Building Walking Basslines Lesson 1

[MalcolmAmos]

Okay, beginners! I know some of you reading this thread are completely new to walkin'... Let me hear about some of your progress with the book, such as what has worked, and some of what has not worked, and perhaps-why? If you could share some details...
Still taking very small steps, here.

Recapping my voyage. By the time I got to the chromatic approach it looked to me that any note in the area could be inserted - too many choices and that confused me - I'm still not at ease with this section on chromatic approaches. Now I use chromatic runs to the next chord in my playing all the time, but, I did find this section confusing and as a result moved on satisfied with what I already do with chromatic runs.

Yes the dominant approach makes since and I understand how it helps move the bass line to the next chord. I brooded over how I was going to remember, on the fly, what the dominant note of the next chord is so I could insert it. After awhile that is not as big a problem as I thought. This concept is now part of my playing.

The section on Scalewise motion fit right into what I was already doing and at this point I moved on.

Probably the largest WOW was right at the beginning. The use of the 8 octave note. The 8 was not in my bag - is now. Next was Ed's use of the chord tone interval number (R-5-8-5) and would have liked to have seen this expanded upon instead of moving into U/chr and L/chr. If we had just called them b2 or 6 or whatever I would have found that much easier to understand. I ended up writing the interval number under the U/chr or L/chr - dom, chr, etc. I must say I found those notations more of a hindrance than a help.

All in all I do recommend the book. Best $20 I've spent in quite some time. In fact my Wife and I will be going to lunch in a few minutes and I'll spend more than that there. Well worth the time and money spent. I liked it so much I took it to a print shop and had it spiral bound so it would fit the music stand.

 

[slybass3000]

Okay, beginners! I know some of you reading this thread are completely new to walkin'...

Let me hear about some of your progress with the book, such as what has worked, and some of what has not worked, and perhaps-why? If you could share some details...

Still taking very small steps, here.

Excellent idea stacatto to get involved and supervised the community of bassists working in the book.

I hope my little thing with Ed didn't bring a bad feeling here but I really believe it was an important point that should be revised by everybody working in the book. It was about the chromatic approach from below and it involves minor chords that last 2 beats.

I really suggest even for the players that have a bit of knowledge about walking bass to write down your basslines using only the approach you are working on to see and hear where it sounds good and where it doesn't on some of the 10 tunes at the end. Then try to make a second chorus with all the approaches you worked on and placed them at the right spots from what you thought that sounded good in the previous exercices. Writing a bassline in a walking bass style is a great way to find new things IME. And you'll find out eventually that the simpler, the better because you focus on the groove,time,sound,lenght of the notes,rhythms,positions,embellishments,register and dictating and supporting the harmony as well.

The next step after you play the right notes is that "feel is more important then the notes". It's contradictory to what we teach but a wrong note with the right feel is better then all right notes with the wrong feel.

Good luck and there are some people here with bags of knowledge and experience that can really help you getting the vibe with style ;-)

 

[edfriedland]

Agreed, writing down bass lines is a good way to exercise the brain. You have the opportunity to consider your note choices and pick the best. Of course, you also have to get familiar enough with the process to create lines in real time. That is the ultimate goal. And once you get there... gradually increase the tempo. 160BPM is considered a very medium tempo in jazz. Can anyone walk through a tune at 160?

 

[JimmyM]

first time i ever looked at this thread...who knew it would be so full of controversy?! i may have to tune in more regularly!

anyway, this can be easily solved...if you don't want to play an F# over Dm7 walking up to a G, don't. but i've heard it a million times and never thought it clashed as long as it wasn't placed on a strong beat, so it's perfectly legit to do so if you want. but you as the musician have the ultimate decision, so trust your own judgment.

there...solved.

 

[slybass3000]

I would like to mention too that you have the privilege to have the author of the book Mr. Friedland presence here and this is a very rare opportunity especially for free and having direct guidance from him. This is a very unique and rare opportunity when you write books to have a direct contact like this with the people from all over the world and from different background learning from it at the same time.

So thank you Ed for taking the time for this and I'm sorry if I did interfered with some harmonic notions but I think you did understand my point about it and thanks to you for recognize it. I think it will be the only aspect that I really stick to: the color and the nature of chords but it is interesting to strech it the way you do. ;-) Over a forum like this, it is difficult to really teach all the depth of harmony and the importance of notes choices,contour of the bassline and feel in real life situation.

You should be proud that TB members picked your book over a very good selection. This mean your stuff does appeal to the mass and the bass community. I respect that.

Since this is an open forum I hope you don't mind if I recommend some tips on how to practice the stuff because I teach it,play it and I love it.

Keep the groove and the vibe going,

Sly

 

[slybass3000]

first time i ever looked at this thread...who knew it would be so full of controversy?! i may have to tune in more regularly!

anyway, this can be easily solved...if you don't want to play an F# over Dm7 walking up to a G, don't. but i've heard it a million times and never thought it clashed as long as it wasn't placed on a strong beat, so it's perfectly legit to do so if you want. but you as the musician have the ultimate decision, so trust your own judgment.

there...solved.

Hi Jimmy,

Did you read the whole exchange about it?
It was solved by agreeing that it should be used carefully depending on the situation especially at slow tempo and depth of the arrangement also. Of course it is possible to play a F# on a Dmin7 but I really think it should be prepared and making the minor chords sounds like a minor chord by playing the real third on a strong but also as the only note that make the difference for the color.But this is just me. It is difficult to teach all the subtilities of harmony on the net like this. Since this a learning thread it is heard to find the right balance between what is right and legit in all situations and what can be play over chords progression in a walking bass in a real jazz context when harmony can move around but also in other styles as well.

