I know this topic has probably been covered a ton, but I'm just looking for some good bass books. I bought the first HL Bass Method book, and I'll probably get the rest in the series too, but what should I get that will really help me with these genres: jazz, blues, funk, soul, RnB? Should I get some stuff on walking as well? Anything with both notation and tab would be helpful too, as my music notation skills aren't so good.

Walking is essential because you'll learn how move from chord to chord. Walking is used in nearly every form of modern music.

Building Walking Bass Lines by Hal Leonard is a great one.

Yeah, I thought that would be a good one to get. How difficult is the book itself, I'm only part way through bass method 1 if that helps give an indication of skill level.

Ed Friedland's (Building Walking Bass Lines) book is indeed excellent, but if you are starting to learn walking bass from scratch, I found Jay Hungerford's book easier to understand. Ed's book would then be a good follow up to Jay's one IMO.

http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Walking-Ja.../dp/0786659963

Would you recommend that I get into that as soon as I can, or only after I have a good basic understanding of general theory?

Ed Friedland's book as well as Ed Fuqua's covers the theory as it mves through the exercises

Jay Hungerford's book has a lot of useful examples that may fit together better once one has some theory understanding. (if one's mind finds that useful)

All of this made more sense to me when I worked through Todd Johnson's DVD/book series on walking, since I needed a lot of small step repetition to establish a base and the other books seemed to me to be more appropriate for a more intermediate player.

What's the Todd Johnson book series called?

Actually they are not books....but DVD's, and excellent they are too. They start you off with the absolute basics and gradually build from there in small steps.

Well worth the investment IMO.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...at=0&_from=R40

I'll check those out soon as I can, although pretty much all my money's going towards a bass :D

Todd Johnson stuff can be found here: http://toddjohnsonmusic.com/store.php#booksDVD

Ok, great

The entire Teach Me Bass Guitar DVD/Book program by Roy Vogt. It's a huge bargain for what you get and it will keep you busy for a long time. I recommend you either order the color book with it or be prepared to print a lot of pages in color off the DVD. The book, in color, is essential to get the most out if it.

Where can I buy it from? Amazon?

Bassbooks.com has it.

Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a master class in R&B bass playing, and will also get your reading chops together in a hurry. The book is half biography of Jamerson, half transcribed basslines to a bunch of the tunes he recorded. Plus, there's a play-along CD with a bunch of well-known bassists playing the basslines, and you can pan the stereo channels to cut out the basslines so you can play along.

The book is worth getting just to see 80's photos of some of the bassists.

And if you want a good introduction to jazz bass, check out John Goldsby's "The Jazz Bass Book: Technique and Tradition." He's got bios on many of the key bassists in the jazz tradition, along with transcriptions of some of their basslines. The last 1/3 of the book is chapters on practicing, concepts, technical exercises, etc...

I think his web site sells it directly.

There's a site just for books on bass?!?!!

Oooh, I do!