. In that case:
Take extra time and attention on the lesson play-through before the exercise.
When doing the exercise, donāt follow where the tabs are at. Look about a measure ahead to see what youāre about to play to give your brain time to process and prepare.
Iāve had to walk away from playing for up to weeks at a time due to work demands. But when I finally got the opportunity to pick up a bass again, I could play better than when I had put it down the time before.
I might not have been able to physically practice the lines I had been working on before I got busy, but I would visualize the neck and sing the lines in my head to keep things fresh. Worked for me.
I struggle to put my finger on it. I think I really ace the repetition of notes but part of it is the change in plucking as they so often jump from a quarter note to using two eighths to walk up to the next root note.
