Hey, Hal Leonard!

[thunderbyrd]

how about a thread which requests the tabs you would most like to have a bass tab book for? available bass tab is way behind guitar tab, but maybe some music publisher will take a look someday...

here's some i'd really like to see:

1. Elton John's "goodbye yellowbrick road" - when i was younger, it seemed like everyone i knew owned a copy of this record. there's cool playing all over it. all of Elton's early records have great bass playing on them.

2. "Aja" by Steely Dan - this is the album that made me want to play bass. and i still can't play it.

3. "Truth" by Jeff Beck with Ronnie Woods on bass. Ronnie's playing on this record is pretty different from any other record i've heard. very busy, but very cool.

[mrbell321]

Not tab, but I'd like to see guitar and bass books that complement each other. For example, I have Hal Leonard's "Easy Pop"(or something like that) for guitar, and I looked for those same songs in one collection for bass, but it doesn't exist. I think there's a similarly title book for bass, but I don't think it shared any of the songs. It'd be nice to have the music for both parts to the same song...

[Steamtronic]

I agree with you, mrbell. Hal Leonard produce a huge range of stuff, but all focus on guitar. For example, a search on "The Rolling Stones" on their website returns 14 guitar volumes and 1 bass (with 12 songs only!). Paul Simon returns 90(!) publications, with only 1 single piece of sheet music arranged for bass & drums. :b

The few Hal Leonard bass books I've picked up in my local music store (70's rock / Easy pop songs / etc) are so basic and stripped down they are really for absolute beginners only. Their guitar books on the other hand are painstakingly detailed. So if any of the good folk from HL read this; guys, pick up your game and I'll buy stuff!

Here's my Christmas wish list:

Montrose
Foghat
The Jam
Ian Dury and the Blockheads
Motorhead (heh only twenty studio albums, seven live recordings, five compilation albums and five EPs to choose from!)
Maxi Priest
Hot Chocolate
Paul Simon

Should keep me happy until next year .

[obimark]

This is only the tip of the iceberg-

We don't have any:
Duran Duran bass tab books
INXS
Judas Priest (other than some real old ones which aren't super good)
MUSE (other than UK printed ones)
Free
Bad Company
Foreigner
Journey (only 1 which is so/so)
The Cult
Only 1 Who Bass tab book!!

and the list goes on- A compilation of 80s pop would be super cool -

[Steamtronic]

Originally Posted by obimark

This is only the tip of the iceberg-

We don't have any:
Duran Duran bass tab books

+1

(and if you told me 10 years ago I'd be listing Duran Duran and Motorhead side-by-side as two "must have's" in my music collection you would have received a two-syllable response!)

[obimark]

Yeah- JT was the MAN on the first 2-3 DD albums, he really fell off after those, but listen to that first album, he is ALL over the place- EVERY SONG has a bassline hook.
Favorites include "Is there anyone out there" To the shore, Nightboat, Girls on Film, etc... EVERY song on it, same for RIO. The fall off starts at 7 and the ragged tiger, but it is still respectable. Brilliant player.

[Hal Leonard]

Great topic. No question there are holes in the bass transcription library. Some of this is due to sales, some rights, but all of your suggestions will be considered. I can say that we currently have bass publications in production for Dream Theatre, Steely Dan, Queen, Cream, Paul McCartney, Slipknot, Megadeth, Sly & the Family Stone (long overdue, for sure!), and Yes, as well as a couple mixed collections such as [i]Metal Bass Tabs [i] and--don't cringe: [i]Best Bass Lines Ever[i]. Someone earlier mentioned Muse, which could be possible, and the Jeff Beck idea is also interesting!

[Clef_de_fa]

Originally Posted by Hal Leonard

Great topic. No question there are holes in the bass transcription library. Some of this is due to sales, some rights, but all of your suggestions will be considered. I can say that we currently have bass publications in production for Dream Theatre, Steely Dan, Queen, Cream, Paul McCartney, Slipknot, Megadeth, Sly & the Family Stone (long overdue, for sure!), and Yes, as well as a couple mixed collections such as [i]Metal Bass Tabs [i] and--don't cringe: [i]Best Bass Lines Ever[i]. Someone earlier mentioned Muse, which could be possible, and the Jeff Beck idea is also interesting!

wow ... for Dream Theater !!! you made my day !

[electracoyote]

Originally Posted by thunderbyrd

1. Elton John's "goodbye yellowbrick road" - when i was younger, it seemed like everyone i knew owned a copy of this record. there's cool playing all over it. all of Elton's early records have great bass playing on them.

2. "Aja" by Steely Dan - this is the album that made me want to play bass. and i still can't play it.

Spending countless hours learning these two albums note-for-note grew me exponentially as a bass player.

[CTC564]

Originally Posted by thunderbyrd

how about a thread which requests the tabs you would most like to have a bass tab book for? available bass tab is way behind guitar tab, but maybe some music publisher will take a look someday...

here's some i'd really like to see:

1. Elton John's "goodbye yellowbrick road" - when i was younger, it seemed like everyone i knew owned a copy of this record. there's cool playing all over it. all of Elton's early records have great bass playing on them.

