Easy Jazz Tune

[mitra]

He there!

I've just started to play the double bass (3weeks ago) and i am looking for a real standard tune with simple(!) chords I can walk to. A normal blues would fit best, I ve tried billies bounce but there is too much switching of the positions! Id like to stay in the 1st position or range i dont know how its called in english.

Thanks,
Mike

[GigJones]

I don’t play upright bass but I took lessons from a jazz double-bass player for several years.

The one piece he used to teach me to walk was “So What” by Miles Davis. There are just two chords -- Dm7 and Ebm7.

An easy walking formula = Chord tone on one, scale tones on two and three, passing tone on four.

You can walk all day without having to shift too much.

Hope this helps.

[hgiles]

All Blues is more than two chords.

i think you meant SO WHAT

[Jazz Ad]

Summertime and autumn leaves are good to do. Most pre be-bop standards can be played in an easy way.

[GigJones]

Originally Posted by hgiles

All Blues is more than two chords.

i think you meant SO WHAT

You're right. My bad. Fixed.

Sorry.

[TripleDouble]

Autumn Leaves is a cool, very simple standard, or try Blue Monk, it's a blues in Bb that can be played with just the traditional I IV and V chords, or with all kinds of jazz substitutions and turnarounds as you learn them and add them in. Blues in F, Bb, G and Eb are most common in jazz, and you can just swap out the V iV I for a II- V I and you will be jazzing. Both tunes i mentioned are pretty simple, and almost always played and jam sessions by novice to intermediate players.

[MostlyBass]

Blue Monk is a nice slow easy blues / jazz tune.

[mitra]

Hey, thanks a lot for the answers! As soon as ill be able to, ill have a look at these tunes!
Thanks,

Michael

[hdiddy]

Killer Joe

[MostlyBass]

Originally Posted by hdiddy

Killer Joe

Read my mind!!! The chorus is just Bb - Ab.... my concern was that it isn't in most fake books.

[mitra]

Thanks, blue monk worked quite well!!
Killer joe, nice tune, i plaes it last year with the big band on the drums! Thanks
Michael

[Jack Clark]

This is going to sound odd, but a slowed-down, non-drum, version of Shake, Rattle & Roll would fit your bill nicely. Slowed down and without the rock-drum back beat, it's an extremely simple 12-bar-blues with no chord substitutions, so . . . it comes out about as simple(minded) as a blues can be, I think.

EDIT: On second thought, I think the other suggestion of Blue Monk is the best. A blues can't get any simpler than that, assuming you don't use Miles' substitutions, and once you get the original chords down in all 12 sounding keys (ahem), you can go into the more involved substitutions.

[KUNGfuSHERIFF]

Flamenco Sketches. Playing the fifths in tune is a good exercise, and playing open strings against stopped notes is good for developing intonation.

[hgiles]

The bridge to KILLER JOE is a bear...lots of bass players screw up the fifths in the bridge, i.e. its not an easy tune -- not if you play it right.

[hdiddy]

Sing/know the melody and the bridge comes easy.

More easy tunes:
Blue Bossa
Take the A Train
On Green Dolphin Street
Night And Day

[N.F.A.]

Blue Bossa

[MostlyBass]

Blue Bossa is a fun tune!

How about:

All Blues
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

[mitra]

Thanks a lot! Ill try them and i think ill do fine, cause i play a lot of these tunes on the drums as well

[Bisounourse]

Now's The Time
Tenor Madness
Both basically a I-IV-V

[precisionguitar]

start with the Miles Davis album 'kind of blue' .. as tunes from above have been mentioned above.. the groves are great and you can get the bass lines in a short time.. they also allow for plenty of space to try and solo a bit.. which is one of the reasons there are less chord changes in the songs so the soloists on the recording could spend more time working on ideas than worrying about key changes (read it on wiki)