Paul Wolfe - Jamerson Books

[SBassman]

I thought this material was worthy of a thread.

Consider checking out Paul's Jamerson books on Amazon. I have a bunch of his books, and they are really high quality and effective. He teaches how to learn bass Language, not just notes of a line. Really high quality, with tons of learning.

Paul Wolfe: books, biography, latest update

 

[SBassman]

About the author:

Creating bass lines in any genre isn't done by grabbing a note from here and a note from there and putting them together and seeing if they sound OK.

Bass lines have their own language.

Tthe language of bass lines is built up from ideas that I refer to as devices - there's a secondary level too including modifying devices and connecting devices. These devices can be executed at different rhythmic levels and with different rhythms.

I started transcribing and analyzing bass lines at a deep level in 2010.

Bass players whose work I dived into included Geddy Lee, James Jamerson,Paul McCartney, Tommy Shannon, Rocco Prestia, Bruce Thomas, Carl Radle, Berry Oakley, John Paul Jones. And dozens of others.

In all the work of these players that I analyzed I found something amazing:

...each of these bass players bass lines were composed from the same devices.

And I set out to codify the devices (and modifying devices and connecting devices) that you can find in the bass lines of nearly all players in rock and pop (and country and soul and reggae).

What's interesting (and almost unbelievable) is that not only does no-one else teach this, but the number of mentions I've seen of this idea in other bass literature could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

The overall approach I've pioneered is called The 80-20 Device Method (for bass players).

I'm hard at work in my writing shed on a series of books looking at genre applications (e.g. blues rock, soul, funk), player applications (e.g. learning from James Jamerson) and how beginners can use these devices to learn to play bass (e.g. How To Play Bass In 50 Songs).

www.how-to-play-bass.com

 

[Lobster11]

Thanks for posting this. Count me in!

I wasn't sure which of his many books to read first, though, so I did some research. I started with the Amazon page for Vol. 1 of the How to Play Blues Rock Bass series, where the description includes a link to a sample section from the book. I really liked the sample and was intrigued by his method and presentation style. At the end of the sample was a section that helped answer my question, where he says

If you want to dive deeper into blues rock, then Volumes 2 and 3 will help you do that. These books focus on the 80-20 Method from the perspective of blues rock.​

Makes sense, of course. But is there something else I should read first? He goes on to say

If you want to “start at the beginning” and work on the 80-20 Method from first principles, then start out with the How To Play Bass In 50 Songs Module 1 book.​

Aha! Yeah, I'm definitely a start-with-first-principles guy, so I'm going to order the 50 Songs book and Vol. 1 of the Blues Rock series. If I like them as much as I suspect I will, I'll move on to Vols. 2 and 3.

It's been a long time since I've bought an instructional book, but this has me psyched. Thanks again for calling this guy to my attention.

 

[GastonD]

I am curious about his, too. Besides Jamerson volumes, there is the Deliberate Practice one and something like Million Dollars Bass Lines or so that appeal to me, judging by the TOC sample on Amazon.
The only downside is that he doesn't have Kindle versions, and shipping to my place can be more expensive than books themselves.

 

[Lobster11]

I am curious about his, too. Besides Jamerson volumes, there is the Deliberate Practice one and something like Million Dollars Bass Lines or so that appeal to me, judging by the TOC sample on Amazon.
The only downside is that he doesn't have Kindle versions, and shipping to my place can be more expensive than books themselves.

Glad to see I'm not the only one.

If I were you I think I would email the guy, tell him about your situation, and see if he has any ideas. Maybe he could sell you a book in pdf format, or access to it via his web site, or something else. Couldn't hurt to ask, right?

 

[SBassman]

Regarding where to start: Paul is the best to answer this, but, if you are not just starting but have some basic knowledge of a major and minor scale, understand that we can notate using the numbers of the scale from 1 to 8, I think you have the knowledge to then easily enter into any specific genre series. Also, Paul is great with answering questions.

