(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best songbooks

Ukulele Hunt and Got a Ukulele are classics and wonderful combinations of interesting articles and wonderful tabs/chords!

This blog is in French I think but is pretty good.
You should be able to navigate decently because the songs and page names are all in English as far as I can tell. UkeCafe


A lot of cool video game and movie themes! This guy doesn't update as often as I would like, but you can't rush quality :)
Uke of Carl


Pretty decent.
Not a whole lot of tabs but the ones that are there are pretty good in my opinion.
I'm just a little salty because I wanted a solo version of The Man Who Sold the World but it is written for a group and I can't be bothered to fix it for solo players ;_; Also in French.
Ukulele boudoir

GREAT tabs, but the site is down so you have to use the internet archive. I like pretty much all of their arrangements and they are all pretty simple and newbie friendly. I particularly like their version of Over the Rainbow :) [CRAZY DAWG]
(http://web.archive.org/web/20160315002317/http://home.arcor.de/crazydawg/tabs.html)

These are no joke. Most of them are tough and should only be attempted when you have either decent skill or a lot of time to refine their pieces. Make sure you check at the top of every tab to see the way they tuned their uke, because some of it is low g. It technically is the same note, but the deeper sound makes a world of difference. [Ukulele Review]
(https://www.theukulelereview.com/sheet-music-for-instrumental-ukulele/)

A large variety of tabs with pretty good quality all around! [Dominator]
(http://dominator.ukeland.com/index2.shtml)

There are a lot of guitar tabs on this French blog (What's up with the French and ukuleles? Maybe French sites are just easier to find or something) but there are few really good ukulele tabs if you do some digging. Unique ones that I haven't found tabs for anywhere else. [Descordes et Dubois]
(https://descordesetdubois.wordpress.com/)


A great way to find more tab resources. I haven't visited all of these yet, but they all seem pretty decent. [Uke Nut] (http://ukenut.com/fingerstyle-ukulele-resources/)


A lot of good video game tabs. They also have general/anime tabs in a small selection at the bottom-- I really like their version of FullMetal Alchemist's Brothers. Shadowflare's

A good blog that you can squeeze a few nice tabs out of! :) Gordon Lustig


I'm just gonna put these two together because I have nothing to say besides they are good and have tabs. That's not disparaging their quality, but more my lack of variety! Uke Fever and Live Ukulele

Ten Thumbs is a channel that caters to players of all skill levels, but if I were you I'd focus on the chord melodies (they're divine). Check out Colin Tribe too! His tabs are a little too pricy for my blood, but if you find one you like you can email him and he'll give you one free. He has a treasure trove of hot hot tabs that all are exquisitely beautiful (if not a touch difficult). Cynthia Lin has a lot of great tutorials as well. If she is a bit slow for you (great if you're just learning, but bad if you just want some steamy new tabs), you can opt to download her sheet music in her video descriptions. They are usually great combinations of fingerpicking and strumming, and she's a stellar choice for getting your toes wet in the world of tabs.

Last but certainly not least is this collection of gems I scrounged out of a Taiwanese youtube account! They are a little more difficult, but if you simplify it a bit, they way they use chords and the gorgeous finger picking can teach you a lot about how to improve your playing. The tabs and the youtube channel

I hope these resources keep you busy for a while :)

I'd also recommend grabbing a book on amazon. The Beatles for fingerstyle ukulele is a good one I have enjoyed, and I've only heard wonderful things about this Studio Ghibli book, though it is tragically out of my price range :)

Book wise, the two things I could not be without, both for initially learning technique and also revisiting as well are the Whitehouse Scale and Arpeggio Album (UK|US) and then also the Feuillard Daily Exercises (UK|US) (both Schott published).
Record yourself playing and watch it back, don't be afraid to use a metronome and a tuner.

Personally I'm looking in to learning to draw right now, but the approach is very similar for effective learning, focus on technical skills as they are the base to build off. Style is great to develop, but without the technique there to support it you could be building fundamentally poor habits. Things like bow control are honestly easier to understand when being observed, but Scales and Arpeggios will help you understand basic shapes you should form for each key helping you to not fear key signatures with more sharps and flats.

