Being an avid fan of the bass playing of James Jamerson and the Motown bass sound I have every publication that even remotely relates to Jamerson's bass playing. This is a review of Motown Bass by Dave Rubin, a title in the Bass Signature Licks series.What's Motown Bass About?The book Motown Bass by Dave Rubin is subtitled: 'A step by step breakdown of the bass styles and techniques of Motown.' There is a brief introduction that sketches Jamerson's influence on the Motown sound - and mentions some of the other guys who played bass for Motown - and then the book quickly skips to the main part of the book which is a detailed look at 12 tunes. Those tunes include Ain't To Proud to Beg, Daning In the Street, For One In My Life, Get Ready, I Can't Help Myself, I Heard It Through The Grapevine, I Second that Emotion, It's The Same Old Song, My Girl, My Guy, Reach Out I'll Be There, Shot Guy, Stop! In The Name of Love, What's Going On and You Keep Me Hanging On?Now it's important to realise that the transcriptions are not necessarily complete transcriptions. The author breaks down the songs ... 

I remember when I first started playing the guitar, it seemed like there were millions of things one could choose from to practice and it sure was overwhelming to say the least. I was always thinking: "Have I practiced this subject enough today?" or "Am I focusing too much on this subject?" and stuff like that because I had not had a proper practice plan to follow each day. After experimenting with multiple practice plans over the years, I narrowed it down to five main subjects you need to practice each and every day. They are Rhythm Exercises, Music Theory, Technique Exercises, Ear Training and Song Vocabulary. Let us look at each one of them a bit closer.Rhythm ExercisesRhythm is the basis of music. Music is not music without rhythm. It is just random notes played together. You can think of rhythm as the official of the music world who regulates the appearance of those notes. Therefore having a good sense of rhythm facilitates the learning process tremendously. Be sure to practice rhythm exercises daily with the metronome. Do at least five different exercises a day. You will see fast progress in your playing if do them regularly. If you ...