Oh totally the same for me! I was getting so frustrated with slap… and did watch a bunch of videos and did a mini course to no avail. I simply started thinking “well maybe slap is not meant to be on my journey” or “my bass is not slap ready” or “my strings are old”
That is… until I found a video from Josh. It simply clicked… and from one second to the other I was able to apply the technique like it was second nature, and just like you I can’t mimic the previous behaviour
Late to the party…
I agree pretty much with everything already mentioned… in fact, I think my bass journey is a continuous string of ah hah moments - which makes it so entertaining and rewarding! I guess it helps that I had some prior musical knowledge and that I am “older/wiser” as now a lot of musical bits and pieces have fallen into place since I picked up the bass.
I don’t know whether this counts as an “ah hah” moment, but I have this “YES” moment every single time I plug in the bass, switch on the amp and get that first sound coming out of the speaker.
There is just something extremely satisfying to get that rich, complex sound from plucking a metal string strung over a piece of wood.
It is also satisfying because it is so consistent… I guess this is hard to understand unless you have, e.g., played a reed instrument before. Getting a sound, much less a good sound, out of a sax is much more challenging. You need to carefully “prep” the reed (I spare you the details here 
) and the whole setup/concept with the reed is just so much more whimsical (if that is the right word). I really don’t miss it (a lot)… 
Yes, you get that consistency also from a keyboard, but it is just nowhere near as direct, tangible and immediate as plucking a bass string!
I completely understand you.
I have a good friend who is a phenomenal violinist. He would always say “You have to love the sound of your instrument. Otherwise, you’ll never play. You’ll never practice.”
I totally agree. And what a killer experience every time it powers on! Lush, deep bass sounds!!!
This is not really the ‘Ah Hah’ moment I think you had in mind @Gio , in the sense it’s not about suddenly understanding how a piece of music theory fits, or how something I had been struggling with suddenly came good. It’s much earlier than that.
Me taking up bass was mainly accidental, in the sense I hadn’t been looking for an instrument.
When the covid lockdown happened, I realised I really needed a new hobby and focus.
I was watching YouTube and randomly watched a video of someone playing a bass cover of one of my favourite songs, and I thought why not learn the bass?
But the actual ah hah moment was putting the bass over my shoulder and the first time I played any notes on it. . Weird feeling but I just knew I was going to love playing the bass!
Previously I had played drums, and really enjoyed it, but I never had that ‘ah hah I found the right instrument’ feeling when I picked up the drum sticks the first time.
My overriding thought when I picked up the bass was oh shit I should done this years ago!
This is exactly what I’m talking about!
I just love to hear how different individuals connect to bass. Could be a theory/practice/playing element, but I love this too.
Thanks for putting your stamp on it.
Had a mini ah ha moment today when I was playing along with something I can’t even remember now but actually heard and properly locked in with the drummers high hat. Not a biggy but it did give me a very nice buzz
Sure its a biggy, any A-ha is a big personal moment, a big deal
I’m about half way through the B2B course at the moment and since this is my introduction into the world of playing music every single new concept and nailed practise still feels like a major achievement or epiphany.
I can’t pick one moment specifically relating to the bass as I’m loving it all right now. But an awesome, recurring eureka feeling has been happening since understanding basic theory and being able to apply it to everyday listening. I always approach things analytically so being able to do this now has suddenly made listening to music 100x more enjoyable! (it already ran my life 
)
@Gio in terms of hoping to relate this to students… I personally find grasping new concepts difficult and some times frustrating until I have the groundwork laid out in my head first. To use scales as an example, I could follow an instruction on simply playing a scale - sure okay - but nothing will sit right until I understand why these are significant, how and where they are applicable etc. Some times it just takes something to be explained in a different way and then all the pieces will fit together. Which is why I love the B2B course, everything is explained so well!
In addition, I’ve been really, really surprised at how effective it is coming back to something new after a night’s sleep. It’s something I’ve only just learned from this course and community, it has really opened my eyes and changed my mindset.
When the time is right, and you want to know more about scales and theory in general, a great place to start is to get the two e-books on Scales by Josh Fosgreen. He teaches things so well in B2B, and it translates into the books he has written. you can find them on his personal website, so do a search for the Josh Fosgreen Youtube channel (not Bass Buzz) and you will get a lot of other great free content and links to his website where there are more goodies.
I may or may not have already ventured over to his own site and grabbed a free download from there… 
But that’s really good to hear about the books as well - I’m sure I’ll check them out properly in the future!
Can not confirm, Can not deny 
This is gold! Gold I say! Thanks for the word, and for the extra bits about the learning/student process!
Another late reply!!
I came to the bass by accident after strumming away in a very average fashion on the acoustic guitar for 10 years. We could never find a reliable bass player for the guys that I jam with so I was “nominated” to take on bass duties as well as sing (a whole new level of challenge).