Feuillard is key to building all technical habits. The book is split in to 5 sections so you can focus on one part at a time, and once you've built up your skills can then mix and match exercises from each section to make sure you keep on top of everything. The book helps build a solid left hand, good transitions between hand positions, smoother bow control and for the bolder also working on thumb position technique.

It's imperative you have the cello tuned properly when you play, and from early on be relentless on ensuring you are in tune, so if necessary go very slowly and use a tuner to check each note is right before moving ahead. This will help train your ear to pick out when a note is not only out of tune, but better understand whether you are flat (under) or sharp (over). A good way to mix this would be using a tuner while you approach the first exercises in Feuillard as they focus on smaller shapes such as moving between two close notes. There are a great many free apps out there for smartphones that can help with tuning (personally use insTuner on iOS).

The other side to understand would be rhythm. Again, a good thing to revisit even if you have musical history elsewhere as it never hurts to check. Metronomes are an essential tool for learning in my opinion. When approaching a new piece of music it is best to ignore style initially to focus on accuracy. Once you know the music then you can play with how you want to present it, but until then, keeping a steady and consistent pace is a good habit to build. Again, many great free apps for this, (personally using Metronome by Soundbrenner on iOS). I'd personally recommend focusing on note accuracy before rhythm as a priority to ensure that what you're playing is correct before adding the pressure of time constraints through keeping tempo.

I started learning when I was 6, and for 10 years of learning through teachers my schools had there was a focus only on learning the music for each graded exam and barely any focus on the scales and arpeggios part and worse still no real focus on understanding technique beyond the music I would be examined with. It wasn't until 10 years later, well after finishing the graded system and getting a private teacher that I was completely pulled apart for my lack of technical understanding and foundation. From here I was told I had to get the two books I mentioned at the start and they formed the basis of not only my practice at home, but also each lesson I had with them. I noticed a rapid change in what I could do as a cellist though, seeing sight reading become incredibly more simple having the shapes and sounds already in my head. The movements and habits you build speed up your learning process everywhere else too, so technique always and first.

Lastly, even if you don't pursue a teacher right now, still get others opinions on how you are progressing, even if that means putting a recording of yourself and sharing it with other cellists to receive feedback. I've seen others do that here and until you build enough knowledge to be able to check yourself effectively, it's always good to get another's opinions on where you are at in case you subconsciously have been maybe avoiding improving on one skill or maybe even just need to return to another.

Hope that helps.

EDIT:
If you want a good selection of music to learn alongside technical development, baroque music in general is perfect for that given the way music and harmony was approached during that era of music, but I'd recommend the Bach Six Suites for Cello (Barenreiter BA 320 UK|US).

> I've looked into other songs as well, and they all have many different versions/interpretations. Why is this?

Because...

1. Pop/rock music is based on chord progressions. Often just 4 chords. Take a listen to this to see how many songs use the same chord progression. So lots of people know the chords that form the foundation of the song, but will play it slightly differently - e.g. for a C major chord, you could play octave C's in the left-hand, or just one C. The right hand could play C,E,G or G, C, E, or embellish and play C,D,E,G, etc. So many variations. Anyone can learn to play something that sounds somewhat similar to the original just by looking at the chords for the song. ... And I bet Paul McCartney would often play it slightly differently each time, too.
   
   
2. Publishers of sheet music don't want to give you exactly what was played on the album, because your average consumer would complain that it doesn't sound like the song they know and love -- because often the piano part is just 4 boring chords over and over (see video in #1), which when played by themselves, may not clearly identify the song. People are stupid and don't realize a lot of their favourite songs' piano parts are like this. So the sheet music will usually contain the melody in the right hand (the vocal 'tune' that is sung everyone knows and loves) along with some chords in the left-hand, arranged to give a sound that people can identify as the song they expect.
   
   
3. continuing point #2, sheet music publishers need to simplify the music so that your average player can play it (and/or to simplify their transcription process) so that they can maximize sales. There usually isn't enough interest in note-for-note perfect transcriptions of the originals, although that does exist and it does seem to be gaining some popularity.
   
   
4. A lot of people have bad ears, and so everyone thinks they've created a perfect tutorial/transcription, but as you've probably found, they're often not that accurate, and so you get tons of variation in "perfect" transcriptions from people. Edit: also, often it's hard to hear exactly what's being played on the piano due to all the other instruments playing, so no two people will agree on exactly what was played.
   
