Classical and Contemporary Studies for Bass Guitar

[Rob MacKillop]

Hi folks. I just want to mention my Classical and Contemporary Studies for Bass Guitar has just been published by Mel Bay HERE - which can be downloaded straight away as an eBook, or hard copies are available from the publisher, or one of their sellers. It will take a month or so to reach Amazon UK, I imagine.

So, what is it? 

Half the book is given over to 21 studies by "the Paganini of the bass", Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889), very classical in style, and progressive, from fairly simple to complex. For the second half of the book I commissioned 12 Studies for Bass Guitar by Gilbert Isbin, whose influences run from contemporary classical to jazz, world musics, etc. If you like Charlie Haden, Steve Swallow, etc, you might well like these solo repertoire pieces. Isbin loves yearning, often haunting melodies, and the 12 pieces are generally in two-part counterpoint, or a melody and accompaniment.

Every item in the book has a sound file recorded on a fretless 4-string bass by me, but all the pieces could just as well have been played on a fretted 4-string bass. 

You can see videos and hear soundfiles of every piece from THIS PAGE of my website.

Any questions, just ask.

 

Cheers,

 

Rob MacKillop

Edited July 8, 2018 by Rob MacKillop

[Dad3353]

Ordered, as hard copy, through Amazon France; it'll arrive when it arrives. No rush, as I'm a drummer, anyway. What would I know about Classical and Contemporary Studies for Bass Guitar..? 

I'd like to add that, in my opinion and experience, Rob is a Good Egg, well known for having done sterling work for guitar, in many styles, especially bringing his acute eye and ear to the Mickey Baker guitar books, for which I'd again thank him. I just hope now that he's at least half as good with bass stuff. 

Wishing all the best for this new venture. 

Edited July 8, 2018 by Dad3353

[TorturedSaints]

It looks good on the website, just the sort of book I would buy EXCEPT for one thing, the tab immediately below the music.  At the risk of opening the perennial tab/notation can of worms again, I really hate that, as where my sight reading is right now, I want to concentrate on the notation and not have my 'brain' have a cheeky crib from the tab fingering.

Now if the eBook is formatted such that I can see only the music, then I'll buy straight away. Any chance of that please @Rob MacKillop?  I guess not, but nevertheless all the best with your venture. 

Ralph

[Rob MacKillop]

Thanks, guys.

I don't think Mel Bay would entertain that at all, Ralph. They know what sells, I guess. I'm just happy to get the music published by such a big company. Sorry. You can only please some of the people some of the time, as they say. 

Edited July 8, 2018 by Rob MacKillop

[Bilbo]

To be fair, commercially speaking, tab and score probably doubles the potential sales. Cannot blame the publisher for that decision. 

[Rob MacKillop]

Please let's not make this a debate about the pros and cons of tab. Thank you 🙂

[Dad3353]

Not the prettiest of solutions, but masking tape over the tab would solve that particular issue, I'd suggest. Just a thought. 

[Brook_fan]

Another solution to the Tab (if it really bothers you that much) is to photocopy the piece, cut out each system, and then just glue the standard staff systems onto a blank sheet.  Simple!

Just to add, Rob is a national treasure and has written some extremely nice books for all sorts of plucked instruments.  Acoustic guitar in DADGAD, ukulele (some lovely piece by Baroque composer Gaspar Sanz), mandolin (recently some baroque Scottish lute pieces arranged for mandolin) and the tenor banjo (including the Bach cello suites).  I know some of us here are multi instrumentalists, and his considerable volume of work for Mel Bay is always very well presented, achievable, and very rewarding to play.

I love the sound of the Gilbert Isbin pieces in this new book 🙂

Robbie

p.s I forgot to say as well that Mel Bay are always having discounts on their website.  Usually I get to hear of them from the Mandolin Cafe forum, but sometimes it’s as much as 30% off.  I always use the ebook option, so it makes getting these books even cheaper.  These days I definitely my prefer to have my music on the iPad .  I’ll let you know when the next discount is 🙂

Edited July 9, 2018 by Brook_fan

[TorturedSaints]

9 hours ago, Rob MacKillop said:

Thanks, guys.

I don't think Mel Bay would entertain that at all, Ralph. They know what sells, I guess. I'm just happy to get the music published by such a big company. Sorry. You can only please some of the people some of the time, as they say. 

Rob, I totally appreciate Mel Bay's point of view.  It was just my personal frustration and preference, and as I said, I hope that your work is a success.  

For Dad and Robbie, it's a bit difficult to do that with an eBook!

[Brook_fan]

28 minutes ago, TorturedSaints said:

Rob, I totally appreciate Mel Bay's point of view.  It was just my personal frustration and preference, and as I said, I hope that your work is a success.  

For Dad and Robbie, it's a bit difficult to do that with an eBook!

Print it off from the ebook? 

[Dad3353]

46 minutes ago, TorturedSaints said:

...it's a bit difficult to do that with an eBook!

Ah, I'd not thought about this modern malarky. Masking tape over the screen..? 

[Rob MacKillop]

Cheers, Robbie. Being a multi-instrumentalist, and this being my first bass book, there might be questions over my sincerity, so it's good to getting backing from those who know my work. I've played bass since the late 70s, and have had many students over the years. But it was in an effort to improve my bass playing that I set out on the path that led me to this book. I'm sure many will benefit from it. The classical studies are fun, but the Isbin works are outstanding, I think, and can be used as a basis for improv, or as stand-alone solos. 

