Customer Reviews

Fingerboard Harmony for Bass

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book efficiently combines fingerings with music. (While most books rely on technique which is useless).
Unfortunatly, most guitarists and bassists focus on scales and arpeggios only without making music only to show off their skill.
But that ain't skill, force without emotion is only mass.

I improved my harmonical awareness with this book which greatly improves my overall musicianship (not only my bass playing).

Already ordered ear training, gary, your the teacher of my dreams.

It seems to me that this book was written for jazz walking bass only. It is also not very helpful because there are hardly any exercises to practice the theory being presented. It is easy to say things like: "Use passing tones between chord tones", or :"Try to stay away from always playing the root on beat one". A short 2 bar example following is not of much help either.
The other problem I had with this course was the author attempting to make the student "see all the chord tones of each chord throughout the entire fingerboard". Again this may be possible with correct exercises, otherwise only experts with many years of playing exprience would be capable of that.

I was learning from "Walking Bass Lines" by Ed Friedland at the time and I must admit that this is a much better manual and explains the same material followed by simple and developmental exercises. You will get so much more out of this book than FBH.

All in all this manual is for pros that most likely already know all the material. (refresher course maybe?)
But if you are learning bass you won't get very far before you dump this into your closet.

Very good book for the intermediate bassist looking to broaden their bass playing skills from 3 chord rock. I have been playing for two years. Helps you understand fundamentals and may even help you with your creative side if you want to try your hand at writing, or, come up with counter melodies and steal some thunder back from your guitarist.

Worth the cost new.

This is my first Amazon.com purchase. This book/CD has great information for 4,5, and 6 string bass guitars. The condition of the book/CD is excellent! Thank you very much!

I didn't give it a 5 star rating because it failed to provide me with the answers to everything I need to know about bass soloing.
No grid method? no answers on how to play at lightning speed?
(For humor, please refer to paragraph above.)

A simple almost basic understanding of theory is all that is required.
He won't show you that. Like most teachers, we all know that all it takes is one bad teacher and the rest of your learning could begin to Domino. Bottom line in my opinion is, this method of learning I understood, but he might not be the choice for you. Everyone learns differently.

I found his way of teaching insightful! If you know any of his work, you probably know what to expect.

This entire book can be summed up in the info contained on page 25 and 68-69. Everything else is just exercises for how to build jazz style walking bass lines (as opposed to country or blues walking bass lines). Go to www guitargrid com for a much better system of learning fretboard harmony. I've been playing guitar for 14 years and bass for 9. I have a bachelor's degree in classical guitar performance and have authored a book on how to play bass guitar. I learned more about where the notes are on guitar/bass in an hour with this system than in 4 years of music college. Learn and improvise in all the modes, pentatonic, blues, major & minor scales as well as arpeggios and chords starting on any note anywhere on the neck using about a half dozen easy to memorize patterns. You don't even have to read notation or tab!

A comprehensive source for learning the theory and geometry of the bass fingerboard by one of today's leading players and instructors. Audio features Gary Willis demonstrating 99 examples and exercises.