Mel Bay Learn to Play Bluegrass Bass

Earl Gately does a remarkable job of writing a book for students who know nothing about music notation and playing the double bass (i.e., fretless, upright bass). He's condensed music notation down to the bare minimum--almost an outline. If you know nothing about reading music notation, you'd better make sure you read and understand every single word he writes before you go on to the next line. This may entail the occasional help of a friend who can read music (not tabs) and perhaps explain more fully what Gately means here and there--but mostly it's all here. A really good thing that Gately does is ignore "tabs," which are favored by bass guitarists. Tabs are for people who want to learn to play "songs" they already "know." Music notation is for people who want to learn to play music.The one thing Gately's done that will cause some trouble for a double bass student and his live teacher is: He's renumbered all of the double bass hand positions to his own system. Now, admittedly, it may have been better if the double bass hand positions had been numbered simply 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. all along, but for hundreds of years they haven't been--and they still aren't to virtually everyone else in the classical double bass world, so here's a translation into classical Simandl/Shmucklovsky hand positions:Gately's 1st Position is really called "half position" in Simandl/Shmucklovsky and is abbreviated "h.P" or sometimes "H.P."Gately's 2nd Position is really called 1st Position and is abbreviated "I".Gately's 3rd Position is really called 2nd Position and is abbreviated "II". (There is no "one and a half position.")Gately's 4th position is really called "the intermediate position between 2nd and 3rd positions" or sometimes "two and a half position" and is abbreviated "II/III" or sometimes "II-1/2."Gately's 5th Position is really called 3rd Position and is abbreviated "III".Gately's 6th position is really called "the intermediate position between 3rd and 4th positions" or sometimes "three and a half position" and is abbreviated "III/IV" or sometimes "III-1/2."Gately's 7th Position is really called 4th Position and is abbreviated "IV".Gately's 8th Position is really called 5th Position and is abbreviated "V". (There is no "four and a half position.")Gately's 9th Position is really called "the intermediate position between 5th and 6th positions" or sometime "five and a half position" and is abbreviated "V/VI" or sometimes "V-1/2."Gately's 10th Position is really called 6th Position and is abbreviated "VI". And it goes up into "Thumb Positions" from there.In my copy of Gately's book, I've renamed all of Gately's positions in pencil, and if you hope ever to have a conversation with another classically-trained double bass student, player, or teacher who employs traditional Simandl/Shmucklovsky, I suggest you do the same. Now, to be fair to Gately, it is true that there are other hand position numberings besides Simandl/Shmucklovsky, and that they all seem to agree only on the names of Half Position and First Position. But just be aware that simply numbering them one through ten will not be familiar to classical teachers. (Because of these disagreements, jazz bassist Rob Thorsen eschews numbering systems entirely, simply calling each hand position by the name of the note under the index finger on each string, e.g., E position on the D string, etc.)Despite his renumbering of the hand positions--and I certainly can see WHY Gately would want to do that (Why were they not simply numbered as Gately does it in the first place?)--I marvel at how succinctly Gately has managed to present this material. As I said, you may need a some explanatory help from a music-reading (not tab-reading) friend from time to time, but if you really do diligently practice and learn everything he presents here--including his monster page 14--and if you really study his note selections in the sample tunes he's provided, you could actually learn enough to play blue grass accompaniment on double bass.But if you want to learn how to do it all the right way, without bad technical habits that will hinder your development and cause you physical injury: You must also get a good, live teacher, and I'm sure Earl Gately would say the same.

This is a glorified pamphlet... almost more reference than anything else, with uninspiring practice ideas, a few tunes, and a reference section for how to play arpeggios to match chords. If you know absolutely nothing about music then this is a bit dense, formatted poorly, and might not make sense. While most music books aimed at beginners use several players to introduce the basics of musical notation and reading, this dedicates just 2. I get tired of every music book re-hashing Music 101, but if you ARE a beginner then I don't think 2 pages is enough.If you DO know something about music, it's too general, not terribly interesting, and covers some incredibly obvious stuff (i.e. using an entire page to write major scales in various keys). I fail to see how this is useful for any level of player but I could just be missing something. I've played piano and guitar for 20+ years with a basic grounding in theory. Honestly, I could probably have written this book.Proper technique to avoid injury is essential. There's a lot of tips absent here. Although the positions are covered, there's no discussion about how to think about using them. Again, it might be me... but I just don't get it. What's the focus of this book? Who is the target audience?As the cover suggests, this is painfully dated. A pre-Internet volume with very few illustrations/photos. 20 years ago this might be the only place to get basic bass info. These days you're time is best spent searching for the bass positions yourself, watching some videos, and going to some jams.I hate being a hater. I think two decades ago this book was adequate. But not today. Not at all. Save your $10 and put it toward your $300 set of gut strings.

Lots of material here, but I think you'd need some type of theory background to really understand it.I do have a basic understanding of chord theory and can read music from playing in the high school band though I played in the treble cleft there and this is the bass cleft so I'm still having to raise the note one whole step to read it. grinI think a DVD like The Upright Bass Primer would be easier for a true beginner. I started there and am glad I did.I also think a basic discussion of intervals and their place on the bass fret board would be in order. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bass Guitar does an excellent job of showing this.When you need to us a 3rd, 4th, flatted 5th, minor or major 7th. You know here to go to get it.It's more like a condensed book that a beginner's book though.

This is a good method to learn bluegrass bass if you are new to the music (which I was), but already know your instrument. The lines are simple enough that everything is covered in a relatively short book. A CD to play along would have been helpful though.

A book I liked because it helped me finding ideas when I blanked. I wish it had a CD which would make it a better learning companion.

An okay book for a beginner, but I needed something more advanced

An excellent introduction to this style of playing. It answers many questions for a student. Especially useful when a teacher is unavailable.

Pretty good basic book.

I now realise what the other reviewer meant by 'lacks foresight'! However, it's the only one I could find on Kindle, and Todd Phillips only does DVDs

A little thin on insight, but a thorough enough introduction.

kindle版を買ったけど、文字が小さく薄い。拡大してら印刷をはみ出るし、印刷したら文字が薄くて読めない。最悪や