Ed Friedland’s Complete Bass Method-a but stuck?

[TheIndieKid]

So I've got up to the last notes in the 1st position on the G string (Ab/G# and Bb/A#) and it seems as if my knowledge has fell apart. When I look back on the page when you summarise over the E, A and D, I can play that perfect, but the pieces I'm playing which go over the G string are making me stuck and it gets worse when I cross over all four of the strings. Ive only been saying note names aloud in the exercises. Do I just need to carry on that, or am I doing something wrong?

 

[Wasnex]

So I've got up to the last notes in the 1st position on the G string (Ab/G# and Bb/A#) and it seems as if my knowledge has fell apart. When I look back on the page when you summarise over the E, A and D, I can play that perfect, but the pieces I'm playing which go over the G string are making me stuck and it gets worse when I cross over all four of the strings. Ive only been saying note names aloud in the exercises. Do I just need to carry on that, or am I doing something wrong?

Be patient. It takes time and repetition to form the necessary connections in your brain for this to become automatic. I suggest alternating between practicing exercises and just having fun, so you don't burn out or become overly frustrated.

Also learn the material multiple ways. Examples: Read the notes and place your fingers, read the notes and say the notes, say the notes and play the notes, say the notes and imagine their position in the staff, play the notes and imagine their position in the staff, etc. How can you integrate these ideas using one string, two strings, three strings, etc? Buy or print out staff paper and make up your own exercises. Can you make this sort of exercise a game?

 

[Mushroo]

Is there a CD or online audio recording of the exercises in the book? One way you can "mix it up" is to close the book, listen to the recording, and play along by ear. Then, open the book and check whether you heard correctly and played the right notes. Or another way to mix it up is to put the bass down, listen to the recording, and follow along in the book with your eyes. This is how I learned to read English as a kid; my parents read out loud to me while I followed along in the book, trying to make sense of how the letters on the page matched up with the sound of their words.

It will take a lot of practice, but the end goal is for your fingers, eyes, and ears to all work together.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

...... It will take a lot of practice, but the end goal is for your fingers, eyes, and ears to all work together.

Gave my book away so I can not help with that specific exercise. I suggest you do this exercise about a zillion times. By then your fingers will be moving between the strings and hitting the correct notes.

The next exercise using other notes over other strings will be a piece of cake. Keep on keeping on.

 

[MMiller28]

There's a big thread on this book...

I'm at the same point in the book. Just takes practice. Play the song slowly without the backing track just to identify the notes for when you're going full speed with the music. I also use White-Out tape over the fingering numbers, etc. that he puts above the notes that can be distracting, but I've been playing for a long time and don't need them...not sure what your situation is.

 

[Chili_Time]

When I got stuck on a track in this book i would put it into guitar pro and slow it down and play along. You can use free online software like Musescore if you do not own guitar pro. Look at the sheet music in the book and try to match the bass in guitar pro. Listen without playing, then play along, then repeat. It helped me to hear just the bass track and then the bass in full band context from the book CDs. When you get frustrated go back and play an earlier passage and you realize how what was once hard is now easy. Soon this section that seemed hard will be easy to. Play daily if at all possible, because daily play is a big boost to progress.

This is a great book for learning to read music. So by the time you finish you will be able to read and learn a bass line when given to you. What the book briefly touches on but really does not fully teach you is how to make up a bass line using a lead sheet. When you get ready to tackle that read Pacman's sure-fire scale practice method (or read and begin it now!) and read and print and frame How to learn the essentials to have fun and try this course to help with chord tones and arpeggios dave marks walking bass lesson - YouTube and then practice practice practice.

Ed's book helped me learn to read music, play in time, play with rhythm in different genres but I did not understand how to write a bass line from a chord sheet or even why a bass line sounds good. I think the fastest path to that is a a real live teacher and the slower path I'm using would be youtube. Not random you tube videos but course like the Dave Marks course above or paid multi lesson courses like Pacman's sure-fire scale practice method or Talkingbass

 

[MalcolmAmos]

What the book briefly touches on but really does not fully teach you is how to make up a bass line using a lead sheet.

OK you have a lead sheet that does not have the bass clef shown. But, it does have the chord that will harmonize a line of lyrics shown. That's all you need to compose a bass line.

Dirt simple bass lines contain notes of the active chord. How many of the notes we use is dictated by the song. And it is here that art comes into the picture, however, how to do it is quite simple; use notes of the active chord to the beat of the song - as long as the chord is active. When the chord changes then use some of those new notes in your bass line. It's really rather simple, but, you need a few things to pull it off.

