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Always More to Learn About Music!
- 'Easy Touch-Style Bassics' method book (Book One)
by Henri DuPont and Traktor Topaz.
 An original new method of learning two-handed tapping which focusses on the essentials so clearly that an experienced bass player can often be playing left-hand basslines and simultaneous right-hand rhythmic chords within one day. Instant 'Rhythm Bass'!
This method presents a 'Fixed Position' system which permits your two hands to finger an identical shape in order to play chord structures. At first your two hands will learn to arpeggiate chords simultaneously, and then you'll have each hand play only part of the pattern, to quickly create an array of different rhythms.
The method is presented in detail, and in such a way that by learning to play an instrument tuned one way (for example, a 6- or 8-string bass), the musician can immediately switch to a differently tuned instrument (such as a bassbottom megatar, or an instrument whose bass is tuned in inverted fifths) with minimal adjustment. In other words, learn one simple system, and play three different kinds of instruments!
This book is the first in a series of six books. Further books in the series will present expanded rhythms, and will integrate a 'moving position' system called 'The Long-Finger method' into the basic Bookmark system you already know.
A copy of Easy Touch-Style Bassics is included with every Mobius Megatar instrument. It is also available for free download in the 'Documents' section of this website (see 'Library' section). The printed form contains songs; the free download version has only some of the songs. Otherwise, the print and download versions are the same.
A video tutorial illustrating the Easy Touch-Style Method is available for viewing in the touchstyle section of this website.
'Easy Touch-Style Bassics' method book (Book One), in English, 100+ pages
- 'Easy Touch-Style Rhythm' method book (Book Two)
by Henri DuPont and Traktor Topaz.
 More Rhythm Bass! This book builds upon the easy touch-style method presented in Easy Touch-Style Bassics (Book One), and goes on to cover additional chords, and shows how you can easily read rhythm in standard notation (piano music).
It teaches Seven Bassic Rhythms which can be mixed and matched to cover almost any song, plus a simple method to play Walking Bass using only four rules.
Also included is a section on easy music theory (learning about chords of tension and release, how to activate forward movement, and the universal "Fifth-Descent" of chord movement).
This book of 112 pages plus 50 pages of appendix and bonus material, with hundreds of illustrations to guide you step by step.
At the conclusion of this book, you'll have begun reading music, and be able to operate as a bass player playing "Rhythm Bass" -- basslines with simultaneous rhythmic chords, using either bass rhythms or walking bass.
The Seven Bassic Rhythms include the Latin Pulse, the true Bossa pulse, Quarter-Notes (as in Walking Bass), the Calypso rhythm, and others. The Appendix also contains detailed information about playing the Tumbao and Montuno rhythms used in Salsa music.
Also in the Appendix is "Henri's Rhythm," a set of five sequential reading exercises for those who wish to go beyond the reading essentials covered in the main text.
In the theory section, you'll discover how to extract the notes in a given key from the simple Circle of Fifths. This determines the sharps and flat which will occur. However, because of the easy touch-style method's presentation of folded chords, you will already be able to play correctly from chord symbols, and by simple inspection of chord notes you can instantly construct the correct scale beneath your two hands.
As in Book One, all "exercises" turn immediately to actual music play, and you can train both hands simultaneously for increased speed of learning.
This book is the second in a series of six books. Further books in the series will present how to easily read melodies, and to play "cocktail piano," using left-hand chords beneath your right-hand melodies, and will also present a surprisingly simple improvisation method so that you can create original solos in real-time.
Although the method is powerful, it is fast to learn, and presented in easy, sequential steps. It is for good reason that this system is called the easy touch-style method!
A video tutorial illustrating the Easy Touch-Style Method is available for viewing in the touchstyle section of this website.
'Easy Touch-Style Rhythm' method book (Book Two) in English, 162 pages
- 'Easy Touch-Style Melody' method book (Book Three)
by Henri DuPont and Traktor Topaz.
 Book Three presents left-hand chords, located upon the bass roots you have already learned, and then goes on to simply show you how to learn to read melody in standard notation. Because you’ve already learned how to read rhythm in standard notation, the learning task is made easy, using a string-by-string approach. (First learn to read the three notes on one string, and then learn to read the three notes on the next string, and soon you can rather easily read and play melodies from any sheet music..)
