The Funkmasters-the Great James Brown Rhythm Sections (Manhattan Music Publications) Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a very complete guide to the workings of one of the great R&B rhythm sections.The book is composed of 23 lessons examining the rhythm grooves for a selection of James Brown hits.Two CDs accompany the book.The lessons are arranged in chronological order by the date the songs were cut. Each lesson has printed material including an ensemble chart and individual charts for drums, bass, and guitar.Both staff and tab are given for guitar and bass.Historical and musical comments accompany each lesson.The CDs include four tracks per lesson: an ensemble track and the three individual instruments played at a slower speed.The mix is very clear and it is easy to distinguish the individual instruments in the ensemble track. While clearly intended as teaching tools, the tracks do have a feel that keeps the music compelling.
In terms of the level of difficulty, someone who didn't know this music might glance at the charts and conclude that the bass parts were (mostly) elementary, the guitar parts only slightly more difficult, while the drum parts combine fairly standard hand technique with advanced kick drum playing.Of course, this is misleading.It takes great timing to combine these parts in a way that has soul, and that's the great value of these lessons.A bass player (guitarist, drummer) trying to play this music has to really understand how he or she fits in with the other members of the ensemble.This is a very successful attempt to spell that out for the player.
One quibble: the organization of the historical material helps support the lessons, but makes it difficult to read as a straight narrative.One request: how about volume two with keyboard and horn charts?

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Product Description:
In this unique rhythm section workbook, 23 James Brown classics have been transcribed, broken down into individual lessons, and meticulously recreated on two one-hour CDs. Featuring legendary grooves from the guitarists, bassists, and drummers who ignited the Godfather of Soul for over three decades (including Jabo Starks, Bernard Odum, Clyde Stubblefield, Bootsy Collins, Jimmy Nolen, Country Kellum, and more), this book will enlighten and challenge your soul.

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Rotosound ROTOSOUND FM66 FUNK MASTER BASS STRINGS LNG SCALE Review

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(More customer reviews)These will give you that Stanley Clarke funky twang that pierces through the rhythm and into the frontlines of your band. I'd say the best way to describe the sound I get from these is halfway between a bass and a piccolo bass in tone and sound texture. I would not recommend these if you want a lot of low end, for music like hip hop and such, but for anything in the jazz/funk/fusion realm, or if you play a lot of chords and/or tap your bass, these are your strings. Plus, with a price point below 20 bucks, it's worth checking these out.

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Product Description:
Gauges: 30-50-70-90. Long scale. These light gauge sets became the funk and fusion choice of the '80s, made popular by such notables as Stanley Clarke and Mark King. Rotosound makes the world's most famous and highest-quality roundwound electric bass strings.

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Slap & Pop Bass Review

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(More customer reviews)I found this book to be extremely helpful in that all of the techniques used in the slap & pop style are introduced one at a time.Unlike other books, which throw the kitchen sink at you immediately, this book focuses on first the slap and muted notes along with bass lines using the technique, then the pop along with bass grooves using both slap & pop, then hammer-ons, pull-offs, even a little double popping.The layout of the book is logical and helps one get comfortable with each technique before introducing a new one.I like that each chapter has one bar grooves, two bar grooves and four bar grooves.The CD that accompanies the book is very helpful and gives you the opportunity to practice the bass lines at the given tempo with the CD.5 stars for this book.

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Product Description:
Learn to serve up funk-a-licious grooves and extract the vibrant percussive sounds hidden in the electric bass. Renowned expert, David Overthrow teaches everything you need to know to get started playing hot slap & pop bass lines. Following a clear and logical progression, each essential technique is covered individually, from hammer-ons and pull-offs to double pops and double stops. Your skills build gradually so learning is easy! Over 100 licks and grooves are provided, plus a special library of bass lines for additional fun. The CD demonstrates all the music featured in the book. A great book for any serious bass player, from beginner to advanced.

