Jumping into Jazz - any suggestions?

[sevenyearsdown]

I just recently hooked up with a group who plays a lot of old school jazz, blues, rockabilly covers.....most of which I've never even heard of before (the jazz part anyway). I've always been in rock based outfits (rockabilly, surf, blues, punk), and have nothing close to jazz experience. They don't seem too worried about it - said something like, "ahh, if you played blues and rockabilly stuff before you should be fine". Right now I'm just trying to cop stuff note for note.

So as a newb to jazz my question for you guys is.......

Are there any resources you know of that might help my playing transition from rock to jazz a little easier (tab, books, anything)?

Thanks in advance!

[sevenyearsdown]

no Jazz or swing players out there?

[powerbass]

a lot of jazz is based on the blues and the blues form of chord progressions. Jamie Aebersold has great jazz ed materials http://www.aebersold.com/ all come w/bass clef music and CD's w/great rhythm sections. (the first couple volumes may be good to start with) Good jazz bass lines start w/a foundation in knowing the basics about key signature/cycle of fifths/fourths, scales and chord tones (1,3,5,7) knowing what's major/minor too. Keep asking questions and start small - root/5th type bass lines will work almost all the time.

[watspan]

I think you should start by listening to as many different jazz recordings as you can. Listening to jazz "standards" interpreted by different musicians in different styles will really open up your ears and your head. And finally your fingers will follow!

[Johnny StingRay]

Ed Friedland's Building Walking Jazz Bass Lines book. Excellent!
Carol Kaye's Jazz Bass materials. Excellent! www.carolkaye.com
Good luck,
Johnny

[Pacman]

Jazz is not a technique. Moved to General Instruction.

[deckard]

My advice, like watspan's:

Listen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Start listening to as much jazz, and different "types" of jazz, as you can.

Immerse yourself in it.

Lots of good books out there... but in the end, for me, jazz is about LISTENING.

[Earthday]

I'm just like you, just starting to get into jazz, barely ever heard any in my lifetime (even the "standards")

The advice to listen to lots of jazz is definitely spot on. You can't expect yourself to be able to play something that you don't really understand. That was, and still is my problem. The bassplaying in jazz plays a completely different role than almost all other music. In some ways you have a lot of freedom, but in other ways you don't. The only way to figure out that "spot" you need to be in is to listen to other players, and to keep trying.

The FIRST step is to make sure you know your chord theory. Know what every symbol stands for, and what notes are in every chord. That is WAYYYY more important than scales and modes. In fact, I would forget I even knew scales until I learned to build lines from just chord tones if I were you.

Also play around with chromatic notes. There's a lot more of a use for them in jazz than in rock. You'll be surprised how often you can approach a note from a halfstep away, even if that note isn't in the parent scale or any of the chords, and it will sound good.

Finally, always be playing with others or with some sort of recording. Jazz basslines are about interaction. A line can sound great on its own, but if it doesn't fit the chords, it will clash and make the melody (therefore the song) sound bad. A line can sound bad on its own, but because of the way it interacts with everything else, could be perfect for the song.

Experiment, and learn from what does and doesn't work. It's not easy. But if you've already got chord theory under your belt, you should be able to play some "bread and butter" lines fairly quickly.