4 comments about How to Make Money Teaching Guitar (Learn How to Teach Guitar, Acoustic/Electric Guitar/Bass) by Desi Serna.

1. How to Make Money Teaching Guitar is a very helpful and informative book, and very easy to read. It is very useful not only for guitar teaching, but other music teaching as well. I would highly recommend it!



2. EXCELLENT!! FUN!! Many invaluable tips all in one book. Informative, focused yet entertaining writing style that gets right to the point. I've been teaching on & off for 40 years but I find this work "brings it all together again" for me...Well Done Desi!!
   
   RocknDave



3. This book is EXCELLENT! How to Make Money Teaching Guitar is a very helpful, informative and it is very easy to read. It give us everthing we need to teach guitar. This book have also gave me a very good idea where I have to work on my playing and help me to plan my own learning. I would highly recommend this book for every guitarist (teachers or not).



4. As a beginning teacher I bought this book for help and advice. I found the information easy to follow and very practical. After following the suggestions in this book I now have a good number of students who are making excellent progress and enjoying the lessons a great deal. Out of all the students who have started only one has stopped, which says it all. Desi's guidance is always right on the money and shows a great deal of experience. Thanks for the kick start my teaching needed.
   Simon

2 comments about The Beatles Bass.

1. If you are interested in learning Paul's part as the bass player for the Beatles, then you want this book. This is an excellent tool for beginning to intermediate bass/guitar players. It gives you a good break down of Paul's unique style as well as provides you with a good supply of information about 16 Beatle songs including the 1966 George Harrison gem, "Taxman!"
   
   If you are serious about playing bass or learning about the distinctive style of Paul McCartney, be sure to get this book. You will be very glad that you did.



2. "All My Loving" is NOT played high up the neck as shown in this book, and "Something" is horribly incomplete, leaving out the entire chorus from "You're asking me will our love grow..." up to the instrumental break. What on God's earth is the point of that???

1 comments about Chord Studies for Electric Bass: Guitar Technique (Workshop (Berklee Press)).

1. I purchased this very hopeful it would help me advance my playing. But, while the technical information is excellent, it's not easy to understand. Mostly it's just musical notation of lots of scales that directly relate to specific chords. Nothing really new or insightful.

   As a REFERENCE book, this might be good, but not as a student workbook (the title says "Chord Studies" so I expected some form of lessons).

   Another serious shortcoming is the lack of a CD. This compounds the problem of understanding WHAT the authors might be trying to offer as instruction.

   Truth is, for the scales and chords presented in this book, a Bass Student could find all this on the Web, For Free.

1 comments about Mel Bay Qwikguide/ Famous Jazz Bass Chord Progressions BCD (Qwikguide) (Quick Guide).

1. This guide is a very practical, concise, fun, and effective overview of Jazz Bass playing. Matheos relates all the lines to the chords in the progression, and it is very easy to follow and absorb. The recording is fun to listen to, and the progressions are great. This book is worth much more than the 5 bucks. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Fingerboard Harmony for Bass.

1. This entire book can be summed up in the info contained on page 25 and 68-69. Everything else is just exercises for how to build jazz style walking bass lines (as opposed to country or blues walking bass lines). Go to www guitargrid com for a much better system of learning fretboard harmony. I've been playing guitar for 14 years and bass for 9. I have a bachelor's degree in classical guitar performance and have authored a book on how to play bass guitar. I learned more about where the notes are on guitar/bass in an hour with this system than in 4 years of music college. Learn and improvise in all the modes, pentatonic, blues, major & minor scales as well as arpeggios and chords starting on any note anywhere on the neck using about a half dozen easy to memorize patterns. You don't even have to read notation or tab!



2. This book efficiently combines fingerings with music. (While most books rely on technique which is useless).
   Unfortunatly, most guitarists and bassists focus on scales and arpeggios only without making music only to show off their skill.
   But that ain't skill, force without emotion is only mass.
   
   I improved my harmonical awareness with this book which greatly improves my overall musicianship (not only my bass playing).
   
   Already ordered ear training, gary, your the teacher of my dreams.



3. It seems to me that this book was written for jazz walking bass only. It is also not very helpful because there are hardly any exercises to practice the theory being presented. It is easy to say things like: "Use passing tones between chord tones", or :"Try to stay away from always playing the root on beat one". A short 2 bar example following is not of much help either.
   The other problem I had with this course was the author attempting to make the student "see all the chord tones of each chord throughout the entire fingerboard". Again this may be possible with correct exercises, otherwise only experts with many years of playing exprience would be capable of that.
   
   I was learning from "Walking Bass Lines" by Ed Friedland at the time and I must admit that this is a much better manual and explains the same material followed by simple and developmental exercises. You will get so much more out of this book than FBH.
   
