Reddit reviews Hal Leonard Bass Method - Complete Edition: Books 1, 2 and 3 Bound Together in One Easy-to-Use Volume!

Do yourself a favour and start learning from a classical standpoint right now. Seriously, you will have an enormous leg up on 99% of other players if you do.

Hal Leonard's Bass Method is an amazing resource for beginners. It starts you off at the fundamentals and takes you through everything you need to get started.

You might also want to invest in a bass scale poster for your wall. Practicing scales and shapes is absolutely key to learning how to properly support your band because it teaches you the muscle memory you need to play in various keys.

In addition to this, my three golden rules for practice are:

• Practice to a metronome. Develop good timing from day one. Tightness is not negotiable.
  
  
• Start slow. If you are not able to play accurately, you are playing too fast for your current skill level. Playing fast sloppily damages progress by cementing bad habits into your muscle memory, which you will then have to undo.
  
  
• Practice mindfully. Don't strum your bass while watching TV. Sit down in a private space away from distractions and focus on your practice. Make goals for yourself, visualize them, and keep your nose to the grinder.

Studybass.com is really awesome for starting out. It used to be completely free... seems like he's offering some kind of subscription but hopefully it's still mostly free.

Head over to /r/bass and /r/basslessons for some reddit-based (bassed?) ideas. /r/bass has a wiki with links to other lessons.

Books are good. If I had to recommend just one book to a beginning bassist, it'd be Ed Friedland's Building Walking Bass Lines. It doesn't much matter whether you're into walking bass style or not (think jazz), what the book does is get you to start thinking about how to build arpeggios (strings of notes) to move from one chord to the next and create a sense of movement and energy. This is the most fundamental concept for playing bass. A little broader and with more elementary instruction is the Hal Leonard Bass Method by the same guy.

Lessons are great. If you can afford them, and can find a good teacher, do it.

There are a lot of amazing free lessons and other bass playing stuff on youtube. Paul from Howtoplaybass.com could be great for you. All he does is step you through the notes of classic and modern tunes, that's it, no theory or anything. It's great just to get some songs under your belt. Much more advanced, Scott Devine is a great teacher with a lot of great ideas for intermediate players & up.

Perhaps most important: find some people to play with. You aren't studying bass just to learn it, hopefully you're studying because you want to get together with a drummer and some guitarists, keyboardists, vocalists etc. and make actual music. So do that. There's no better way to learn (although the above stuff is the only way to really start absorbing theory and technique in your practice time).

Bass Fitness is, for me, the golden standard to which I hold all guitar practice books. It's a no-nonsense text that offers little in the way of guidance or assistence, but stick with it and you will notice a difference in your playing in due time. It's not perfect by any means -- in fact it is quite rough around the edges -- but it works.

For more general resources, check out 101 Bass Tips, which features of a plethora of different tips and tricks for the working musician -- everything from set-up and maintenance, to technique, to recording and tone, and much more. It's also accompanied by a CD with examples and practice songs you can play along to.

Once you've got the basics down and you're ready to move into the more advanced facets of bass playing, you might want to try out some books on musical theory. I suggest this, this, and these. Hope these help!

I watched a few videos of it on YouTube. It does seem pretty fun lol. I'm tempted to get a copy for myself.

On the other hand, you can get these four books for the same price, and take advantage of your existing knowledge in reading music:

• Motown
  
• Funk
  
• Book for beginners
  
• Scales

Rocksmith 2014 on the PC with CLDC.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLImrzCNnL5PkSfa1gUpsGzSMELR31yW9h

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/0793563836/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OCGGEM/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


(at least that is how I'm doing it...)

https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836

It has book 1, 2 and 3 plus the CDs

If you are looking for a method to use for self teaching the Hal Leonard Bass Method is what I am using. If you can already play bass your fretting and finger plucking won't slow your progress as you learn to read the musical notation. About $15 on Amazom for the book 1,2,3 combo with practice track CDs. Get the spiral bound books, not kindle. The kindle format is not good. I've learned a lot with these books and I had never read music before. The book cover more than just the notes & rests. Covers things like repeat, endings, coda notation, etc.


https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1481028149&sr=8-10&keywords=hal+leonard

Get this book. It's been a tremendous help to me.

