101 Bass Tips by fusion bass player Gary Willis is subtitled: Stuff All The Pros Know And Use. There is also a CD that comes with the book which has some of the examples played on it, and also some of the examples left ‘bass less’ for YOU to play over it. If you want more bass related info, head over to florida fishing report my how to play bass website where you’ll find video lessons, articles, reviews and much more.
This is out of print at the time of writing so you may have to hunt around for a 2nd hand copy on eBay or in the Bass Forums. To find out more about Gary Willis’s playing I suggest you check out his discography. But firstly Gary Willis is one of our most unique voices, buying anything that generates royalties for him should be considered a duty by most bass players. There’s also a monthly ezine you can sign up for – in return for signing up you’ll get a PDF file with 5 cool bass lines in – and each month’s ezine features a bass line in music notation and bass tab.
Credit: Aldo Rafael Altamirano
The musical tips are the most interesting – and paint an interesting picture of Gary Willis as an enquiring spirit who searches for truth on the bass as he sees it, and devises exercises that help him apply that truth. The tech there is a great guy and does a great job of fishing shirts maintaining my basses. It is a collection of tips for the bass player that Gary has collected in his playing career and is passing on. 101 Bass Tips is a strange book in the Bass Player’s Library.
And although these are pretty good, personally I just take my bass to the local guitar shop. This book doesn’t have that sadly, but there’s still a surprising amount of information to read and absorb in the 70 pages of the book. There is a book of his transcribed solos available, called The gary Willis Collection. There are a lot of tips aimed at maintaining your bass. The tips range from musical tips such as using substitute scales when soloing, exercises for dynamics, diminished chord improvisation and ear improvisation to technique tips which include right hand dampening and exercises to develop right hand technique, left hand positioning and how to ‘barre’ with fingers when needed, and there are a lot of tips included on the maintenance of your bass, e.g. how to adjust your intonation, how to reuse strings, how to set your string balance. Bass tips is a soft bound book of around 70 pages in length.