   All in all this manual is for pros that most likely already know all the material. (refresher course maybe?)
   But if you are learning bass you won't get very far before you dump this into your closet.



4. I didn't give it a 5 star rating because it failed to provide me with the answers to everything I need to know about bass soloing.
   No grid method? no answers on how to play at lightning speed?
   (For humor, please refer to paragraph above.)
   
   A simple almost basic understanding of theory is all that is required.
   He won't show you that. Like most teachers, we all know that all it takes is one bad teacher and the rest of your learning could begin to Domino. Bottom line in my opinion is, this method of learning I understood, but he might not be the choice for you. Everyone learns differently.
   
   I found his way of teaching insightful! If you know any of his work, you probably know what to expect.



5. Very good book for the intermediate bassist looking to broaden their bass playing skills from 3 chord rock. I have been playing for two years. Helps you understand fundamentals and may even help you with your creative side if you want to try your hand at writing, or, come up with counter melodies and steal some thunder back from your guitarist.
   
   Worth the cost new.

1 comments about Classic Led Zeppelin III & IV (Bass Tab).

1. Does exactly what it says on the tin. If you want to play John Paul Jones' bass lines from III or IV, this is the book for you. Has both notation and tab, so it'll work great for you even if you can't read music. Overall I'm well satisfied and got exactly as much out of this book as expected.

5 comments about The Complete Electric Bass Player: Book 1-The Method (Complete Electric Bass Player).

1. I've been playing piano for a number of years and recently decided to take up the Bass Guitar. I don't currently have the time or money to work with an instructor for learning the bass. I picked up Rainey's book and found it to be very good. I'm about half way through the book and am now looking to buy the next book in his series. I don't know if this book is good for someone who is 'brand-new' to music, in general. It could be. But, having already had a background in music but NO practical experience with the Bass, this book has proven to be very valuable. I personally recommend this book. The author has a good, straight forward way of teaching that I really enjoy.

   Todd




2. I found this book to be very well done and a good resouce for the higher level beginner/intermediate player. Many people have written to note Rainey's odd playing style, and I would agree with them - it is probably actually best for the student to skip this section.

   It is important to understand that Rainey wrote this method book much like the Arban's book for trumpet players - more exercises than you can fathom and very few bells and whisltes.

   If you can take the dry, repetetive (and sometimes downright boring) studies, then there is no question you will be a better bassist.




3. This is a hard core introduction to all scales and arpegios you can think of, plus a few you couldn't have. If you master each exercise, with your metronome set at least to 80 bpm, you will get a LOT out of this book. It will take a lot of will power to turn from one page of exercises to next. It is more practise than music, most of the time. This is OK, as long as you are serious.
   
   Unfortunately, there is no CD, but you probably wouldn't want to listen to it anyway.
   
   Also, I'm going to go on a limb here, and say ignore the "right hand" technique section. Chuck has a very unorthodox way of plucking the strings.
   
   It's not easy, but if Chuck Rainey says this will make me play better, I'm going to believe him:)



4. An excellent book for beginners and for players who want to say fresh with plenty of practice exercises. Learn from one of the great masters of bass playing. Highly recommended.



5. 
   Standard notation only -- This may be a really good instruction book, but not if you can't read it. I don't read music, so this one gets tossed back. Why no TAB? (I can work out the notes, sure, but I've got 15 other instruction books, many of which have a ton of scale patterns that I'm probably never going to get to & finger-strengthening excercises are also in most of these books, so why keep this one?)
   
   A beginner would probably enjoy something more fun/entertaining than scales & scale exercises, even if this is the best way to learn.
   
   So if you are an absolute beginner & can't read music, maybe skip this one & look for a book that has: TABLATURE (notes written in an easy-to-figure-out manner). Possibly also look for some sort of CD- or DVD-included with whatever book you choose so you can hear what a particular piece is meant to sound like.
   
   One other thing, & this has absolutely nothing to do with this book, which looks like a perfectly good book: generally speaking, I've found mel bay titles to be not-so-good, so if you have any choice--and often in music shops you don't--steer clear of mel bay publications.
   
   (i'm sure that there are exceptions to the mel bay thing, but I haven't found any for beginner how-to music books).
   
   If you are a serious bass player and/or can read music, or feel like learning to read music, then the other reviews for this book are much, much more appropriate than this one & no offense is intended.

3 comments about Bass Heroes.

1. From Monk Montgomery to Billy Sheehan, this book presents most of the influential electric bassists in jazz, rock, and studio work. In a series of interviews or profiles, you get a good picture of the influences that went into their styles, their working habits, as well as some of the technical information about their gear. Highly recommended for learning about the people behind the bass lines you've heard over the last 30 years.



