For anyone interested in getting your jazz bass playing together, here is a plug on my new book that came out last week. The book is titled The “Total Jazz Bassist”. This is a 127 page book that covers a wide variety of jazz bass playing topics. I co-authored the book with my good friend Tiim Ferguson. Here is the publishers blurb about the book

“The Total Jazz Bassist is a complete jazz method, giving equal treatment to both electric and double bass. Covering styles like bebop, Latin, funk and fusion, this book provides examples and lessons that will help you become a well-rounded bassist. The Total Jazz Bassist also covers theory, technique, tunes, solos, jazz styles, and includes great advice for practicing and doing business. You'll learn to develop walking bass lines, how to solo, bass lines and solo patterns for blues changes and major and minor "two-five-one" progressions, dominant 7th chord scales, approaches for playing "Rhythm Changes," and much, much more! This is the one place to get everything you need to make you not only a great jazz bassist but an asset to any band. A CD demonstrating the examples in the book is included”.

The book is published by Alfred/NGW.

Peace,
Dave

Hi,
You might want to add links where to buy?

Thanks,
Tom

Tom, Thanks for the heads up. Here are links to two of many web-sites on which you can find the Total Jazz Bassist book.

www.elderly.com/books/items/20-26063.htm

www.amazon.com/Total-Jazz-Bassist-Book-CD/dp/0739043110/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5905797-0444943?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182430654&sr=1-1


Peace,
Dave

Hi Dave...sounds cool man!

I wouldn't have got where i am today without your 3 part electric bass series, they're really wicked books man!!!

Is this available over here in the UK? And does it go into more depth than II V I's etc? I guess i'm really asking whether this gets stuck into the nitty gritty stuff or whether it's designed to give you a rounded basis upon which to build on?

Thanks
Jamie

ordered, and anxiously anticipated. thanks.

Jamie, I am told the The Total Jazz Bassist book was released to the UK in late July so you should be able to get it over there. The book is 127 pages and gets into much more than playing over ii-V's. The book offers a well rounded jazz curriculum which covers walking bass lines, standard song forms, improvisation, playing inside, playing outside, diminished scales, latin bass lines, bebop, funk and fusion, personalities, gives tons of info on chords and scales, talks about practice regiments and.......
If you pick it up, let me know if it helps you.

Peace,
Dave

Hi onewebfoot. Let me know when you get the book and if it helps you.

Peace,
Dave

Hi David, I just got your book and I love it. It is making me think of scales and modes in different ways. It is just great. Thanks alot.:hyper: :bassist:

David, is it possible to post a table of contents?

Glenn

Congrats on the release of the new book, Dave! I'll definitely be picking it up. I have all the rest of them, so I want to be sure to have the complete set. lol... :D

For anyone who has never tried them, Dave's books are top notch instructional material (as is Dave. Heh heh...)! I definitely recommend all of them.

Hope all has been well!! :)

Vinny

David, is it possible to post a table of contents?

Glenn

Hi Glenn,

If you logon to Amazon and type in total Jazz Bassist you can read the publishers blurb, which will give you a good idea in terms of what the contents of the book is.


-Dave

Congrats on the release of the new book, Dave! I'll definitely be picking it up. I have all the rest of them, so I want to be sure to have the complete set. lol... :D

For anyone who has never tried them, Dave's books are top notch instructional material (as is Dave. Heh heh...)! I definitely recommend all of them.

Hope all has been well!! :)

Vinny



Vinny, Thanks for keeping up with the collection! Always good to hear from you. Hope we can get together soon to talk bass.


-Dave

Hi Dave!

So I just bought the book and it is quite impressive. I may be a little bit over my head, but I'm motivated to continue with this book.

The complete encyclopedia of scales and modes in the early chapters has my head hurting. Could you give some suggestions to a fledgling bassist on how to go about practicing these scales? I'm playing along with the examples in the book but past that I'm a little sunk... Help! Should I be writing them out in different keys and playing along??

Jeff (Jazz Newbie.)

Hi Jeff, It took awhile to reply to you because was in Virginia teaching a bass seminar for the National Guitar Workshop. While down there I had the opportunity to play with Audley Freed, a guitar player whom has played with the Black Crowes, Peter frampton and others. He is a good player.

Good to hear you’re shedding out of the Total Jazz Bassist book. There is a lot of information in there that will help expand your jazz bass vocabulary. As I tell students in my bass seminars, there is so much information out there I think it is best to learn in chunks. For instance, all of the modes are useful but some are more important to a bassist in terms of creating bass lines and solos than others. If you choose to explore and really learn a couple of scales, the major scale is of main importance because it is the scale and harmonic system that most if not all music in the Western Hemisphere is created with. It is also used as a point of reference for all other scales and all chords that you will learn.

With so much information in the book, if you don’t have much experience playing jazz, walking bass lines could be the best thing for you to work on. If you can walk a bass line on a set of chord changes then that means you understand chords, chord scales and you can get deeper with approach notes, passing tones, and more.

If I were you I would concentrate on three things:

1) Learn your seventh chords including major 7th, dominant 7th, minor 7th, minor 7 b5, and diminished 7th. There are others but that is a very good start. You can practice your arpeggios (playing the chord one note at a time) by playing them one octave, two octaves then three octaves. You can also practice them by playing in root position (root on the bottom), 1st inversion (3rd of chord on the bottom or in the bass), 2nd inversion (5th of chord in bass), and 3rd inversion (7th of chord in bass). You can try to play all arpeggios on three strings, then two strings, then one string. Try to always be aware of the notes you are playing and know what notes you are going for.