 

[JimmyM]

i did read the whole exchange, and honestly sly, i don't think it has to be prepared for the way you suggest. it's certainly not a bad thing to prepare for it in that way and lots of folks do it that way, but i think it's legit enough to do it and not prepare for it, too. i don't think it's any more wrong than to play D-E-F-F# over a D major, which is way more commonly used and sounds great. now if you're going by a strict by-the-book approach, you wouldn't want to do that, but that's no fun. that gets too much in the realm of running scales for my tastes.

 

[slybass3000]

i did read the whole exchange, and honestly sly, i don't think it has to be prepared for the way you suggest. it's certainly not a bad thing to prepare for it in that way and lots of folks do it that way, but i think it's legit enough to do it and not prepare for it, too. i don't think it's any more wrong than to play D-E-F-F# over a D major, which is way more commonly used and sounds great. now if you're going by a strict by-the-book approach, you wouldn't want to do that, but that's no fun. that gets too much in the realm of running scales for my tastes.

Fair enough Jimmy, you do express your point of view and I really,really understand it and ed's point as well. For me as bass player I make a priority at supporting the harmony in any style. This thread is like teaching but not 1 on 1 and this is the difficult part in a forum. I'm more for showing the rules and then people can break them if they hear it. Tempo, register,style and sound do play roles in the choice of notes .

Sly

 

[Lambic]

...Still taking very small steps, here.

Same here: finally I got the first Standard with Chromatic Approach down without writing anything out (like I did with the Root-Fifth-Octave Approach), but the second one kept resisting until I put a bass line on paper. Did the same for number three, and now I'm working on that one, still with Chromatic Approach. The number two is really a tricky standard once you start using Chromatic Approach!!

 

[bassfuser]

I had fear that this thread might die. Not any more since JimmyM is on board. Now we have over 10,000 views and a TB legend here to boot.

It makes for great discussion when experienced guys give their opinions. I also think it's great and a real privilege having Ed here.

 

[edfriedland]

Thanks all, nice to be appreciated.

 

[Billnc]

Tempo, register,style and sound do play roles in the choice of notes .

Sly

+1

 

[edfriedland]

So.... can anyone play through one of the tunes in the back at 160bpm? Just checking.

 

[AMp'D.2play]

So.... can anyone play through one of the tunes in the back at 160bpm? Just checking.

Before your earlier post about playing at 160bpm, last week I sped up some of the tunes to as fast as my metronome would go (either 200 or 220, I forget). I was able to do it ... but it was only playing roots!

I haven't started writing down the approach notes yet, but I was getting a sense this weekend that I don't trip over the chromatic approach as much as I did previously. I'm still at the stage where some chromatic approaches work well and some sound downright terrible, but by the process of elimination I'm determining which are keepers.

 

[edfriedland]

Before your earlier post about playing at 160bpm, last week I sped up some of the tunes to as fast as my metronome would go (either 200 or 220, I forget). I was able to do it ... but it was only playing roots!

I haven't started writing down the approach notes yet, but I was getting a sense this weekend that I don't trip over the chromatic approach as much as I did previously. I'm still at the stage where some chromatic approaches work well and some sound downright terrible, but by the process of elimination I'm determining which are keepers.

Well, that's a great start. Even with "just the roots" being able to keep your place in the music at those tempos is very important. I think you'll find everything will fall into place easier when you've spent enough time getting a foundation together.

 

[bassfuser]

Life got in the way so I've been unable to practice for a couple of weeks. Today I played "Satin Doll" using root/5th with chromatic approaches. I started at 80 bpm and incremented up to 200 bpm. I started having problems around 180 where I had to stop every now and then but I could keep up when my brain didn't glitch.

I found that the major 3rd going from Dmi7 to G7 sounded kind of funky at the slower tempos but sounded OK once I go to pretty fast tempos.

 

[Pbassred]

I'm really lagging now. Only as far as EX 8,9,10.

Just how comfortable Should I be with one exercise before moving on to the next? I must confess that I'm attempting to smuggle sight reading practice in with it at the same time.

 

[Lambic]

I'm really lagging now. Only as far as EX 8,9,10 (...)

Since I'm applying the chromatic approach to the standards, I'm not exactly rocketing ahead either. I'm working on standard #6 now, and I move on whenever I can play a part through with the CD at least two times in a row without hesitating. When checking with the CD, I usually program a track four times, which means that I'm usually happy with the result somewhere in the middle of the second time through, i.e. from the sixth or seventh time on.

But I'm still feeling like I'm progressing, something that is very important to me.

 

[edfriedland]

PBassRed - Don't worry about how quickly you move from one exercise to the next. That isn't progress, understanding a little more each time you play an example is. But if you're getting bogged down in one example, try another one with the same technique to refresh your mind. You can always come back, and each new example contains a mixture of new material and the same stuff.

 

[AMp'D.2play]

I'm getting tripped up more than I'd like on the exercises where you have to improvise and the chords progress in fifths. I'll play a 5th as the 4th note in a measure (R-5-8-5), so my "approach" ends up being the same note as the next root.

It's almost like, 'oops, now what do i do? i meant to approach the next chord, but i'm already there!'.

I guess that's why I really need to start writing the stuff down instead of winging it.