After some price-tag related hesitation, I bought myself a copy of Oscar Stagnaro's "Latin Bass Book" for Christmas. I've been playing through it the past couple of days, and all I can say is WOW!
This is one of the best instructional packages I've ever purchased. The seemingly high price tag (I think I paid around $35) is deceiving, since what you get for that price is equal to about three standard instruction packages -- 261 pages of transcription material and 3+ hours of recorded material on three disks. Unlike lots of instructional packages that provide a disk full of little 10-20 second examples, the Stagnaro disks contains only full pieces, typically 3+ minutes in length, played by Stagnaro and a top-notch group of musicians. Good enough to listen to just for the pleasure of the music -- and lots of fun to play along with as well.
The only negative (for some people) is the lack of tab notation. But if you can read standard even a bit, this package should be a great way to improve your sight reading skills.
This is one of the best instructional packages I've ever purchased. The seemingly high price tag (I think I paid around $35) is deceiving, since what you get for that price is equal to about three standard instruction packages -- 261 pages of transcription material and 3+ hours of recorded material on three disks. Unlike lots of instructional packages that provide a disk full of little 10-20 second examples, the Stagnaro disks contains only full pieces, typically 3+ minutes in length, played by Stagnaro and a top-notch group of musicians. Good enough to listen to just for the pleasure of the music -- and lots of fun to play along with as well.
The only negative (for some people) is the lack of tab notation. But if you can read standard even a bit, this package should be a great way to improve your sight reading skills.
