Help on Walking

[Fisher_D]

Hi Lynn Seaton, I really dig your music and admire you as a musician and I'm hoping you can help me out! I am student in High School who has been playing bass for a couple years now for my School's jazz band. I've been working on the upright for about a year now, but am finally starting to feel comfortable on it though there is one problem. I still can't walk. I've taken lessons before, but it just doesn't click for me yet. I even have multiple books such as the evolving bassist book by Rufus Reid, but I'm just not sure how to do it. Do I just have to practice all the scales like crazy and know them like the back of my hand? I can sit down and write a walking line, but I have trouble with sight reading a piece and making my own lines. Any advice or help at all is very much appreciated. Thank you for your time!

[Lynn Seaton]

Hello,
There has been an error in the notification system for posts to this page. Sorry I did not see your post and reply sooner. Concerning learning to walk, the study of the books and scales you mentioned are good, but there are other elements you can add to your study. The classic way to learn jazz is through transcription. Transcribe basslines of classic players and study how the basslines relate to the chords. Notice how the lines flow smoothly. Practice some of the bass lines in other keys. Get some pre transcribed bass line books and study how those relate to the changes as well. Memorize several segments of bass lines that you can plug in to similar chord progressions when you encounter them. Learn those in several keys. Be advised that sometimes the bass lines in other keys do not always lay well on the bass, but it is a good practice.
Attend a summer workshop where you can take a bass line class.
(Shameless commercial plug: I teach a bass workshop at UNT, a combo workshop at UNT, and at the Aebersold workshops.)
After you have learned some of the classic lines, you will begin to assimilate them and should be able to piece together a smoother bass line. Keep me posted.

[Fisher_D]

Thank you so much Mr. Seaton! I would really love to do a workshop at UNT, but Texas is a little far out there as I live in California, haha. But concerning the Transcription, how do you recommend me doing that? Like should I sit there with a pencil and paper listening over and over trying to figure it out, or is there a computer program I should use? And I actually do have a nice little collection of the transcribed basslines books from the Aebersold CD. One last question. In practicing scales, is there like a certain pattern or exercise you would recommend to practice besides just going up and down the scale itself?
Thank you so very much again for your time and all your help!

[Lynn Seaton]

Regarding transcribing, the best thing to use is your ears. Learning to hear what we play and playing what we hear is the goal. Writing them down with a pencil or with a music writing program such as Finale or Sibelius works well too. Start with a recording that has the bass clearly recorded so it is easier to hear the lines. I don't use a slow down computer program, but there are those that do. I like to try and hear the lines in real time. Playing sections over several times may be necessary.
Playing scales with different fingerings and rhythmic patterns is good. I like to go through the increasingly faster subdivisions with the metronome at a constant tempo. Play 1/4 notes, 1/4 note triplets, 1/8 notes, triplets, 1/16 notes, etc. Francois Rabbath's method books have many different fingerings for scales that really teach one where the notes are.