The Latin Bass Book for a complete beginner?

[Chicharron]

Hello!

I bought a bass a few weeks ago and have pretty minimal musical experience. Ultimately, I'm interested mainly in Latin jazz and salsa. I've been mostly practicing reggae songs because they tend to be a little slower, fewer notes, and I can figure them out by ear. I think I'm improving pretty quickly! But my question is this: The Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro gets a lot of love but it is suitable for someone like me who has very little knowledge? Would it be a good resource for learning about music from the ground up? I currently have no physical learning material, so if the answer is no, what's a good place for me to start? I bounce around random YouTube videos, but would prefer a single source to start learning.

Thanks for helping!

 

[Bass]

The Latin Bass Book is probably too complex for a beginner. You have to walk before you can run.

For a complete beginner StudyBass - Free Online Bass Lessons is probably a good start.

If you prefer books, Foundation Exercises for Bass by Chuck Sher is a good start. Except this book does not show you physically how to play, for example how to hold your body and hands while playing.

If you spent about a year on each of those resources, practicing each day for maybe 45 minutes, then you would probably have a very very good start. And at that point you could try the Latin Bass Book.

Of course there's all kinds of other material out there, but I am only familiar with the above.

 

[consectaneus]

The book is in standard notation. It is also syncopated music, and like reggae does use space and ties (specifically the four on the previous bar sustains through the one of the next). If Latin rhythms are in your blood I'm sure this will come easier. For me, it is a challenge to hear those beats!

I do think there are some basics you will want to cover and then slowly integrate the Stangnaro book as genre study. It is a fantastic book on the subject, btw. Many here regard it as essential. I hope you can find a book which starts with the basics in a Latin style. For a beginning book, I like the Hal Leonard bass method complete edition. It is a gradual study which teaches you to read standard notation as you go. The play along exercise examples cover most every genre, so as I say, you could supplement it with Latin bass studies when you are ready.

 

[mambo4]

If you are a beginner and have zero notation reading skills, then go for The Hal Leonard Bass Method by Ed Friedland. Work through that, then go for Stangoro.

 

[Spin Doctor]

I'm pretty sure the Latin Book was written mainly as part of a Berklee college level course, so I kinda doubt a raw beginner could handle it. I own that book, among many, and generally don't have much of a problem assimilating any written material. But that book kicks my ass.

I don't really know any Latin related material, but as mentioned, you should probably learn the instrument, before you try to get too specific in your study. When I first started learning, I was pretty obsessed with learning jazz and it was a struggle. One day, a friend of mine who didn't play any instruments at all said to me, "Forget all that Jaco Pastorius s**t and learn to play the blues."

Best musical advice I've ever gotten.

Now I can play pretty much any American genre. But all that took a lot of time and effort. Still can't play authentic Latin though. The rhythms are VERY specific, and if you don't do it right, it's only Fake Latin(tm). Or maybe, just wrong.

 

[Chicharron]

Thanks for the responses! I'm going to get the Hal Leonard Bass Method book first and check StudyBass. And maybe try switching my daily noodling along from reggae to some blues in the next month or so. My father has played Latin jazz (saxophone) my whole life so I'm pretty familiar with the sound. Unfortunately, he's about 1,500 miles away but I'm hoping to get my chops up by the time the world has returned to normal so I can play and learn a thing or two. Again, thanks all

 

[consectaneus]

We have a mega thread on this sub forum. It kind of got buried, but it's 68 pages and counting of question and answer discussion related to the book. It could use a bump.

The Hal Leonard Bass Method thread

 

[GastonD]

Once you get the hang of basic instrument handling, maybe you could try with David Santos' video course on Latin bass on TrueFire, as it seems more geared for people trying to get their foot in those styles.

 

[jfh2424]

Hello.

The Latin Bass Book is a great book to understand and practice Latin rhythms. It is a challenge for any bassist to play these tunes in time, while sight reading notes up and down the neck. Eventually, the intricate rhythms change every few bars, the speed is way above 120bpm...it is a big challenge.

