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Building Walking Basslines Lesson 1

#202
gmahoog said:
I've started a new routine for going through the standard progressions:

...
2) Working on just the roots using a metronome at the following tempos. (Setting the metronome so it hits on beats 2 & 4.):
40, 50, 60, 72, 80, 92, 100.
...
Click to expand...

I'm not getting the 'hits on beats 2 & 4' idea. I saw this in the book too.

I usually think of the metronome as clicking every quarter note. So I play one note per click if I'm doing a walking quarter note line.

What is the idea here? We are setting at 'half speed'. We play the 1 note of the bar on silence, then 2 note on a click, the 3 note on silence, and the 4 note on a click. Is that it?

What about setting metronome to play every quarter note and "accent" some by clicking louder?

I do that so beat 1 is louder. Helps me know if I'm missing or adding beats to bars as I go through the songs.
 
#206
After lurking for a while, I’d like to share my thoughts on my personal learning approach.

I started playing electric bass six years ago, and I play with a band (mostly blues-rock covers). It’s a lot of fun, and I am progressing well. But my ultimate goal is to be able to play jazz tunes, standards… all that complex, yet so very beautiful stuff.

I tried it several times. Found a teacher, just to quickly discover that he was trying to teach me shredding instead of sound musical concepts. Tried to work through some books. Bad idea. Got frustrated and forgot about jazz for a while. Found another teacher, a good player, but screwed up because I continually tried to learn too fast, tried to get away with a very shallow understanding of harmonic concepts. Then I tried to develop a kind of zen of learning, by setting myself the goal to learn all the chords. I used Jeff Berlins Chord Tone Concept, but found that I lacked the energy or endurance for a daily practice of simple chords and inversions. Missed the music in my practice.
So far, I failed at my attempts to become a jazz bassist.

However, this thread gave me new inspiration. Amazon sent me BWBL yesterday, and I contemplated about realistic goals. I get a lot of fun from playing with my band, we got a gig in three weeks. So, my practice regimen should be directed toward a more distant goal, and on developing really solid skills. Speed of learning does not matter (I’m 40, so there’s no need to hurry… any more) – but what matters is the quality and depth of understanding what I play.

My plan is to start working through the book, applying every step to the standard progressions in the appendix as well as to some real book standards. I will take as much time as I need to let everything I learn become a *real* habit. Maybe it will be a good idea to include some chord/arpeggio training at the right time, maybe I’ll incorporate some other literature on theory. But what I want to change the most is the way I set my goals. If it takes me a year or two to just get the roots and 5ths under my fingers and in my ears, I am determined to be fine with it. No more hurrying and no more stumbling, because it really slows down my learning progress. What a pity that I didn’t know this a couple of years ago…

Please excuse my English – I am from Germany.
 
#207
The thing great about this book is it gives you a practical way to apply what you learn. You can immediately put the subject matter into actual playing situations.

I used to study theory a lot when I first started playing. I probably studied theory more than I played and my playing suffered. I would hate to admit how long ago that was. If I only would have done this when I started.
 
#208
Theory is an important part of developing musical awareness, but in a vacuum it is just a bunch of seemingly obscure concepts. In fact, it is a very tight little system, very logical. But it needs to be applied to your instrument as well. You can learn a lot by simply writing out scales and arpeggios, diatonic key centers, etc., but if you never play the stuff, it's not going to become useful to you. You can practice a little bit of chord and scale work along with working through the book. Maybe 1 type of chord structure or scale in various keys, or several in the same key... whatever makes sense.

Notice I also say scales.... not a popular word with some teachers, but unlike these folks, I believe scales are equally important. Ultimately, it's the same information as chord tones, just laid out horizontally instead of vertically. When you consider the nature of walking bass lines, scale-wise movement is a very common and intuitive approach (in Part 2 of BWBL). I would never say it's the BEST way, or the ONLY way to approach music, but it is certainly no less important than chord tones and arpeggiation (also in Pt.2).

So, a little bit of that kind of work on the side will help you greatly when you reach the second half of the book, and sharpen your skills along the way.
 
#209
edfriedland said:
Scales ...... it's the same information as chord tones, just laid out horizontally instead of vertically. When you consider the nature of walking bass lines, scale-wise movement is a very common and intuitive approach
Click to expand...
Page 36.
I liked the way you have it laid out.
Chord tone on top and the rest under. Pulls 2, 4 & 6 into perspective. Never thought of it this way.
 
#210
gmahoog said:
[Setting met to click on beat 2 and 4 ] is exactly what you need to do. It's kind of tricky at first. What I usually do is count it out before I start playing.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I gave it a try. It was tricky at first, but I soon saw the benefit. I'm going to do this a lot now!

Question: This seems like a good technique for when you are practicing lines with exactly 4 quarter notes, right?

What if you are practicing more syncopated lines with rests and different note values? Can you still use the "click on 2 & 4" technique? (Seems like that would be very hard...but maybe I'm missing something)
 
#211
JoeNage said:
Question: This seems like a good technique for when you are practicing lines with exactly 4 quarter notes, right?

What if you are practicing more syncopated lines with rests and different note values? Can you still use the "click on 2 & 4" technique? (Seems like that would be very hard...but maybe I'm missing something)
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on the tune, but it should work for most if you think of it as the snare hitting on the 2 and 4.
 
#213
JoeNage said:
Thanks. I gave it a try. It was tricky at first, but I soon saw the benefit. I'm going to do this a lot now!

Question: This seems like a good technique for when you are practicing lines with exactly 4 quarter notes, right?

What if you are practicing more syncopated lines with rests and different note values? Can you still use the "click on 2 & 4" technique? (Seems like that would be very hard...but maybe I'm missing something)
Click to expand...

Working with the 2&4 is valuable in all styles of basslines. Especially the funk one.
 
#214
Yes, you can play anything in 4/4 with the click on 2&4. I have written several articles, and dedicated parts of a few books to this. Make it your snare drum (if you're practicing rock, funk, blues, etc...), or hi hat (if you're practicing jazz).

But I will reiterate that adding the metronome to your practice is best done once you can create your lines without pausing. If you "hit a wall" every other bar, it's not time to add the click. Creating a walking bass line is a thought process, not playing a pattern that you memorize. (I'm not knocking playing patterns, a lot of great music works that way).

It's kind of like the old saying - "Make sure brain is engaged before putting mouth into gear". The results are similar if you try to improvise a walking line in tempo before you are able to play smoothly through the progression - a lot of dumb stuff will come out.
 
#218
slybass3000 said:
+1

Tapping your foot on 2&4 is the best way the feel the groove.

I even do this in 3/4 making a 2 bars pattern.
Click to expand...
It's like playing a 4/4 swing rhythm on ride cymbal, with hi-hat foot on 2 and 4... in 3/4, thus turning the swing inside out each second bar. Tricky at first, then a lot easier to swing and improvise in blocks of two bars, then tricky for the musicians you're playing with if they're not used to it... or if you do it wrong :D

It's in Ed's "Bass Grooves" (page 17, "On the One", for those who own it) that I first read this trick of using the metronome (or drum machine) on 2 & 4... very simple idea... with a big effect. I like those... a lot! :hyper:
 

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