- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,152
- 256,473
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- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
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Well, I've collected the study materials...
- Thread starter LetItGrowTone
- Start date
Ari Cap:
If you're less interested in learning to read music *first*, and more interested in "reading" the fretboard first - learning patterns and music theory from the start via fretboard diagrams - then Ari Cap is for you. She is by far the most fretboard-diagram oriented. She is a very, very clear writer, and I think her books stand out as sufficient for her method, even without the videos.
Berlin:
If you're most interested in learning to read music *first*, and with no discursions into music theory - even omitting the names of the notes - so that you can look at a score and play it on the bass, Berlin is the only one (of those I listed above) who does it like this. I find this attractive. And I told you, I think his video affect is perfect for getting *this* job done. Here the videos are essential for most people, because his pdf downloads include no note names, no tab, no guidance with regard to what finger to use, etc. You just watch him and that's it.
Ed Friedland (via Hal Leonard Bass Method, Complete Edition):
He is closer to Berlin (all written music rather than tab or fretboard diagram), but you learn the note names and get fingering suggestions as you go, gradually building up to the whole fretboard. And, you get little songs with accompaniment to play along with (@ Hal Leonard site), and you can pan from left to right to get more or less of the bass included, and can adjust the speed and pitch independently. This is probably more digestible for most people. He has written a lot of other books too, most also with audio at Hal Leonard.
Others:
As I said, I won't dismiss these easily.
I am now working on - actually studying!! - the Talkingbass (Mark Smith) ear training course. It starts out very easy and progresses little by little. Ultimately, one should be able to hear a note or line in the mind, or by singing it, and play it straight out on the bass.
In my words: as with singing, which we've practiced since childhood, where we hear notes in our mind and our vocal mechanism can measure out the next interval and hit the next note (without knowing any music theory), in the same way we should be able to "sing" on the bass with our fingers instead of the vocal cords. Sounds good to me.
He is no-nonsense and I like him too.
If you're less interested in learning to read music *first*, and more interested in "reading" the fretboard first - learning patterns and music theory from the start via fretboard diagrams - then Ari Cap is for you. She is by far the most fretboard-diagram oriented. She is a very, very clear writer, and I think her books stand out as sufficient for her method, even without the videos.
Berlin:
If you're most interested in learning to read music *first*, and with no discursions into music theory - even omitting the names of the notes - so that you can look at a score and play it on the bass, Berlin is the only one (of those I listed above) who does it like this. I find this attractive. And I told you, I think his video affect is perfect for getting *this* job done. Here the videos are essential for most people, because his pdf downloads include no note names, no tab, no guidance with regard to what finger to use, etc. You just watch him and that's it.
Ed Friedland (via Hal Leonard Bass Method, Complete Edition):
He is closer to Berlin (all written music rather than tab or fretboard diagram), but you learn the note names and get fingering suggestions as you go, gradually building up to the whole fretboard. And, you get little songs with accompaniment to play along with (@ Hal Leonard site), and you can pan from left to right to get more or less of the bass included, and can adjust the speed and pitch independently. This is probably more digestible for most people. He has written a lot of other books too, most also with audio at Hal Leonard.
Others:
As I said, I won't dismiss these easily.
I am now working on - actually studying!! - the Talkingbass (Mark Smith) ear training course. It starts out very easy and progresses little by little. Ultimately, one should be able to hear a note or line in the mind, or by singing it, and play it straight out on the bass.
In my words: as with singing, which we've practiced since childhood, where we hear notes in our mind and our vocal mechanism can measure out the next interval and hit the next note (without knowing any music theory), in the same way we should be able to "sing" on the bass with our fingers instead of the vocal cords. Sounds good to me.
He is no-nonsense and I like him too.
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I went through Mark Smith's Simple Steps to Walking Bass lines course and am just getting towards the end of the Chord Tone Essentials course. He really is an amazing teacher. He starts simple and builds in a sequential and logical manner. I have his ultimate Music theory to work through next. But I have to say I look forwards to doing each of his lessons. There is no fluff, just straight to the point and relevant information.
- Oct 22, 2015
- 21,152
- 256,473
- Disclosures
- I am an affiliate for Ari Cap.
Ari Cap is starting a 10 unit live study in reading in February.
Nineteen months later:
I let myself down in that regard, and also continued spending money unnecessarily.
Both scrolling here (instead of studying and practicing), and also shopping and spending money, is addictive and we know that.
I aim to try again. Good luck to you too.
This was intended to be a helpful suggestion, that I posted earlier:
What I must avoid is clicking off that filter, which then shows everything, and I get entangled for hours and accomplish nothing.
