Can anyone tell me a good book to get to learn the basics of a Bass guitar?

[Swag1138]

Dont wanna pay for classes. Ive had my bass since sunday, and can already play a couple songs. I just want to learn the basics so its easier to learn songs, and make up my own bass riffs.

Ive learned Hit Or Miss by New Found Glory, and the theme to Star Wars

 

[Platypus]

Yay! My department

Ive played guitar for about 7 years, but quit to play the bass, and have been happy ever since. Im glad you decided to play for pleasure, thats what its all about man. As far as a book, I cant really tell you one to get, I learned to play it myself. Here is a great site that can help you with the songs you like:

Bass

They have got alot of really awesome tabs there. Learning tablature is a good way to start. Learning chords and riffs takes some time. If you have a good sense of how to read tabs, and play them fast, improvising should come naturally.

The one thing I can tell you to do that is fun is the 5-7 stretch. This is basically the 5-7 fret on each string, if you jump 5,7,5,7 going down the strings starting from E(or b) at the top, going to the smallest string(g) at the bottom. Its a good finger workout, and if you like slap bass, its an awesome progression to play around with. Once you get fast at that, you will be coming up with your own 5-7s in different frets, and at different speeds.

If you want some more info, and a few more exercises, my PM box is always open.

Good luck with it, Im glad to meet another bassist.

Andrew

 

[Swag1138]

Nice to know another Bass tab site now Ive been using TabCrawler. I can read simple tabulature. Its when people get crazy on me and start using all kinds of weird notes and terms that I dont understand that I have trouble with.

Learning the different styles, like Slap, is why I want a book. I have a cousin who said he would give me a few lessons, but hes always working or at school, and hes notoriously hard to get a hold of, so Ive been pretty much teaching myself since Ive had the bass.

What ive learned so far as far as styles go: I can get the two main bass fingers goin real quick, I can hammer the strings rather well now, and Ive gotten relatively speedy with the frets, so long as they arent too far apart

 

[Platypus]

Hey! Yeah that site rocks dude, I love it..

Anyway,

Learning slap is pretty easy actually. Slapping E(or b) is very easy, you just slam the side of your them right on the string, usually my thumb is vertical(when the string is horizontal), and you just do a real quick pop and pull your finger off. You will here the sound. Slapping for the other strings isnt so easy. You can do it the way above, but I usually do a pull off.

A Pull off is when you put your finger under the string itself and have the string rest in the crevice between the joints on the finger, and then when its nestled in there, just pull up real quick, like a pluck. That will get you going on some basic slap. If you want more detailed info, or even pics, I will take some web cam pics for you of some finger styles.

Let me know if this makes any sense, and have some fun eh?

Andrew

 

[SpongeBob]

If you really want some books the Mel Bay ones are decent, but I would recommend just playing tabs if you just want to learn the basics. I've been playing bass for about a year now so I definitely no expert but I'm thinking of maybe taking some lessons in method after this semester is over.

 

[hyperphate]

hey hey hey!

Been playing bass for a few months, but also trying to balance it with guitar (which i've beeen doing for 4 years), I think it's going to work.

I agree, if you don't have a teacher, tabs are the way to go. I'm having lots of fun with songs that have melodic bass lines. It's great to hear the song from a completely different perspective (bass rather than guitar).

Yes, the 5-7 thing is very cool. It seems to be a patern used on bass alot. Some kind of pentatonic scale or something?

As for books, I bought my bass-playing friend this one
Haven't used it myself, so I can't vouch for it. You can look at people's reviews.

Good luck!