How to get the most from books?

[Fungolo]

Hello everyone,

First post post here, I hope you can help.

How do the more experienced among you recommend using books/printed study materials?

I realise the obvious answer is 'work through them', but I was hoping for more detail. So...

How long should we dwell on exercises before moving on? I don't want to rush, but then again I don't want to waste time unnecessarily. How, without the benefit of a teacher, do we know when we have got as much benefit as we can from an exercise, and are ready to move on?

Is it OK to work from more than one book at a time? I have Ed Friedland's Building Walking Bass Lines and all of Carol Kaye's work. I'm interested in the theory in Ed's book, but also want to work on the more complex rhythms that Carol teaches. Is it OK to combine studies? If so, how should I approach combining them?

Are there any tricks for getting 'more' out of a practice/study book than the given exercises? I'm varying the metronome (tempi and beat - 2 4 etc.), transposing keys and analysing lines (note function etc.)... is there anything else I should/could be doing?

I'm not in a position to take lessons at the moment, so I'm forced to school myself. I don't mind, but any tips as to how I can make maximal use of my study time would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot!

[whatiswhat]

a book i recommend is "the bass grimoire" - excellent reference book. as far as how long to dwell on an exercise, i'm self taught, and i did book exercises that i felt were within my grasp until my fingers nearly blistered. after they were mastered i moved on to something else. if you're just beginning, start with only the basics and soon you'll be putting them together and moving on to something more complex. if you try something far out of your grasp you'll likely get frustrated. I'm not any kind of instructor, just some friendly advice

[whatiswhat]

also, if you have any way to record yourself playing, you should do it even if you're just playing scales. when you play it back you might notice some areas that need improving

[BluesWalker]

You should go through them slowly. If you were working with a teacher who was taking you through Carol Kaye's books, he/she would probably do one or two exercises a week. I don't know your playing/reading level, but the biggest challenge of the Kay books is knowing if you have the rhythms correct. It helps if there is an accompanying CD. There is a nice series of books by David Motto that had some great, real life reading examples with an accompanying CD.

Ed Friedland recently made some posts on how to use his first walking book. You can search for it, he essentially said to go very, very slow through the lesson.

[BluesWalker]

Link ro Motto's books http://www.bassbooks.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=340

[Fungolo]

Thanks whatiswhat - recording myself is an excellent idea! Duh, why didn't I think of that!

Just to give some background and an idea of where I am at the moment: I'm not a complete beginner. I got my first bass in 1991 and devoured instruction books. However (unfortunately in my opinion) they all focused on scales and scale practice, without providing enough of the other important information (more on this later). So I became very proficient in playing the major, minor and pentatonic scales in all keys, as well as the modes, and could start from any note and play pretty much anywhere on the neck. I practiced these for months, perhaps years. However, I couldn't write basslines, transcribe songs, play with musicians or turn this scale knowledge into music, so I became frustrated and gave up.

At this point I bought a guitar and played that exclusively for 10 years. I bought fingerstyle books and got reasonably good at fingerstyle blues. As my ear opened up I became pretty good at reproducing complicated tunes and had a lot of fun.

Recently I became interested in the idea of taking up the bass again. While idly browsing online for instructional material I came across Carol Kaye's site and had a Eureka! moment. She emphasised the importance of chord tones - something I'd grown to understand through playing guitar - and actively discouraged learning scales early on. I gained more insight in an hour reading her site than I had in all of the the instructional material I'd read up to that point. (Here's the link, for anyone who's interested. Not saying it's the right way or anything, and I know she's a controversial figure, but it seems like good advice to me: http://www.carolkaye.com/www/education/tips1.htm)

Anyway, I've since found that I can transcribe music easily, can play with others (to an extent) and can play over (under?) changes in a manner that I could only dream about first time around.

So right now I'm relying mainly on arpeggios and pentatonics, and am using chromatics and other passing tone approaches to give my lines more life. I even use occasional scale runs

What I want to do is move on from where I am - improve my rhythmic understanding and groove, while expanding my theory knowledge. I've only been playing again for six weeks but I've come on leaps and bounds. I'm hoping with a few more months 'shedding I'll be in a position to play with others on a more regular basis, so that's what I'm working towards. I'm self taught though, so I really do appreciate the advice of those who've gone before.

Sorry for the long post. I felt it might help, but now I've written it I'm not sure lol.

Thanks again, please keep the tips coming.

[MalcolmAmos]

What to get from books. I have a stack of how to play book that if I added up what they cost it would amaze even me. Some of them I spent months with, others I spent days with.

I play in Country bands. Modes and scales in general do not lend themselves to a Country bass line, or at least the Country we play. Now I too come to bass from rhythm guitar and keyboard, so I understand scales and modes, however I really do not use them in the bass I play in public (if I get lost, sure I'll grab a pentatonic, to help me find my place). So...... the time I spend with a book depends on what I want to get from the book. "Fretboard Logic", "How to play the piano despite years of lessons" and Pentatonic KHANcepts I spent months on each of these books. "The Bottom Line", "Bass Lines in Minutes" and "Bass Guitar Primer" occupied my time for days, not months. Ed's BWBL occupied my time for weeks.

I'm happy if I get one or two new things from a book. I started Ed's WBBL to understand how to do chromatic walks between chords (Walking bass lines). That's not in Ed's book, so I moved on. What I got from Ed's book is first I was glad to see he utilized the R-3-5-b7 concept. That is how I think and was glad to see it used by others. Ed introduced me to octive 8's and then anything else within scale that sounds good can be used as a fill in the chord tone, i.e. how to utilize passing notes. That's enough for me and I now use that in the playing I do. I quess what I'm trying to say is there is just so much in any book that I will be able to utilize. I try and capture what is important to me.

So how much time do I spend with a book? Depends on what it has to offer.

[photogdude]

http://www.studybass.com/lessons/pra...practicing-is/

I'm teaching myself also, although I'm a complete noob. I'm going with the notion that once its mastered, i can move to the next step.

That is if the ADD doesn't takeover!