However, if you really want to learn, you can slow down all the tunes to 25% or 50% and begin.

I suspect a lot of people never bother to really try to play these tunes note for note, as written...but this is where all the magic happens. Otherwise, you are really skipping over all the pertinent information and learning.

I find it unfortunate that this book was written like this. It is as if though the author wanted to make everything as absolutely difficult as possible. I'm sure that it cut off a lot of people from really using and growing with the book.

There is a lot of machoism in music. I think this book is a good example of that. It is really written as if though the bassist already knows all this and just needs specific breakneck examples of grooves to polish up what they already know. Definitely not a beginner type of book. But by slowing everything down with today's technology, a beginner can begin to use it and learn. There is a way to overcome the short sightedness of the author and make it work.

 

[2000TA46032]

I also have the Latin Bass Book by Oscar Stagnaro. It is tough for a beginner. Make sure you can read music well to start as there is no tab. There are several "playthroughs" on Youtube you can check out.
+1 to GastonD - the TrueFire course is a great way to get your feet wet and they have nice material with the course.

 

[Spin Doctor]

Hello.

The Latin Bass Book is a great book to understand and practice Latin rhythms. It is a challenge for any bassist to play these tunes in time, while sight reading notes up and down the neck. Eventually, the intricate rhythms change every few bars, the speed is way above 120bpm...it is a big challenge.

However, if you really want to learn, you can slow down all the tunes to 25% or 50% and begin.

I suspect a lot of people never bother to really try to play these tunes note for note, as written...but this is where all the magic happens. Otherwise, you are really skipping over all the pertinent information and learning.

I find it unfortunate that this book was written like this. It is as if though the author wanted to make everything as absolutely difficult as possible. I'm sure that it cut off a lot of people from really using and growing with the book.

There is a lot of machoism in music. I think this book is a good example of that. It is really written as if though the bassist already knows all this and just needs specific breakneck examples of grooves to polish up what they already know. Definitely not a beginner type of book. But by slowing everything down with today's technology, a beginner can begin to use it and learn. There is a way to overcome the short sightedness of the author and make it work.

Interesting take. But I think we should consider the somewhat unique idea that everything in the world isn't for beginners. I'm mainly into jazz and I can only imagine how useless the study material would be if every instructional book I encountered had to be dumbed down for easy digestion of beginners.

Perhaps finding one that works at ones current level of understanding might be better?

 

[bass12]

My main beef with Oscar’s book is that it doesn’t really explain what’s going on from a theoretical perspective. If you don’t already have a clear understanding of clave and of the roles of the other instruments (and of what differentiates the multitude of Latin styles) you might find things a bit confusing.

 

[jfh2424]

Interesting takes on this indeed.

Are you guys suggesting that intermediate bassists are going to open this book and play these tunes, note for note, with the backing tracks or with a metronome at these tempos with very little effort?

Im very curious about this. Maybe I’m wrong and the average bassist can read and perform these tied rhythms at 150 bpm easily, while changing rhythms every four to eight measures.

Truth be told, I haven’t been around a lot of other bassists. This is why I am asking these questions. Maybe this is very easy for most...I’m certainly open to hearing this.

 

[BrotherMister]

Interesting takes on this indeed.

Are you guys suggesting that intermediate bassists are going to open this book and play these tunes, note for note, with the backing tracks or with a metronome at these tempos with very little effort?

Im very curious about this. Maybe I’m wrong and the average bassist can read and perform these tied rhythms at 150 bpm easily, while changing rhythms every four to eight measures.

Truth be told, I haven’t been around a lot of other bassists. This is why I am asking these questions. Maybe this is very easy for most...I’m certainly open to hearing this.

