I’ve found this book very interesting because it does not only give about 47 nice reggae bass lines to follow, either in notation and in tablature, but every line has a brief description about where it was taken and some theory advice. That’s not so usual with this kind of “bass lines compilation books” and really give an added value to it. All riddims, as the author call them, are in historical order, so after a historic description of Reggae music and some
performance tips, you will find the following section:
- Early Ska
- Rock Steady
- Reggae
- Roots Reggae
- Dub
- Modern Ska
- Dancehall
Followed by a section about where to find more reggae sources (must say that as some mention geocities websites, there are a bit out of date).
I have really enjoyed this book by Ed Friedland and have played the lines with the accompanied CD (split mix so you can turn the recorded bass line off) featuring Xavier Marquez on guitar, Scott Anderson on keyboards, Carl Cherry on drums and obviously Ed Friedland on bass, for countless hours making it possible for me to be told “The Best Reggae Bass Player in Town!” (Ok, I’m not living in a big city but that’s not the point).
If I really need to find a negative thing about this book is that the lines are short, so after going through them a couple of times I decided to edit and doubled the waveform so now I can really get in the reggae mood while playing having a line to follow and space to improvise.
So to summarize, this book is fun and educational, and a must have for all bassist willing to play reggae by going beyond the concept of dropping the first beat.
Title: Reggae Bass (Bass Builders)
Author: Ed Friedland
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0793579945
ISBN-13: 978-0793579945