2. A collection of 30 separate articles, each about a big name in the bass world. The names span lots of styles too. And whatever your style, I think the whole book is worth reading, because I even picked up some good ideas from players or genres that I wasn't particularly into. Some of the articles focused more on the artists's equipment, for some it was their band history, others it was more focused on their style. This is actually why I didn't give it a full 5 stars. The Chris Squire article, for example, is just him explaining what equipment he uses, and as much as I'm interested in what other players are using to get their sounds, I would also like to have gotten a few playing tips from Squire. Still, it's a great "encylopedia" of sorts for any bass player, and I believe that any player who reads the articles will learn something helpful.



3. This is a great book to keep on your coffee table! It reminded me of all the music I need to buy - by these great bassists.

5 comments about Ultimate Ear Training for Guitar and Bass.

1. This book is useless. The only thing you get is even more tests. There are only Dooo Doooo sounds on the cd and the answers on the book. Dont waste your money.



2. I can see how instructors would be enthusiastic about this book, but unfortunately it will in no way help the student develop their ear training. Here's the problem. The book and CD basically outlines a METHOD of ear training, it is not ear training itself. For example, for each step of the book there is one and only one example on the CD. It is just that, an example, not a training. So, there is one 14 note "lesson" on intervals and from this you are supposed to magically learn how to identify all the major intervals. I don't think so. However, if you were an instructor then you could use that example as a starting point to develop your own lessons and work with students in recognizing intervals. You could spend a month on variations of that lesson itself since that's the core of ear training. In fact, if you're an instructor you can use the whole book as a blueprint for a year long curriculum from recognizing intervals to recognizing chords.
   
   By the way, the CD itself mostly uses really dull organ patches. The idea may have been to eliminate timbre as a distraction. However, since one of the goals of ear training is to distinguish timbre from tone, this is another example of how this book/CD in itself won't be of much use to students.



3. I had a very weak ear when I began using this book even though I had been playing bass and studying theory for nearly 10 years. I finally realized that my ear was not going to magically get any better so I went with one of the most innovative players out there today to see how he would teach ear training. I was a little amused by some of the complaints that I read here. Gary does just about everything he can besides hold your hand and make sure you do these exercises the right way. It only takes a few minutes a day, he wants you to hear the notes before they are played and picture them on the fingerboard. If you actually put forth an effort and listen to what he says and have even an ounce of self-motivation to apply this yourself to other musical applications, I guarantee your ear will improve. My ear was horrible so I had no place to go but up, but since I worked through this book my ear has improved 100% and it is still improving. If you want a realistic method that works, get this book. If you think ear training is going to be easy than no book will work for you. Highly Recommended.



4. this book was recommended to me by an online friend who teaches music.
   
   the initial impression i got from this book was a bit similar to those online lessons you get where they play a major C scale and then let you guess which notes were played. well, this book is like that and more!
   
   this is my first "ear training" book, and im telling you... if you are not serious or do not have time to study this book the way you study your medical text books (assuming you are one of those med students), you wont learn anything here!
   
   ive been studying this book for about 30 minutes a day everyday (or at least 3-5x a week) for one month now and im still stuck in the first part of chapter 3.
   
   there might be some ppl who have better ears and can go thru this book in a fly (the way some ppl are better in math compared to others) ... but not for someone like me (im really tone deaf). i imagine only a small percentage of really serious musicians would make use of this book.
   
   and oh... be sure to have a player nearby cause this book is useless without the audio CD that accompanies it. i suggest you copy the files in your hard drive so youd have a back up in case something happens to the CD.
   
   i do not recommend this book for ppl who do not have that much commitment (i have a feeling i wont finish this book, cause it really is that hard) in music; it is expensive and the learning curve is quite high.



5. thanks gary i always wanted to play like the pro and this book is so good if anyone make up their mind and get this book spend time with this book practice as instructed you will develope relative pitch in no time since i have this i have play gig recently and didnt have a rehearsal and do well how i practice this book for instance i pick track one and i practice it for half an hour in the morning go to work when i come home from work i practice it again for the same half an hour then next day i do the same thing on track two so thank you gary for making this book useful for me and others plus am getting more gigs because am better songs that take me twenty minutes to learn is taking me five minutes now thang you sir

2 comments about Play Bass Today! Beginner's Pack: Book/CD/DVD Pack.

1. I love the Hal Leonard series. I bought this for my 14 year-old and he is really rocking! Comprehensive and simple. I really like the instructor on this DVD. This series is a great way to learn basic music theory for a great start to becoming a true musician. My kids find it fun and I (a music major) find it more than legit.



2. This is a great beginner's pack. I love the DVD, it's easy to follow and you can go back to each chapter when ever you want.
   Recommend this to all wanna be bass players out there (i'm one off them)