Bass Extremes/CD Review

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(More customer reviews)I wrote my review (which you kindly posted) from memory but I mis-remembered how many tracks there are on the CD. There are actually 8 songs, an intro to the lessons, then 8 lessons:
1) A Chick From Corea
2) Bangkok Blues
3) Stan The Man
4) Victor's Jam
5) Thumb Start My Harley
6) Exerald Forest
7) Moonridge
8) Donna Lee
9) Introduction and tuning
10) Lesson 1: A Chick From Corea
11) Lesson 2: Bangkok Blues
12) Lesson 3: Stan The Man
13) Lesson 4: Victor's Jam
14) Lesson 5 Thumb Start My Harley
15) Lesson 6 Emerald Forest
16) Lesson 7 Moonridge
17) Lesson 8 Donna Lee
To VERY briefly summarize the material:
A Chick From Corea is about triplets and 'country and western' sound. Victor plays the melody, while Steve plays chords.
Bangkok Blues finds Steve playing etheral false-haromonics over Victor's anchoring funky blues,then Victor plays hammer-ons over Steve's fretless chording.
Stan The Man: Dedicated to Stanley Clarke. Victor plays a tenor bass- ADGC - against Steve's chords, both take solos at the same time. The chord progresson starts gently so you can hear it, then they crank it up.
Victor's Jam: A funk workout from Victor and drummer Greg Bissonette.A range of techniques is used to keep with the drummer
Thumb Start My Harley: With Steve's fretless played through wicked distortion (like Pink Floyd's "One Of These Days") over Victors pumping foundation, which turns into competing, over-the-top triplet solos. Jack Bissonette's emphatic drumming morphs into a VERY complex solo, in correct time. As Steve says in the lesson intro, "If you think you have good time, pat your foot all the way through that at the tempo of the song and you
should come out right. Until you do, keep trying!" Victor will later explain how he does the very funky "open-hammer-pluck".
Emereld Forest: Victor arpegiates chords through sweet reverb while Steve's fretless sings a sitar-ish melody.
Moonridge: Steve's solo, a study for the right hand (6 string fretless) keeping the D string going, with chords and harmonics. If you had thought there were any limitations to electric bass this should put those fears to rest.
Donna Lee: Victor plays the scales using thumb and index finger, using thumb-down, thumb-up, index finger triplets. The scales are sewn together in the familiar tune, while Steve pays the chords that Charlie Parker copped from "Indiana" to support it. DENSE, with some call and response at the end. (Another take on the same classic tune appears as "Madonna Lee"
on the "Cookbook" cd.

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Eight complete album tracks featuring Steve, Victor and Greg Bissonette, followed by eight instructional tracks, paired with a book of complete transcriptions in standard notation and tablature. In styles ranging from bebop to new age to heavy metal, each piece highlights different aspects of their amazing techniques.

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More Easy Pop Bass Lines: Play the Bass Lines of 20 Pop and Rock Songs (Hal Leonard Bass Method) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is just like the first book in the series, lot of fun tunes to play along with. Even though I only play (like) about half the tunes, I gave a good rating because these CDs really make practicing fun. What more can I say?

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This songbook correlates with Book 2 of the Hal Leonard Bass Method, giving beginning students great pop and rock songs to play while they are still learning! Includes 20 favorites: Bad, Bad Leroy Brown * Crazy Train * I Heard It Through the Grapevine * Jamming * Jet Airliner * Message in a Bottle * My Generation * No Excuses * Paranoid * Pride and Joy * Ramblin' Man * Summer of '69 * and more.

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Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius (Book) Review

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(More customer reviews)First off, the title is great. There is no doubt that Jaco is one of the most (if not the most) gifted bass players of all time. The book documents his life as a young boy who picked up the bass (after he could not play drums any longer because he broke his arm), his career and his later years when he suffered from mental illness and died at 33. I bring up the question of accuracy as it has been raised by others as well.

One criticism about the book has been that it sensationalizes Jaco's destructive behaviour and takes away from his legacy. This is a point made by Metheny (who was a friend and a fellow musician) in the liner notes of Jaco's debut album. Also I have asked the opinion of (via a short e-mail) Jaco's second wife. Her website that details some minor inaccuracies that exist in the first edition.
That being said the book is well written and gives insight into Jaco's life. Milkowski (who is a music journalist) portrays Jaco as an extremely gifted, hard working and narcisisstic man who self destructs at the end due to bipolar disease. The clues to Jaco's illness are evident from his early years. He plays tirelessly and at times seldom sleeps. At the end of his life he self destructs due to a number of reasons including refusal comply with treatment for his illness,drugs and drinking.
One has to wonder what it says about our society that no one helped Jaco when he was clearly suffering towards the end. I posted the same question to Jaco's wife and her answer was that one has to be willing to accept help.
Mental illness is still misunderstood my most of the world. People who suffer from it can be hard to deal with and be around. I hope that if the same scenario plays out today, with better understanding of mental illness, the outcome would be different. But I am not an optimist.

