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The Ultimate Bass Guide... Opinion please.

Roland De Aragon

Roland De Aragon

Guest
Jan 26, 2015
10
3
Los Angeles, CA
#1
This forum is great and I'm totally digging it.

Anyways..

I've been an instructor for 15 years and have taught through many bass books for beginners. But I sometimes always seem to have to revert to my own experience or hop to another bass guide because that one guide is always missing something.

If I had the ultimate bass guide what would that guide contain? So many bass books out there contain a lot of the same info.

What contents would you have wanted when you first started playing bass?

Please let me know I would love to hear your opinion.

And maybe in the future I might create the ultimate bass guide.=) Thanks
 
#4
Since I'm a beginner, I can tell you from my current experience - I want to be able to understand songs that I like. I don't want to just play them. I want to be able to connect the dots between what I read in books (scales, chords, progressions, all that stuff) and see how they were applied to songs. I want them spelled out really clearly so that I can follow, since a lot of the theoretical concepts are different when you're reading about them and trying to practice them via exercises on your bass and when you're listening to them and suddenly, its not just a chord being played, but other stuff embellishing a part.

I'd love a write-up of how to analyze a song, maybe even in different levels, like how to identify a key, then how to work out the progression, how to pick out what chords are being used in the bassline and what parts aren't chords, but are chromatic runs or leading notes, or other stuff. I also think this would have to be a series or a website, because everyone's musical tastes are different, so it would be hard to be all-inclusive in a single print volume.
 
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#6
If you really want to write an ultimate beginners guide, don't start with your knowledge of bass. Instead, do some research into Instructional Systems Design which will give you an insight as to why Subject Matter Experts often produce instructional material that is not as effective as it might be despite their mastery of the subject.

BTW: You are already heading in the right direction by doing an informal 'user analysis'
 
#7
Jools4001 said:
If you really want to write an ultimate beginners guide, don't start with your knowledge of bass. Instead, do some research into Instructional Systems Design which will give you an insight as to why Subject Matter Experts often produce instructional material that is not as effective as it might be despite their mastery of the subject.

BTW: You are already heading in the right direction by doing an informal 'user analysis'
Click to expand...
Hey amigo thanks I truly appreciate your opinion.=)
 
#9
vishalicious said:
Since I'm a beginner, I can tell you from my current experience - I want to be able to understand songs that I like. I don't want to just play them. I want to be able to connect the dots between what I read in books (scales, chords, progressions, all that stuff) and see how they were applied to songs. I want them spelled out really clearly so that I can follow, since a lot of the theoretical concepts are different when you're reading about them and trying to practice them via exercises on your bass and when you're listening to them and suddenly, its not just a chord being played, but other stuff embellishing a part.

I'd love a write-up of how to analyze a song, maybe even in different levels, like how to identify a key, then how to work out the progression, how to pick out what chords are being used in the bassline and what parts aren't chords, but are chromatic runs or leading notes, or other stuff. I also think this would have to be a series or a website, because everyone's musical tastes are different, so it would be hard to be all-inclusive in a single print volume.
Click to expand...

Great insight man. Really helps.
 
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#10
The first things i wanted to learn after i managed the basics (how to hold your hands, pluck the strings and stuff) was:
-How to learn a song by ear (back when i started, you did not just google the tab, you had to sit down in front of the stereo and listen to that song over and over until you had it)
-How to play along when a guitar plays something. I realized that after being in a metal band for some time where i was the human octave (which was good for me, back then), that there's more to bass than playing the roots. I was fast, i was tight, i had a good sense of timing and i was completely lost when an acoustic played something dead simple like A-D-G.
 
#11
#12
I have one book that I use for my bass instruction , Its a guitar book , but I recommend it to everyone who is learning guitar or bass , it is called "THE GUITAR HANDBOOK" by Ralph Dennyer . it is very good when it comes to the instruction of theory and shows you all the scales ,modes and it explains melody and harmony and rhythm .
 
#13
vishalicious said:
Since I'm a beginner, I can tell you from my current experience - I want to be able to understand songs that I like. I don't want to just play them. I want to be able to connect the dots between what I read in books (scales, chords, progressions, all that stuff) and see how they were applied to songs. I want them spelled out really clearly so that I can follow, since a lot of the theoretical concepts are different when you're reading about them and trying to practice them via exercises on your bass and when you're listening to them and suddenly, its not just a chord being played, but other stuff embellishing a part.

I'd love a write-up of how to analyze a song, maybe even in different levels, like how to identify a key, then how to work out the progression, how to pick out what chords are being used in the bassline and what parts aren't chords, but are chromatic runs or leading notes, or other stuff. I also think this would have to be a series or a website, because everyone's musical tastes are different, so it would be hard to be all-inclusive in a single print volume.
Click to expand...

What vishalicious posted really hit home with me. I'd agree with what was stated there. I still struggle with chords, scales, modes, and etc and trying to figure out how all this really plays into making up a bass line that fits in the song I'm playing at the time. I've spent untold money on books, videos, course work, and more....and all to lead me down the same exact path that all the other materials led me down....frustrating and non-productive IMHO.

Writing a bass book that is the ultimate book? Listen to all those here that struggle to learn and allow them to help you write the book. Include me or don't include me in your list of those to ask. It matters not to me....I just want to find a resource that is beneficial to all of us that strive to advance our playing skills.
 
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#15
My college roomie had the Guitar Handbook
And while it's been years since I looked at it I found it very comprehensive.
Good overview of the notable players, styles, theory, nice graphics and diagrams.
Short on notation -but as a beginner lots of notation was a turn off.

The biggest hole in all of bass teaching , as exemplified by other posts, is the practical application of theory to creating music.
Although one could argue that you don't truly 'apply theory' to create music :
you create what sounds good, and apply theory to understand it better.

The only path to that is to learn lots of bass lines and then reverse engineer them
I have never seen a chapter in a bass music book about how one might approach this task.
(although Ed Fuqua's article is a close relation to the idea)
 
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