You have to crawl before you walk, right?

[aprado83]

Hello,
I am not a DB member, but I just wanted to get some insight as to enhance my walking lines. I am new to jazz walking lines and I just can't grasp how to walk over changes like tunes out of the Real Book. I mostly just use Root, Fifth, octaves with some passing tones. Please, what do I need to do in order to get my walking lines interesting and melodic? It's frustrating when all I can do is crawl when I want to walk. Please let me know what you learned when you first began to walk bass lines over changes. Thanks.

Adam P.

[Dave Irwin]

There are 2 different approaches to walking, chordal and scaler. I'd guess most on here go chordal but scaler has it's positives too.
Simply put, chordal is to arpeggiate each chord for the number of beats the chord lasts
(pardon the oversimplification)
Scaler is about playing the applicable scale over the chord(s).
If you search, you'll find plenty of threads on the subject but if you can find a book called "The Book to Understand the Book of Electric Bass" by Cornell Wiley, there's a great learning method in there. (dont worry about the electric bass part, it is applicable to upright for walking and general theory.

Good luck,
Dave

[Asher S]

3 great books to check out:

Ed Friedland: Building Walking Bass Lines, and Expanding Walking Bass Lines (both available at Amazon).

Bruce Gertz: Walkin' http://www.brucegertz.com/walkin.html , also available at Amazon tho' they mis-spelled his name as "Gerzz"...

Ed's books give a very clear progressive intro to walking lines, starting with root-5, then adding chord tones, then scale tones, then chromatic approach notes etc etc. The second book also deals with rhythms beyond the quarter note walk.

Bruce's book has a nice couple of pages near the start with (a) common scales, and (b) common chord patterns. The rest of the book is filled with great examples of walking lines. It's very helpful to analyze each page, i.e. is the target note a chord tone? If so which one? (root, 3rd, 5th, 7th), If the note is an approach note, what kind is it (chromatic, whole tone, dominant, scale tone, chord tone)?

Each book comes with a CD that's great to listen to and to play along with.

One way of learning to play great walking lines is:

1. Look at each pair of chords within the progression, find the chord tones for each chord, then identify scale tones and chromatic tones that link the 2 chords together smoothly, within the context of the melody (which you should be able to play on your bass). The strongest approach notes are often notes shared by 2 chords or scales.
2. Think about TARGET NOTES (the first note you hit for a given chord, almost always a chord tone), and APPROACH NOTES (the note(s) you hit 1-2 beats before the target note).
3. Find some recordings of walking lines you really like. Transcribe them, then analyze them as I describe above. Use The Amazing Slow Downer software if needed.
4. TAKE YOUR TIME. Don't expect to be generating great walking lines on the fly from the get-go. Like every other skill, this one needs to be patiently nurtured and developed.

... and as always, practice a ton, have fun, make it musical and not just aiming for notes that fall in the chord.

Originally Posted by aprado83

... I am not a DB member...

I know it's blasphemous to even think it , but there's nothing wrong with playing a walking line on a bass guitar, even a fretted bass guitar .
Check out this thread on electric bass players who play straight ahead jazz:
Electric Bass Players who play great jazz

eg.
Gary Willis http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaKUo2lsN1o
Bob Cranshaw backing Sonny Rollins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVyUj0lZmSw
Jeff Berlin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciL9cwUQGdM
Steve Swallow backing John Scofield on the live album, En Route

[Ed Fuqua]

Horrid EdSpam....

[Les Fret]

Hi Ed,

I have worked through almost every walking bass book I could get my hands on and transcribed many walking bass lines. Is your book more for beginners? because I want a book that goes more into the depth.
Besides the obvious 'you have to learn it in the bandstand' what book can you guys advise me for the advanced stuff?

[Ed Fuqua]

Hmmmm. It is put together for folks who may have some familiarity with the instrument, but who haven't really played walking bass lines before. There ARE some concepts about developing lines that have a melodic "arc" through a tune, how to use a "chord line" to get the sound of the changes in your ear so that you aren't just plugging notes in based on some formula (chord tone, scale tone, chord tone, half step passing tone, etc.), but actually learning to follow what your ear tells you will sound good as the next note.
But I'd suggest that if you're transcribing other players' lines, you may not want to look for any more books. You may want to start working on "transcribing" the line you hear in your head. Ultimately the idea is not to have so much other folks' vocabulary in your head that you can quote a response to any harmonic situation. You want to get to YOUR voice.

It's not so much "learn it on the bandstand" as it is "hear with clarity". What ear training work are you doing?

[Paul Warburton]

Originally Posted by aprado83

Hello,
I am not a DB member, but I just wanted to get some insight as to enhance my walking lines. I am new to jazz walking lines and I just can't grasp how to walk over changes like tunes out of the Real Book. I mostly just use Root, Fifth, octaves with some passing tones. Please, what do I need to do in order to get my walking lines interesting and melodic? It's frustrating when all I can do is crawl when I want to walk. Please let me know what you learned when you first began to walk bass lines over changes. Thanks.
Adam P.

I feel, judging from the wording of your post, that "Walking Bassics" by Ed Fuqua would be of great value to you. I highly recommend it, more importantly, so do many well know jazz bassists and teachers.

[relacey]

This question pops up frequently. One of the more recent threads covers both books of transcriptions and books on the basics of walking. For walking basics, I'd strongly recommend Ed's book. Although, PW's recommendation is really all you need.

The other source that I think gets at the heart of walking are Carol Kaye's materials, available from her web site. Carol is highly opinionated and has generated some controversy in the BG community (probably why I thought of her after PW's post), but you can't discount her achievements or her methods.