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Originally Posted by bosco4  Hello all. I am a newbie to the forum.
I have been playing cajun/zydeco bass for years and I now have a chance to play in a Latin group. Traditional mambo, salsa,tango and samba, mostly. Bass is my second instrument. Guitar is my first. I am pretty proficient at Brasilian style guitar..samba, frevo, bossa, etc. I am wondering what might be a fast way to get up and running on the salsa/mamabo, etc. bass style. At least enough to show the new group that I can probabaly do it. I am a quick study but I don't really have much of a reference or a take on the Spanish latin bass styles. |
Get the "The Latin Bass Book" by Oscar Stagnaro and you will be all set. Comes with 3 example/play-along CDs with a great band. That will do it. Want just the basic styles MI series of books "Latin Bass" by George Lopez is good.
In mean I time Goodle for clave beat and start understand it it is the base of the Latin style. Also understand Latin (generic use of word, some around here get upset at use of the word) breaks down in to two categories Afro-Cuban and Brazilian. The accented beat is the main difference. Brazilian accents the 1 and Afro-Cuban accents the 4. Keep that straight and you will avoid some hard stares from experinced players. Technique wise Latin bass uses a lot of ghost notes. The thing that to get used to is the ghost note in most case needs to be louder than the pitch note that follows. That give the forward motion to the bass lines.
Latin grooves are cool you'll have a lot of fun.