The key is the step-by-step method, and it’s made easy to do these steps because you have already been prepared with everything you need to know in books One and Two.
A video tutorial illustrating the Easy Touch-Style Method is available for viewing in the touchstyle section of this website.
'Easy Touch-Style Melody' method book (Book Three) in English, 188 pages
- 'Easy Touch-Style Improv' method book (Book Four)
by Henri DuPont and Traktor Topaz.
Book Four presents a surprisingly easy method to improvise over the chords of any song. This remarkable method was developed by the late Werner Pohlert, who learned to play jazz guitar fluently in post WWII Germany, in the heyday of live music, when jazz and jazz-like music was the norm, and heard around town in bars, restaurants, concerts, and more.
Modern times have seen a diminishing of the fluent improvisation that was simply done with a fluidity and exactness that is rarely heard today. But in a brilliant reworking of harmony, Pohlert has developed a method that allows anyone to quickly and easily learn to improvise fluidly and easily.
We have adapted Werner Pohlert’s ‘Basic Mediantic’ to the two-handed touch-style method developed in Books One, Two, and Three. And in those books you have already been prepared with the scales that you will need to know. You will find that improvisation is easier than you ever imagined.
A video tutorial illustrating the Easy Touch-Style Method is available for viewing in the touchstyle section of this website.
*** COMING SOON ***
 'JazzMaster Cookbook'
by Jim Grantham.
Learn to Burn! Grantham's complete method teaches you to play by ear, to understand music theory, and to see the musical structures in songs. His approach trains the ear as you go, so that you can *hear* intervals and qualities of chords.
Grantham is a professional saxophonist and jazz educator in the San Francisco area. He's played with Bobby McFerrin, Eddie Moore, Mark Isham, Jessica Williams, and Eddie Henderson. A Cum Summa Laude graduate of Berklee College of Music, Grantham taught at Berklee, San Francisco State, and Cal State Hayward. His popular workshops began in 1977 at fabled 'Keystone Korner' (a jazz club near the police station), and the methods evolved into this book ever since then.
 Good things about this book: The initial presentations about theory, scales, and chords are specific and clear. This book will explain everything you need to know about theory. Next, he explains the 'chordscale' approach, and has detailed exercises so you can learn it and hear it. This 'JazzMaster Workout' is included in full in this book. It applies to any instrument, including our two-handed tapping instruments. Further, his 'folded chords' approach gives new insights often missing in other theory books.
We have so far located four main approaches to learning 'improvisation': The first is the 'licks' method where you learn patterns that fit against chord sequences, then stick these in where you can. Jamie Abersold books are probably the best presentation of this method. They work fairly well, and are easy to grasp.
The second approach is to understand the theory, and know how to construct a 'scale' based upon the chord, and to make up a melody within this scale. This 'chordscales' method is the conventional way, and Grantham presents it well. He assumes the Berklee College approach of 'Functional' harmony, which is probably more powerful than 'classical' harmony for our purposes. For example, in 'Functional' harmony, you can easily play Dm7 - Db7 - CMaj7 instead of Dm7 - G7 - CMaj7, because the Db7 'functions' the same as the G7.
(The third approach is the more unusual 'reinterpretation' method of Werner Pohlert. See the following description of the 'Basic Harmony' book.)
 The fourth approach is the simplest, and the hardest to do. You just imagine a pretty-sounding melody and you play it! "Play what you hear, and not what you know," said Miles Davis, and Grantham's book stresses ear training and singing as you learn so that, eventually, you can just make up lovely melodies that happen to fit with the chords.
The JazzMaster Cookbook is 'A complete system for mastering all the elements of musical improvisation: complete harmonic theory, ear development, and practical instrumental technique, regardless of instrument.' If you need to understand musical theory, or you'd like a powerhouse approach to improvisation, this is the book for you.
Click to see Table of Contents for JazzMaster Cookbook
The 'JazzMaster Cookbook', in English, 357 pages
 'Basic Harmony'
by Werner Pohlert.
A new Unified Theory of Music, presented with hundreds of graphs. Thought-provoking, unusual, and generally unavailable in the United States.