This will help. http://www.smithfowler.org/music/Chord_Formulas.htm

Roots first, fives next, the octave 8 is a safe bet and the correct 3 & 7 can fill out a bass line. Just roots work. Roots on the first beat and fives on the third beat have been in millions of bass lines.

This takes care of the root, 3, 5, 7 and 8 scale degrees. That leaves us with the 2, 4, 6. Not many chords have a 2 or 4 in their make up (sus and add) so use the 2 and 4 as passing notes, do not stop or start with them. The 6 will normally fit with major chords (R-3-5-6). So the root, 3, 5, 6, 7 & 8 are fair game and will fit nicely into a bass line - if the songs needs it. Remember the song dictates what is needed - by the space it allows for the chord's notes. Country begs for the root and five with chromatic walks to the next chord. Praise is best served with just root notes to the beat. Each style dictates what it likes.

Give it a try and see what happens. If anyone needs help with where the 3 is from the root the getting started sticky in the General Instruction section will help. From your root the 3 is always up a string and back a fret. That is where 3's live. Fives live up a string and toward the bridge two frets, or down a string same fret. Go to the sticky mentioned above and work on where each scale degree will be in relationship to your root. It's not that hard there are only 7 you have to memorize. You can get into the 9, 11 and 13 later.

Have fun.

 

[Yonni]

So I've got up to the last notes in the 1st position on the G string (Ab/G# and Bb/A#) and it seems as if my knowledge has fell apart...

...Do I just need to carry on that, or am I doing something wrong?

As has been mentioned there is a thread that is worth watching on these books
The Hal Leonard Bass Method thread As you can see a few of us (especially me!) have found this step hard. To be honest it's slowed me right up but I'm getting through it now. Just like learning anything, some bits take longer before your brain gets it wired in properly. If you have these problems and post in that thread you're sure to get encouragement and advice from others who are either experiencing the same or who have been through it and come out the other side a better player. Ed even drops by from time to time with explanations. Take heart from the fact that once you get this down you'll have learnt 24 notes across 4 strings. What's even better is that the relationships between those notes stays constant so the rest will be easier to learn and you'll already have that in your fingers and subconscious (you'll know what it should sound like when you move up a string and a few frets compared to where you are). You'll also have learned pretty much all the notes on the page. Win win and worth the little extra effort this bit requires. Hang in there.

 

[JeffBerlin]

So I've got up to the last notes in the 1st position on the G string (Ab/G# and Bb/A#) and it seems as if my knowledge has fell apart. When I look back on the page when you summarise over the E, A and D, I can play that perfect, but the pieces I'm playing which go over the G string are making me stuck and it gets worse when I cross over all four of the strings. Ive only been saying note names aloud in the exercises. Do I just need to carry on that, or am I doing something wrong?

If I may, you are stuck because you seem not to be learning correctly. Nor might you be learning the right kind of music to practice.

Learning correctly is so easy, but bass players and teachers often complicate this approach. All that it takes to learn is to be involved with perfectly written musical material. That is literally it. Everything else that one wishes to learn is found via the self taught experience.

When you read perfectly written music (that is, music with both sequence and harmonic purpose) you are going to improve as a bass player. In fact, it is extremely difficult not to improve by practicing via music like this. Your source of musical improvement is to engage in a daily ritual of reading exercises that are perfectly written, harmonically reliable, and utterly without melodic or rhythmic flaw. Cheers from Jeff

 

[edfriedland]

Of course! It's the fault of the less than perfectly written music I provided for the book! Thank you Jeff for figuring out this guys problem when you 1) have never seen the guy in person to evaluate where he's at. 2) have never seen the book or example that's giving him a hard time. Your nearly magic ability to find blame in someone else is surely the secret of your success.

Let me now apologize to the literally hundreds of thousands of students that have learned how to play from my books, I'm afraid I may have supplied you all with less than perfectly written music for your learning. From now on, I will suggest you all dump my books and learn how to play from Jeff's video featuring Rowdy Roddy Piper.

 

[edfriedland]

And to the original poster, by now I'm sure you've gotten through this place of confusion, and I thank the other forum members, many who have had direct experience with that exact same spot in the book, for their thoughtful, and helpful responses.

 

[Whousedtoplay]

And to the original poster, by now I'm sure you've gotten through this place of confusion, and I thank the other forum members, many who have had direct experience with that exact same spot in the book, for their thoughtful, and helpful responses.

Ed,
Your Bass books - very well/very professionally written - are known as excellent learning modules/courses all over the world.
Thank you.