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Slap Bass Lines (Berklee Labs) Review

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(More customer reviews)The book doesn't really state who the target audience is, but based on the introduction and the material, it seems targeted to the beginning to intermediate player, who has little to no idea of slapping technique, and is looking for a place to start. Unfortunately, the book doesn't talk about how to actually slap and pop with regard to hand position and rotation of the wrist, nor is this knowledge listed as part of the prerequisites in the introduction. Armed with a little previous knowledge or an instructor, the book is useful in providing slap exercises, but don't expect your trombonist to walk away unaided as a Victor Wooten after five minutes.
The book progress over the course of 8 lessons starting with the simplest One-Chord Slap Grooves and Two-Chord SlapG rooves and ending with the more difficult Shuffle or 12/8 Slap Grooves and Odd-Time Slap Grooves with a few other approaches thrown in between. Each lesson has approximately 10 examples and CD tracks devoted to it, with each example being a two or four bar phrase out-lining an idea for demonstration within the context of the chapter.Each chapter ends with a "Song" that incorporates some of the ideas from the chapter's examples. Most of the examples do a good job of covering the main topic, while introducing some more advanced techniques like 16th note pop/slap combinations, double thumbing, which Santerre calls an "Up Stroke," (hopefully as a reference to the P-Funk song) denoted by a "U" along the way.
The quality of the CD is medium, consisting of a bass (of course) and synthesizers mixed at a relatively low volume.Evidentally, the mastering step isn't deemed necesary for an instructional book. The music plays twice for each of the example riffs, followed by two times without the bass to let the reader hear himself in his own nakedness. The CD is helpful in providing a musical context for the riffs, and adds dimension to a what would have been just another octave slap groove, despite the 7sus4 chord notation.The over all musicality of each of the examples is good, but the bass lines aren't quite melodic.I guess Santerre wanted to emphasize the groove aspect of slapping technique more than the "how to write a good slap line" aspect.
Greatly helping the book and saving it from "just another slap book" are the supplemental chapters on basic theory, which are really great for the beginner. Covered are key signatures, basic scale types, basic sight reading, and other topics which greatly add to the usefulness of the book. These chapters could really open the door for getting a newbie introduced to the theory before he's too far down a Tab only road.
There are a few notational errors in the book, but hopefully none that will throw the reader too far.Tab is included, which is nice for the beginner, and useful with respect to fingerings for some of the techniques, but I think the summary songs could have been notated without tab, to help push the student towards sight-readng. The stated examples in the book for further listening are too vague to be useful.For example, really which one of the gazillion John Scoffiield albums should I listen to, in order to get a wider knowledge?References to specific albums and tracks would have been much better.BPM notation for each of the examples would also be useful as the student approaches each exercise with a metronome, and tries to work it up to speed to play with the CD.Curiously, Santerre uses "L" to denote a "lift-off" for a technique which is more commonly referred to as a "pull-off."I presume this is because the letter "P" is already used in the notation for referring to a "pop."A short discussion of that difference in notation would have been helpful; I'd hate to see a young bassist trying to tell the guitarist in his band that what he was doing was really "lifting off."I also found the notation andtranscriptions not to be always accurate.In order to get a little more groove on the playing on the CD, Santerre plays the notes more staccato than notated.This difference betwen notation and playing could be very confusing for the beginner, trying to associate the written music with the sounds of music.Also missing is a discussion of the difference between "Slap Bass" and "Funk Bass."We wouldn't want to confuse the two.
Overall, Slap Bass Lines is a good but not great introduction to slapping, but would be a good starting point for a bassist who has some fundamental slapping knowlege. However, I can't recommend this book for the complete beginner despite the theory sections, unless he has an instructor to help guide him through some of the missing points.

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Product Description:
Learn the art of creating a solid slap bass groove. Whether you're an aspiring or seasoned bassist, this workshop will teach you many of the slap bass lines and styles found in your favorite rock, funk and jazz tunes, and inspire you to experiment with your own creations. Includes helpful exercises, strategies for locking in with the drummer, tips for reading chord symbols, standard notation and tab, a list of suggested recordings to check out, and an accompanying CD with play-along tracks.