Pohlert seems to have a clear vision of music and how it moves. He presents a way of looking at musical movement completely different than mainstream harmony, or classical composition (though he discusses these knowledgeably also). His unique vision reveals how nearly all chord movements are 'fifth descents'. He further takes chords apart to show how things such as major to minor movements (CMaj7 to Cm7) are actually concealed fifth descents.
 He then presents a strangely simple way of looking at chords, wherein you may generally substitute chord forms a third apart. While this description oversimplifies, his way of looking at chords and their 'reinterpretations' leads very powerfully to a simple method of improvisation. In fact, it is so simple that a beginner can start improvising almost immediately! With this method you don't need to learn all the modes and chordscales in order to start improvising nicely.
This system Pohlert calls 'Basic Mediant', and his complete book 'Basic Mediant' is reprinted within the 'Basic Harmony' book.
But wait, there's more! He also has a third book called 'Basic Tritonic', also printed in full within the 'Basic Harmony' textbook, and this 'Tritonic' system analyses chords on the basis of the tritone interval (normally expressed in the dominant seven and minor seven flat five chords). He integrates the tritone intervals with the whole tone scale, and ... well, it just goes on and on.
The 'Basic Harmony' theory book is not always easy reading. The translation from the original German also adds a twist now and then! This is the kind of book that you go back to year after year, and each time find a new 'aha!'.
Pohlert is awfully enthusiastic about graphs, and the book contains hundreds and hundreds of them. This is an unconventional work, extremely throught-provoking, highly original, probably like nothing you have seen before, and the 'Basic Mediant' approach to improvisation given herein is surprisingly simple, quick, and powerful.'
Basic Harmony', in English, 768 pages
- A Note about the 'Basic Mediant' Improvisation Method
The entire 'Basic Mediant' book is included in the 'Basic Harmony' method book listed above. If you don't want to hear about theory, and you just want to learn to improvise quickly, then just turn to this section in the 'Basic Harmony' book.
Pohlert obviously plays both piano and guitar, and he shows with diagrams how to play the 'Mediant' approach on these instruments. For tappers playing straight fourths instruments, translation is simple. And for folks who have studied the Mobius 'Easy Touch-Style Bassics' method book, you will discover that you already know all the forms you need to improvise in either the bass or melody region using Pohlert's 'Mediant' approach.
 What is the 'Mediant' approach? The word 'mediant' means the 'middle' tone of a chord, meaning the third of the chord. For example in a C-major triad, the three notes are C - E - G. The 'E' is the third of the chord, and the chord built on this note is considered the 'mediant' chord to C. Skipping over some detail, specifically we mean that E-minor-7 is the 'mediant' chord to the C-Major-7 chord. So if you're improvising a song and the chord symbol says CMaj7, you just play the tones of an Em7 chord. (Actually on the Em7 pentatonic scale, which has the notes E - G - A - B - D.)
Pohlert gives a simple set of four rules of substitution, or rather what he calls 'reinterpretation''. It works out that all of the chords that you'll use turn out to be the minor seven form, so that's real simple. Oddly enough, when you apply the rules, you will discover that the same 'mediant' chord can often substitute for two or more chord symbols in a row, meaning that you do not have to change chords so fast.
For example, in a simple 'turn-around' chord segment such as CMaj7 - Am7 - Dm7 - G7, you could use Em7 to improvise over both the CMaj7 and the Am7, and then use Dm7 to improvise over both the Dm7 and the G7. Those of us playing two-handed tapping are lucky, like piano players, because we can hit roots or chords in the left hand, and then improvise using this system in the right. It takes practice, just like anything else, but it's easy to understand, fairly easy to do, and can be done with the forms in the 'Easy Touch-Style Bassics' book.
Pohlert provides the simplest approach to improvisation we've ever seen. For this reason, we have specially imported these books from their publisher in Germany to make them available in the United States.
'Basic Mediant' gives chord sequences for many common jazz tunes (along with suggested 'reinterpretations'), and details fingering on guitar and piano for many of these songs. If you've ever wanted to be able to improvise, but found frustrating the usual approach of learning many positions to play endless kinds of scales, then this book is for you.
Pohlert's motto: "Do it Simply, Simply Do It." And he'll actually show you how.
