Preface: This book aims to teach you how to play slap style funk. It is primarly geared towards beginners, but may offer some interest to intermediate players with no formal slap training. The book was published in 1992 and is thus somewhat dated. It also does not cover newer techniques like double thumbing.
Intro: Funk Bass is divided up into 6 chapters. It also includes an appendix on equipment and a discography section. It offers both standard notation and TAB. A CD with some of the exercises is included.
Chapter 1: This isn't even really a chapter. It is two pages dedicated on how to practice. There's some good tips and it should certainly help newer/younger players make the most of their practice time.
Chapter 2: This section covers slapping and popping independently of each other. It applies each across all 4 strings with very simple rhythms. These exercises are essential for building a strong foundation. However, the material is as musical as John Madden is poetic. Strict technical exercises become boring very fast and these are no exception. It'd be nice if there was a play along track or a song form to keep it interesting.
Chapter 3: This section covers putting slapping and popping together. The whole chapter is all octave exercises with different rhythms. Again, good for building a strong foundation but very dry and unmusical.
Chapter 4: This section covers style elements. Hammer ons, pull offs, trills, shakes, and bends. Important tools to have. I found these exercises to be fun since I hadn't spent much time on these tecnhiques before. However, I felt that the author made some of the rhythms in this chapter too complicated. It seemed somewhat out of place since the previous chapters' rhythms were so simple. A more straightforward approach would have been more effective.
Chapter 5: This section covers slap grooves. Finally something musical to play! There's a good mix of difficulty and most of the examples are fun to play. Some of the examples are a bit dated sounding.
Chapter 6: This section covers soloing/fills. It's basically some of the authors favorite licks. Most of these exercises are more difficult, at least rhythmically. Again, some of them are dated sounding too. But, there's some fun stuff in there.
Appendix: In this section the author talks about your equipment. Basses, FX, amps, etc. It's a nice little section for a newbie. Of course being a member of Talkbass you can get all this information and more. Still, I give the author credit for including this.
Discography: Some of the authors recommended listening. A nice touch to add to the book. Frankly, I wish more books included a discograpghy that pertains to their subject.
Overview: I won't lie. When I started this book I couldn't slap at all. Now, I have a nice slap tone and feel I have a solid foundation to build on. This book definitely improved my slap playing 10 fold.
I do have some nits though:
1) The book is far to technical and dry. I don't think most players, especially beginners, will work through the first few chapters because of their simplicity. Unfortunately, the later chapters will probably be too difficult for them rendering the book useless. Some sort of musical play along or songs would be tremendous here.
2) TAB. I don't mind including TAB in a book. It reaches out to players who can't read and at least gets them learning. What I don't like is the fact that the TAB is directly under the standard notation. I can't help but look at it. As a result my sight reading suffered because I couldn't help but look only at the TAB. I recently purchased a book by Anthony Vitti that has TAB. The first half of the book is standard notation and the second half is standard notation with TAB. This is how it should be done PERIOD!
3) CD. The cd quality is good. However, it only contains exercises from chapter 5 on. Also, there are no play alongs at all. It's nice to hear some of the examples but I'd something to play along with.
Overall, I think the beginner would do better to look elsewhere. Not that this book will not help, but because the material is dated and too technical. Advanced players have nothing to gain from this book in my opinion.
Other Resources: So what should you do if you're a beginner looking to learn how to slap? I'd check out Ed Friedland's Slap Bass DVD or Alexis Sklarevski's Slap Bass DVD. I've not used either but have heard good things about both.
If you're an advanced player I would check out Anthony Vitti's slap books or Tony Oppenheim's Slap It. Again I have not used either but hear there are very good.
If you guys have any questions about the book let me know!
-Daniel