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Dictionary of Bass Grooves (Bass Builders) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is excellent for those of you that just started learning bass.
This book has examples of music styles up to the 90's.
For example: southern rock, prog rock, prog metal, jazz, blues, country, death metal, punk, salsa, bossa nova, etc.
There is little example on the recent music styles *well you can say that current music styles are just derivative of the examples given*
The examples are easy to follow, even for beginner. They're also pretty accurate in explaining the music styles.
I use this book to teach my student.

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Product Description:
This cool, comprehensive guide provides the history and essential bass lines for 34 different musical styles, including all varieties of pop and rock, rhythm and blues, jazz, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Caribbean, country, blues, funk and many others. The CD includes 34 full-band demo tracks.

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Afro-Cuban Slap Bass Lines (Book & CD) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have found "Afro-Cuban Slap Bass Lines" to be very enjoyable. I have always wanted to learn new styles and this book, along with the CD has greatly improved my skills. The CD helped me develop the desired style, whether it be cha cha cha or Afro-Cubano, ata quick pace. I found myself playing along to the complete song tracks quickly and easily. I highly recommend this book.

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Product Description:
Afro-Cuban rhythms are hot! Now you will learn to play slap bass in seven popular Afro-Cuban styles: Cha cha, son montuno, Afro-Cuban 6/8, Latin jazz, and Latin jazz in seven. Whether you read tablature or traditinoal notation, you will quickly learn all these styles and develop your slap bass techniques to create style-appropriate articulations. The included CD has percussion tracks, play-along tracks and complete songs to help you improve your groove to an Afro-Cuban rhythm. Grammy-winning bassist Oscar Stagnaro is one of today's top palyers and a pioneer in bass education. He is an associate professor at Berklee College of Music, where he helped found the Latin bass studies department. He is co-author of the Latin Bass Book.

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'70s Funk and Disco Bass: 101 Groovin' Bass Patterns (Bass Builders) Review

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(More customer reviews)I am a fan of disco funk bass and that's why i bought the book...It is all that promisses... 101 groovin' bass paterns.
I sincerely recomend it to anyone looking to find a good colection of disco funk grooves.
My playing already sounds much funkier...
Thank you Josquin des Pres

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Product Description:
The low, throbbing beat of great bassists like James Jamerson, Anthony Jackson, Larry Graham, Bootsy Collins, Louis Johnson and Verdine White drove the world to the dance floor during the disco era. In this new Bass Builders book, renown bassist Josquin des Pres provides 101 authentic funk and disco bass patterns to help players practice getting their groove. Includes standard notation and tab, and a CD with 99 full-demo tracks.

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Classic Funk and R&B Grooves for Bass (Bass Masters Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)There's a lot to be improved with this release. This collection of grooves seems to have been thrown together in a hurry because they all sound very similar and some share identical passages. The examples are very easy to play and they don't progress in difficulty.
My biggest concern is the fact that the CD only contains demos of each loop and no play along feature. It is important for funk licks to be practiced with drums. It would have been trivial to pan (L/R) the bass from the drums in the stereo mix!
There are also many print errors, I would say that approx. 3 out of 10 grooves have conflicting tab and bass clef notation. (what's actuallyplayed on the CD is another story......)

There are likely to be better funk books out there........

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Product Description:
Classic Funk and R&B Grooves for Bass is an overview of stylistic examples that capture the essence of R&B recordings from Memphis, Muscle Shoals, Motown, and New York. All the music examples (98 total!) are written in standard notation and tablature, and all the examples are demonstrated on the enclosed recording (live, not sequenced). The CD is designed to take you beyond just playing the correct notes by providing the true feel of these great grooves.

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Slap Bass: The Ultimate Guide (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)Ed Friedlin is a monthly writer for bass player magazine.He covers in an excellent way how to slap, pop, mute, develop a groove, how to play with drum machines, ghost notes, and does some licks in larry graham, louis johnson, and marcus miller style and it is laid out in a very good manner.very good instructional video.