2. "Aja" by Steely Dan - this is the album that made me want to play bass. and i still can't play it.

3. "Truth" by Jeff Beck with Ronnie Woods on bass. Ronnie's playing on this record is pretty different from any other record i've heard. very busy, but very cool.

Great idea...great choices

I'd like to add some of Stevie Wonder's stuff and EWF...there is very little available

[Steamtronic]

Maybe we should be directing this at Alfred Publishing rather than Hal Leonard.... they seem to have invested a lot more into the bass community to date.

http://www.alfred.com/Browse/Product...rsonality.aspx

And you'll be delighted to know they even have a Blasko book!

Looking at their catalogue however you'd still be forgiven for thinking that the only bands to feature decent basslines were Rush, the Stones and Led Zep.

[obimark]

Alfred has some interesting "exclusive" bass tab publishing deals, but by in large has far less bass books historically than Hal Leonard.

[DONZI97]

+1 on on Beck's Truth....How about a Meter's/George Porter bass lines book?

[Steamtronic]

Originally Posted by obimark

Alfred has some interesting "exclusive" bass tab publishing deals, but by in large has far less bass books historically than Hal Leonard.

Fair enough, & thanks for letting me know .....I'm just going off what their respective websites return when you search for bass tabs. Alfred's seem to have a much larger current selection. Either that or a more user friendly search facility.

I don't care who publishes them so long as they are faithful to the original recordings, and not a 5 minute "root pedals are good enough" contractually-obliged afterthought by a guy who thinks 8th notes & smaller are the reserve of guitar players.

[1958Bassman]

Originally Posted by electracoyote

Spending countless hours learning these two albums note-for-note grew me exponentially as a bass player.

I was about to ask if people only use tab, or if they eventually use their "ear". As someone who learns by ear, I guess I can't relate to not doing it that way. I read, but not tab. I have also seen quite a few songbooks that had glaring mistakes, although that was in the '70s, when I worked at a music store. I find it a lot faster to just listen a few times and play along, correcting as I play it more often and my ability allows. Singing the notes helps a lot, too. I get some weird looks at stop lights, but I don't care.

[1958Bassman]

Originally Posted by Hal Leonard

Great topic. No question there are holes in the bass transcription library. Some of this is due to sales, some rights, but all of your suggestions will be considered. I can say that we currently have bass publications in production for Dream Theatre, Steely Dan, Queen, Cream, Paul McCartney, Slipknot, Megadeth, Sly & the Family Stone (long overdue, for sure!), and Yes, as well as a couple mixed collections such as [i]Metal Bass Tabs [i] and--don't cringe: [i]Best Bass Lines Ever[i]. Someone earlier mentioned Muse, which could be possible, and the Jeff Beck idea is also interesting!

Have you come out with an ear training method?

Didn't Warren W (Vito) and Gordy Johlke do some of the transcriptions for your books?

[obimark]

Originally Posted by 1958Bassman

I was about to ask if people only use tab, or if they eventually use their "ear". As someone who learns by ear, I guess I can't relate to not doing it that way. I read, but not tab. I have also seen quite a few songbooks that had glaring mistakes, although that was in the '70s, when I worked at a music store. I find it a lot faster to just listen a few times and play along, correcting as I play it more often and my ability allows. Singing the notes helps a lot, too. I get some weird looks at stop lights, but I don't care.

Most of the newer tab books are fairly good, but developing your ear is a good thing always. The issue is if you have a song that has some "signature" type bass lines with a good amount of changes, do you have the time to work it out yourself? personally I really enjoy trying new songs, when they are printed in tab, whether this is the monthly song in bass player magazine or a new bass play-along book.

[THE SAW]

Good topic-always one of my favorites. I have a much better ear than my ability as a bassist. It's always been 75% of my enjoyment of the bass to transcribe the part and then play it.

As much as HL is a valuable resource (along with a few other publishers) you will often find repeats, Da Capo's etc. that simply do not match what was on the recordings. OK, fine-it's still a valuable resource.

MUCH MORE IMPORTANT- a published bass part is often unplayable due to those same da Capo's, dal segno's, repeats etc. that demand turning pages. I'd say to use the extra ink and paper and WRITE out the entire song from beginning to end, as it sounds. No shortcuts i.e. verse 2 bass part written as a repeat of verse 1, when in fact there are dozens of different notes in the recording.

[Hal Leonard]

We publish a few different Ear Training publications. The one by Gary Willis (HL695182) is probably the most relevant to bassists. It was released in 1998 and still sells well. We also have a Book/2-CD pack on Ear Training that is used by Musicians Institute. It's part of our MI Press series and the item number is HL695198.

[Steamtronic]

Originally Posted by Hal Leonard

Great topic. No question there are holes in the bass transcription library. Some of this is due to sales.....

Hal Leonard,thanks for getting involved in this thread!

If the issue is one of sales, how about a subscription based online library? There's great software for that kind of thing out there, songsterr.com for example.

You back catalogue could go on as well. A lot of people would be happy to pay a subscription for on-demand access to high quality tabs (unlike the hit & miss user-submitted Songsterr ones). Or you could buy Songsterr, fix it up & rebrand it.......at the very least the due diligence would give you a feel for market potential.