Elementary Training for Musicians by Paul Hindemith ISBN #0901938165

Jazz Theory by Mark Levine is basically a degree in jazz all in one book. I can't recommend it enough to do it justice. Any beginner's book on bass will help as well, as you'll start to see through the eyes of the bass player, so to speak.

I was classically trained so I learned Theory from that perspective which I feel has done me the world of good. I am not sure about elsewhere but in the UK we have the Associated Board exams in Theory and they are a good start. There are loads of books on music theory. Can I suggest though that alot of popular tuition guides get it wrong. Don't trust them too much. Oh and don't use TAB EVER!!! :)

Take Lessons.

with a bass cleff and a treble cleff get the notes memorized. learn scales. from there learn chords. afterwards chord progressions. and then the relationships of the different chords and their variations to the key. it's probably best to take a course. but if you gather material i'll be happy to help as best i can

Put theory on the back burner for now. Instead, listen to what your favorite players do and emulate them. You can start by figuring out specific basslines (or melodies or comping) by ear and you will see that most players in a given style play more similarly than differently. After you internalize these similarities, you can add your own voice to your playing by choosing when to use the phrases you took from the other players and when to create your own phrases.

Basslines... On a bass guitar? On a keyboard? In a software sequencer? Whatever your desire, there's a couple of important points. Learning to read music is a long arduous task and not actually essential, so take those answers with a pinch of salt. Songwriting is a whole new art in itself and to get started you want some quick results!! Don't you?? ;-) Try a few things: 1. Learn to play some other basslines - by ear! Just pick some simple ones and listen & copy them. Whether it be rock lines on a live bass or hip-hop b-lines on a keyboard or sequencer this is an essential skill for a musician, song writer or useful member of ANY band. 2. Learn to play more complicated ones! If on live bass you will get tabs to all your favourite songs here: http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/ 3. Just write!! Write some lines. You don't know if the are right theoretically? SO what! do they sound good? Don't believe me? Do this exercise. Pick notes that sound rubbish togther. Try and write a b'line that sounds horrible and dischordant. Done? Okay! So now you know what sounds crap, move on to what you think sounds GREAT! 4. Get some theory under you belt. You need to be able to read sheet music, but to write songs or be a valid member of a band you need to understand what role your instrument plays in the whole. Thsi guys is great - simple and broken into 10 sections. Work through each one. http://chordmaps.com/index.htm This may help with the understanding of the theory: It's a web piano. It's monophonic (one note at a time - no chords) but should help especuially in his early exercises. http://www.daniellaberge.com/music/webpiano/webpiano1.htm DO all these things together and you will be writing in NO time!! FOR LATER! 5. Once you are a bit better versed in the theory side now go back to your own original songs/basslines or your favourite band's tracks and try and name the notes, scales and then work out the keys, understand the tempo/key changes.

it's everything depend upon the basis of learning music..... it's good if u start bass from the scratch if u interested to learn music in some institutes the , i recommended go through Music School in LA www.mi.edu - Musicians Institute

You don't need any formal training to play music if you have a good ear. Never underestimate your brain's ability to learn. Of course there are a few tips that can help. Penatonic scales are the skelitons of bass lines. After you know all the penatonics try slipping in some chromatic notes. Don't worry about the notes being in the scale, just make sure you land your bassline on a strong tone in the scale (the one or the five probably).Listen to songs that have good bass lines. You'll want to hear the bass guitar clearly and accurately. Make sure you have a good audio system that you can adjust the eq on. If you have a parametric eq you can really zero in on the bass. Simply boosting low shelving can make the bass harder to hear in some cases. Try boosting around 350htz. Learn these bass parts and think about how they relate to other parts in the song. After a while you'll begin to recognize the common conventions of bass. Many times these convention are dictated by how easy it is to play on the instrument and the way the notes are arranged on the neck. If its too difficult to play you may be trying to hard. The converse to this is an interesting story. One of my favorite bass players is Jaco Pastorius. He said he developed his unique style because he had a cheap tinny radio that he couldn't hear any bass on. It's interesting because he became one of the most melodic Bass players ever. So your kind of a blank slate at this point and that's exciting because you have a chance to be unique by ignoring formal conventions. That's all I've got.

Hi, my name is Joe. I've played bass for years. Spent 12 years in Nashville and toured with artists like Percy Sledge and a bunch more. I have a free guitar course online now. I've been planning to do one on bass, maybe I'll go ahead and do it. I could get you going on the theory and more. My guitar lessons are at www.squidoo.com/eguitar. You can reach me at russmediagroup@gmail.com Good luck Joe

I would start by learning chord structures, either on six string guitar or piano. Once you have a feel for chords you'll be able to work bass lines through these.