Good musicians can do that but even great readers will stumble over some of this music because it's rhythmically complex and beat 1 is dropped. Its not like a drummer is holding down a solid groove and you are playing some complex rhythms with that safety net. This music has a lot of complex rhythms interlocking so as soon as you lose it, then it can feel like falling down an elevator shaft if you don't understand how the music works enough to pull it back.

To be honest with you the average bassist probably can't even read simple notation let alone sight reading stuff at higher tempos.

 

[consectaneus]

This thread inspired me to dust off the book and give it another shot. I was pleased to find that the practice tracks are available on youtube.

 

[Les Fret]

The Latin Bass Book is really advanced. Not technically advanced but mostly complex rhythm wise and feel wise and not easy to read. I have played almost every piece in that book along with the CDs and keep coming back to the book from time to time and I was fairly good at it. But still I don’t consider myself a Latin bass player. I think in the end you will only truly learn this music on the bandstand.

And then one other thing: even if you can read it very well and can play along with this book it is yet a complete other level to be able to invent and improvise these lines on the spot with only a chord charts. I think most good Latin bands don’t have completely written out bass lines.

 

[Spin Doctor]

The Latin Bass Book is really advanced. Not technically advanced but mostly complex rhythm wise and feel wise and not easy to read. I have played almost every piece in that book along with the CDs and keep coming back to the book from time to time and I was fairly good at it. But still I don’t consider myself a Latin bass player. I think in the end you will only truly learn this music on the bandstand.

And then one other thing: even if you can read it very well and can play along with this book it is yet a complete other level to be able to invent and improvise these lines on the spot with only a chord charts. I think most good Latin bands don’t have completely written out bass lines.

These are my thoughts almost exactly. The point of the book isn't to read it at 150bpm or whatever. The point is to learn the styles and get familiar with them. Then you join a band that's doing this stuff and really learn to play it. Additionally, there's nothing mind bending about the theory of it, so it doesn't need explanation. If you're using this book, you should already know the theory behind it.

 

[Spin Doctor]

My main beef with Oscar’s book is that it doesn’t really explain what’s going on from a theoretical perspective. If you don’t already have a clear understanding of clave and of the roles of the other instruments (and of what differentiates the multitude of Latin styles) you might find things a bit confusing.

Those looking to get into the style need to start at the beginning and work up. I don't expect everything published to be a one-stop shop. Sometimes you just gotta look around dig through stuff. I found this in a random google search. Didn't really check it out, but one thing I noted was, "...most Cuban musicians don't distinguish between the 3-2 and the 2-3 configuration. To them, clave is clave, however it happens and however it best serves the music. For them, being "en clave" is a way of living. According to Mongo Santamaria, "In Cuba, we just play. We feel it, we don't talk about such things. In Cuba, we don't think about it. We know that we're en clave. Because we know that we have to be en clave to be a musician."

Clave Rhythm Is Key In Latin jazz

 

[bass12]

Those looking to get into the style need to start at the beginning and work up. I don't expect everything published to be a one-stop shop. Sometimes you just gotta look around dig through stuff. I found this in a random google search. Didn't really check it out, but one thing I noted was, "...most Cuban musicians don't distinguish between the 3-2 and the 2-3 configuration. To them, clave is clave, however it happens and however it best serves the music. For them, being "en clave" is a way of living. According to Mongo Santamaria, "In Cuba, we just play. We feel it, we don't talk about such things. In Cuba, we don't think about it. We know that we're en clave. Because we know that we have to be en clave to be a musician."

Clave Rhythm Is Key In Latin jazz

Yes, but Oscar’s book is pan-Latin/Caribbean - it’s not a book that specializes in one particular style. With a “survey” style book I would expect to be given more information on key concepts and style indicators (it is called a “practical guide” after all).

 

[Spin Doctor]

Yes, but Oscar’s book is pan-Latin/Caribbean - it’s not a book that specializes in one particular style. With a “survey” style book I would expect to be given more information on key concepts and style indicators (it is called a “practical guide” after all).

Yep I can see that.