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Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 14, 2019
I found this very easy to understand, explains everything very clearly. Great book for beginners and those moving beyond beginner status
Nancy G. Alford
Reviewed in the United States on May 2, 2019
Great positive attitude expressed with the various exercises. Doesn't talk DOWN to the motivated learner. Audio files are helpful most of the time, especially as things get more and more challenging. Fun to work with this book. It may take me a while to rate up there with Victor Wooten, but it no longer seems absolutely beyond my reach! Nice work.
Luis Resendes
Reviewed in Canada on September 12, 2016
Great bass book for beginner bass players.
Ronald Light
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2015
I bought The Idiot's Guide to Playing Bass Guitar as my initial foray into the world of bass guitar and to explore whether I might want to study bass someday. (At this point, I think learning electric six-string guitar is more than enough of a challenge.) I have a small library of guitar instruction books (not on bass guitar) I've collected over the past year and a half, about a dozen volumes from different teaching perspectives and on subjects covering both theory and technique. Most of what I own make good reference materials, but quite frankly as a relative beginner I can't keep my eyes from glazing over whenever I attempt a full read or a general course of study through any of them. The material can be dense and difficult to understand, let alone to apply on the strings or fretboard. Clearly it's no easy task for an author to explain the fundamentals of music theory and guitar technique to a beginning student in an effective and intelligible way. So, that said, what Hodge manages to accomplish in his book is nothing short of a miracle! It's by far the best book on my shelf as he makes everything easy to understand and does so in prose style that's totally approachable and a whole lot of fun to read. It's obvious Hodge is highly knowledgeable about his subject, and in particular what I appreciate about his approach is the emphasis on theory and its practical application to constructing and playing bass lines. Somehow, Hodge manages to give proper weight to both theory and technique and to integrate them fully in a hands-on, practical sort of way. You can work your way through the book in a sequential and developmental learning progression, or do as I do and read select sections of interest or whole chapters to get specific kinds of information. Even though not a student of the bass, I find this manual the best guide I own for making music concepts intelligible and for general guitar learning! This is the rare guitar instruction book that really begs to be read because it's informative to the max, it's intelligible and is just plain enjoyable as a reading experience. Five and a half stars for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Bass Guitar.
G. L. Simms
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2015
I ran across David Hodge's teaching on guitarnoise.com and asked about an easier way to download and read his lessons - then he mentioned his book!I've played (with) several instruments over the years including acoustic and electric guitar, but the introduction to music theory was presented to me in a way that was easy to learn and easy to put into use.Although I've owned the book for many years, I recently was charged with playing the upright bass in our local garage band. I went back to this book to review the basic tenets of bass playing and was up and running in short order.Once you get your feet under you with whichever type of bass you play, get going with a band and live performances. Nothing pushes you as hard as embarrassing yourself in front of others!Another book you may wish to look at is a new release called Bass for the Skeptical Guitarist by Ralph Emery. It's almost ready to release from the publisher. If it is anything like Mr. Emery's other book, it too will be a 5 star rated book.
Luddite
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2014
After paging through this book at the local library, I decided to purchase it through Amazon at a considerable savings over list price. There is a LOT of information in this book, most of it very useful. I was able to skip some of the early chapters as I had already been playing for a while, but there is a lot of theory based information lacking in a lot of other instructional books that has given me a "bigger picture" approach to bass and has also helped my guitar playing. Rather than merely have exercises that move you from fret to fret and string to string, "Idiot's Guide" adds the "why" to the "how" and has given me greater understanding of intervals and how different scales work. I'm taking my time with the book and am trying to master it's approach fairly well before moving on and it has made a major difference in my playing. Highly recommended!
Vgjb
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 11, 2014
Takes you nicely through the playing and reading of the music and notation for the bass guitar
Democracy
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2013
I don't make the time to practice as much as I should, but, this is a great book for when I finally decide to jump in.
philipp holderegger
Reviewed in Germany on January 21, 2013
Covers a lot of ground in a systematic way. I have been using it every day now, and have picked up more knowledge about music and e-bass than in 9 years in school :-)
フレデリック
Reviewed in Japan on January 17, 2013
Perfect book if you like things straight to the point. I have been messing around with a bass for a year now and reached the learning plateau. This book has allowed be to get on the upward learning curve and get my playing more organized. If you like things without any blablabla....this book is for you.
Bike lover
Reviewed in the United States on January 31, 2008
This is a great book. You will learn not only to play the instrument but also to learn how to be a real bassist. You can also learn plenty of stuff about music. You may already see what other reviewers liked about the book. Some people complained that this book contained too much stuff on music, but I believe that you should know far more than that to be a bass player.However, there is one big missing thing I hope the author add to the next edition. The book does not contain any left hand fingerings at all. You are totally on your own when play the examples. This will be quite a job for a beginner. In addition, I hope the author would take more time to explain left hand techniques such as muting using 3-fret stretching.Even without details about the left hand stuff, this book is sure far bettern than the majority of other methods book. Overall I recommend this book to anyone.
George Ross
Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2007
I have been playing bass in a band for about a year now, self taught and was looking for something to, not only give me the basics, but expand on my knowledge as far as fret board mechanics and other types of music, such as rock, blues, etc. I was surprised by the way everything is spelled out in this book. It is great for the beginner as well as those who have played before. I will and have taken some of the "tricks" in this book with me into my on stage playing. So, whether you play in the bedroom, garage or on a stage, this book has something for everyone.
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