improving my walking

[le-gasp]

Hi,

In my school jazz band it's pretty easy since ive had the music in front of me, but now my teacher has asked me to be the bassist for a quartet of more advanced players (were playing Well You Neednt by Thelonious Monk)

my concern is keep my walking bass lines interesting and sounding good (not too many jumps, etc.) i know the basic arpeggio shapes and am woking on the particular scales, i even wrote a walking bass line for the beggining using mostly chord tones

when i try to mix things up, i just up or end up repeating myself, what can i do in my practice to fix this

Thanks,
Jake

[Pacman]

Transcribe. Get recordings of the tunes you want to explore.

[JimmyM]

+1 to Pac, and also force yourself to make mistakes during practice. I don't mean play badly, I mean try new things during practices with the jazz band, remember what works and what doesn't, and don't let fear of making a mistake keep you from stretching yourself as a musician.

[EADG mx]

To avoid jumps try not to avoid intervals larger than a tritone or 5th

I use octaves at times when I get stuck but this is still a good general rule to follow


also try scalular (sp?) patterns, but remember to keep the chord tones on 1+3

ex.:

1 2 3 5
1 2 3 (approach)
8 b7 6 5
8 b7 6 (app.)


by approach I mean a note a semitone lower or higher than the root of the next chord


You don't have to use chord tones 100% of the time. If everyone did that, jazz (and many other kinds of music) would be pretty boring.

[Mingus]

A teacher, play with other people who'll yell at you for repeating yourself, the Jamey Aebersold ii-V7-I book, or some good bass method book.


Personally I'm doing all four, and this is that other book I'm using: http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?Pr...1=&mode=browse

[jweiss]

The A section of Well You Needn't has a semitone motion between two dominant 7th chords (F7 to Gb7).

One approach that I think sounds good is to to create walking patterns that will emphasize that half step motion between chords as you change chords between measures. Examples for crossing the bar to the next chord would be:

root of one chord to root of next chord
2nd of one chord to root of next
5th of one chord to 5th of next
etc.

On the second 4 bars of the bridge that moves every second beat in semitones, roots alone sound great. Or try following the rhythm in the melody using the roots and fifths.

These approaches will complement the melody and solos nicely.

Cheers,

Jeff

[funkybassinator]

just play, oh and by the way you can learn alot from old chromatic BB king lines

[mccartneyman]

Ed Friendland has a good book: Building Walking Bass Lines . Available at Amazon. There are also a few other books on walking bass that have a samples, both written and recorded, that work well. Take a look at bassbooks.com

Transcribing is also invaluable.

[funkybassinator]

and also a tip i got from my jazz teacher: play a half step up or down leading into the next chord
example: Bb F# G B C E F

[EADG mx]

I like to keep a few foolproof or almost foolproof patterns just incase I get totally stuck. that way I can play them knowing they'll at least fit. They sound amateur but whatever it takes to keep the beat

here's some examples:

r r 5 5
r 3 5 (appr.)
r 5 3 r
r 5 (down) r 5 (up)
r r 5 (appr.)


just keep in mind that the ones with a P5 don't work on min7b5 or dim. chords

[funkybassinator]

Originally Posted by EADG mx

just keep in mind that the ones with a P5 don't work on min7b5 or dim. chords

or augmented

[EADG mx]

Originally Posted by funkybassinator

or augmented

good point, sorry I missed that

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by le-gasp

Hi,

In my school jazz band it's pretty easy since ive had the music in front of me, but now my teacher has asked me to be the bassist for a quartet of more advanced players (were playing Well You Neednt by Thelonious Monk)

my concern is keep my walking bass lines interesting and sounding good (not too many jumps, etc.) i know the basic arpeggio shapes and am woking on the particular scales, i even wrote a walking bass line for the beggining using mostly chord tones

when i try to mix things up, i just up or end up repeating myself, what can i do in my practice to fix this

Thanks,
Jake

Sounds like you're on the right track to me, we grow when we become bored or frustrated with our own playing and start trying new things.

