I think a lot of magic happened for me during the middle modules of the course. The first couple of lessons on scales, intervals, and chord progressions really opens up your eyes to what’s possible.
That was probably the first time I felt like I was understanding music and not just reading tabs or whatever. It was also the first time since starting back playing that I felt confident enough to play with someone else.
Today I found myself listening to a song my friend and I are working on not because we are working on it, but because I like it 
Was listening to space hog “in the meantime” and I could keep count with the drumer!
I’ve played bass for quite a while, but only recently started getting real ah-hah moments. It’s one of the reasons I entered into the course on BassBuzz.
With my new bass I kept struggling with my thumb resting on the pick-up. I’ve always played with my thumb there and because of this, I have always regarded the D and especially the G string as being less relevant. I think it was simply caused by the fact that I couldn’t reach them properly.
And because of my struggle with the new bass I turned to youtube and I found a vid on this, explaining that almost every noticeable bassplayer plays with a moving anchor. It was the Right hand technique-vid from Josh. It was an eye opener for me.
I started moving my thumb on my E string and sometimes even on the A string. And it felt perfectly natural and is so much easier playing on the higher strings. I do it all the time now, without me even noticing that I switch from E string to pickup and back. I just can’t believe that a couple of months ago I didn’t even know about this.
I am very much on the lookout for more of these technical leaps forward. I am eager to try scales and slaps and loads of other stuff. I tried the power chords, and I was amazed that I could get this from a bass. So much to learn still!
But I am in the Beginner to Badass course, to make sure I cover all the basics, without rushing ahead too much.
Just had a major ah hah moment (or rather ah hah evening) with 16th notes, and I can’t believe this took me months to realize. (But I guess that’s a common theme with ah hah moments.)
So anyway, I’d been banging my head against the wall trying to play this exercise:
I simply could not play the rhythm. The ties especially were messing with my head. I was reading the sheet music from left to right, 16th note by 16th note, and always got lost eventually somewhere along the way.
And then I realized that each bar is basically a 4 letter word, with the beats being the letters. All I need to do is learn the entire alphabet. I need to learn what each letter feels like rhythmically, and what it looks like on the sheet music. (And the alphabet is actually fairly small, because there are not too many possible combinations.)
So I spent a couple of minutes learning this: 
And then this: 
And then this: 
… and then simply had to play them one after the other. And the first three beats in the second bar are the same “letters” as well, just in a different order, so I was already able play that too. The only new one was the 4th beat.
I had a look at a couple other 16th note exercises as well, and I was able to read and play all of them almost immediately. I seriously feel like Neo in the hallway scene where he starts seeing the Matrix in the walls.
Feel free to call me a lame brain but my Ah HAH moment came when I realized how to tell the difference between the C Major Pentatonic and the C Minor Pentatonic. That came to me when I learned the pattern for the C Minor Scale. For Me, The Light Bulb Shined
My other insignificant Ah HAH moment came when I learned that the B And C notes always merry. Then, blew my little pee brain when E And F plays the same role. Holy Smokes
Sending Positive Vibes,
Cheers
We are covering that exact topic in my ear training class this week, “the alphabet/letters”. Definitely, big ah ha moment you had there!
I don’t know if this is my ah-ha moment, as I didn’t discover it on my own - it was explained to me… But, once it was clear, it felt a bit like an epiphany. Now, this may be simple/obvious for most of you, but I never realized it…
(and I should say, I’m not completely thru B2B yet, so if Josh shares this info in the course, then I just haven’t gotten to that part yet, and my apologies…)
I had no idea how I would eventually know the notes that comprise each of the major scales. Like, OK, C is easy, but how do I know all the notes in the (for example) Bb scale without working it out note by note based on the “major scale shape”.
Turns out, if you memorize the circle of fifths (not hard, it’s essentially a pattern, repeated) and the order of sharps/flats (one is simply the reverse of the other, and they line up nicely with the order from the circle of fifths), then you know every note contained in any of the major scales.
It’s explained in part of this Rick Beato video from about the 20 min mark to the 25 min mark.
Maybe not of use to anyone else, but damn, it opened my eyes. And it gave me a reason to memorize the circle of fifths, other than just “because you’re supposed to”. I understand at least 1 way to use it now.
So true! Understanding why something is important and worthwhile to learn is a much better motivation than being coerced into learning just because…
I had another Ah hah moment yesterday. I did the lesson 2/3 of module 7. This is the C Major scale. I always dreaded scales, because they sound lame when I practiced them (which was almost never), and despite everybody always telling me how crucial they are, I just thought they made no sense.
So I stayed away from scales until this module. But I was “forced” to do improv with the C Major notes and it sounded good. I just kept changing notes, and no matter how I combined them, it sounded good!
Apparently, scales work! I guess I’m here for a good reason, and learning everyday…
I even did some own work trying to recreate the Do Re Mi song from the Sound of Music movie. And I actually got it (So - Do - La - Fa - Mi - Do - Re; So - Do - La - Ti - Do - Re - Do). So much fun to start and understand music!
Drum machine and looper is arguably the best creative tool in existence!
I’ve always found a hammer more versatile!
That would make some interesting tones on a bass, but couldn’t be good for it’s longevity!
Very true.
Sorry mate I was sort of letting off a bit of steam. Had my quad stolen off my back paddock and fences onto the road cut.
Never heard a thing and my usually on the ball dog never even heard anything.
Then to add insult to injury I was warned by the cops not to do anything stupid if I find out who’s responsible.
Oh and I forgot to add they also managed to get the ignition turned on on my Harley!
You could hammer out some good tunes that way
Good for hammer ons too
I love how the cops basically told you “we’re not going to do jack sh*t about this, but if you happen to do our jobs for us, call us so we can get the credit for the bust.”
It’s good advice though, the real insult to injury would be you getting busted over this, I guess.
I suppose but there’s always a case for self defence lol
Game keeper for the Queen Mothers cousin back in the UK so we had law enforcement powers on the bosses land but not quite police
