I was at a point in my musicality where I just felt stalled. 

The initial excitement had wore off and I just didn't feel like I was making any progress and was frustrated. I just thought "I got to do something, if I'm going to keep on this". And it was important to me to keep on my musical journey. So Next Level just seemed like a logical step to take.

With Next Level it's much more personalized, but it's not a "here's how you play your instrument". It is much broader than that. 

It's as the Musical U folks describe it, musicality, right? Everything from better ways to learn, to feeling and playing, which is something I've always struggled with to, to actually connect with the music. So this is a program that... it's much broader is the only way I can think to describe it. 

Next Level's got me doing more singing. And that's connected me to the music better. Also just singing bass lines in my head as I play them has helped be a little less mechanical and methodical in my playing and a little more connected.

Prior to Next Level, I tended to jump around on things and on training aspects and never really had a direction or a focus on where I should be headed. With the personalized coaching you've got a weekly check-in and someone to point you in a direction. 

The other part about that is that, it's really easy to say "tomorrow". I'll do this tomorrow. I'll do this tomorrow. And then tomorrow comes and "I'll do this tomorrow". When you've got a weekly check-in, the clock is ticking and you're much more likely to take on the challenges that that were yours for the week.

Next Level's exceeded my expectations. 

I went from sitting mostly in my music room playing to tracks, and a lot of times tracks that showed me the chord progression, to now being able to sit down, not always 100%, but sit down find the key of the song relatively quickly and figure out the basic chord progression. 

Also, through the coaching, I've started attending local jam sessions. Playing with other musicians. And actually had an opportunity to get together with some other musicians and play out on a couple of gigs this summer.

What would I say to anyone that was hesitant to take the program? The value of the program is there. It's still up to you. To put in the work, put in the time. But for me, having an hour a week face-to-face time was really beneficial in pushing me along. And just so much, so much good information delivered the right way at the right time. 

Both from the coaching and the guest coaching. The guest coaching was really beneficial as well. A really wide variety of guest coaches that, that opened my eyes to a lot of things that weren't apparent to me prior to that.

I will add one more thing. So I tend to be a little self-conscious in my musical journey. I started Next Level, honestly, sweating bullets in my initial coaching sessions face to face. 

And like I said playing, playing out jam sessions, actually playing out on a couple of gigs and am now working on adding singing to my bass playing, which is way beyond my comfort a year ago.