   Anyway, just doing a quick search, this guy's is "OK", though definitely not perfect (sheet here). Or your best bet would probably be something like this:
   http://www.amazon.com/The-Beatles-Keyboard-Book/dp/079351441X/ or this: http://www.manymidi.com/sheetmusic.htm.

Yeah, this P&W style stuff ends up getting me a ton of work because so many trained pianists just don't ever get taught to comp parts. Meanwhile, those who can only comp from chords can't read well so the lack of versatility ends up being a major hindrance to many.

>What do I play in between the chords? What do I play when I get to that chord? Do I just play a block chord? An inversion of the chord? An arpeggio? Something else?

All of the above. Ultimately you just have to learn some basic comping patterns as a matter of survival and then slowly refine that by being able to play better patterns, more alterations on the chords. add9s, sus4s, and such are very popular in P&W music to keep some motion happening.

They also just happen to be a natural byproduct of clever guitar tricks that make it easier to play praise rhythm guitar while singing... essentially limiting the number of fingers by pretty playing in G (with a capo) most of the time and then turning C (the IV chord) into Cadd9 and D (the V chord) into Dsus4.

In most styles you want to stay out of the way off the bass player, and that could be the case with a very experienced bass player but in most P&W music, it's less faux pas for the person on keys to thicken up the bottom end and add some rhythmic drive. Most basic comping patterns will involve you creating a composite rhythm between your hands essentially mimicking the sort of rhythmic strumming a guitar gets.

As you get better, you just need to learn to listen and learn when to support and when to just fill in gaps. Overplaying is a common problem for keyboard players in bands. With a full group you can spend a lot more time focusing mostly on fills and just light sustained harmony work. If you're using a keyboard, pads and strings synths can be very useful in praise settings.

Now, if you're purely solo, you basically just have to learn to listen and develop a good feel for various praise styles and emulate the guitar, bass, and drums all on your own. It's not as daunting as it sound, particularly if you don't have to play the melody yourself and can rely on singers or your own singing.

You can get a good start using this book. It's going to be particularly useful for someone with a formal background who is less comfortable in pop styles.

I love teaching piano and I think it's not for everyone. If you truly hate teaching try to find a different job. I don't know how to do that so I'll give you this advice: let the students play more of what they want. I value playing classical music over other music but you better believe I have students playing ragtime, jazz, and pop. Why? Because at the end of the day I hate teaching students who don't want to play what they're playing. You have to teach each student and most students don't fall into the category of going to pursue a music degree. The goal, for most of my students, is to love music and to read music. If you're accomplishing that, then who cares if they don't play nocturnes? You'll have students who want to play those mingled with students who don't.

If you want to teach a more well-rounded curriculum, you need to implement those things you want your kids to learn. I love teaching Piano Safari for beginners because it includes improv, note reading, sight reading, theory, technique, and rote learning. They have a young kids version and an older student version. https://pianosafari.com/ you can add in sight reading and improv into any lesson by doing it for 5 minutes or even 1 minute at the beginning of the lesson or in between pieces. I use the Piano Safari sight reading cards for my students and then I move on to rep that is just easier than what they are learning. I also use Pattern Play PT01 - Pattern Play : Inspiring Creativity at the Paino https://www.amazon.com/dp/1554403022/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Q38HDb71WCCM2 as a slightly different approach to improv. You need to search for what you like teaching and teach that.

Depending on your playing ability, this book may be acceptable if you prepared your lines ahead of time. I use it with my teacher for sight reading but I played lead alto in my school system's honors jazz band, so I'm certainly not new to jazz. I have friends who aren't at the same level I am and I really like playing the duets with them when they practice ahead of time and we can just play. The lines are really interesting but it might be a bit too high level. If you do get it, go to the middle of the book first. The front is the hardest and the back is pretty dumb. The first 2/3 is all really good, but the most manageable stuff is smack in the middle. I can give you a pretty definitive answer if you give me something more to work with like what book you're in, how long you've been playing, your experience, etc.

Well, yeah, if you want to be satisfied with your performance you'll have to dedicate yourself somewhat. But let it not be underestimated the insight gained from listening to the piece - ideas for the song will be gleaned there that were not contained within the notation itself.

