First Bass: The Ultimate Guide to Bass Fundamentals [Paperback]

Josquin des Pres (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2005

First Bass is the ultimate book of fundamentals for the electric bass, designed to take the beginner to the next level. Through indispensable reading basics and exercises, this unique guide explores all techniques, concepts, and styles that cover 50 years of electric bass playing. The author also analyses scales, modes, popular music chord progressions, equipment, special effects, and recording techniques are also analyzed, giving bass players all the tools they need to improve their skills and develop their own styles. The audio CD demonstrates examples from the book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087930846X
• ISBN-13: 978-0879308469
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,002,984 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Play That Funky Music WhiteBoy, March 26, 2007

By 

BASS DAD "the progenitor" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: First Bass: The Ultimate Guide to Bass Fundamentals (Paperback)

My son was assigned this book by his bass teacher after his first year (every other week) of lessons. It is very challenging but not to the point of frustration for him. Note that he has played the piano for several years, so he already understands a lot of theory in general. This book would probably be a bit much for a true beginner. First Bass appears to be very complete and introduces a wide spectrum of styles.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Resource for Bass Player, November 11, 2009

By 

perrymasonary "perrymasonary" (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: First Bass: The Ultimate Guide to Bass Fundamentals (Paperback)

First Bass is a resource more than a textbook or method book on bass guitar. This book is best used in conjunction with other method books. It is an excellent resource for learning rhythms. The other 2 reviewers make excellent points about this book. However, as a resource it gets 5 stars from me.

Section 3 on buildling bass lines is very valuable to a beginner used along with the sound tracks for the many examples. The Techniques Section 4 is a bit difficult without having a teacher demonstrate, yet used with the sound tracks it is good for ear training on technique and rhythms.

For me the best part of the book was the Bass Playing Styles along with the sound tracks (MP3) which is worth the price of the book alone.

For a beginner that gets board with the beginning bass books, this book is a challenge and can be used in conjunction with other methods, as the title says its The Ultimate Guide to Bass Guitar Fundamentals."

The author does an excellent job covering a wide variety of areas important to becoming a successful bass player.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Josquin Des Pres tries to cover too many bases!, February 2, 2009

By 

Paul Wolfe "author of Deliberate Practice For... (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: First Bass: The Ultimate Guide to Bass Fundamentals (Paperback)

Josquin Des Pres tries to cover too many bases in this book - there are chapters on Reading, Warm-Ups, Building bass lines, Techniques and Bass playing styles. There's only 96 pages in the whole book - and he uses nearly half of them for the first section on Reading.

As a result the material covered in each section suffers from not being presented at sufficient depth - each of his chapters could be covered (AND HAVE BEEN) by complete books, or series of books.

This is a book to skip - if there are specific areas covered by the book that you want to work on, find a book that deals with just those specific areas and get that instead.