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Fake Book Help

#2
effingdawg said:
I just bought a bass fake book. Only thing is, I have no effing idea what I'm looking at. What types of instruction are there for someone just beginning to read the bass clef?
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Let's clear up what fake book you are looking at. Is it like this?

Happy Birthday Guitar Chords

If so you sing the song under your breath so you know when to change chords, and have some idea of the tempo of the song you will be playing.

When the C chord is over the lyrics you could play the C note one C note per lyric word. Then when a new chord is indicated you play that chord's root note again one note per lyric word. One note per lyric word - or - one note per beat of the song.

One note per lyric word will get you started. Two syllable words get two notes, one syllable words get one note, for example; Hap-py takes two notes as would birth-day, the word "to" gets one note and the word "you" also gets one note. However, there is more to playing "the beat" than just following lyric words, but, until you are comfortable with fake chord give it a try.

And then, is there more to this fake chord thing? Yes quite a bit, but, let's get you started with that. Ask specific questions.......
 
#3
A fake book shows you where your cord changes are. so basically you can listen to a song and try to replicate the bass rythem, or just make up you own bass line. I usually try to play along with the song as I read the cord changes. It isn't going to show you note for note how the song is played on the album. You can always just play the root note untill you have the cord pattern down, then you can go back and add more notes to make it more interesting if needed
 

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