Single String Studies for 5 String Bass: v. 1 Book

An excellent learning tool for both the beginner who has no experience reading music on the bass guitar, and the advanced student looking to improve their ledger line reading and general knowledge of each string of the bass. Each exercise concentrates a students attention of one string at a time. This allows a familiarity to form between the written pitch and where it can be found on the bass along with improving one's "feel" for jumping linearly across the fretboard. The exercises presented here are the same that great teachers and world class music schools give to their advanced students. This is the first book to present them formally, and is a milestone of its kind.This book contains hard-core information and exercises that are plainly difficult; only dedicated musicians need apply. But if you are serious about your instrument, learning how to read on it, and learning where the notes are without looking at it, you've come to the right place. This book works in tandem with audio examples that can be downloaded form the internet, which will greatly aid in the absorption of information and the building of skill. Exercises for each string are presented in all keys. The book culminates in a final section which integrates playing on all five strings.The excerpt includes: This book's purpose it to help a student learn the notes on each string of the 5-string bass guitar. There are some definite right and wrong ways to approach this goal. If you are a beginner at trying to read music on the bass guitar you will find it most challenging. Stringed instruments are unique in that there are so many places to play the same note. For example, the 5-string bass guitar has 5 places to play a B one octave below middle C. Example One shows the location on middle C on the bass clef and a B one octave below middle C. Example two shows the five places this note can be found.You can easily see that this can present a problem for a bassist. Just to play one note a decision has to be made on which string to use. To further complicate things, the bass is a transposing instrument sounding one octave below the written note.Therefore, if you see the note C one octave below middle C written on the staff you will play the C on the 3rd fret of the A string (see example 3).Therefore you can see that you are sounding a pitch an octave below any written note when you read bass music. Many composers do not realize this so you will many times encounter a situation where you have to transpose your part up or down an octave. Just to recap a little, you have 5 actual pitches that correspond to the B one octave below middle C, (see example one) but because the bass is transposed down one octave you will be playing a sound that is one octave below the written pitch.Students find this concept to be quite confusing.Therefore, here is one more example. If you are reading a part written for bass it has been transposed. If you see a C one octave below middle C written, the pitch that will sound in reality is the C two ledger lines below the bass clef. (See example 4)All examples found in this book are written for the bass guitar and therefore have been transposed. If you see a middle C on the staff you will play this note at the fifth fret on the G string (See example 5) or at any of the other places you can find this note as previously discussed.Read More