I also recommend getting the free trial of Scott's Bass Lessons and going through the Bass Guitar Foundations course.

With learning any instrument, you have to learn to crawl before you can walk, walk before you can run. Having strong fundamental skills will save you a lot of frustration down the road.

I'm not much of a pick player, but I've watched one of my favorite bassists who exclusively uses a pick, and she anchors her pinky finger below the bottom string on the body of the bass. I tried it, and I found it helpful. She (and, I believe, most pick players do this) also wraps her thumb over the top of the fretboard to mute the top string when she's playing the string beneath it, and when she frets a note, she uses that finger to mute the strings below it. Here's a video of her playing (it's an acoustic bass, but everything still applies).

http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836

I bought this on Google Play for $13 with audio samples, without is $9.99. It's one of the best method practice books I've read. Ed Freidland has done a spectacular job writing it.

Get a Hal Leonard Bass Method Book. It's fucking great. Definitely the best 15 dollars you can spend to help learn bass. You can read a lot of awesome information without actually owning the bass yet. Once you get your bass, every single page in that book has something for you to practice or learn.

Building Walking Bass Lines

Hal Leonard Bass Method

the real book / 2

Get these two books.

/u/PelleSketchy is right. A beginner bass is a beginner bass etc. There isn't really such thing as a 'light weight' bass though. You'll have to go to a music store and literally pick some up and see which one feels best. I play a six string these days so weight doesn't really factor into it for me. You want to go more on ergonomic feel; bass player's back is no joke.

I recommend this book for method. But if you find you're the kind of person to get bogged down by that just get thee to YouTube and start learning songs you like.

I do recommend against selling that piano though. It's a valuable instrument to have in your mental arsenal and quite a few of us actually compose our bass parts on piano first. You may find you're one of those people. You can get a used Ibanez or a Squier for under $100 if you try hard enough.

No tabs, that's the worst advice you can get, it's a huge crutch and you'll be handicapping yourself for the rest of your life. Reading tabs is like reading a book without any punctuation. Not to mention the fact that you'll be stuck reading grade school material for the rest of your life. I recommend you try the http://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836 book. I'd go through that book then look at some private instruction for a few months.

Take private lessons! I teach privately and there’s something so awesome about working WITH someone directly (vs learning thru YouTube or something) — also if you don’t know how to already, learning how to read music would definitely give you a leg up as a musician in general and might give you a different perspective to things you’re already doing well now.

I love the Hal Leonard book for bass, the wound one has books 1-3 in it and is very affordable ($15):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0793563836/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_g4zZDbV1NR8R4

There’s so many gigs I can say YES to because I know how to read music, so if you can play by ear already learning how to read music will definitely make you a more well rounded musician.

During my student teaching semester, I was faced with a task of teaching students how to learn bass to be in the 3rd Jazz Ensemble. I had 3 students and with all of them I used the Hal Leonard Bass Method. It taught them the basics of rhythm and individual notes and positions. It wasn't until I purchased the book that I realized I didn't know how to start beginners and teach certain methods, but it benefited myself and my students. 3 books in 1 and it goes to more advanced techniques in books 2 and 3 from playing above the 4th fret and introduction to funk(pop/slap).

I picked up a used mint condition Ibanez SR500 after seeing it constantly recommended here.

I've been playing piano (poorly) for 30 years and always wanted to play bass.. so here we go.

My wife picked me up 2 books to start learning:

Hal Leonard Bass Method - Complete Edition: Books 1, 2 and 3 Bound Together in One Easy-to-Use Volume!

First 50 Songs You Should Play On Bass

I also picked up a Vox Bass headphone amp to practice while the kids are asleep.

