'I bought this book because I wanted to see how different kinds of music were constructed, ie what was present in style A that was not in style B. I've had a bass for a long while but am going back to first principles to make sure my timing, scales and technique are correct as my bad habits were making my playing sound mushy and untidy.

The author spends a chapter or so explaining how to hold the bass, how musical notation works and how scales and modes work (the last part is very clearly explained). There are surprisingly few audio examples on the CD for this chapter, I would have preferred more. The part where you get to play a phrase shown to you in tab and notation is fairly brief. I suppose in fairness this is not intended to be a beginners book but I do think he could have spent more time on phrasing, and on playing rhythms so that the next chapters were easier to master. Most scores are shown in both tab and staff notation throughout the book.

Thereafter, each chapter focuses on one style such as blues, rock, reggae, funk etc. The analysis is detailed and informative; each chapter contains recommendations for seminal songs to listen to. Besides examples, each chapter also contains a "playalong" score (also on the cd) with an analysis of it and pointers to particular points of interest.

All in all I can recommend it, but suggest its not for the beginner. You probably need to be the sort of player with a fairly good idea of scales, and a rough idea about modes, to get the most from it.' (Posted on 9/18/09)