walking bass

[skipper]

As a beginning bassist, I am learning how to construct bass lines. At my lesson last night, my teacher praised my intonation and my timing. His criticism was, however, that each note I played was separate from the note that preceded and followed it, that my line lacked smooth continuity, the legato feel that makes the line "walk." Essentially, I was playing stoccato and leaving too much air between notes.

I will practice diligently to eliminate this weakness in my playing, but I find it hard to shift while letting the sound ring. Do any of you musicians out there have suggestions for me about how to make my line glide rather than jump?

[MingusAmongUs]

Practice, practice, practice!

But seriously, that's what it will take more than anything else. A lot of it will have to do with getting over the hump from thinking about what you're going to play vs. muscle memory. I suspect the time you take to shift your fingerings is more about thinking about what note to play next than it is about mechanics. All the usual practice routines will help to get you over. Scales, arpeggios, and just plain improvising lines. Also, consider transcribing some good lines from players that you want to emulate. This will get those lines in your head, which means less time spent on the spot making decisions, which means more fluid lines. Just make sure you're conscious during your practice of this notion of legato lines. Playing slowly is the key, at first.

Everyone goes through this so don't get discouraged. One day you will find that you're just doing it, and you won't know how or when it happened.

[Mushroo]

One suggestion, which I learned by listening to a lot of Bach, is to think ahead to the downbeat or "1" of the next measure. So instead of thinking 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, etc., think 1, 2-3-4-1, 2-3-4-1, etc.

Does that make any sense? +1 to all of MingusAmongUs suggestions as well.

[Ed Fuqua]

But a lot of it is really about actually HEARING the arc of the line, rather than just notes as individual entities. The thing that ties everything together is hearing your quarter note line as a "melody", not just plugging notes into the chords that are passing by.

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

But a lot of it is really about actually HEARING the arc of the line, rather than just notes as individual entities. The thing that ties everything together is hearing your quarter note line as a "melody", not just plugging notes into the chords that are passing by.

+1
I like to play the roots arco of a tune to get a better sense of hearing the root movement as a melody.
Keep working on it. All sorts of advance playing techniques are great but for me there are few things in life as great as a nice quarter note line that locked in with a good drummer.

[skipper]

These are all very helpful suggestions. I recently bought your book (Walking Bassics), Mr. Fuqua, and it was when I was playing along with your track #1 that my teacher stopped me and said that my playing lacked legato.

All the replies to my posting have been useful. I wonder, as well, if sliding (as imperceptibly as possible) could also contribute to a legato feel.

[TomB]

Think about note length too. I know you have a lot to juggle at once, but getting a quarter note to be a consistent length is a good starting point... then as you advance and things become more automatic, you can choose to vary those lengths to add life and personality to your lines. Remember that muting (using both hands) is probably as important a skill as plucking!

[Jake deVilliers]

"Mr. Fuqua"

And I thought I was getting old!

[Ed Fuqua]

Originally Posted by Jake deVilliers

"Mr. Fuqua"

And I thought I was getting old!

My next book will be entitled "WALKER BASS"....

[Jake deVilliers]

"Walker Bassics" - order your copy from Mr. Fuqua while you can still remember why you got up from your chair!

Coming soon to a living room near you.....

[Ed Fuqua]

Originally Posted by skipper

I wonder, as well, if sliding (as imperceptibly as possible) could also contribute to a legato feel.

NO, you want to be playing precise pitches. I still contend that the answer is getting the sound in your ear, hearing internally the line you want to play through the harmony. Sliding (no matter how "imperceptibly") gets you into more vague rather than more defined territory.

It sounds to me (even though I can't actually hear through the computer screen) that there may be some left hand /right hand coordination issues; and that CAN be actually a hearing/conceptual issue. If you're not hearing a line through the harmony clearly enough, if you're not sure where on the fingerboard that pitch is you can have some real confidence issues about where to put your left hand. That makes your right hand less confident about really hitting the string. So if you're fading a little bit with the right hand AND fading a little bit with the left hand it's going to be really, really hard to get a warm, projecting big swinging sound.

[Ed Fuqua]

Originally Posted by Jake deVilliers

"Walker Bassics" - order your copy from Mr. Fuqua while you can still remember why you got up from your chair!

Coming soon to a living room near you.....

Instead of the playalong CD, it comes with a bottle of Gingko Viagra, so you can remember what the f**k we were playing?

[damonsmith]

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

Instead of the playalong CD, it comes with a bottle of Gingko Viagra, so you can remember what the f**k we were playing?

Or a deluxe version with a walker that turns into a bass stool.

[Jake deVilliers]

"Instead of the playalong CD, it comes with a bottle of Gingko Viagra, so you can remember what the f**k we were playing?"

I'll take a dozen bottles!

[MingusAmongUs]

Originally Posted by Ed Fuqua

...I still contend that the answer is getting the sound in your ear, hearing internally the line you want to play through the harmony...

that's the idea i was trying to get at, but you put it much more artfully.

[BassplayerBrian]

One thing that especially helped in walking bass lines to make it all smooth and connected and such, was that my teacher made this whole long speech about how have I ever watched syrup fall out of the bottle and it's all smooth and runny and stuff but in a single sentence the advice I'd probably give to you is to not think "note note note note" think more like melodically like.. "phraaaaaaaaaaaaaaase i am playing a phraaaaaaaaaaaaaase"

As for the jumping instead of gliding... I choose to think of my fingerboard like a gynormous long sticky marshmellow. You can't pull your fingers off of it... and you can't jump because it's too sticky too, you do it slowly at first and eventually you speed up at it and it's just a smooth glide instead of "1-2-3-4INEEDTOMOVENOW1-2-3-4" I know, a little eccentric, but my teachers a bit out there... and that's what he told me, it seems to have worked haha

[Ale]

Practice along with records and play along CD's . Take stadard tunes and write down wlking lines , record and listen to it.
Also for making your walking more smooth , check out the art of playing with ghost notes and different accents and phrasing.

[Bruce Lindfield]

Originally Posted by Jake deVilliers

"Walker Bassics" - order your copy from Mr. Fuqua while you can still remember why you got up from your chair!

Coming soon to a living room near you.....

Followed by Zimmer Bassics....

I was playing with some friends the other day and the drummer was really fired up and started rushing so much I was really struggling to keep up and was thinking....when does it start not to be walking bass but rather ...."running"?

[adbass]

Set your metronome to 58 or 60. That's your quarter note. Walk a bassline, making sure each note is sustained for the entire length of the quarter note. Don't cheat it. Usually, cheating the quarter will cause you to rush, so beware of that. This is also helpful in developing left hand finger strength. As you tire, your notes will become shorter. IMME, IMHE, etc etc etc.

[skipper]

Again, thank you all for your insights. I sometimes wonder why playing the bass is so hard to do competently. I'm very happy that I'm an amateur, however. I just play for the pleasure it gives me despite the instrument's challenges and my significant inadequacies. Certainly learning to play has given me deep appreciation for the dedication, patience, and effort it takes to be a professional musician.