RE: Syllabus for bassists

Hi there

This is a question for teachers rather than players -

I'm looking at the moment for a book that I can use as a centre-piece to a bass syllabus. I have a few criteria that

1. Needs to be suitable for absolute beginners
2. Needs to work progressively to an endpoint (maybe over several volumes) that the student will have key skills to branch out into specialised areas
3. Needs to have a CD with backing tracks that sound fun
4. Needs to be based on popular songs most students have heard, rather than pieces by the author.

There are quite a few books that do a couple of these, but not all - what I really want is something to use as a core.

I've asked a few bass teachers I know and like me, they use a combination of several books and transcriptions they've done themselves.

I teach guitar also and for this I've made a syllabus that ties in with 'the complete rock and pop guitar player'. It works really well, so I'm looking for something similar I can use with bass.

Any ideas would be interested to hear!

Along these lines, in case anyone's interested, I've picked up a book called

FastTrack
Bass 1 Songbook1
It has 8 songs, and backing tracks.

My criticisms would be that the backing tracks sound really embarrassing - they have nasty synth parts for the vocals, and that there isn't enough material, also there is no theory linked in with the tunes.

[thatotherguy]

http://www.amazon.com/Bass-Method-Be.../dp/B0009298Z2

you can buy it as 3 individual books or 1 book

[grifff]

Originally Posted by thatotherguy

http://www.amazon.com/Bass-Method-Be.../dp/B0009298Z2

you can buy it as 3 individual books or 1 book

I really like this series too. I'm not a teacher though.

[guitardefector]

Originally Posted by grifff

I really like this series too. I'm not a teacher though.

Ditto!!! I started with that series, 1 through 3, now I'm on Ed Friedland's "walking bass lines", BTW, a treasury of essential knowledge. You really can't go wrong with Ed's books. Lotsa theory, more standard notation than tabs, and the backup recordings are extremely helpful.

[sonofabass]

Depending how "new" you are to the instrument (forgive me I only skimmed through the original post) -

I stumbled across a nicely done series by a gent named David Overthrow.

Ed Friedland's stuff is pretty much always 'money' . You can't really go wrong with anything he puts out.
Very nicely done tiered system Beginner/Intermediate/Advance.

Very well laid out and I actually picked all three up to 'guinea pig' a couple of students with and it proved to be effective.
Having a good relationship with a teacher never hurts as books/youtube etc can only do so much.

oky dok -
have a good one

Thanks very much guys

I checked out one of Ed's books a while ago and it was excellent so it's no surprise that these should be good too. That guys output is quite impressive.

I will definitely look these up and I think this should lead to some happy students

Thanks

I have a question about Ed's books - does the bass method include tab as well as notation?

Thanks

[thatotherguy]

The first book starts off notation only, but tab is used in later chapters.

I have the book now - I am going to base my bass syllabus on this book I think. I looked at every bass book every shop in town to try and find something ideal and it doesn't exist.

I think there is a BIG gap in the market for something which is based on popular tunes, uses tab (so it can include every type of student), and introduces new theory/techniques systematically.

But anyway, Ed's book is excellent, although I may lose a few students by forcing them to read, hopefully just as many will appreciate the structure.

Thanks again for pointing me to this book.