Josh Fossgreen didn’t begin playing bass until age thirteen. By then his love of music had been cemented in by growing up with musician parents, being lulled to sleep by his dad’s blues rehearsals in the garage, and listening to artists like Mozart, James Taylor, Steel Pulse, and Erykah Badu. The decision to pick up the bass may have come from having a bass player for a father, or the promise of being more attractive to high school girls. Whatever the reason, the bass stuck, and Josh became captivated by pursuing his calling as a musician.

He learned to play the bass not through incredible insight or advanced practice methods, but by just playing for hours and hours, fascinate by the sound of the instrument and the joy of playing it. His dad helped him learn his first songs (in order: Hit The Road Jack, Sharp Dressed Man (ZZ Top), I Wanna Be Sedated (The Ramones)) on the electric bass. After a few short months he picked up the upright bass and started studying classical upright with Karen Zimmerman, a Julliard graduate and member of the Santa Rosa Symphony, who he studied with for four years as he played in various orchestras. Though he never had any formal training on electric bass, the lessons with Karen inspired a great attention to the minutiae of technique and musicality that carried over to his electric bass playing.

Over the years, Josh has played in dozens of musical styles, including jazz, rock, folk, classical, funk, rockabilly, soul, pop, R&B, country, fusion, bebop, big band swing, gypsy jazz, salsa, latin, ska, reggae, musicals, singer/songwriter, hip hop, and even traditional French music.

Josh discovered his passion for teaching music in 2007, when he began taking private bass students. He strives to teach with a broad perspective, to adapt to each student, to improve as a teacher after every lesson. He’s particularly inspired by Victor Wooten’s ‘10 Elements of Music’ model, and does his best to teach bass and music in a way that integrates all parts of music and life.

He also loves being a session bassist. He loves the dynamic interplay of structuring a bass part to make a song work well, communicating with artists/songwriters, and being able to give great takes consistently.

You can see where he’s playing and who with on the events page.

He also runs a raw food website, where he shares free information about the benefits of the raw food diet, and how you can improve your own life with raw food.

His main electric bass is a Peavey Cirrus 4-string with a Hipshot D-tuner. He uses Elixir strings for their tone and longevity. He occasionally uses a Schubb capo that he stole on accident from a guitar player.