Finally, my late grandfather played bass in many jazz bands, both electric and upright. My father still has all of his instruments. But I just inheirited his Polytone Brute Mini III amp.

So, I'm all set with equipment, now I just need to learn & practice!

I think the best thing I can recommend, and I know this isn't what you wanted, is for your child to either

a. Read method books, this Hal Leonard one is pretty good (https://www.amazon.com/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836)

b. Because your child can read bass clef (he played piano so I'm assuming he can), he already has a huge advantage as a player. Have him learn how the notes relate to the frets (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ui66iADgzo), and he can begin to read transcriptions and play pretty much whatever he wants

Definitely get a teacher, and just encourage him to practice. That's about it.

He means this rather excellent book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hal-Leonard-Bass-Method-Complete/dp/0793563836/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405069158&sr=8-1&keywords=hal+leonard+bass

I linked the complete version, but it was originally released in 3 seperate volumes that get progressively harder, so you can if you wish buy them individually one at a time :)

Similar to you (although piano instead of guitar) I've recently taken up bass. I'm working through this Hal Leonard series (currently on Book II) and it's really good. The backing tracks that you play along with are surprisingly good.

You can pick up all three books/CDs on Amazon for $15.

There are a lot of ways. To learn theory, you can ask your teacher, or, if you're self taught, look for some books. Ed Friedland has some great books and I suppose most books and DVD's from Hal Leonard are great too. Berklee Press sells awesome books as well. You can find a lot of lessons online, but it's a lot harder to find valuable material, in my opinion.

The best way to learn about genres is listening to enough music and play as much as you can. When you learn enough songs, you'll automatically learn to apply that when you're creating your own lines. Starting from a book may be a good way to get you started, but the knowledge you learn will be too limited. Learning the songs by ear is a good way to train your musical ear, but there is no shame in buying some songbooks too.

The most important thing is to apply everything you learn. Try to create your own bass lines, loop some chords and play around with your scales, maybe analyze some songs, stuff like that.

if you are self taught,i would highly recommend the book hal leonard bass method,with that you can learn how to read music and pretty much all the theory you need (well for now at least,after this book feel free to explore other things) like learning the fretboard ect and if you just wanna read tabs the second book (theres 3,but you can buy one that contain all 3) include tabs as well as regular notation and you can skip some things in the book to learn scales and such.
https://www.amazon.ca/Leonard-Bass-Method-Easy-Use/dp/0793563836/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480454305&sr=8-1&keywords=hal+leonard+bass+method

A little late to the party but you sound just like me dude, was playing tabs and could do a few scales, but when I wanted to start playing triads and stuff, I needed to learn sheet music. I bought this book off Amazon and sat down 10 hours a week going through it. It does a good job of going string by string, showing you the notes applied to actual sheet music. There’s some tab examples but after a month or so I didn’t need them anymore. It really helps if you say the note you’re playing as you play it too.


Hal Leonard Bass Method - Complete Edition: Books 1, 2 and 3 Bound Together in One Easy-to-Use Volume! https://www.amazon.com/dp/0793563836/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_C.xyCbV7M9AWF

Since you seem to enjoy working through things on your own, I'd suggest working from front-to-back with a good bass method book, like Ed Friedland's 3-volume set. You'll be able to move through the early material easily, but it will force you to read. Reading is essential to moving forward and you can't really develop a complete understanding of theory if you can't read.

As others have said, joining a band is a great idea for moving past your plateau. In addition, you can use playalongs (music with all the instruments except for bass) from youtube, the web at large, or through programs like Band-in-a-Box or apps like iRealb. These are all good for working on rhythm and developing your own lines.

Lessons help A LOT, especially when first starting, but also books can help you get a feel for things also, I recommend this one. Some easy songs to start with are ones by the Arctic Monkeys (Do I Wanna Know?, Why's You Only Call Me When You're High) the Beatles (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (Otherside, Californication)