Music Book Review: Titans of Bass: The Tactics, Habits and Routines From Over 130 of the World's Best by K.J. Jensen

Titans of Bass: The Tactics, Habits and Routines From Over 130 of the World’s Best
by K.J. Jensen (Music 787.878 Jen)

 

Musical instruments sometimes get associated with certain personality types. This happens in both classical and pop music worlds to some extent, and I don’t know that there’s really that much truth to those stereotypes, but nevertheless they persist. Let’s look at a typical rock band’s instruments by personality, for example: we expect the singer to be charismatic and a leader, of course. Guitar players probably come next in terms of charisma, often expected to play impressive solos. Drummers may be in back, but they have such a full-body physical job that we often notice when they’re flashy. Keyboard players are maybe thought of as kind of nerdy or subdued traditionally, but that’s changing now that so much music is based on laptop electronics.

 

And then we have bass players: they seem to be associated with a pretty quiet personality, the calm in the center of the proverbial storm. And maybe they go unnoticed by a lot of folks. Again, this is a stereotype, and there are lots of bass players who have been prominent bandleaders, from Les Claypool, Sting and Meshell Ndegeocello in rock and pop, to Charles Mingus, Esperanza Spalding and Stanley Clarke in jazz, and many more. But it’s true that bass players have an all-important focus on keeping time and setting the pulse and feel for the whole bands they’re playing with. Where other instrumentalists get to play with time, pushing and pulling against it, bass players are the foundation making that possible.

 

Here at the Polley Music Library, we have lots of books on how to play bass, bass technique, approaches for different styles, and biographies of many bass players across lots of genres. But there’s a great book on our new arrivals shelf that I want to highlight today that takes a fresh approach to the instrument. It’s called Titans of Bass: The Tactics, Habits and Routines From Over 130 of the World’s Best by K.J. Jensen, and while it’s a great book for beginners or folks who have just been thinking about playing bass to get started with before they even find an instrument, there are also a lot of great ideas in here for more experienced players to consider.

 

The book’s structure is kind of unique, building on the system of printed books with online supplementary content that’s starting to become common with instructional books for music. There is a “How to Use This Book” instruction found just after a short foreword by bassist Tony Levin, and it’s pretty simple to follow: the author has created a website (bassguitarbeginner.com), a “Titans of Bass” Facebook group, and a “Titans of Bass” YouTube channel. The premise of the book is that you follow a series of daily prompts that will direct you to these other resources, and the book will take you through two weeks of thinking about and learning about the bass at an elementary level. In Chapter 1, author Jensen explains his intentions with this system: “This journey is not to make you a bass virtuoso like Victor Wooten overnight. I want to see if the bass is for you. I don’t want you to buy thousands of dollars of gear that collects dust and never gets used.”

 

Some of the supplementary material might not be quite ready, though. I went to the website and there doesn’t seem to be a live registration section yet like the book describes, nor is there a download of the bass part for “Midnight Special,” which would be an important part of following the two week goal laid out in the book. Looking at the Titans of Bass YouTube channel, as of this writing (August 16), several of those videos for the book appear to have been uploaded only yesterday, so maybe the supplementary material rollout is ongoing. The Facebook group referenced in the book exists, but has had no real activity yet, other than a couple of people asking if they’ve made it to the right place.

 

In general, though, even if all of the web-based material was ready, its focus is entirely on those new to playing bass. Over the course of the two weeks, the goal will be to learn how to play one tune, “Midnight Special,” record yourself playing it along with a backing track, and play a “mini-concert” for friends and family on the 14th day. The tune only requires three notes, so it’s mostly about getting comfortable handling the instrument and trying to groove, which of course are the key elements for being a solid bass player. From this perspective, this is a good book to read if you’ve been thinking about playing bass but haven’t made the commitment yet. A couple of weeks with this book should help you to decide if you’re ready to fully pursue the instrument.

 

While the structure of the physical book guides readers through this 2-week program, with 15 chapters that correspond to the 15 videos, I think the book has a wider range of appeal than just beginning bass players. If you ignore the online material, this isn’t an instructional book, but more of an inspirational book that celebrates bass playing and some of the greatest living bass players. Jensen’s strength as an interviewer is what makes the book interesting to me. He conducted interviews with 131 of his favorite bassists — organized in groups throughout the book as the “Titans of Bass” — and most of the book’s contents are made by Jensen asking questions in his own narrative, which are answered by a series of quotations from the many bassists interviewed for the book. The “Bass Titans” themselves are featured in blocks throughout the book, with photos and brief biographies for each player, and these sections alone are a great way to find out about some cool bassists you might have missed over the years. It’s a pretty good mix of artists from rock, jazz, blues, pop, folk, and metal genres, though the list is somewhat limited by those the author was able to conduct interviews with. One can find out a little about more bassists in Chapter/Day 11, though, which discusses the “bass heroes of the Titans,” where we can finally read a little bit about folks like Jaco and Bootsy.

 

While the questions that Jensen has posed to his many interview subjects all tend to be aimed at beginners, discussing things like choosing a first bass, whether or not to use a pick, and the basics of tone and groove, I think these also have an appeal for bass players at any level. And in particular, there’s many pages of quotes in the Day 12 section that address the question, “What’s the best advice anyone has given you regarding learning the bass?” The answers are generally looking at big-picture concepts, but it’s a lot of great advice that has helped many of the best players in the world with their own progress. There are some great ideas in here.

 

So even if you’re already a skilled bass player, there’s some useful inspiring material in here. It’s like getting to hang out with some of the best players in the world for an afternoon for some mutual support. And for those just thinking about picking up a bass, you’ll get a sense of what it will be like to get started for a two-week trial period. I wish more instruments came with some similar kind of 2-week immersion into the general fundamentals and culture around playing them!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Beginning Bass for Adults: The Grown-up Approach to Playing Bass by David Overthrow, Bass 101: A Contemporary Approach to Playing Bass by Ron Manus or Play Bass Today! by Chris Kringel.)

 

( publisher’s official Titans of Bass web page )

 

Recommended by Scott S.
Polley Music Library

Have you read or listened to this one? What did you think? Did you find this review helpful?

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Check out this, and all the other great music resources, at the Polley Music Library, located on the 2nd floor of the Bennett Martin Public Library at 14th & "N" St. in downtown Lincoln. You'll find biographies of musicians, books about music history, instructional books, sheet music, CDs, music-related magazines, and much more. Also check out Polley Music Library Picks, the Polley Music Library's e-mail newsletter, and follow them on Facebook!