Fast walking basslines?

Those are just good, pro-level walking bass.
Lessons on youtube are kindergarten versions of the same thing.

 

I quit.

 

Which chord?

 

It's just jazz but we know how significantly overrated those guys are.

 

They are playing the chord changes, like always.

Root / chord tones are 'releases' and the chromatic /passing tones are 'tensions'
Beginning walking bass teaches "strong" beats as 1 and 3 , 'weak' beats as 2 and 4,
and instruct us to play the tension/ chromatic/passing tones on the 'weak' beats 2 and 4,
and release/roots/chord tones on the 'strong' beats 1 and 3.
but that's a simplified view.

Larger rhythmic patterns of tension and release follow the arc of the melodic phrase or the chord cadences.
So you can build tension/release using the chord/other tones, following these patterns too.
In faster tunes, because harmony is flying by, you can sustain longer departures from the root/chord tones
than you might in a slow ballad, for example.
You just need to be sure that when the melody completes or the cadence comes around,
you bring back those sweet chord tones to take it home.

It's one of the drawbacks of that beginners algorithm, you can end up just playing the chords flatly with no awareness or reflection of the contour of the song's larger phrases and sections. Makes it hard / boring to follow.

I don't think this is the case in either example. Sounds like Jazz guys playing changes to me.

 

Those guys are soloing, not walking. You can view it as a distinction without a difference if you like but if I was a singer or a lead player (or a BL) and they played that way outside their solos I'd be looking for a new bassist. No matter your skills, serve the song.

 

There are many ways to walk, the above are almost considered solo, and in the 1st video you posted the bassist seems to like using 4ths as intervals to convey what he wants to say (but again he is alone, and may change completely when doing support).
When I back a singer, I take a more supportive role, a couple example below.
Janet Planet - Live At Cactus Jacks - Satisfy Me
Janet Planet - Live At Cactus Jacks - Lover Come Back
Janet Planet - Live At Cactus Jacks - Touch Of Your Love JanetPlanetSings • 26 views

 

If you want to make progress with your walking, here are a few questions you should be asking each time you hear a new song:

• What is the key signature?
• What is the time signature?
• How many bars long is the form?
• Is the form divided into phrases? (i.e. AABA)
• What is the chord progression?
• Does the harmony modulate to different keys?
• Does this song have similarities to any songs I already know?

Can you answer any of these questions as they apply to the two examples you posted above?

 

one chord? better give another listen! bop takes chops, but also an ear!

 

You work with Janet? She's a good friend and a really popular component of our annual Tritone Jazz Fantasy Camp in Wisconsin.

 

If the dude could read those lines or at least not look at his hands it would bring up the pro part to a higher level IMO.
Great playing though— kudos to the ability to being able to accurately improvise.

 

I like your example.
Anyway.
There are TONS of TONS of good walking bass lines!
I'm not impressed at all with the "so called" walking soloing bass line from Tupac's first video.
The contour of that bass line, the note choices, etc...

The second video get closer to the "mediocre" walking bass lines domain.
Once again.
There are TONS of TONS of wonderful walking bass lines played.

 

It's jazz, and they're playing over chord progressions in both cases (listen to the pianists for the changes). Their lines seem to be more chord-tone-based and scalar than chromatic.

The tempos are high, but Ben is just doing a solo that begins with a chorus or so of walking baseline (which he has probably been playing to accompany his bandmates' earlier solos) and then goes into a more melodic, horn-like solo of his own. The important thing to remember is that he's being featured at this point, so he's free to do whatever works musically, and what he's playing works fine.

Derrick, at least in the early part of the video (the only part I watched) is just playing a pretty standard, quarter-note walking bass line over a bop tune.

In both cases, these are master players who have spent thousands of hours practicing this stuff at much slower tempos and building to what you hear now. You can do the same.

 

In order of importance:

1. Chord tones
2. Approach tones using scale tones
3. Chromatic passing tones

That's all there is to it...once you've practiced for years

You need to know all the chords for the tune including possible substitutions for the original chords. Start with blues because it's the easiest and most common form and then move on from there.

 

When I listen to (the walking part) of the first two examples I'm reminded of the famous Chet Baker quote: "If I could play like Wynton (Marsalis), I wouldn't play like Wynton".

 

That Glasper video is just a fast blues. If you took something like the line Jeff Berlin shows here and brought it up to that tempo (and had Robert Glasper soloing over it) you’d be in the right neighborhood.



Also it’s important in this kind of jazz playing to realize that there are different kinds of chords you can substitute while playing a regular progression that can add interest. This post on blues progressions illustrates some of how this magic can work.

Jazz Blues Chord Progressions And Substitutions

Have fun!

 

Like Dizzy Gillespie said, 'you can play any note over any chord... as long as you play fast enough'.

 

Yeah, that was my first thought!

Actually, I have been really working on my floating thumb technique to get my thumb of the neck pickup, and I see both these guys playing crazy good with fixed thumbs.