Cheers,

Rob

[fretmeister]

15 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Not the prettiest of solutions, but masking tape over the tab would solve that particular issue, I'd suggest. Just a thought. 

I do exactly this.

 

With this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000KTC5AO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

It's Post-It tape so it comes off again without damaging the page.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Here's a video of the contemporary sound files from the book. 

 

[Al Krow]

Sounds like an excellent piece of work you have pulled together - very well done!

I will definitely be ordering a copy (and for the record I love the fact that it has both tab and music notation - means I can work at my sight reading of both ) 

...just checked, currently only available as Kindle edition on Amazon UK. @Rob MacKillop perhaps you could give this thread a bump when the hard copies are available in the UK via Amazon to give us a gentle prod / reminder to get your book? Looking forward to it!

Edited July 9, 2018 by Al Krow

[Burns-bass]

11 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Ah, I'd not thought about this modern malarky. Masking tape over the screen..? 

Don’t deface a book! I’ve had s few books like that, always thought it was weird.

I can see tab may be a distraction but if you’re properly reading it shouldn’t affect that. It never doesn’t for me anyway...

[Brook_fan]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Sounds like an excellent piece of work you have pulled together - very well done!

I will definitely be ordering a copy (and for the record I love the fact that it has both tab and music notation - means I can work at my sight reading of both ) 

...just checked, currently only available as Kindle edition on Amazon UK. @Rob MacKillop perhaps you could give this thread a bump when the hard copies are available in the UK via Amazon to give us a gentle prod / reminder to get your book? Looking forward to it!

Just go to Mel Bay’s website and download the ebook version.  You will need to create an account, but it’s very easy.  Then you simply download it to your iPad or whatever.  In fact, you get 5 chances to download it.  I’ve bought numerous Mel bay books this way with no issues.  

Also there is a 10% off code to use throughout July, so it makes it even cheaper.

Hope that helps,

Robbie

[Rob MacKillop]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

...just checked, currently only available as Kindle edition on Amazon UK. @Rob MacKillop perhaps you could give this thread a bump when the hard copies are available in the UK via Amazon to give us a gentle prod / reminder to get your book? Looking forward to it!

I'll do that. It usually takes about a month to get into the UK Amazon. There's always the eBook from the Mel Bay website, which you can get straight away, and printout. Ah, I see Robbie has just mentioned that. 

Glad you like it!

Edited July 9, 2018 by Rob MacKillop

[Al Krow]

57 minutes ago, Brook_fan said:

Just go to Mel Bay’s website and download the ebook version.  You will need to create an account, but it’s very easy.  Then you simply download it to your iPad or whatever.  In fact, you get 5 chances to download it.  I’ve bought numerous Mel bay books this way with no issues.  

Also there is a 10% off code to use throughout July, so it makes it even cheaper.

Hope that helps,

Robbie

So £15 (or whatever it comes to) for the book and £250 for an iPad, right? 😄 

[Rob MacKillop]

Well, you don't need to have an iPad. Any computer would do, even a phone. As long as you can send it to a printer.

[petebassist]

Well done @Rob MacKillop, I had a quick look at the youtube samples and these look awesome!

Although i mainly play upright, I do have an electric bass for rehearsals, so I'm gonna delve in - thanks for the introduction to  Giovanni Bottesini, who I hadn't heard of. 

[Rob MacKillop]

52 minutes ago, petebassist said:

Well done @Rob MacKillop, I had a quick look at the youtube samples and these look awesome!

Although i mainly play upright, I do have an electric bass for rehearsals, so I'm gonna delve in - thanks for the introduction to  Giovanni Bottesini, who I hadn't heard of. 

Cheers, Pete. Well, Bottesini was an upright player, though apparently his bass only had three strings. You should also try these on the upright. I'd love to know if the Isbin pieces would also work on an upright.

[Rob MacKillop]

And for completion's sake, here's a video compilation of the sound files for the 19th-century studies by Giovanni Bottesini:

 

[TKenrick]

On 10/07/2018 at 11:37, petebassist said:

Well done @Rob MacKillop, I had a quick look at the youtube samples and these look awesome!

Although i mainly play upright, I do have an electric bass for rehearsals, so I'm gonna delve in - thanks for the introduction to  Giovanni Bottesini, who I hadn't heard of. 

If you mainly play upright, then I'd recommend Bottesini's Method For Double Bass, which gives me a proper ar*e kicking every time I open it. Much more exciting than Simandl.

[petebassist]

On 10/07/2018 at 12:31, Rob MacKillop said:

Cheers, Pete. Well, Bottesini was an upright player, though apparently his bass only had three strings. You should also try these on the upright. I'd love to know if the Isbin pieces would also work on an upright.

At the moment I only play pizzicato and I'm guessing Bottesini mainly played arco, but I'll take a look. From the clips I saw though, there was some chord work going on, so maybe the Bottesini and Isbin pieces can be played pizz? Will have to investigate further. As an old acoustic guitar finger picker (John Renbourn, Burt Jancsh et al) I like the idea of these pieces.

Thanks.