I have a succession of a-ha moments as I learn the bass and fall further under its spell.
Firstly I love it a bit more each time I play it. I love the symmetry of the fret board and learning new patterns. Such a nerd. The mathematics of it almost have a beauty for me.
One moment sounds a bit stupid in hindsight but was great when I had the thought. One song we were playing had a progression that went from a D to a B. For some reason mentally I had always visualized notes from a lower note going up i.e. to play a B my brain went open A count up 2 half steps, OK fret 2 on A. I could never reliably land on the B coming from the D and it frustrated me. Then after one of the BB lessons I realized there was a B at 7th fret on the E which was closer to fret 5 on the A where I was playing my D. Strangely it didn’t occur to me when learning the notes on E. It filtered through my subconscious and appeared when I was next playing the song. BOOM!
Another of these moments occurred when I was trying to work out a solo by ear. We do covers of a local band that aren’t on Spotify and no chance of finding a tab. Great practice for transcribing. I had been plugging away at the solo for a while then my a-ha moment came when I realized they were noodling around on a major triad. From there it all fell into place as they kept the same shape and changed the starting note.
Currently almost through module 12 and cannot put into words just how much I have enjoyed learning how to get the most from my instrument, how much fun I’ve had and how grateful I am.
My “aha!” Moment came just recently. I have a hard time writing bass lines and keeping time with the drums. Then all the sudden I was in my garage working out with my music turned up and I was really focusing on the drum part of the song I was listening to when it just hit me and I was playing air bass before I knew it. I had this line in my head and I immediately came inside and downloaded a metronome to my phone. I started playing along to it and it just clicked for me how to play along to the drummer. Such a good moment that just came when I least expected it and was just goofing off.
Something I’ve been threatening to do but never have. It certainly sounds like it’s worth the effort as I quite often struggle getting the basic drum rhythm especially with tunes I’m a little unfamiliar with
I feel exactly the same way!
I’m a very new player (currently on M4L3 in the B2B course) so my ah-ha moment isn’t all that earth-shattering for most, but it was pretty cool for me.
I was blown away upon learning that we can figure out all the notes on the fingerboard just by knowing the string you’re on and going up the musical notes. That may not seem like headline news, but for me it was huge! After the first time Josh explained this concept on the E string. I stopped the video and went through all he frets to see what notes they are and started comparing the same notes on different strings.
I don’t have a musical background, didn’t know the musical notes, and the idea of reading music/transferring that to an instrument is intimidating to me. While I’m not to that point (yet), I feel like I’ve seen the light and have confidence that I will eventually get there. Actually, once Josh explained it and it clicked in my head, I went out to tell my wife the “cool new thing I learned”.
I’m halfway through the course now, and I’ve had several little ah-hah moments throughout. One I remember is when I learned how to play the bass line to “With or without you” by U2. As a life-long U2 fan, this was kind of a big deal for me. Not only was I able to play an actual song, it was also a song by one of my favorite artists. After feeling confident enough, I looked up the song in my music collection and played along to it from beginning to end. Major feeling of accomplishment.
My biggest epiphany so far is all about scales. Having played some classic guitar and also some piano in my youth, I was already familiar with the concept. I had, however, no idea what scales were for. I always thought of playing scales as a boring but necessary tool to learn where the notes were on the fretboard (or on the keyboard), and I treated them as such: as a practice tool with no practical application.
Until! Until I reached Module 7 in the B2B course. Of course I knew I would eventually need to learn how to play scales on the bass, and again I thought of this as something I’d just have to go through in order to progress through the course. So OK, yeah yeah, this is the C Major scale, alright, let’s move on… Wait a minute, so now that I know how to play this scale, I can actually play any major scale, using the same shape, by just starting on a different note? OK, that’s pretty cool. Hold on, so by finding out what key a song is in, you can immediately play along to it by just choosing notes in the corresponding scale? Now that is really cool!
I eventually found myself enjoying the improvisation lessons immensely, something I would have never expected. Forty years after having been introduced to scales, in a matter of minutes, I suddenly understood what scales are for, what their purpose is. Not one of my music teachers had ever bothered to explain that to me, at least, not that I can remember.
I liked the improv lessons so much that I didn’t want them to stop, and I found the workouts just too short. Then I realized the backing track is not much more than a drum beat and Josh playing a very basic bass line. So, wait a minute, I have a Zoom B1Xon that has a drum machine and a looper… I ended up recording myself over a drum pattern, just playing a root note on the first beat for four bars, and then playing that back. Instant and infinite backing track for endless improvisation. Needless to say, I felt like a true musician 
I had a mini ah hah moment today when I realized that:
Makes sense in hindsight, but didn’t click until today for some reason.