I want to spend a bit of time get my solos up to scratch and I was wandering if there is a book that deals with this subject well....taking you from basic to.....well....good solos.

This is an acknowledged option. (http://www.shermusic.com/tibm.htm)

This is very good, too!

http://www.shermusic.com/cncpbass.htm

both those books are fine.

However,

What seperates the men from the boys is TRANSCRIBING!

Imagine someone who learned a language out of a book.

Now imagine the difference between that person and one who learned the language by ear.

Which one would you rather have a conversation with?

I can tell immediately when cats haven't transcribed. Their ideas are not fully developed, they don't move from motive to motive smoothly, and generally the whole concept is incoherent.

Did I mention to try transcribing?

You'll thank me in five years. I promise.


Jaco didn't have improv texts. Neither did Bird, Miles, Trane, or any of the other original masters. (ok, Trane used the Slonimsky book, but that's a different world.)

Does it sound like those guys were missing something?!!!!!!

I agree. Transcribing in VITAL, and books alone are not sufficient.
Developing your ear is critical to becoming a great player, as is absorbing the musical vocabulary of great players.

However, I'll add that one "text" that guys like Jaco used was learning the heads of tunes (bop tunes and others) on the bass. These are lines that are proven winners over the chord changes, and are right in front of your eyes.

Yeah learning heads is vital. Jaco says it himself on the instructional vid.

However, for most American music, you're going to get more out of it if you do it by ear. The best players I know transcribe constantly, and have huge ears because of it.

A big part of this is to start simple- like Miles off kind of blue. DOn't just jump into transcribing Bird and Joe Henderson!