Recommendations: Bass Books
| Bass Tab White Pages For the price, the Bass Tab White Pages is a great resource. It has standard notation and tabs for a couple of hundred songs — many of which I suggest you learn. |
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| Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson James Jamerson is the grandfather of electric bass. He's had a bigger impact on electric bass playing than anyone else. Most of his lines are challenging for beginners. This excellent book also includes pictures and a biography. No tab. It's great for practicing your music reading. |
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| What Duck Done Donald "Duck" Dunn is a soul bass legend. He played in Booker T and the M.G.'s, with Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Albert King, Freddie King, The Blues Brothers, and many others. His basslines are tasty and not overly technical. This book is great for study. And, no tab - you can practice reading music! |
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| Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius Jaco Pastorius is often billed as the world's greatest bass player. Jaco did a lot to advance the bass and how it is played. In this bio you can read more about his life and his tragic death. |
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| How the Fender Bass Changed the World This book covers the history of the electric bass. The electric bass is just over 50 years old. Well-illustrated, this book covers basses, technical developments, players and more. |
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| Bass Heroes This book has a number of great interviews with world-renowned bass players like Stanley Clarke, Jeff Berlin, Michael Manring, Steve Swallow,Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, Bootsy Collins, and on and on. Insightful. |
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| Brave New Bass This is another book full of great bass player interviews. This book features some more recent interviews with Marcus Miller, Christian McBride, Flea, Les Claypool, and numerous others. |
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| The Funkmasters-the Great James Brown Rhythm Sections This excellent book features the bass, guitar and drum parts to many of James Brown's greatest songs. The basslines range from a few easy ones to some more advanced funk lines. Learn from JB's bassists like Bernard Odum, Bootsy Collins, Sam Thomas, and others. |
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| The Beatles - Complete Scores This book contains the music, in notation and tab, to all of the songs recorded by The Beatles. It includes the parts for every instrument! Be warned: the print is tiny, but worth the eye strain. Paul McCartney's basslines have been incredibly influential. There are a number of simpler, but good, basslines in this book as well as his signature melodic lines and more complex lines. |
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| The Beatles/1962-1966 (Bass Recorded Versions) If you don't want the full Beatles Scores book, you might want to get these two smaller volumes of McCartney's classic basslines. |
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| The Beatles, 1967-1970 (Bass Recorded Versions) As the Beatles grew, so did McCartney's basslines. This book contains great bass parts from Sgt. Pepper's, Abbey Road, and others. |
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| Classic Led Zeppelin I & II (Bass Guitar) Every rock player needs to learn the basslines of John Paul Jones. His basslines are intelligent, musical, and - most of all - supremely rockin'! |
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| Classic Led Zeppelin III & IV More incredible basslines from the rock bass master John Paul Jones. This book has classics like Black Dog, Stairway to Heaven, Out on the Tiles, and Rock and Roll. Essential learning if you ever intend to rock. |
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| The Real Book -Bass Clef; Sixth Edition Jazz musicians are expected to own this book and know most of its tunes. The jazz songs in this book are the most often played and you will slowly need to memorize them. This will also aid in your reading development. You never use tab in jazz! |
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| The Real Book - Volume II: Bass Clef Edition This jazz fakebook has more standards you're expected to play and know as a jazz bassist. This one isn't quite as important as Vol. I, but it may as well be. |

