The Best of Victor Wooten

Rating:
Summary: Consider yourself really good
Review: Accurate as hell. Victor has truly given us bass players a gift in publishing these transcriptions. What would have taken a good 6 weeks to figure out by ear now takes me...a lot less time. He includes comments on each song at a list in the beginning of the book which are helpful and interesting. If you're going to use this book, follow Victor's advice that he includes in which he suggests that those who use it should listen to the music along with the transcriptions to develop one's ear properly.

To those who say that this book is a way of "cheating" in learning his music, I would say that whatever allows me to learn his stuff quickly and with greater accuracy designates my use of this book as a positive thing.

Rating:
Summary: what this really is
Review: I own this book and am very satisfied with it.it has all of the greats live amzing grace classical thump and stomping grounds.its great if you want to learn just the songs but it doesn't teach you more than that.no techniques or anything wich would be really nice to have from a bass god like Vic.

Rating:
Summary: excellent for building technique
Review: I'm definitely not at the level of bass playing where I can pick up a transcription book of Victor Wooten's songs and be playing them a couple of hours later (not that I won't try, heh).

But there are definitely some grooves in here that intermediate level players such as myself can play and just groove on for a while (see Sex in a Pan).

Where I've been able to use this book most is in building my technique up, especially in the thumb stuff. I've been working through Classical Thump slowly, and gradually getting more speed and dexterity in playing through this piece, and it's helped me out as an etude for my thumb technique. To quote Victor's program notes, "Once you get this song under your belt, you'll pretty much know everything that I know."

This book has 12 other cool pieces to tackle, varying in level of difficulty. Some other thoughtful features of this book are the program notes included for each song, as well as the complete notation legend. Also, all the music is notated in staff and TAB, giving you two options to choose from there.

Overall, although this was delayed in being released, it's a very complete transcription book that, in my opinion, goes above and at the same time is a little bit more personal than the transcription books of great bass players that I've bought before.

Rating:
Summary: Got bass?
Review: Let's be real here, folks; you won't learn a lotta these songs any other way than to buy this book. And they're not even transcribed by someone else, Victor himself wrote out the pieces so you know they're accurate. I transcribed "Norwegian Wood" by watching his hands on the Bass Day video and warped the tape because I rewound & paused it so much. If only this had been available then, I wouldn't have had to spend another $25 on the DVD....

Seriously though, if you're an avid Wooten fan you'll be pleased, several of his more difficult songs are in here. I think "The Sinister Minister" solo has been long awaited, as well as "U Can't Hold No Groove" and "Amazing Grace". I tried to knock out "The Vision" for a while but now I don't have to! You won't learn anything revolutionary about his technique, but if you follow Vic closely you know the tricks already. You're limited by the fact that he plays so fast you can't figure out the notes. No longer!

I definitely think that "Me And My Bass Guitar" should have been in here, but I've got enuff songs to learn for now without tackling that one.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book from the best bass player in the world
Review: There are few bassists who can compete with Victor Wooten for the title of best bassist in the world. Maybe Michael Manring or Bill Dickens but that's not the point. This book has transcriptions of some of Victor's most jaw-dropping bass performances and if you think that you are good at bass you should definitely buy this book and see how good you really are. The pieces in this book are amazing and challenging. Be warned though, the transcription of Amazing Grace is just an outline of some of the things Victor plays rather than a transcription of an actual recording. Also Classical Thump has a section in it that isn't transcribed and just says ad lib rubato. Other than that though this book is highly recommended for the extremely advanced bass player. If you are not already familiar with double thumb, double pluck, and two hand tapping techniques you might want to check out Bass Extremes before you try to tackle this one.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book from the best bass player in the world
Review: There are few bassists who can compete with Victor Wooten for the title of best bassist in the world. Maybe Michael Manring or Bill Dickens but that's not the point. This book has transcriptions of some of Victor's most jaw-dropping bass performances and if you think that you are good at bass you should definitely buy this book and see how good you really are. The pieces in this book are amazing and challenging. Be warned though, the transcription of Amazing Grace is just an outline of some of the things Victor plays rather than a transcription of an actual recording. Also Classical Thump has a section in it that isn't transcribed and just says ad lib rubato. Other than that though this book is highly recommended for the extremely advanced bass player. If you are not already familiar with double thumb, double pluck, and two hand tapping techniques you might want to check out Bass Extremes before you try to tackle this one.

Rating:
Summary: most excellent,but...........
Review: This is definately the most amazing book that i've ever bought! The techniques used in each song will tremendously improve my skill and help me be a better player.I am however dissapointed ,because in the lessons section on the victor wooten website,he advertised ME AND MY BASS GUITAR as one of the songs to be included in the book of transcriptions.This happens to be my favourite song from victor wooten,and i hope i could get it later on.In spite of that i still rate the book with 5 stars.Get it now!!!!!