Feedback please on a new type of theory book

[davethebassman]

Hi All and thanks for reading this and any feedback you provide

I have been playing Bass now for about 1 year, my background was guitar, and I did 2 years of music theory as a college student in the 90's. I have been teaching IT for the last 8 years. Now enough about me, lets get to what I need feedback on...

I am in the process of teaching a relative newbie to the Bass, he has been playing the Irish drum for a number of years and can play the banjo to a standard (as in can play the basics but I wouldn't put him in a band which plays anything serious.)

My bass playing is predominantly getting to know the song and practicing like mad from tab / sheet music to performance standard. This has served me well. Put this in conjunction with being able to relate the theory of music to what I am playing, I consider myself to being above the average bass player (no disrespect to anyone reading this.) I suppose that I am the kind of bass player that gets more of a buzz from knowing the chord sequence and being able to work out an alternative bass line from knowing the theory of it all. (hope thiat makes sense)

I am in the process of putting together a set of theory notes which explains each key, chord and mode. The relationship between each key, arpeggio's in each key, modes of scale and a whole load of other things. The difference between normal theory books and websites and what I am producing, is that I am doing this for each key and mode, both doing it in musical notation and tab. In other words, the person who is learning the bass does not have to work out anything.

My question is this:

When the resource is compete, do you think it is a worthwhile thing to publish as a book (either as a PDF or a self published book) and how much would you as a bass player be prepared to pay for it, my thoughts are, around £10.00 for a PDF and £2

[davethebassman]

£25 for a printed version

[paul_5]

Seems a bit pricey for a pdf. The "AB guide to Music Theory" retails for about a fiver, and that's printed. Great idea though.

[Bilbo]

Depends on content and competition. I won't but a book that is just reproducing basic theory. I got one of them in 1981 and a major scale is still a major scale if I am not mistaken. You need to establish some reason why people would want your product and sell it from that perspective. Otherwise, a lot of it is available online for free!

[JakeBrownBass]

This is a difficult one, you really have to check the competition & similar books out there.

Saying your doing it in all keys isn't really going to be anything special IMO, in western music, you've got your major key and relative minor. If you've learnt theory behind this, it's up to the student to then learn it in different keys. Everything goes hand in hand.

You can summarise the chords, arpeggios & modes of a single key on a single a4 piece of paper almost.


Also, I'd really try and avoid tablature in this one...

[davethebassman]

Thanks for the comments so far, I guess what I am trying to achieve is a book which I would have liked to have bought when I first started. Acknowledged that a lot of the theory of music is available from online sources, however, IMO, the terminology for the novice is not condusive with finding the information required. For example. how is a major triad derived, yes the hit one miss one technique works, but that doesn't explain the major / minor intervals and the relationships between the different triads. For the novice how does one put a query into lets say google for the complete explanation of the triads.

I have the ABRSM grades 1-5 book which is good, but it IMO is not great at explaining why a certain bit of music theory is as it is. Yes I agree that a certain amount of work should be required by the learner, but, I would like to give the learner the whole picture of how and why, and not just in the key of C Major.

Regarding the use of tabs in the resource, I am trying to be accessible to all, yes I can read the dots, and I also read tabs, I can also see the benefit of fretboard diagrams, but as I am sure you will agree, a resource which has the information in as many different ways has to be a good thing.

One thing that I have found whilst learning is that no one book has everything in it, and no one resource can I guess have everything in it for everyone, I suppose I am trying to produce a resource which answers all the questions which I had to spend hours of looking online / leafing through books etc...

Anyway, thanks for the comments and please keep em coming.

Dave

[visog]

I think what you're saying is that you've found a method that works for you. It may work for other people but before you charge for it, whatever the price, you need to test it with other people to ensure that it works, it's correct and differentiated from all the other products currently available. In short, some market research and testing is needed. Also, I'd demonstrate your results on YouTube so that people understand clearly what your approach will give them.

Regarding theory, you can understand it if you wish... which is important if you're composing. But I know great performers who are Grade 8+ who just aren't interested and accept the theory simply as 'how it is' and concentrate on playing great.

It better be good because there's a whole world of free education on YT and the Internet generally. Good luck and if it's good, I'll use it too!