Bass Guitar for Dummies, 2Nd Edition Is an Easy-To-Follow • Exercises to Improve Your Bass Guitar Reference That Gets You Playing Quickly! Technique
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spine= .72” Music/Musical Instruments/Guitar Audio CD ™ included Making Everything Easier! 2nd Edition The fast and easy way 2nd Edition to learn bass guitar! Open the book and find: Bass Guitar The bass is the heart of music. So leave center stage to • More than 150 grooves in many the other musicians — you have more important work different styles to do. Whether you’ve never held a bass guitar or you’re • How to change strings and an experienced player looking to improve your skills, perform basic maintenance Bass Guitar For Dummies, 2nd Edition is an easy-to-follow • Exercises to improve your Bass Guitar reference that gets you playing quickly! technique • The world according to bass — develop the skills you need to • Tips on how to play with other play bass in a band musicians • The bass-ics of playing — explore the techniques for turning • Warm-ups, same-string strokes, scales and chords into great music and string crossing • Making the moves, creating the grooves — discover the joy of • Bass styles from around the world creating just the right groove for each musical genre and style • Instruction on how to compose • Rock on (and beyond) — join the band on the CD for a journey your own grooves through playing different musical styles and perfect accompani- ments to songs • Advice on which bass guitar is best for you “Patrick’s teaching method showed me how to connect the bits of technique I’d collected into a playing style.” — Adam Clayton, bass player, U2 Learn to: • Play many musical styles, from salsa to Go to Dummies.com® soul, funk to fusion, rock to reggae Bonus CD Includes for videos, step-by-step photos, how-to articles, or to shop! • Improvise using the proper scales Bass tracks of examples in the book for you to reference and play along with • Develop solid rhythm and timing Samples demonstrating groove styles, scales, chords, and techniques • Play along with the accompanying CD $24.99 US / $29.99 CN / £16.99 UK Patrick Pfeiffer is a professional bassist, composer, clinician, and bass ISBN 978-0-470-53961-3 Patrick Pfeiffer instructor in New York City. He has recorded with George Clinton, Jimmy Professional bassist, composer, clinician, and Norman, Phoebe Snow, and many others. His other published books bass instructor include Improve Your Groove—The Ultimate Guide for Bass and Daily Grooves for Bass. Pfeiffer is co-founder of Bass Remedies, Inc. (BassRemedies.com). Foreword by Will Lee, bassist, Pfeiffer Late Show with David Letterman spine= .72” Get More and Do More at Dummies.com® Start with FREE Cheat Sheets Cheat Sheets include • Checklists • Charts • Common Instructions • And Other Good Stuff! To access the Cheat Sheet created specifically for this book, go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/bassguitar Get Smart at Dummies.com Dummies.com makes your life easier with 1,000s of answers on everything from removing wallpaper to using the latest version of Windows. 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Bass Guitar FOR DUMmIES‰ 2ND EDITION by Patrick Pfeiffer Foreword by Will Lee Bassist, Late Show with David Letterman Bass Guitar For Dummies®, 2nd Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http:// www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/ or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009941927 ISBN: 978-0-470-53961-3 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 About the Author Patrick Pfeiffer is a professional bassist, composer, and bass teacher in New York City. He earned his bachelor’s degree in music from Arizona State University and his master’s degree in jazz studies from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with famed bassist Miroslav Vitous. Pfeiffer’s solo CD Fruits and Nuts (recorded with his group Phoenix) earned stellar reviews and a recommendation from Bass Player Magazine. Besides performing and recording, Pfeiffer teaches bass guitar at the renowned Katie Agresta Studio in New York City and gives clinics on rhythm section playing for bassists and drummers all over the U.S. His former students include Adam Clayton of U2, Jean-Louis Locas of Cirque du Soleil, Mark Wike of the Bogmen, and Alec Such of Bon Jovi. Other former clients include Red Ant Records, Polygram, and Arista Records. Pfeiffer has played and/or recorded with George Clinton, Jimmy Norman, Phoebe Snow, Slam Steward, Paul Griffin, Bernard Purdie, Babatunde Olatunji, Sheila Jordan, George Russell, Margaret Whiting, Joe LoVano, Carlos Alomar, Hernan Romero, the Marvelettes, the KMA Allstars, and the Gary Corwin Dream Band, to name a few. Besides Bass Guitar For Dummies, 2nd Edition, he is the author of two other publications for bass: Improve Your Groove: The Ultimate Guide for Bass (published by Hal Leonard) and Daily Grooves for Bass (published by Carl Fischer). Pfeiffer is co-owner of Bass Remedies, Inc. (BassRemedies.com), a company offering live bass seminars with today’s bass stars as well as Internet-based video lessons. Dedication This book is dedicated to the love of my life, my beautiful sweetie, Lisa Ann Herth Pfeiffer. Author’s Acknowledgments My love and heartfelt gratitude to Lisa Pfeiffer for her love, wisdom, and sup- port whenever I find myself immersed in yet another bass project. A huge thank you to my wonderful friends: To my tireless pre-editor Crissy Walford; to Nick diPierro for the nightly bombing runs of art; to Lawrence Green for the beautiful Finale files; and to Steven Schlesinger for the great photos. It is my privilege to have an amazing group of musicians on the recording of this book’s CD: David B. Meade and Michael D’Agostino on drums, Sean Harkness on guitar, and Lou DiNatale on keyboards. A big thank you to Michael D’Agostino for also expertly recording and mixing the CD. I am very grateful for the love and support I’ve always gotten from my parents, Ursula and Wilhelm Pfeiffer. Parents every- where should help their kids follow their dream. Mine did. My utmost respect and thanks to the For Dummies crew, Tracy Boggier, Natalie Harris, Jessica Smith, Alicia South, and all the people behind the scenes I never got to meet. You all are an incredible team, and I am grateful for all the long hours you’ve put into making sure this book is the best it can possibly be.