*So as far as exercises go, well, I've spend plenty of time running scales and methodical etudes which contribute significantly to well-rounded technique. However, there's so much to learn you really should pick a song that sounds enjoyable to you and one that you would feel satisfied after learning to play. After learning a couple Joplin rags I heard Morton playing and thought, "now that sounds great, I wish I could sound like that" and found a great book with 40 transcriptions of Morton piano solos. I would say pick a artist you would feel accomplished after emulating and find transcriptions for their pieces, this is usually a pretty effective way to at least get started.

Hey there! I hope this doesn't violate any rules, but I've written books on jazz bass playing that are geared towards someone with a basic understanding of the instrument: https://www.amazon.com/Low-Down-Guide-Creating-Supportive/dp/069240595X

All of the advice here is great, especially regarding the importance of SOUND and TIME. The group I play in was working with Kurt Rosenwinkel the other day, and he dropped this gem on us: "Confidence comes from sound. Feel confident in your sound... because if you sound good, you'll feel good." So much truth in that statement.

Sometimes figuring out the "how" element of things can be equally daunting. I do recommend a teacher if you can find one, even for just a few lessons. And of course, reach out and ask questions at any time!

I have a few suggestions. The first is a series by Dan Miller and Tim May that they sell that progressively builds on older material and builds chronologically. That link I included should link to pages where you can view more closely the material in each book. I trust you to know your own skill level and what you want to learn to be able to determine what book you want.

Another one that I've heard is pretty good is the Real Bluegrass Book by Matt Flinner. It has musical notation and chord backup for a bunch of standard bluegrass tunes.

Not knowing your skill level, I'll throw in this last one because it was a good one helping me to get started with: the Four Hour Bluegrass Workout from Steve Kaufman. While I'm not the biggest fan of Kaufman's flatpicking, the guy's written some really great teaching tools for flatpicking fiddle tunes. And flatpicking fiddle tunes is a great exercise for practicing bluegrass.

Edit: If you have any luck with any of these, or any other book, please let me know!

If you want to learn piano, go to amazon and get these 4 books:

1.The Musician’s Way

2.First Lessons in Bach

3. Two and Three Part Inventions

And finally

4. The Well-Tempered Clavier

These books will teach you all you need to know about music. This is how I personally started playing piano. Work through the books in order, as each one builds on top of the other. Once you can play counterpoint excellently you can play pretty much anything else.

In the words of Brahms: “Study Bach. There you will find everything.”

As far as a keyboard goes, I have a Yamaha P-60 and it gets the job done. Just make sure you have weighted keys and 88 and you’re good. Bach’s music doesn’t require a pedal, so you don’t even really need that.

Good luck on your musical journey! To work through all these books will take a life time.

While people are giving good suggestions, they're posting links to sites that overcharge. Unless you have reasons to hate Amazon, Amazon Japan sells pretty much everything that's been mentioned with zero markup and very low shipping costs.

For example, the one from japancoolbooks costs only $26.82 on Amazon.jp, shipped to California (it'll arrive in 2-3 days). If you order multiple books at once, you'll save even more.

Japan has a relatively large percentage of population that play the piano well, and from my experience, has more high quality piano arrangements for all sorts of music (including Western pop music) than the US does.

Edit: Added links to some of the books mentioned here:

Studio Ghibli Collection Easy Piano Solo Sheet Music

Joe Hisaishi Piano Collection

Ghibli Best Stories

Chopin de Ghibli

Hayao Mizayaki & Studio Ghibli Best Album

Also, I'm assuming the OP can read kanji or 漢字, since zhulin is a Chinese name. Just search for "上級 宮崎駿 ピアノ", which translates into "advanced hayao miyazaki piano".

Hey! Thanks! You're not the first person to ask - here's my reply to the last person that did :) hope it helps!

The manuscript I use is the Warner Bros 75-page A3 manuscript pad, 18 Stave Landscape. You can order it from Amazon here.

Also, manuscript choice is surprisingly important - I was gutted several years ago when my favourite manuscript paper company Panopus went into liquidation. Took me a while to find a good alternative :)

>Is Piston's Harmony a good choice?

No.

(I mean, it depends on what you're comparing it to. Piston is a great choice compared to Kotska and Paine ...)

>Russian romantic composers like Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff

Didn't Tchaikovsky write a harmony book? I think Rimsky-Korsakov did, too.