As Pacman said transcribe some of the greats like Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Doug Watkins, Ron Carter. Transcribe them doing standards so you can get the basic chords and analyze the tools they use. Also the Ed Friedland book recommend by others is good. There is a series of books called "Walking In the Footsteps of..." Paul Chambers, Doug Watkins, or Sam Jones that are transcriptions of some of their Walking lines you can learn and analyze.

[PocketGroove82]

I could post another great book chock full of well crafted walking lines by Bruce Gertz called "Walkin", but I'd rather you save your money and grow your ears at the same time.

Transcription books are a great resource!
But, honestly, all the notes are already right there on the CD.

+1 to transcribing.

[patrickj]

I probably don't have good advice.. never had a problem walking the bass, improv has always been my thing.. but I'll share some of what I do.

Learn the chords/structures so you know the song without requiring a transcript. You want to free up both your eyes and your brain. Then, just listen and watch. Focus less on you, focus more on the group. Listen to the drums, watch what he/she plays and how and when he plays. Listen to the rest of the ensemble. Don't think about what you're playing. Internalize the music and you'll know what to play.

I never play the same thing twice (sometimes even when written) but what I play is always right and what I wanted to play. My goal is to make every performance 'better' (whatever you want to qualify that as) than the last.

Probably not helpful, but if you can get to the point of less thinking and more doing, you're doing it right IMO

[mebass5]

Transcribe lines from recordings of the particular tune you're working on. Do an iTunes search (or whatever place you buy music from) and see if you can come up with a version that floats your boat. Dig in a learn all the walking lines, and analyze how the bassist approaches the chord changes.

Another great way to expand is the Gary Willis Fingerboard Harmony book. It forces you to isolate your hand to a small area of the fretboard and learn ALL the possibilities within that area. You'll be amazed at what's at your disposal without doing a lot of shifting around.

Good Luck!

[DocBop]

Originally Posted by patrickj

I probably don't have good advice.. never had a problem walking the bass, improv has always been my thing..

Walking bass and bass improv are almost the same especially the resources to use. Main difference is improv you want to avoid playing on One and want to avoid playing Roots. Walking bass you play on the One and most the time hitting Roots on one. How you treat strong and weak beats is about the same. Scale choices, approach notes, use of chromatics, and etc are very similar in Walking and Improv. Maybe another difference is Walking you tend to use chromatics ascending and scale tones descending. Improv work chromatic either direction.

Studying Walking bass is a good intro to improv.

[le-gasp]

Originally Posted by EADG mx

You don't have to use chord tones 100% of the time. If everyone did that, jazz (and many other kinds of music) would be pretty boring.

well i know that but i just thought of something easy to get me started, my teacher liked it too

[Chebass88]

A couple of things helped me learn to walk better:

1. Play arpeggios & scales in a walking style. Make it swing - dont make it sound like a guy banging away on quarter notes on a bass (BORING!!!). What I mean is - dont make them all short & punchy, especially for jazz.

2. Play along with famous bass players (recorded versions), and try to sound exactly like them. There is a reason that they are always used as players on everyone's jazz records. I recommend Ray Brown, Charles Mingus, Rufus Reid, Ron Carter, etc.

3. For written charts, most of them have the chord changes as well as the written parts. A lot of times, the bass lines are written by keyboard players who are arranging the tunes. Use the chord changes, and make it fit, using the rules given above.

4. Buy a REAL BOOK & practice on your own. Pick a tune & play the hell out of it.

5. If using alternate fingers, try to make the notes evenly matched.

Have fun!

imp

[le-gasp]

Thanks guys!

i don't really have the money for books and the bass in the version i own (Monk's Music) is rather faint so even when i turn up the bass, if someone could direct to a version with better quality that would be great

also any exercises i can do so i can get accustomed to this and be able to play in any song, my performance is the 10th of January