Mel Bay's Deluxe Jazz & Rock Bass Method

Rating:
Summary: Hands down, the most COMPLETE bass book I've ever seen.
Review: I've read and owned lots of bass guitar books, but this is the one book that seems to cover everything. Starting with the most basic introductory material such as "how to hold the bass guitar", the book advances all the way down to things like "Lydian Augmented scales in the 12th position". Besides the expected subjects (scales, modes, progressions, intervals, key signatures, etc.) there are even lessons on bass duets and general subjects like relative pitch training for your ears. The book indirectly teaches better sheet music reading by cleverly making each successive exercise more rhythmically complex as the book goes on. Of course, when you cram so much information into a single book, the material inevitably moves a bit fast (otherwise, you'd have to write the book twice as long). So my only complaint is that it's not very user-friendly as a beginner's total self-instruction book. And I know there are many who don't particulary like the typical Mel Bay methods of instruction. Still, the book is perfect if you have an instructor helping you along, or you're a moderate or advanced player who just wants to review certain sections and maybe pick up something new. I've been playing bass for over a dozen years, but I still like to occasionally review sections and play some of the exercises for practice. Despite its fast pace, the incredible span of information in this single book makes me give it 5 stars. If you had to buy just one bass book to last your whole lifetime, I recommend this one without a doubt.

Rating:
Summary: Hands down, the most COMPLETE bass book I've ever seen.
Review: I've read and owned lots of bass guitar books, but this is the one book that seems to cover everything. Starting with the most basic introductory material such as "how to hold the bass guitar", the book advances all the way down to things like "Lydian Augmented scales in the 12th position". Besides the expected subjects (scales, modes, progressions, intervals, key signatures, etc.) there are even lessons on bass duets and general subjects like relative pitch training for your ears. The book indirectly teaches better sheet music reading by cleverly making each successive exercise more rhythmically complex as the book goes on. Of course, when you cram so much information into a single book, the material inevitably moves a bit fast (otherwise, you'd have to write the book twice as long). So my only complaint is that it's not very user-friendly as a beginner's total self-instruction book. And I know there are many who don't particulary like the typical Mel Bay methods of instruction. Still, the book is perfect if you have an instructor helping you along, or you're a moderate or advanced player who just wants to review certain sections and maybe pick up something new. I've been playing bass for over a dozen years, but I still like to occasionally review sections and play some of the exercises for practice. Despite its fast pace, the incredible span of information in this single book makes me give it 5 stars. If you had to buy just one bass book to last your whole lifetime, I recommend this one without a doubt.