2) Although there are many scales you may learn, for starters start with major scales, dorian scales (dorian mode) and mixolydian scales (mixolydian mode). As a general rule, and believe me there are exceptions to this rule so if anyone wishes to disagree with this, before you jump in, this is our first way of thinking before we move on, Dorian scales are used over minor chords and mixolydian scales are used over dominant chords. If you practice your dorian and Mixolydian scales with the roots of F, Bb and Eb (jazz keys) and maybe the first three sharp keys (G,D, and A) you will have a foundation from which to walk over minor, minor 7th and dominant chords. You can practice scales by starting on each of the scale degrees and play to it’s octave. For example, A dorian, from A to A, then B to B then C to C, etc… You can also practice the scales in groups of three – ABC-CBA, BCD-DCB, DEF-FED etc.. then groups of 4, 5, 6 etc... You can practice the scale in intervals such as 3rds (AC-BD-CE etc.. 4ths, 5ths, 6ths and 7ths. There are other ways but I think this is a start. You can also check out locrian for minor 7 b5 (half diminished) chords.

3) Also, check out the walking bass chapter. This will show you how the chord tones form the chords you learned and scale tones from the scales you learned are used to create walking bass lines. Before you try practicing all other modes and minor scales, diminished scales etc.. the information I went over will help you walk bass lines over blues, rhythm changes and many other jazz tunes. Start trying to learn one jazz tune a week. Try to memorize the chord changes, walk a line over it, learn the melody if possible, and try to improvise over the tune. You can start with easy tunes such as the usual modal tunes such as So What, Impressions and others but also go to tunes with a few chords such as Little Sunflower, Summertime and then move on to tunes such as Autumn Leaves. Obviously try to walk over the blues as often as you can, and maybe even rhythm changes in tunes such as Oleo.


4) I believe to check out the information that helps you right away so you can make progress in creating bass lines, then move on to other info.

I really can’t get to particular or exact in a few short paragraphs but I think if you check out the info I stated above you are on your way.

-Dave

Wow, what a great response! It's very rewarding to interact with you this way. Thanks for investing the time!

FYI word of mouth is powerful.. I've sold two of your books since I bought my own.

Rock On,

Jeff

hey GREAT BOOK btw
I bought it the summer before freshman year to get acquainted with jazz bass as i was being recruited in a very good combo and at first it surpassed my level of comprehension
but then i picked the book bakc up and i improved my playing by leaps and bounds. Your chord theory teaching was great as were the chapters on bebop and funk fusion and the rhythmic changes chapter is one of the best. Thank you so much for this book

Gonna have to check out this book.

I am one of David's distance students at www.workshoplive.com. I just want to say that he is an awesome teacher and the book is incredible. I highly recommend.

Is there any way you could post a Table of Contents for the text? I'm interested in the book but I'm concerned it may already cover material that I know or that is covered in the (many) other books on jazz bass that I already own.

Cheers,

Jeff

Is there any way you could post a Table of Contents for the text? I'm interested in the book but I'm concerned it may already cover material that I know or that is covered in the (many) other books on jazz bass that I already own.

Cheers,

Jeff
Never mind - I found it :)

https://www.guitarworkshop.com/store/product.php?productid=108&cat=5&bestseller=Y

Dave,

Thanks for posting. Sounds like you covered all the bases. I am looking forward to shedding your new book

I'm very interested in this book. But, I'm also staring at a stack of other books at home that I have not completed.

Can someone who now has the book tell me anything about the depth of the chapters of interest I list below?

Basically, the front section of the book, while looking extremely helpful, contains material that I do have in many other books:
1-Basics, 2-Technique, 3-Vocabulary, 4-Scales, 5-Chords,
6-Major Scale Harmony, 7-Minor Scale Harmony, 8-Chord Symbols,
(14-Scales for Dom 7 Chords, 19-Funk and Fusion)

Without actually seeing the book, it looks like the playing doesn't really begin until Chapter 9:
9-Walking Bass Lines, 10-Rhythm Changes, 11-ii V I Progression,
12-Minor ii V i, 13-Minor Blues, 15-Walking Lines on Common Forms, 16-Soloing, 17-Latin Styles, 18-Bebop

Can anyone tell me how many pages are applied to the chapters
between 9 and 18 listed above, and comment on the depth and effectiveness of that material?

Thanks.

[I'm sure I'm going to order this book in the next 5 minutes :) but I thought it would be helpful if someone could comment.]

I'll give you the page number of the start of each chapter... I leave it to you to work out how many pages each chapter is.

1 - 6
2 - 11
3 - 13
4 - 21
5 - 36
6 - 38
7 - 41
8 - 43
9 - 45
10 - 60
11 - 66
12 - 69
13 - 73
14 - 75
15 - 80
16 - 87
17 - 96
18 - 100
19 - 106
App A - 114
App B - 120
App C - 122
App D - 124
App E - 126 to 127

not sure about depth and effectiveness as I'm a newbie at Jazz Bass.

Took me a bit of pondering :) but the book is now on order.

Looking forward to it.

The book came. I skimmed it and listened to the CD.
It delivers in a big way.

It does a really nice job of progressing from the basics to the meaty money lines. One step at a time.

Lots of fun lines and solo excerpts.

Great job.

Just ordered it from Amazon.

Frank, Glad you're digging the Total Jazz Bassist book. If anyone gets it from Amazon, feel free to post a review. If you have any questions send them along.

Best,
Dave

Frank, Glad you're digging the Total Jazz Bassist book. If anyone gets it from Amazon, feel free to post a review. If you have any questions send them along.

Best,
Dave

I got it from Amazon. I'll go post some comments there now.

In my school, our jazz ensemble's pianist asked if I had any books with cool basslines he could learn on piano, so I tossed him this. He digs it.