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What resource 'really' got you started ?

J

josh2slk

May 6, 2012
43
0
#1
Hello good people :-) fairly common question that I want to ask but pay attention to the little details.

What book/cd/DVD/resource 'REALLY' got you started on playing JAZZ style?

I mean a book/cd/DVD/resource that:
- teaches jazz bass at a level not tooo beginner to be boring and annoying but at the same time not too complex and overwhelming
-shows you what you need to know and not wander away from it too much
- is aimed At the intermediate player to advanced

I mean a book/cd/DVD/resource that does not:
-start up by showing how to hold a bass/change strings / parts of the bass etc
-
 
#3
Creating Jazz Bass Lines by Jim Stinnett

Starts with a jazz blues progression playing roots only, and then shows you how to add 1/2 steps, 3rds, 5ths, 7ths, etc to build more complex lines. If you take the concepts like the books says and extract all the permutations, annd in all keys, this book will keep you busy for a while.
 
#10
I'm working on walking bass lines and have been working with Ed Friedland's book, as well as Me Bay's Jay Hungerford and Ed Fuqua's book. All very good books with their own virtues, but what's finally got my muscle memory and mental working synchronized is Todd Johnson's Walking Bassline DVD/book series.
I'm much better at getting ahead of myself 'theoretically', but given my sometimes scattered practice schedule, I wasn't getting it engrained in my playing. There's nothing in the Todd Johnson approach that isn't in the Ed Friedland book, but what Ed condenses into one or two exercises Todd has maybe 10, so for someone like me that 's just starting in this 'way', that's very useful. I'm getting the idea and the implementation -- with Friedland's book I kept going back to previous exercises because I was more concentrating with getting the implementation and was losing the idea at work below.

I expect this sort of thing is very different with different students. I also expect the books I've already gathered will be even more useful once I get through the Todd Johnson 'school'.
 
#14
Jamey Aebersold, The Charlie Parker Omnibook, The New Real Book and Band in a Box.

I also had a very strong classical background with a lot of music theory and so the "math" already made sense to me.

edit: Oh yeah, Chord Studies for Electric Bass by Rich Appleman and Joe Viola. Nothing more than a sight reading exercise but it takes you from the bottom of the fingerboard to the top of the ledger lines in 2 bars.
 
#16
Progressive Bass: Beginner to Advanced by Gary Turner and Brenton White. Gave good tips and riffs for blues, rock and jazz. Also taught me a lot about transposing and scales. Then I got a teacher and I'm working through the rockschool grades (nearly finished 6). It doesn't teach bass, but my teacher constantly advises me on how to improve my technique. Teacher is much better than the book, but that's to be expected.
 
#17
YouTube + TalkBass + studybass.com + musictheory.net. This was all augmented by playing A LOT since I was the only bass player at my school.

I also already loved jazz, so I was listening to it 24/7 and internalized a lot of the things I wanted to be able to play.
 

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