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75 of 79 found the following review helpful:
 4 1/2 A Bassist's Data Base Jan 21, 2006
By M. Allen Greenbaum
Tab versus Standard
This mostly excellent compilation of over 4 decades of mostly rock songs shows the bassist's part in both standard and tab notation. (Standard requires reading notes; Tab actually shows the four bass strings and numbers what fret to play next).
Who's in the Book
While certain schools of funk and soul are slightly underrepresented for my tastes (where's James Brown or Sly Stone--were there copyrite issues?), the book includes some Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Martha and the Vandellas ("Dancing in the Street"), and The Four Tops. Mostly, though, this is a collection of what is now deemed "classic" rock (e.g., Cream, Beatles, Santana, Stones, The Who, Led Zep, Hendrix, David Bowie, the Byrds); metal bands (including Black Sabbath, Foo Fighters, Van Halen, Kiss, Metallica, GNR, Ozzy Osbourne); 1950s-1960's oldies (Fats Domino, Elvis, The Crests ["16 candles"], Ricky Nelson, , Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Jerry Lee Lewis), and a smattering of relatively recent (last 20 years) bands (the Black Crows, Goo Goo Dolls, Stone TEmple Pilots, Rage Against the Machine, Sheryl Crow, Slipknot, System of a Down). There are also some bands that are inexplicably included (why are there two songs from "power ballad" band, "Cinderella"), but, hey, to each his or her own.
Only A Few Songs per Group
Each group is represented by one to seven songs (only Stevie Ray Vaughn has that many), and most range from one to three. Therefore, if you're a big fan of a particular genre or band, you might look for a more specialized book. However, there aren't that many books with bass tab!
What I Like About This Book
Strengths of the book include the variety mentioned above, a one-page decoding of tab symbols, the excellent price, and song transcripts that generally show the treble clef, chord accompaniment, and lyrics. Sometimes you're only shown the 2 or 3 bass sections only, and the first few words/notes that accompany the riff without the rest of the song.
Who Will Benefit From this Book?
Moderate to advanced players will get the most from the "White Pages," and here's why: Even with the beginner-friendly tab, it is still very helpful to know how to read music. While tab indicates many of the techniques, it doesn't show you the all-important left hand finger placement that allows bassists to move smoothly over the neck, nor does it easily convey rhythm and the more complex moves. Unfortunately for the novice, many of the songs are at a fast pace and will be too difficult to play. Ideally, you'd have the bucks to get a -device that will play back slowed-down notes from a song without losing their pitch ($200 and up). Ideally, in fact, you'd have a guitar teacher! But for those without the time, money, or inclination to go this route, this book can get you playing pieces of some real songs, a rewarding activity that you won't get from too many beginner bass books.
Recommendation
For this reason alone (and, again, I'm speaking to newcomers), the White Pages can be a useful, fun resource, particularly when paired with a really excellent instruction book such as "Bass Guitar for Dummies." You might want to supplement this with bass transcriptions from the internet, sometimes from bass interest groups. (One problem with that, however, is that tab notations are not always the same.) The bottom line is that fairly competent bass players will enjoy a lot of transcriptions at a cheap price, while novices will have fewer songs they can play all the way through. The publisher might have thought to publish 2 or 3 books like this, but differentiated by the difficulty (speed, complexity, etc.) of the bass line.
17 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 Wonderful Reference Book for "A bit of Everything" Dec 17, 2001
This is a fantastic book if you want to please everyone.
From old classics to new Rock Anthems. Its got them all.
Impress your granny and your teenage brother all at the same time.Good explanation of the notations in there aswell. Has both Tab and full music notation. So if you are trying to learn to read Bass music notation its great to have the tab there to help you out when you get confused with all those sharps and flats in some songs. I keep going back to it. People in the house pick it up, read the song list and say "Oh, play that one for me".
(Why do they always pick the one haven't learnt?) A must-have for all those budding bassists.
20 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Bass Tab Book a Great Help Jan 09, 2002
By Carl from Chicago
I put down the bass for about a decade and recently picked it up again. Bass Tab White Pages was a huge help in learning songs from a wide variety of artists, from Stevie Ray Vaughan to David Bowie to old blues artists like Freddie King (Hideaway). Some of the selections were pretty odd for artists like Metallica and ZZ Top (why not pick "Enter Sandman" or "Tush") but these are minor quibbles. The tabs seem extremely accurate and very thorough. Every note is there including chords, pull offs, and other required parts if you want to play it "right". Finally, what I found very useful is that they recommended tuning for each song. I am constantly tuning my bass up or down depending on whether I am playing old stuff (standard tuning) or modern rock (tune way down) or Stevie Ray Vaughan (generally 1/2 step). There are 200 songs in this book and it will keep you busy for a very long time. It is fun to just sit down with this book and your CD collection and try out random songs. Enjoy!
21 of 24 found the following review helpful:
A great bass player resource Sep 24, 2002
By Carl from Chicago
This book has given me hours and hours of entertainment. Although some of the selections are a bit obscure (Astronomy by Metallica?), the book delivers a tremendous amount of good songs from Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Beatles, lots of blues artists such as Freddie King, heavy metal such as Rage against the machine and black sabbath, and many many others. The tab transcripts are very faithful. I highly recommend this book to anyone who plays bass for rock or blues artists. It is hard to believe that they fit so many songs into one book...
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Why buy Bass tab white pages May 25, 2008
By A. Harvie
As a 62 year old and having never played a guitar in my life I went out and bought a Yamaha bass.I got free lessons on the net from Andrew Pouska at www.studybass.com and bought Bass Guitar for Dummies by Patrick Pfeiffer an equally wonderful teacher .but I wanted to play real songs so bought what I consider one of my best buys Bass tab white pages. It contains a selection of songs to suit everyone.with this book you too could be like me after only three months of owning my own guitar I now play in my own band . GO FOR IT .
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