'Basic Mediant' section in the Basic Harmony book, in English, 148 pages
 'My Space, My Time'
by Daniel Schell.
Version 3.3. This is the method for tap-guitar developed by Daniel Schell of Belgium, and edited by German tapper Markus Reuter. Daniel Schell is well known in the tapping world, hosting the European 'E-Tap' seminar each summer at Neufchateu, Belgium. Schell has also authored operas, performs in Paris and India (he specializes in Indian music), and has invented an excellent navigational system called 'C-Dots', which are explained in full in this book.
In the diagrams below, you can see the C-Dots placed upon every note of 'C'. This simple method makes fretboard navigation much easier, especially for beginners, but also for experienced players who may be switching instruments in different tunings. The last few years have produced an explosion in string arrangement and tunings, as players around the world experiment. Schell is a pioneer in this evolution of tuning systems.
 For many years, Schell has advocated a string arrangement called 'Uncrossed Hands', which he demonstrates in the photograph above. In this string arrangement, each hand has access to the full range of the strings without any interference from the other hand. Use of the Uncrossed Hands string arrangement has been rapidly expanding in recent years.
Uncrossed Hands string arrangements can have the large strings in the middle, with scales expanding upwardly outward toward the fretboard edge in each string group (see first picture), or one can set the large strings on the fretboard edges, with scales expanding upwardly as one moves to the interior of the fretboard (see second picture).
And of course, Uncrossed hands can also be done with more traditional 'Parallel Fourths' tunings where the player finds the large string in each string group on the player's right, and where scales ascend upwardly as the player moves his hands to his left, just as are arranged strings on normal guitars and basses. The third picture shows uncrossed-hand parallel strings as viewed from the audience.
 In the pictures you can see Schell's C-Dots employed in a typical arrangement for each tuning system. The two 'Mirrored' tunings shown above, reveal a mirror-like pattern of C-Dots. In these mirrored tunings, to play a musical pattern in each hand 'feels' the same; for example, in the first picture above, playing an ascending pattern with both hands would cause both hands to move outwardly from the fretboard center
.
In the more conventional 'Parallel' tuning shown on the left, as one plays an identical musical pattern with both hands, the hands both move left or right together at the same time.
Schell's book explains pros and cons of the different string arrangements, and also explains how you can use the C-Dots system on your instrument. But this is only the beginning. Schell's book covers much, much more ...
Volume 1 is the "Textbook", where you get a detailed playing method with all aspects of the instrument, the tunings, the fingering, the positions, and reading and writing for the touch-guitar (or 'tiptar' or 'megatar'). The book is carefully written so that it can be used for any type of tap-guitar. The book also includes Volume 2, the "Daily Exercises and Thesaurus," with structured exercises for daily  practice plus a selection of compositions by classical composers, and by contemporary composers Thierry Carpentier, Wolfgang Daiss, Frank Jolliffe, Jim Lampi, Virna Splendore, Kuno Wagner, and Daniel Schell.
Revision 3.3 of this book updates Chapter 14 on harmony (based on ten years teaching the E-Tap seminar). It describes harmony theory, then gives chords on the bass side (a section on the bass in 4ths, and another on the bass in 5ths).
Schell's method, is considered especially strong for reading, and followers of his method usually read well. Schell's interest in Indian music adds spice, and the included compositions by well-known tappers is great. Schell says that his book is primarily designed for a teacher to use with students, but if you can read standard notation, you can expand with this outstanding method.
'My Space, My Time', in English, 177 pages
- 'Jazz Improvisation: The Goal-Note Method'
 by Shelton Berg.
The Goal-Note method is a powerful improv-learning method, which uses the concept of certain target notes, called the 'goal notes.' These goal notes are guide tones (thirds and sevenths from the current chord) plus a hierarchy of other chordal tones.
The method uses different ways to approach these tones to make them sound important and correct. This presentation is somewhat similar to the Mobius 'Easy Touch-Style Rhythm' method for creating walking-bass basslines on the fly.
According to the Forward to the Second Edition:
"This new edition allows the reader to gain a clear insight into improvisation techniques that are being successfully used at many major jazz schools throughout the U.S.A.