Regarding shipping/electronic/kindle: would definitely suggest you write to him to see what might be done. I'm pretty sure all the books are also available online. I know the Blues Rock series and the Jamerson series are. For those who buy the books, when you send him an Amazon receipt for purchase, he then will enable the book electronically after you set up an account at 8020bass.com. I prefer them online these days. I can read a large, zoomed screen much easier than a book. Also, most exercises have corresponding videos, so you'll really want to be online when working on the material. If you write to him, perhaps he can offer up another way for payment and then give you the book online.

 

[StayLow]

Paul is an effective online bass educator.

Hard working, always coming up with something new, and very quick to answer queries.

 

[Avigdor]

Paul is an effective online bass educator.

Hard working, always coming up with something new, and very quick to answer queries.

Indeed. These books have in part grown out of his "30-day challenges" where he did very nice style analyses of different players (Tommy Shannon, James Jamerson, Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee ...) while taking you through easily translatable, universally applicable elements that will be useful for most basslines - the 80-20 approach. Doing these programs have taken me from a rank beginner on the instrument to a confident player and composer of bass lines (rock, blues, walking, you name it). I even did some custom work for originals by now, all thanks to that solid grounding.

The books condense all the experience teaching this material into a coherent approach. I can very much recommend his material and approach to teaching. Plus he's a great guy all round, very responsive and helpful. Perhaps start with one book and see where it sits on your personal comfort zone, then take it from there.

 

[75Ric]

Indeed. These books have in part grown out of his "30-day challenges" where he did very nice style analyses of different players (Tommy Shannon, James Jamerson, Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee ...) while taking you through easily translatable, universally applicable elements that will be useful for most basslines - the 80-20 approach. Doing these programs have taken me from a rank beginner on the instrument to a confident player and composer of bass lines (rock, blues, walking, you name it). I even did some custom work for originals by now, all thanks to that solid grounding.

The books condense all the experience teaching this material into a coherent approach. I can very much recommend his material and approach to teaching. Plus he's a great guy all round, very responsive and helpful. Perhaps start with one book and see where it sits on your personal comfort zone, then take it from there.

I did his 30-day Duck Dunn Challenge. It was excellent. I’ve studied his other material, too. Also excellent. Every time I had a question or request, he was quick and thorough in his responses. Definitely contact him about where to start.

 

[Oddly]

Been a fan of Paul's instructional work for a few years now. Not checked his latest stuff but I'm sure if it's of the quality of his previous it'll be well worth trying out.

 

[Frank Kreber]

I recently worked through his book 16th note rhythms… It is amazing to learn from someone who knows how to structure his stuff, makes every step logical and has a sense for the right amount of difficulties in each learning unit. It was my first book by Paul Wolfe, next will be the Jamerson volumes. An outstanding teacher !!

 

[StayLow]

Really positive comments here.

If any of you are in touch with him, consider sending a link to this thread. It’ll probably provide him positive energy.

 

[SBassman]

I sent it to Paul right after I created the thread.

 

[SBassman]

Another thing I want to note about his materials is - he legitimately teaches.

I have literally dozens of books. A few books do some teaching, and lots of other books just provide info, exercises, but it's really not teaching and guiding per se.

For example, Paul will get into How to practice the exercises - and then give you the tools to use them.

One simple example - him explaining how important it is to not just learn the line, but, learn it to the point of playing it comfortably across all the keys.

That may seem simple and obvious, but it's really not to a typical student.

When you read his materials, you feel like you are legitimately getting a Lesson - not just random info.

 

[Bass]

I like his videos that explain how to play songs.

 

[paul_wolfe]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

If anyone has questions please email me - TalkBass are strict about what you can say if it's a product you sell (and quite rightly so). And I don't want to contravent those rules.

Cheers




Paul

 

[BassJuju]

I watched a short video on YouTube and bought a book. So far, I’m impressed. Good concepts and I like the prompt attention to orders and detail. I’m looking forward to working through the book.