walking

[chantezlebas]

Hi Janek,

i´ne been trying to learn some bebop repertoire ,learning melodies and trying to learn tthe bass part which could be a melody too..
The problem is in some of the recordings the bass is barely audible and i cant hear it in order to transcribe it ...as i´ve it this "wall" i cant get past it...i can try to improvise on the changes but i´ve been told to not rely on reallbooks or any kind of books for this...but if i dont know the bass part how can i know the cord changes since i cant play the piano...this is frustating.
is there any way to practice walking to these bebop tunes?

Thank you
Sérgio

[janekbass]

Sergio,

you should definitely try using a CD player that has some sort of EQ on it. And just boost the lower frequencies until the bass comes out a big more. Transcribe all the Paul Chambers bass lines on "kind of Blue". they are all very easy to hear and are incredible bass lines.

Also Scott Lofaro on the bill evans stuff. Sunday at the village vanguard would be a good place to start. You can hear that stuff really well. Then there are the miles records "cookin", "relaxin", "workin" and "steamin". All very easy to hear the bass lines and have some great standards on them too.

Easy,

Janek