Reddit mentions of Vaideology: Basic Music Theory for Guitar Players

Steve Vai made one as applied to guitar but it works just as well applied to bass, Vaideology

Need: https://www.amazon.com/Vaideology-Basic-Theory-Guitar-Players/dp/1540030997

PDF $5

You're not alone. I've always loved music, and loved guitars - the look, the sound - but was terrified to actually learn to play.


For months in my teens I carted around a cheap acoustic, always asked my friend (a somewhat more accomplished player and student (not directly) of Christopher Parkening) to tune it every time I thought to play it, then promptly failed to play it.


Years passed, joined a band, learned more chords, was still terrified, but tried to do it anyway. Learned bass during those years (my mid-to-late 20s), and started learning the fretboard very slowly, and not intuitively.


Then I stopped cold, not playing between 1998 and 2013, when, after some personal crises, I returned to music and playing bass, thanks in part to a goofy, inspiring video by one Rob Chapman.


YouTube videos helped some, but the real work over the last several years was me overcoming my preconceptions about playing, about what other people might think of my playing, about my own confidence that I could just play music at all and enjoy doing it.


In the last 6 years I've advanced more as a guitarist (and I still dabble with the bass) than I did in all the pre-2013 years combined.


This year, this book has been helping me get a handle on the basics of music theory (not as terrifying as it might seem!), and Steve's videos here, here, and here, among many others, have been a surprising inspiration. I say surprising because, thanks to my early, long-standing preconceptions about playing, I ignored Steve's music after trying it and not liking it, thinking (SO Wrongly) that he would have nothing to teach me.


Play, Learn, Have FUN, and Never Give Up. You CAN do this.


EDIT: Also, buy a tuner and use it - you can also use it to help teach you chords and the notes on the fretboard. Next to your hands and your ears, it's the best tool your guitar can have.