"The Goal-Note Method clearly assigns priorities that result in beginning improvisers of all ages sounding hip in a very short period of time. The early use of jazz nuanaces also reinforces authentic-sounding solos even if they are quite simple in the beginning. Learning the use of space is also a winner. The book continues through many logical steps that allow the student to progress with confidence and security.
"This Second Edition contains three additional chapters that help to summarize and make even clearer the directions. Greatly expanded musical examples and a new play-along CD enhance this offering."
The Goal-Note Method is a fundamental system for playing changes, as taught at the Berklee College of music.
Intended as a programmed text for a university setting, a student of average ability should be able to progress outside of the school setting. The approach is "consonance-based," meaning that it sounds good. The method present structural (chordal) pitches and harmonic considerations rather than scale-derived melody. Starting with basics, it progresses to advanced principles, providing a rounded and complete view of jazz improvisation along the way. Each chapter builds upon the preceding one.
The author, Shelton Berg, is of the opinion that too much theory can overwhelm or bog down the student, and so this approach is based upon simple principles and upon listening. The theory uses consonant chordal tones rather than deriving lines from scales, and this seems much simpler. The core idea of the book is that when consonant (chordal-based) tones are surrounded with characteristic jazz formula (cliche phrases), then successful and good-sounding improvisation naturally occurs.
The primary focus in the text is on be-bop, in that the be-bop style forms the basis of most improvisation today. Of course, the method would not be limited to be-bop but can easily be applied to other forms of music.
The student is encouraged to play often and as freely as possible, so as to produce fluency and comfort, and this prevents the student from becoming bogged down with theory. The play-along CD is designed not only to provide examples and exercises which follow along with the sequential chapters, but also so that the student can practice both listening and improvising freely.
The writer is the Chair of Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California, and has played with a "Who's Who" of jazz stars. A finalist in the 1988 Great American Jazz Piano Competition, Berg's playing has been called "a cross between Bill Evans and Oscar Peterson." Berg's compositions and orchestration credits encompass film, television, advertising, and the recording industry. He's worked with orchestras worldwide, and with rock artists including Chicago, Kiss, Richard Marx, Elliott Smith, and the Japanese superstar Yoshiki (X-Japan). He has composed for every major television network, Warner Brothers Films, and most of the large record labels. He has presented educational performances and clinics in over thirty states, as well as in Europe, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and Israel.
In some ways, Berg's method is derived from methods such as Jamie Abersold, but Berg's focus is clear and unique, and the method is basically simple. The choice of be-bop is a good one, because be -bop is generally a style played on eighth notes, with surprising ending points and silences. This is somewhat parallel to walking bass, which is a style played on quarter notes. In these note sequences, one learns to choose targets, or goal-notes which are derived from chordal tones, and then one learns various methods of approaching the goal-notes.
Clearly explained and with copious examples, illustrated with songs nicely recorded in a play-along CD (included), this is a linear approach with the emphasis on goal notes in the improvised line.
Click to see Table of Contents for Goal-Note Method
'Jazz Improvisation: The Goal-Note Method', in English, 247 pages
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 'Building Walking Bass Lines'
by Ed Friedland.
(From the Preface:)
"A walking bass line is the most common approach to jazz playing. The term "walking" is used to describe the moving feeling that quarter-notes create in the bass part. Just like walking with your feet, the walking bass line is one step after the other that takes you somewhere. This is an important concept to remember, that the walking bass line is movement.
"Walking bass is also used in rock music, blues, rock-a-billy, R&B, gospel, latin, country, and many other types of music. In other words, you don't have to be a jazzer to walk. The processes involved in developing a walking line are applicable to any style of music. Essentially, this process is looking at a set of chords, deciding which notes we want to use, and determining the order in which we will play them.
"Being able to make these decisions will make you a 'conscious bassist' as opposed to a bass-player that hits or misses. With that in mind, I hope you are ready to start walkin'!" -- Ed Friedland
 Building Walking Bass Lines is a remarkably balderdash-free book that shows you clearly and in simple steps, how to build jazz-style walking bass lines. The sequence of steps presented is both simple, and quite complete. It is easy to follow, step by step. And by the end of the book you will have the information needed to play good, functional, straight-ahead bass lines. Rather than give you some sample bass lines, this book will clearly show you the tools needed so you can build your own, and you will find the information transferable to other styles of bass playing.