Over the years I've accumulated quite a collection of electric bass books and study material. A lot of it I worked through 'back in the day', starting in the early 1980s with Chuck Rainey's 'Complete Electric Bass Player' series, and 'one-off' things from Clive Harrison, Rick Laird, Joe Hubbard, Adam Novik and the like. Others I've picked up more recently, as much out of curiosity as well as to try to keep things fresh. Taken alongside each other they all start to look very much alike - different takes on the same 'stuff'.
In terms of methods, the 'Complete' version of Friedland/Hal Leonard Bass Method (HLBM) sets the current standard, but over time and in a "GOAT Shoot-out", I would place the 1985 Chuck Rainey Method (book 1 in the 'Complete Electric Bass Player 'series) at the top. Both are Standard Notation and both include more than enough to get a non-reader going - the HLBM has slower start from a lower level so is probably better in that regard, but overall the Rainey book will take you further. Compared to the HLBM, the topics covered by Rainey go to greater depth and within each topic there are several exercises which start simple then go on to be more challenging than anything in HLBM.
The Jeff Berlin reading stuff is good material but really needs to be used either alongside a method book or under the guidance of a teacher - it is devoid of anything connecting the music on the page to the physical execution of the music on the instrument.
For someone looking to sight-read, the Sight-Reading Studies collections from Robert Anthony are excellent, and Rick Appleman's "Reading Contemporary Electric Bass" is also pretty good.
I have a few of the 'Walking' books (Pattitucci, Berlin, Fuqua, Tate, etc.) - the principles of Walking Bass are long established and largely unchanging, so any one of these would have done fine.
I have a handful of 'deep dives', such as "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", Ed Friedland's "Reggae" treatise, the excellent "Latin Bass Book" by Oscar Stagnaro & Chuck Sher and a couple of the "<Insert Name of Your Favourite Player Here>" transcription books that I would hazard everyone has and rarely opens.
Through all of this, whilst I've had a good deal of music education and training, I've never once had a bass lesson. Electric bass tuition didn't really exist when I started out, so Rainey was pretty much the only thing going apart from one-page articles in magazines. Thankfully, back then, Guitar Player had some pretty good bass contributors - Jeff Berlin, Herb Mickman, Carol Kaye, Stanley Clarke, Bunny Brunel amongst them. In 1984 they put out a book with all of the collected bass articles in one place, called simply 'Electric Bass Guitar'. There was no structured or progressive 'method' to any of it, but on some level or other it covered pretty much anything you could think of. By the late '80s it was out of print and the original 1984 edition is pretty much lost in time. But a revised edition was published by Hal Leonard under ISBN 0881889075. I suspect it is out of print again but IME is worth a look, if only for the Mickman stuff.
In terms of methods, the 'Complete' version of Friedland/Hal Leonard Bass Method (HLBM) sets the current standard, but over time and in a "GOAT Shoot-out", I would place the 1985 Chuck Rainey Method (book 1 in the 'Complete Electric Bass Player 'series) at the top. Both are Standard Notation and both include more than enough to get a non-reader going - the HLBM has slower start from a lower level so is probably better in that regard, but overall the Rainey book will take you further. Compared to the HLBM, the topics covered by Rainey go to greater depth and within each topic there are several exercises which start simple then go on to be more challenging than anything in HLBM.
The Jeff Berlin reading stuff is good material but really needs to be used either alongside a method book or under the guidance of a teacher - it is devoid of anything connecting the music on the page to the physical execution of the music on the instrument.
For someone looking to sight-read, the Sight-Reading Studies collections from Robert Anthony are excellent, and Rick Appleman's "Reading Contemporary Electric Bass" is also pretty good.
I have a few of the 'Walking' books (Pattitucci, Berlin, Fuqua, Tate, etc.) - the principles of Walking Bass are long established and largely unchanging, so any one of these would have done fine.
I have a handful of 'deep dives', such as "Standing in the Shadows of Motown", Ed Friedland's "Reggae" treatise, the excellent "Latin Bass Book" by Oscar Stagnaro & Chuck Sher and a couple of the "<Insert Name of Your Favourite Player Here>" transcription books that I would hazard everyone has and rarely opens.
Through all of this, whilst I've had a good deal of music education and training, I've never once had a bass lesson. Electric bass tuition didn't really exist when I started out, so Rainey was pretty much the only thing going apart from one-page articles in magazines. Thankfully, back then, Guitar Player had some pretty good bass contributors - Jeff Berlin, Herb Mickman, Carol Kaye, Stanley Clarke, Bunny Brunel amongst them. In 1984 they put out a book with all of the collected bass articles in one place, called simply 'Electric Bass Guitar'. There was no structured or progressive 'method' to any of it, but on some level or other it covered pretty much anything you could think of. By the late '80s it was out of print and the original 1984 edition is pretty much lost in time. But a revised edition was published by Hal Leonard under ISBN 0881889075. I suspect it is out of print again but IME is worth a look, if only for the Mickman stuff.
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