But look. Here's what you need to do, above all: read scores. If Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff are your heroes, look at their works. See what it is they do, with your own eyes (just as you hear it with your own ears -- let these even blend synaesthetically together, perhaps in a way that would please another Russian Romantic: Scriabin!).

If you want to learn trumpet make sure to practice scales and memorize them. Get a manuscript book to jot down your regular warm ups, you will need them. For jazz this book is awesome for not just you, but any jazz group you join. It has awesome songs that are perfect for messing around with.

Edit: Misspelling and fixed link

I'm a big fan of Patterns for Jazz for day to day exercises. Although the title indicates jazz music, this is a great exercise book for much of the harmony that you see running through rock, blues, jazz, and most popular music.

Another favorite of mine are the Bach Solo Cello Suites. I'd get the cello music rather than any transcriptions for bass. IMHO they all sound beautiful on bass and you'll run the gamut from relatively straightforward to very challenging.

What's your goal?

The piano jam has a video game/anime section if you don't know where to start. :)

Super Smash Brothers could be really good, because you get samples of music from a lot of different game series, and maybe you can find what you like that way? ninsheetmusic.org has a lot of transcriptions. They all go through review before they get uploaded, so you're probably not going to find anything awful.

A lot of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts game have "Piano Collections" published Example

Start with some fiddle tunes! I'm a big fan of the Kaufman 4-Hour bluegrass workout books for learning some. They have a bunch of tunes, most of which are jam standards, in music and tab, and include CDs with slow and fast accompaniment so you can practice with a band. Once you have the basic tune down pat, work the same thing up the neck, and then do some improvisation around the melody.

For rhythm playing, be sure to find resources that teach you proper right hand patterns. Bluegrass guitar is all about the "boom-chick", where you play a low string on 1&3, along with the bass, and strum the chord on 2&4, along with the mandolin, everything on downstrokes. You can go beyond that of course, playing on upstrokes and syncopating, but I see a lot of young and beginning bluegrass guitar players strumming like they're playing a folk song, and it just doesn't sound good. Also learn some bluegrass runs (start with the Flatt lick).

Finally, do some listening. Tony Rice's work on the Bluegrass Album Band records is the benchmark for bluegrass guitar IMO and a good place to start. Listen to how he keeps it simple most of the time, and how tasteful and musical the accents are when he changes it up with a lick or extra strums.

There are a lot of courses. Any specific topics you're interested in?

Edit: I'll just list a few anyway that I've used in classes (this may not reflect all professors' choices for the same subjects).

Tonal Harmony: Kostka-Payne - Tonal Harmony

Counterpoint 1: A Berklee book by the late professor Rick Applin. Some also use this Fux translation/adaptation

Counterpoint 2: Bach Inventions & Sinfonias (any edition, really)

"Advanced" Counterpoint: The Well-Tempered Clavier (again, any edition)

Early Twentieth-Century Harmony: Persichetti - Twentieth-Century Harmony

Post-Tonal Theory/Analysis: Straus - Intro to Post-Tonal Theory

Instrumentation/Orchestration: Adler - The Study of Orchestration &
Casella/Mortari - The Technique of Contemporary Orchestration

Western Music History - Burkholder/Paiisca - A History of Western Music (8th or 9th edition)

Conducting 1 - Notion Conducting

Conducting 2 Notion + Stravinsky's Petrushka

Berklee's own (jazz-based) core harmony and ear-training curricula use Berklee textbooks written by professors which, as someone else mentioned, come unbound and shrink-wrapped at the bookstore. You can find older (PDF) versions of the Berklee harmony textbooks here. Of course this list only represents explicit book choices - there are a lot of excerpt-readings, and there's a lot of instruction that isn't found in these books even in the associated courses.

Learn to sight read, and learn basic music theory in general (even a basic music theory class at your local college). Dandelot is a fantastic resource to help sight reading, even though it's in French.

Once you're decent reading music you can try transcribing bass parts (and eventually other instruments) and then analyzing it to see why the part works the way it does.

This won't just help you be a better jazz/classical bassist, it will help you become a better musician.

> I also use Pattern Play PT01 - Pattern Play : Inspiring Creativity at the Paino
>
>https://www.amazon.com/dp/1554403022/ref=cm\_sw\_r\_cp\_apa\_i\_Q38HDb71WCCM2
>
> as a slightly different approach to improv.

