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Best bass book for total newbie


Thundr

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1 hour ago, Coilte said:

Agree totally. Granted, it is not going to make you into a virtuoso (no book can), but if you are starting from "scratch" ... ( which I take to mean..you don't know your headstock from your saddle...😁)... then it is a great way to get started. 

Even if mr pfeiffer, who models for the photos, is one scary looking dude 

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You guys SO rock! Many thanks. It's looking like any two of: 

  1. Hal Leonard Bass Method: Complete Edition Spiral-bound (Leonard); 
  2. Music Theory for the Bass Player (Cap); and 
  3. Bass Guitar For Dummies: Book + Online Video (Pfeiffer) 

Amazon.com's and Amazon.co.uk's Look Inside features have been useful -- and lay-flat spiral bindings are better than sliced bread. How important is it that these books cover "Tab" notation? 

T

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Ooh ... can of worms ... 

tab is useful for newbies for confidence, you find out “how to play” in terms of getting the right notes but it teaches nothing about rhythm. You can learn notation and so take in more music, not just music voiced for bass guitar. 
I favour tab + which combines a suggested fingering of the notes with rhythm shown in standard notation. Best of both worlds

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Tab is the 'Fairy Wheels' one puts on kiddies bikes to get 'em started. It's possible to do a lot of biking with them on, and they're a Good Thing for what they're for, but there's so much more scope when they get taken off. Advice..? Get started on Tab, but get stuck into the 'standard' notation when it comes up, as it will. As a beginner, the 'standard' notation starts off at beginner level, so it's easy. As one progresses, it gets assimilated naturally. Don't be frightened by it; it's just like the way you learned to read, or do arithmetic (you did learn to read and do arithmetic, I trust..? :/ ). 

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"Frightened" doesn't come into it: I asked because I read a piece that mentioned tab as being a widespread notation for guitarists and bassists. And yes, I can read, and do arithmetic (as a physicist turned cyptosecurity manager). 😉

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22 hours ago, Thundr said:

How important is it that these books cover "Tab" notation?

Now is the perfect opportunity to avoid tab and go straight to reading music.  If I was to give one piece of advice to me starting out 100 years ago, it'd be try to avoid tab if poss. That and if your strap is twisted, whichever way your turn it will be the wrong way.

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11 hours ago, toneknob said:

Now is the perfect opportunity to avoid tab and go straight to reading music.  If I was to give one piece of advice to me starting out 100 years ago, it'd be try to avoid tab if poss. 

This - wish I'd learned to read years ago too. Would've taken me on a very different career path. There's a keys player in one of my bands who does pit work occasionally and he said he'd take me on for the pit band, but the only thing that lets me down is that my reading chops aren't great ☹️

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The following appeared in a recent Guitar World interview with the great Rocco Prestia from Tower Of Power:

"Looking back over your 50-year career, do you have regrets?

Sure—I should have involved myself more in the business and leadership side of TOP, instead of just going along for the ride. I might have gotten into writing sooner and helped with decisions on some of the directions we went in. I also should have learned to read music. Not being able to read handcuffed me drastically, because there’s so much work that can be had with that one skill. I gave up on it early; I just didn’t have the patience required, and then my career got underway. I’ll follow chord and even notated charts as best I can, but best for me is when someone calls out the changes."

(https://www.guitarworld.com/features/rocco-prestia-looking-back-on-50-years-with-tower-of-power)

 

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