In other words, if you want to play bass and bass lines, this book provides a thorough grounding and shows you how to do it.
Ed Friedland is a popular columnist for 'Bass Player' magazine. He is a Boston -area bassist and teacher, and is a former faculty memberj of the Bass Department at Berklee College of Music. His performance credits include Larry Coryell, Robben Ford, Martha and the Vandellas, Brook Benton, The Drifters, the Opera Company of Boston, and the Boston and Tokyo productions of 'Little Shop of Horrors'. In short, Ed Friedland knows his stuff down cold, and as an experienced player and teacher he has the skills to present the knowledge simply and in a simple step-by-step fashion.
Not just a good book, but a great book!
The Book comes complete with companion CD, to give you the hands-on learning experience that is crucial to this style of bass playing. The recording uses a split stereo mix with piano and drums on the right channel, and bass and drums on the lft channel. This configuration will allow you to turn the bass track off and play with the piano and drums, as well as giving you clear access to the bass track for learning the lines by ear, and to hear the correct execution of the 'feel' of the lines.
Click to see Table of Contents for Building Walking Bass Lines
 'Rapid-Fire Bass'
by Frank Paul.
There are many different styles of playing electric bass, and of playing basslines. What they all have in common is that the musical role of the bassline is usually to be *supportive* of the musical theme, the melody, and the harmony being presented in the song. Because the low range and power of the bass, the bassline usually gives guidance to the ear as to the movement of the chords through the song, and the bass provides much of the song's rhythmic pulse.
In jazz, it is common to use 'walking bass', which is a kind of pushing, quarter-note series which underlies both chordal tones and provides scale notes and non -scale notes to generate tension and forward movement. In latin salsa, the bass often presents a weaving, off-the-beat rhythm called the 'tumbao,' which nails down the roots of the song's chords, and drives forward relentlessly. In ballads, it may be common to play long slow notes associated with the slow movement from chord to chord. In rock, one finds both repeating 'hooks' which are rhythmic themes, or sometimes one finds driving eighth notes punching out the roots of the chords.
The 'Rapid Fire Bass' is a type of driving, short, bass hook. It often has many eighth notes in sequence, and like latin music, it may sometimes concentrate on roots and fifths and other chordal tones. Unlike the specialized 'tumbao' of salsa music, however, the Rapid Fire Bass technique is quite flexible and is supportive of many different musical styles. Whenever some type of strong rhythmic drive or contrapuntal contrast is require to support the melody or harmonic movement of a piece of music, Rapid Fire Bass can serve very nicely.
Thus, one can easily use the Rapid Fire Bass technique in rock, pop, funk, fusion, reggae, prog, and jazz. With imagination, one could also apply it to classical, new age, Latin, and other styles of music.
For fans of Los Angeles musician Emmett Chapman, the Rapid-Fire Bass method describes a technique very similar to the driving basslines and fast bass modal patterns which Mr. Chapman popularized in his music when he was gigging in Los Angeles and around the country. (Mr. Chapman is also known as the developer of the 'Chapman Stick' musical instrument, and has made many contributions to the technique of two-handed tapping, or touch-style.)
What's in the book? This beautifully printed 110-page book, edited by touch-style guru Frank Jolliffe, contains a wide variety of bass exercises, rhythmic patterns, and fingering techniques. All the music is done in standard notation with tablature and fingerings. The topics include:
· One-Handed Rudiments
· Contrapuntal Rudiments
· Two-Handed Melodic Bass Technique
· Two-Handed Percussive Technique, and
· Two-Handed Funk Technique.
Inverted-Fifths Tuning -- This book, and all examples, is written for Touch-style players using the 'Chapman-style' Inverted -Fifths tuning in the bass strings. It is written especially for musicians playing specialty tapping instruments such as the Mobius Megatar, Chapman Stick, and Warr Guitar, and assumes that the instrument has bass strings tuned in the 'Inverted Fifths' tuning. For more information about tunings commonly used on instruments played with two-handed touchstyle, please see a description of common tunings here.
For Current prices, see the 'PRICELIST' Section.
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