It seems I can't get it in Europe. But I've seen in their website they sell the pdf of the new version. Do you think it would be as good?

This is the one I have although I got mine from one of the Japanese sellers on ebay:

https://www.amazon.com/Band-Score-Love-Live-Best/dp/4773237716

It contains:

Bokura no LIVE kimi to no LIFE

Snow halation

Natsuiro Egao de 1,2,Jump!

Wonderful Rush

Bokura wa Ima no naka de

Kitto seisyun ga kikoeru

Susume -> Tomorrow

START:DASH!!

Korekara no Someday

Wonder zone

No brand girls

Music S.T.A.R.T!!


There is another one for the second season also.

If you google "Band Score Love Live! Best Score" you should be able to find some images of what the score looks like. The band score is pretty exact (unlike a lot of western scores for pop music) and contains each part (including even the drum parts).

Fellow guitarist here. Thanks for the site links. Only checked out chords of μ's songs so far, haven't tried playing Aqours songs yet. Cyaron songs looks fun, and playing some guilty kiss songs on electric guitar would be awesome!

On a related note, like mentioned, another good source for transcriptions of LL! songs are the official score books. Currently though, I think only μ's has some.

Here's one, it's a book with full scores available in amazon JP.

Bought it awhile back, it's detailed but you got everything you need there.

Michael Friedmann and Lars Edlund each have an atonal ear training book. I prefer Friedmann’s method and organization, as it focuses on sets and uses concepts out of set theory. The notation in the examples is awful though. Edlund is an easier read but doesn’t have as strong a theoretical backing. The examples are very useful though. My advice? Use both.

I got it here https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/4636945603/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 from a vendor called Happiness. He's nice enough to free ship through EMS and I got mine in just 5 days (Saturday and Sunday included)

Thanks guys!

1. I'm recording into Reason directly from the piano into my laptop.
   
   
2. The sheet music is from the official Final Fantasy 7 piano collections:http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-Piano-Collection-Sheet/dp/4636258665
   
   
3. I definitely would like to take requests, I'll check out those arrangements!
   
   
4. I've been playing piano for 23 years (started when I was 4, haha)

No, he wrote a a book on Harmony while teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, but the orchestration book is very good too.

Practical Manual of Harmony https://www.amazon.com/dp/082585699X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5FFDCbRRABQRJ

Check out Danny Ziemann’s book “The Low Down” for great jazz bass lines. He has many other bass books, too.

Also, see if you can transcribe bass lines like Paul Chambers on the album “Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis. Bass is sometimes hard to hear on classic recordings, so play around with one headphone or the other, or boosting the bass in your media player’s EQ settings for more clarity.


The Low Down

http://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Keyboard-Book/dp/079351441X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450630573&sr=1-1&keywords=beatles+keyboard

While the Complete Scores book is amazing, this book is a close second as far as keyboard books. It has most of the Beatles actual keyboard parts on the songs that include a piano/organ. The print is a little bigger than the Complete Scores book too, so it's a little easier to read for piano players.

If you like Chopin (playing ballade in g minor? :-) this could be interesting for you:
https://www.amazon.com/Studio-Ghibli-Chopin-Advanced-difficult/dp/4636840011

You can hear the full album on youtube, too.

EDIT: Browse on this website, they publish most of Ghibli piano sheets:

http://www.wasabisheetmusic.com/product-list/96

Friedmann's book is excellent, and if you work through it dilligently you'll have made massive progress towards your goal: http://www.amazon.com/Training-Twentieth-Century-Assoc-Michael-Friedmann/dp/0300045379/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341135703&sr=1-1&keywords=ear+training+twentieth+century+music

Practice :) I have this book, albeit it is in french. There is a Spanish version available but I'm not aware of an English one. Not that you need to understand what it written. It is mostly progressive exercises with a very specific technique to recognise the notes. It is very good.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1458420086/ref=mp_s_a_1_2/131-3043784-4441216?ie=UTF8&qid=1502020635&sr=1-2&refinements=p_27%3ADandelot&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&dpPl=1&dpID=41o2S-V%2BEEL&ref=plSrch

In a nutshell: know master notes on the stave (C, G on the treble key) then know the one immediately below and above. Then the two below and above. Then add more master notes. And practice recognising the intervals (second, third, fourth, fifth).

