Bass Grooves: Develop Your Groove & Play Like the Pros in Any Style

I got part of a good product. The essential examples allegedly on included CD and via online code in the book couldn’t be accessed because there was no CD and no online code

If you're a guitarist and picked up the bass to do demos and home recording like I did, I highly recommend this book along with Barrett Tagliarino's Rythmic Lead Guitar  Rhythmic Lead Guitar: Solo Phrasing, Groove and Timing for All Styles . I've jammed for years and always ascribed whether the groove worked or meshing with other musicians to "chemistry" and working it out by ear...and it is, but now you can be the chemist and control the outcome. Having been deprived of anybody to jam with as well as having a computer studio like everyone else these days, I was determined to learn how to break out of stale grooves and be able to articulate why some riffs worked and some didn't so well playing as a one man band against myself. Learning to groove on the bass from this book was a huge eye opener. I'd always kidded my bass players as being just four string root note/chord tone players. Now I know better and it's also freed up the way I play solos knowing how different grooves work. I'm diggin' playing the bass now, and the sheer amount of styles to be learned really opens up your imagination's palette for writing songs and breaking out of ruts. On top of this, all my playing is much more tight and in the pocket and a great deal of it is thanks to this book. I'm looking forward to getting other bass books by Ed F. His teaching style is very easy to understand, articulate and clear. You just have to work the chapters.Also recommended for home musicians: The Drummer's Bible  The Drummer's Bible: How to Play Every Drum Style from Afro-Cuban to Zydeco

Absolutely brilliant. Being a percussionist with piano skills, who has been playing bass lines his whole life... on the piano, and who has been meddling with some classic guitar playing recently, I adore the way this book is "constructed". The very firm link Mr. Friedman has established between drums and bass is very important too: the very first chapter is not about bass playing, but about programming a drum computer in order to provide the missing part of any groove. The bass player and the drummer are twins, no doubt, and in this book that aspect is really glueing together the whole thing. That being said, the comments, and of course the choice of styles are excellent as well, as is the double notes/tab notation. An absolute must for anybody wishing to extend his or her knowledge of harmony, bass lines and accompaniment to this instrument, and probably for the regular bass guitar student as well (clearly, I'm not that regular, coming from a different background). Together with this book, I also ordered Friedman's  Blues Bass - A Guide to the Essential Styles and Techniques: Hal Leonard Bass Method Stylistic Supplement (Book & CD) , which I'm playing through right now, and his  Building Walking Bass Lines (Bass Instruction) . Great stuff. Love it. AND the instrument, too.

I love all of Ed Friedland's books, and this one is unique with its attention to drum parts, so kudos to the author for a novel approach. The problem for me is that I've been wood-shedding to some fairly complex syncopated bass lines with a metronome for some time now, so I found little rhythmic challenge in this book. Nonetheless it is very-well written and covers many modern styles. I hate to give free advertising to another book, but religiously using Patrick Pfeiffer's "Daily Grooves for Bass" has not only helped clean up some sloppiness in my timing/technique, but it's made me into an excellent sight-reader, as it has no tabs unless you peek at the CD. So if you're a more experienced player, I'd recommend looking for a book more along those lines.

I first want to say that I am a senior drummer (61) who has played drums since I was 14 and recentley I was asked to play bass in a church praise band and I needed some help to get my bass groove on so I bought this book.This is absolutley the best book for young players and old to lurn all the grooves from the50's/ 60's to the present.You realy should study this book and it will defenatley help you to where you want to be.Let's face it rock realy came from the blues and a mix of music from the 40's and 50's swingstyles and everything in between so, what I am saying is evolution in music comes from the past towards the future. So get this book and you realy don't get boggled down with the drumm lessons/machine you just a good memory (brain) of how to play the grooves on the CD and read the tabs also.There is a lot of great dialog from the wrighter that is also very good.Buy it and get your groove on.

This is not a comment on the book or author, but this delivery mechanism:Ensure you note the note: the Kindle version does not come with any CDs or DVDs. This is a book covering bass grooves, and the author provides many fine examples that really need to be heard to glean a particular nugget of knowledge he is hoping to impart. In this day and age, one would think an audio file could be easily included in an electronic package of both music and text. Why does this feel so '80's ish?

While I was on a cruise, I was looking for a bass guitar book, and the title intrigued me. Unfortunately, I didn't read the entire review and didn't see the mention at the very end of no CD for Kindle edition. I paid a dollar less than the paperback would have cost me with a CD. I wish I had: #1 - noticed that there was even a CD with it. #2 - waited until I got back home to order a paperback copy. My latest music book purchases have had links to audio content websites so they don't have to worry about this, but this appears to be absent in this case. If the price had been a bit more different between formats, this would not be as much an issue, but I feel ripped off. There seems to be good content in the book but it's so frustrating not having an audio reference while reading.

It would be 5 stars if the supplied audio wasn't so poor. The audio SHOULD be made so that the backing track comes out of one speaker, and the bassline comes out of the other. Unfortunately, the output from either speaker is exactly the same.With many of the tracks, the actual bassline(ie you know, the part that we need to hear so that we know that we're playing it correctly) can't be heard because the backing track is so freaking loud!!

I am not bass player and just making beats in sampler. The book gives so much impression about groove and rythm ear trainingwhile making first exercises though I Played sampled bass VST instrument of course. I spent just 3 evenings on making exercises 1-11 and it is understood now that my timing is not enough to place 1/8 or 1/16 guitar notes exactly on place and with right length in the melodies faster than 60bpm. Despite i can put the notes in sampler and melody will sound about the same as Ed's melody on the CD I feel that need to practice more on that. Of course you can skip this step and start with following examples to program bass parts related to different music styles. In any case the book provides enough information about grooves, timings and sound conflicts with another instruments. And of course the best instrument is your ears and Ed with his book and CD just help you to make it right.P.S. I don't understand how those people who bought kindle version can learn bass in theory.

This was bought as a Christmas present for someone else and very well received by the drummer in the household. Need access to a drum kit or software to get the most out of it.

Includes notes on programming Drum Machines (for those of us who'd cut ourselves rather than listen to a metronome!)

Pretty well planned book. Everything is explained well and is pretty funny generally