Success!

omg I got through the full Billie Jean riff on slow without missing a note!! I feel like a mini badass with this accomplishment!!! :smiley:

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That is indeed a tough number. Congratulations!

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Nice!!!

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Well done! that’s excellent. That’s a finger twister for sure.

Man that riff. It ends up being such a good technique practice riff. In fact I still use it as part of my main practice every day, and recently I have noticed I am getting sloppy and it is sounding bad when I play it (basically I’ve developed a buzzy pinky roll on it.) So, back to half speed with it for a while until I fix that. But amazing to me that it is still useful on a daily basis :slight_smile:

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Great!!..had the same feeling first time I got thru Not Fragile by B.T.O. and it’s a lot more simple…but still for a beginner it made me feel like a real musician…heh

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Thanks everybody! I’m working on Module 5, string crossings now. Challenging for my shorty fingers but every practice session feels better. I like Josh’s dance moves for the 80s tune. :slight_smile: That string jump with eighth notes has been messy for me. I’m better at the funk riff. Not sure which riff has been my favorite so far… I love so many of them… the ska riff rocks! :slight_smile:

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Well done! and yeah I really like the cross-section of music Josh picked for the lessons too!

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I was in some ways already beyond that level when I started the course (I took a deliberate step back and feel rewarded by it) but of course I was playing what I wanted, not what was prescribed, so I didn’t come up against anything too challenging.

Billie Jean has me stumped! I manage a few bars, even at fast pace, but then just as my mind says ā€œI’ve got this!ā€ my fingers say ā€œOh you think so, huh?ā€ and it falls apart. My only consolation is that I’m able to pick it up again within a few notes without stumbling too much, so I’m obviously following something properly.

It’s that 1st-2nd cross, isn’t it? Finger roll, index/middle finger, fast single finger cross? Even @JoshFossgreen admits to changing the technique randomly, and that’s what’s happening to me. I suspect the secret is to keep working through those first few notes dozens of times until it feels right, then move on.

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As Jedi Josh may have said; ā€œNote: Temporary jump up in difficulty this song is, stretch your ability to the max it will. Struggle with the slow workout you may. Fine that is – your best you must do and moving forward you must keep.ā€

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Ditto that, @PeteP . . . even after a few months, I’m still having problems . . . :slight_smile:

Maybe it’ll take a few years . . . ?

Good old Billie Jean . . . :laughing:

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Maybe it doesn’t really exist and so we will never master it. Wasn’t it actually two bass lines on the track, or a harmonic, or something else completely impossible.

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I like that ska riff a lot too - it’s a fun one to play as well!

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I’ve just done that lesson and I have to say I loved it too. IT really helps when it’s a genre that you connect with, doesn’t it?

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There seems to be some debate over the original recorded bass line.

  1. There is a keyboard playing an F one octave lower over the first note.
    or…
  2. The bassist is playing the lower octave F on the first fret E string at the same time as the first note.

Either way, there is a low F in there. I haven’t dug into it to find out which one is true. It may just be a vehicle for people to make YouTube videos with inflammatory titles like, ā€œYou’ve Been Playing It All Wrong: Billie Jean Edition!ā€

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