Bass book

natedawg5280 · #1 06-23-2006, 07:58 AM

Okay, I'm 15.. played Electric Bass for about 2 years.. now I want to try the flipside. I've got a double bass and (am going to take lessons.. sheesh!) need to find a good book. I can play around nicely on the beast, just want some more input from a book.

I've scanned the forums and seen Smivinidalibithzammer, Rabbath, and Vance. I don't really know who the hell any of them are.. so the questions up to you: Which one should I get first? There's probably alot of opinions out there, but for a starting double basser, I want one quick. Let's try not to be overtly biased, and give some gentle opinions.

mje · #2 06-23-2006, 09:11 AM

Quick answer: Use what your teacher recommends. Then you can go from there and explore other methods if you like. Whatever method you study you'll learn to read and learn the neck, and then you can explaore the differences between Simandl, and Rabbath/Vance if you like.

Cory Palmer · #3 06-23-2006, 01:58 PM

I second that. Your teacher will probably be more comfortable teaching with one method over the others. Personally, I like Simandl but there are pros and cons to every method book.

natedawg5280 · #4 06-23-2006, 08:43 PM

Ah-kay. My school band instructor will be laying down some basics for me during summer lessons (starting July 11th for me..) and since he is not a string bassist (his bro is) he will be finding someone for me proceeding the quick summer lesson intro deal. So I'm stuck without a teacher for a few weeks, so I was thinking of getting a book before.

Cory Palmer · #5 06-23-2006, 09:45 PM

The Simandl book gives some good directions on how to get started. Simandl seems like it would be easier to approach without a teacher than Rabbath.

polo515 · #6 06-23-2006, 09:58 PM

Simandl 1 and then Simandl 2. You can't go wrong. But, as others have said, follow your teachers recommendation. Good luck.

Jazzin' · #7 06-23-2006, 10:05 PM

I just started out on DB after six years of electric bass guitar.

My teacher has me on Simandl. It's good, but a lot of the stuff is directed towards newbs to any form of bass, not to DB.

damonsmith · #8 06-24-2006, 10:06 AM

In the end you should check them all out. Simandl (Czech) is the standard book, Followed by Billie (Itallian) and Nanny (French).
In most cases the authors of the more modern methods (Petracchi, Streicher, Rabbath, New Dutch School) studied out of one of those three so it is a good to do one of them first.

KSB - Ken Smith · #9 06-24-2006, 12:32 PM

There is a new book out now not as difficult as the regular Simandl to get into the bass. See here; http://www.tfront.com/product.php?pi...t=MU&lm1=0&nf=

fish slapper · #10 06-25-2006, 09:13 PM

Another vote for Simandl for classical. The Rufus Reid book has a lot of pictures and explainations in it as well for the beginner bassist. Of course, is more Jazz oriented.

The book Ken recommends looks good as well but I haven't seen it. Looks like a primer for Simandl Book 1.

EliMarcusBass · #11 07-14-2006, 06:21 AM

I love Simandl 1, its just great for everything that is double bass. You can use it for absolutely anything its very versatile.

If you're looking for a jazz book I also have Rufus Reid's Evolving Bass Player and it is a solid jazz book specifically made for bass players.

However, if you're really looking to bust out with jazz, I suggest Mark Levine's THE JAZZ THEORY BOOK. I've been working through it for a while now and I must say it is very thorough and it fills in the holes that you miss sometimes when learning jazz so a definite recommendation in my book.