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Product Description:
This DVD is the ultimate source for learning the secrets of funk bass, in a player-friendly menu format. Covers: instruction on slapping, popping, left-hand integration, dead notes, and more dangerous techniques; a dedicated groove for each new tech...

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Chord Studies for Electric Bass: Guitar Technique (Workshop (Berklee Press)) Review

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(More customer reviews)I believe the previous poster may have gone a little off beam.

The book comprises exercises based around the chord tones of each of the chord types listed (major, minor, dominant seventh, minor 7, m7b5, diminished) with APPROACH notes. Yes, these approach notes are scale tones, but the emphasis of the Chord Studies book is on studying chord tones/qualities for each of the chord types in the book.

Each section (C major, C minor, C7, etc, F major, F minor, F7 etc etc) has 3 relatively simple 'approach note' exercises, followed by 2 much more awkward exercises with approach notes and chord tensions.

The book presents these exercises in all 15 keys (the 12 common keys and the 3 enharmonic equivalents). This is so that, if studied closely, you may have experience in reading all key signatures.

This work is based upon the now out-of-print Chord Studies for Trombone, written by Joseph Viola and Phil Wilson. As this trombone work was written in bass clef, I imagine it was pretty easy to apply to bass.

My current teacher, Jeff Berlin, sets me exercises from the original trombone book, and assures me that this book is the same in content as his original trombone-related book.

As to 'how to use' this book - well - it's relatively straightforward, but time consuming. Currently, I take each exercise and play it in all 12 keys. Yes, including the two 16th-note exercises at the end of each chord section. The exercises alter both as the book goes through each chord quality (maj, min, etc) and also as the key signature changes, so what you get is an absolutely thorough workout of the common chord types in all key signatures, with differing levels of ornamentation with approach notes and chord tensions.

Please note - the only exercises that I have not done in all 12 keys are the two 16th note etudes at the end of the dominant 7 chord section - the approach notes and use of chord tensions makes the tonality a little hinky, and Jeff has said to me he doesn't feel it's necessary to do the dominant structures in all 12 keys, although the other chord qualities should be done in all 12 keys.

In the recent time since I started using this material, I have noted a significant improvement in my soloing and my ability to memorise/play phrases in all 12 keys. I seem to have picked up a few of these things as little 'licks' too.

There is easily a year's worth of work here, and likely more. Although I do note I am getting faster as I continue through.

There is no CD - but it really isn't the point. The point is to improve your reading and improve your 'hearing' of the different chord types, as well as incorporating some of these things into your playing.

The only thing I find a nuisance is all of the annotations below the exercises which are meant to tell you which strings to play them on. Fortunately, these are only found in the key of C major - all the other keys are clear of them. Visually, quite annoying, and most people will work out their own fingerings, which I would have thought was also part of the point of this.

Overall, though, this book is absolutely solid musical information, and is not, I think, intended as a reference work, but a book for extended and intense study. For the money, it's cheap. But you will pay in terms of spending many hours on your instrument.

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Product Description:
This Berklee Workshop is for bassists beyond beginning methods who now seek comprehensive knowledge of all basic and extended chords. Features exercises for developing technique and melodic sense in and out of the upper register, to help bassists play faster, higher and more melodically in styles from country to rock and rhythm to lead.

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Funk Bass (Bass Builders Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)When I bought "Funk Bass" I thought it was gonna be just another book with a couple of cool licks and a couple of good exercises and another badly recorded cd, but I was pleasantly surprised.
First of all, I recognised myself completely in the introduction where Mr. Liebman describes bad exercise-habits, so I was immediately motivated to do every exercise in this book.
Also, the way this book is written, it's almost like there's actually someone sitting next to you and encouraging you to continue to practice. The exercises are really helpful and the licks in chapter 5 and 6 really groove. The cd is good and because of the way it's recorded you can mute the bass-guitar or the drums by turning the balance completely to the left or the right speaker. There's also a lot of useful information about effects and a great discography.
I think that I'm a much better bass-player after practicing with this book for a couple of months. So if you want to be a better (funk-)bassplayer: buy this book and follow the instructions step by step.