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Jaco is a fitting tribute to Jaco Pastorius, the troubled genius who revolutionized electric bass playing and bridged the gaps between jazz, R&B, rock, and funk. From his early days in R&B club bands through his international stardom with fusion group Weather Report and on to his solo career and tragic death at age 35, this book portrays the life and music of Jaco Pastorius. This special anniversary edition features new interviews with Jaco's childhood friends, prominent bass players of Jaco's era and afterward, and girlfriend Teresa Nagell, who was with Jaco in the last few years of his life. In addition, several incidents from the first edition have been further researched and expanded to full chapters.

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Bass Guitar Review

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(More customer reviews)David Hodge states in the introduction to The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Bass Guitar that he wants to help his readers think like bassists. That seems like a rather lofty goal, but it's one that I think he achieves.
Having recently joined my church band as the bass player despite having no prior experience with the instrument (though I do have a couple of years of steady progress on electric and acoustic guitar,) I was glad to see that this book has a different presentation style than the typical bass method book. It is much more discussion oriented, which gives it a unique teaching value that I found very helpful for self-study. (I was fortunate enough to receive an advanced copy of the book many weeks ago, which is why I can write this review now even as the book first begins to officially ship.)
The first thing I noticed when I received my copy is how much text there is. Other bass books I purchased dive quickly into reading notation and playing one note, one string at a time, graduating up to scales and basic melody lines with very little explanatory text. Hodge takes a different route, that of mentor, guiding you through the how and why of every topic he presents, from finger placement during a riff to creating your own bass lines. Hodge writes in an easy-to-understand, down-to-earth manner, and it's almost like having an experienced teacher there with you.
There is enough music theory to help you understand the basics of scales, chords and arpeggios, but not so much that you feel bogged down. Importantly, all of Hodge's discussion on theory leads to practical application in the subsequent chapters. I was pleased to note that he explains but does not over-emphasize scale playing, but instead seems to focus on riffs and bass lines built using the chord tones that derive from scales. This is a more musical and interesting approach than you tend to find in other books (though a good foundation in the major scale won't hurt, in my opinion).
Then there are the "jam along" songs. These are the meat and potatoes of Hodge's presentation, and the reason I think this book exceeds where others may fall a bit short. At the most basic level, you can use these songs (really they are a framework for building a song) and the provided example riffs to practice your techniques and timing. From there, you can use the same songs as a springboard for improvisation, by coming up with your own riffs using the earlier lessons. When I was taking guitar lessons my teacher used a similar technique - he called it "structured improvisation" - and I found it to be an excellent way to learn to think about what I was playing.
Hodge also provides insight into real-world issues bass players may face, such as the scarcity of tablature or even sheet music for bass, and the many types of written music that a bass player might have to deal with - from the bass clef in piano sheet music to crude lyric sheets with guitar chords hopefully scrawled above the verses.
There are a handful of typos or misplaced examples in the book, but Hodge intends to post a web page with corrections (how's that for service?!) Furthermore, he is regularly available at the GuitarNoise web forum for anyone with questions.
I do have a couple of complaints, both concerning the accompanying CD. First, I would have preferred that each example in the book have its own track on the CD, though I'm told it's not technically possible to put that many tracks on a single disc (there are well over 150 examples!) As it is, there are instances where several examples are necessarily lumped into the same CD track, making it difficult to quickly jump to a particular example. One has to queue up the example using the CD player's fast-forward or rewind button. Related to this, the track numbers containing the examples are referenced only in an appendix, not in the main body of the book. In my opinion they should have been noted next to the example in the text.
Second, at least on my copy of the CD, the recorded volume of the bass seems somewhat low relative to Hodge's voice. I have to turn up my stereo's volume to hear the bass clearly, but then the spoken introduction to each example gets a tad loud. Again, these are very minor issues, neither of which detracts from the excellent material in the book.
I am really pleased with what I've learned from this book in a fairly short time period, and intend to keep working with it even as I incorporate other books into my studies. I would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about getting into bass. And don't forget to order it through the Guitar Noise site (it will take you back to Amazon) - this adds no cost to you, and it may help keep the site functioning smoothly so Mr. Hodge can answer your questions online.

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Bass guitar basics—Audio CD included!Whether readers have just picked up the bass or are learning to improve their technique, this book provides a strong foundation in reading music, purchasing the right equipment, and care and maintenance of the bass guitar. A CD of original music helps budding bass players practice their skills.• Includes an original CD featuring examples and practice music for a wide range of styles—blues, rhythm and blues, country, hip-hop, rock, swing, jazz, Latin, reggae, and more• Written by the managing editor and senior columnist at GuitarNoise.com, one of the web's most popular and highly regarded instruction sites

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