Most definitely...you can find one version in this book: Ferdinand 'Jelly Roll' Morton: The Collected Piano Music

Totally worth the money, it's a superb resource.

Does your bf like Final Fantasy? They sell physical books of sheet music for all of their piano collections, e.g: http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-Piano-Collection-Sheet/dp/4636258665

For games like Skyrim, I'm not too sure. You could try to find the sheet music online and create a bound book for him :D

Very quickly:

• Add the second note in the chord for a more pop kind of sound. So if you're playing an F chord, add the G next to the A. This is especially good for chords I and IV in the key.
  
• add some kind of rhythmic pattern. Exactly how much extra rhythm depends on how intense a moment it is in the song and who you're playing with. I'll try to update this comment to provide an example or two later.
  
  Edit: I'm not sure If I'll come back to this comment, so in case I don't, on rhythms, I recommend chapter 11 of this Hal Leonard book for some ideas.

I hear that Simplified Sight-Reading for Bass (by Josquin des Pres) is awesome if you want to learn sight reading quickly.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/490697631X/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the best English equivalent site I found

I have this.

Ultimate Christmas Fakebook - 6Th Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1495026574/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_LlX.zbB2YJA5N

If you know chords it's the best option out there I think.

I didn't even know this existed. I need this in my life.

Is this the one you ordered? If not, please PM me the link. I'd love to pick this up one day.

When I started sight reading, we had this book:

https://www.amazon.com/MANUEL-PRACTIQUE-NEW-PRACTICAL-MANUAL/dp/1458420086/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8

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I tried to find a version in english but it seems that it's hard to find (mine is in spanish). Really good book, though. You start with a couple of notes as reference and it teaches you from there.

Definitely start with sheet music. Pick up a couple of beginner's books (I'd recommend Hal Leonard which uses fairly conventional notations and starts from absolute basics. Since you can already read, start the metronome and run the basic exercises until you can happily find some notes.

The bass bible is also very good, and was an indispensible tool for me learning, but it's tied tab/notation you have to consciously avoid the tablature if you want to get anywhere with learning to sight-read for the instrument.

I've been working through this book and it's really good

https://www.amazon.com/Simplified-Sight-Reading-Bass-Instruction/dp/0793565189

Sure thing, heres the amazon link for now

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0571527094/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1474157595&sr=8-1&pi=SX200_QL40&keywords=a3+manuscript+paper&dpPl=1&dpID=41Onk%2BCmKfL&ref=plSrch

harmonic major has a major 7th (source). mixolydian with a flat 6th has a minor 7th.

For anyone interested in Early Jazz/Stride piano I consider Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton Collected Piano Works by Dapogny to be a must have. https://www.amazon.com/Ferdinand-Jelly-Roll-Morton-Collected/dp/0874743516

It's more than just a collection of his pieces, but rather includes a brief history and musical analyses of each piece. The songs have their structures marked in the sheets and a number of footnotes point to further description of the passage or note. There are often times entire verses that have an alternate version that Jelly Roll soloed that are transcribed here indicated as such.

Got mine from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4636945603/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1523933848&sr=8-3&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=final+fantasy+piano+collections&dpPl=1&dpID=51nQN9UCgxL&ref=plSrch

Search Amazon for:

A3 manuscript pad

Check this out at Amazon.co.uk
75-Page A3 Manuscript Pad, 18-Stave: (White Pad) https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0571527094/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_peNLDbZ7F45SH

Seems like you're a very "legit" player (I hate that term). But, if you want to expand to jazz, these Bop Duet books are stellar! http://www.amazon.com/Duets-Complete-Including-Vol-I-II-III/dp/B001ANVT10

Just learn to read music.

Is that from this book?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4636258665?cache=b92011dd16559277f94451628688ed73&pi=SY200_QL40&qid=1404702291&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

I've really been thinking about buying it, just not sure how complex the music is

I bought the Jelly Roll Morton Collection a while back, and while it's not a theory book, there was always some sort of a foreword that broke down the piece which helped me to understand the 'basics'.

The majority of his pieces are late ragtime/early jazz, BUT, there's some amazing pieces that are written in a style that he calls, the 'Spanish tinge'; this amazing man describes it here in detail.


PS: all of his pieces are hard as hell.