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Critically acclaimed as the best single source for the techniques used to play funk and slap-style bass!Includes a foreword by John Patitucci and is endorsed by Rich Appleman of the Berklee College Of Music, Will Lee, Mark Egan, Stuart Hamm and many others!Features several photos and a special section on equipment and effects.A book for everyone - from beginners to advanced players!Includes a 58-minute audio accompaniment.

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Bass Guitar: Total Scales Techniques And Applications (Book & CD) Review

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(More customer reviews)"Bass Guitar: Total Scales Techniques and Applications (2005, paperback with CD, 160 pp., $24.95) by Mark John Sternal is a complete resource for bassists. At the heart of the book are thirty scales, including major and minor scales as well as Hungarian, Japanese, And other versions. Playing techniques described include double-picking, hammer ons, string bending, string skipping, and harmonics. Every exercise is written in both standard notation and guitar tablature, and a note chart shows adaptations for four-, five-, and six-string instruments."
D. Wagener, Assistant Editor, Teaching Music Magazine

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Product Description:
The #1 Bestselling Bass Guitar Scale Course (also available for Guitar & Spanish), BASS GUITAR: Total Scales Techniques and Applications. You Can Be Better! The Easiest and Fastest Way to MASTER YOUR BASS GUITAR. The 1st & Only Method To Expertly teach you every scale, every trick & technique, in every musical key, anywhere on the entire fretboard! We turn Beginners into pro's & make the pro's even better! ***BOOK & CD LAYOUT ***Pages 1-11 BASICS: All the basics a beginner needs to know to read and understand bass guitar music. Includes TAB explanation, basic notation, the musical alphabet and the guitar, tuning, finger & hand position, and picking technique, (Including supplements for 5 & 6 string throughout book). ***Pages 12-16 THE FRETBOARD: The entire fretboard, (bass guitar neck), presented in TAB and standard notation. 3 simple finger positions and 7 patterns are used to teach scales on the entire fretboard of the guitar. ***Pages 17-72 TECHNIQUES AND APPLICATIONS: Every trick and technique that has ever been invented is introduced to the different positions. Starting with the most basic, progressing through intermediate and advanced, these pages introduce every tool of the trade for making music with scales. ***Pages 73-86 MODES & KEY CHANGES: Thoroughly explained, giving you a full understanding of scales, key changes, and modes. Every key of music is presented in TAB and standard notation for the entire fretboard of the guitar. ***Pages 87-160 EXOTIC SCALES FROM ALL CULTURES: Pentatonic, Balinese, Bob, Minor scales, jazz scales, gypsy scales, Spanish scales, ...they are all presented in TAB and traditional notation for the entire fretboard! ***CD SUPPLEMENT: The entire book is narrated and performed on the "BASS GUITAR: Total Scales Techniques and Applications" audio CD. ***FREE BOOK TECHNICAL SUPPORT: With the purchase of "BASS GUITAR: Total Scales Techniques and Applications" you also gain the author, Mark John Sternal, as a teacher. If you ever h

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101 Bass Tips: Stuff All the Pros Know and Use (Bass Instruction) Review

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(More customer reviews)There's a lot of useful information in this book. It's not a theory book or a practice book. It's just what the title says, a collection of tips, ideas, suggestions. So you don't get yet another compilation of scales to practice, but you do get a tip to set up a drone tone to practice your intonation with. It's one of the best books I've seen for basic stuff like setup and string replacement and one of the few that will answer most of your questions about fretless.

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Ready to take your playing to the next level? Renowned bassist Gary Willis presents valuable how-to insight that bassists of all styles and levels can benefit from. The text, photos, music, diagrams and accompanying 64-track CD provide a terrific, easy-to-use resource for a variety of topics, including: techniques, improvising and soloing, equipment, practicing, ear training, performance, theory, and much more.

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