Customer Reviews

Mel Bay J. S. Bach for Bass

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a long time guitar picker who recently became obsessed with all things Jaco Pastorius, I felt the need to purchase a bass guitar and plumet the depths of the F clef. This streamlined volume contains 10 pieces by J.S. Bach transcribed for the bass in TAB as well as traditional notation. It's a no-frills, no filler, edition packed with 100% protein! I chose this book over the other Bach for Bass book offered at Amazon mainly because this included a CD in the bargain. The material contained in this book is such a rich and solid foundation in the construction of scales and chords, that it would be beneficial to anyone interested in building their own solid musical vocabulary. So, continue to slap and pop that bass! But if you want to turn some heads,try playing melodically. This is the book to plant musical seeds with!

These arrangements are simply beautiful. Challenging, but very rewarding. Great for personal enjoyment or private study. As a teacher, this is one of the materials I use with my students in their private lessons.

After hearing Jack Bruce, Phil Lesh and many other greats talk about the bass lines of Bach, this book became an obvious buy. Only learned a song or 2 as of yet, and it is plenty challenging for this 6 year 4 -stringer. I can easily say i've never played anything as beautiful on a bass as what this book has shown me.

Pretty Sweet book. If you are looking to breathe some fresh air into your repertoire, or perhaps step outside styles. This may be the book for you. I found it gave a different perspective on an instrument I've played for twenty+ years. Classical style music may not be your cup of tea, but given a chance, Bach's compositions transcend styles and time. Simply good music, that is both fun and challenging.
Comes with both Standard notation and tab. As with all tab, you'll have had to have heard the piece beforehand to make sense of it. Highly recommended

This stuff is challenging, but not impossible, and Bach was such a genius and his music flows so naturally (don't know how else to explain it) that it's fun to improvise after getting the patterns down. The tab, along with standard notation, is handy for fingering.

Any bassist, or any musician for that matter should take the time to study J.S. Bach. These studies help improve left hand dexterity and open your eyes to a whole world of runs you might have not thought about before. A must for a beginner, great challange for intermediate, great maintenance for experts.

IMO Bach does not sound good on an electric bass. Even the pieces written for cello. Yes, I've seen/heard the stuff on YouTube, some of it by eminent players. It can be fun, it is certainly a challenge, but on EB it is not musically satisfying to anyone other than the player. But performing a solo recital isn't the only reason to tackle a project like Bach's music.

I have two of the popular Bach-for-bass books and frankly for the kind of benefit they provide, one is as good as the other. The CD provided with this one is nearly useless except to prove that Bach suffers badly from even a competent performance. Des Prez's mechanical run-through provides a fine example of why Back on electric bass is not musical. You can get a better sense of the music (the nuance, the emotion and beauty) by listening to it played on violin or cello.
--In fact, since there are several versions of just about all of these pieces on YouTube and millions of recordings, I'd recommend checking out a couple to get a sense of the pacing and dynamic possibilities. If you can read treble clef you can download free sheet music and not need this book at all.

But there are real benefits to practicing Bach on electric bass. The reason to get a book like this is to improve your sight reading and timing; to practice alternate fingering (get out of the pentatonic box); learn the high end of the neck; dig into a little theory as the marvelous and sometimes perverse logic of the compositions becomes clear. If you get to pieces written for the organ you will find some heavy duty bass lines in the left hand.

You can also take any piece you have become familiar with and syncopate it, put a rhythmic twist in it. That is fun to do and I find it helps memorizing, but don't kid yourself. It's a cheap shot and not a substitute for playing it straight from beginning to end.

OK I won't rant against the tab. Publishers can't sell books without it. But it sure does take up space. Most of these pieces only need two pages but go to 3 or 4, which makes playing through them more of a pain unless you have a second fiddle turning the pages.

It is desirable, but not necessary to have a 24-fret neck. I'd also recommend playing any of these on a 5 string (which is another thing that makes the tab useless). Of course you can play them on a 4, that has its own challenges and it might be fun to tune your 4 to CGDA like a cello. But a 5 has all the flexibility you need for those low octave jumps and more options for playing lower on the neck.

Really great book! I used to play all of these songs when I played cello. It's nice to play these songs again on bass. I would reccomend any serious bass player to get this book. They might not be show music, but it is real relaxing playing through these timless songs.

We all love Bach, so why not try and learn many of his wonderful works on bass? The transcriptions in this book are written in both TAB and standard notation. Because of the two formats, anyone can work through the pieces contained in this book. Many of them are chalenging, yet very rewarding to play. These pieces have really helped my technique, and they will help yours two. I am currently trying to learn the Cello Suite. Whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or expert player, you will get something out of this book. It may be a little tough for someone just starting, but it wont hurt anything and someone just starting will certainly eventually be able to play some of this book. Also, if you are a touring bass player, playing some JS Bach will really impress a crowd.

When an accurate,fairly priced, and well made book like this comes out, it is a real treat to have. I highly recomend every bassist to get this and work through the fantastic material contained in its pages.

I'll admit that these beautiful cello suites do not sound that great when played on bass, BUT they make for very efficient and fun exercise for improving bass technique/technical efficiency; and provide myriad ideas for improvisation patterns.