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Getting Back Into Jazz

V

Vendele197

Jul 22, 2009
131
0
Salt Lake City, UT
#1
Since this is topic concerning "general bass playing", I believe in goes in this forum. Hopefully I'm right.

Anyways... I've been playing BG for about 3 years now and am looking to get back into jazz playing. I started out playing bass at the end of my sophomore year in high school and ended up playing in my school's Jazz Band and Guitar Ensemble my next two years (played DB as well during my senior year once I found the guts to tackle that instrument). After high school, I started playing rock and metal and kind of forgot about my jazz-y beginnings. Now, I feel like getting back into it and playing at a level of skill higher than what a high school jazz band demands. Basically, I'd like my fellow TBer's advice on how to get there.

Here's what I've started doing:
-I found this thread https://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=522578, and have started brushing up on my walking bass technique. I've been working on transposing the ii-V-I pages and will then be moving on to the other chord progressions Toronto has posted there.
-I've started working on my scales more, including two octave scales and modes

What else should I be doing? My ultimate goal is to play at the level of the bass players you regularly see playing in jazz clubs. Since I'm a few months shy of 20, I still have some time before I can actually play in a jazz club, but that's where I'd like to be sometime in the near-ish future. Are there any books I should pick up, any standards that I should have committed to memory, any resources I should look up/locate, etc.?

Thanks in advance.
 
#4
Link Removed not that much older than you, maybe you want to e-mail him see what it is he found that worked and what was kind of pointless.
This music isn't particularly about chops (just listen to Charlie Haden), it's more about a kind of communication. Working on playing scales in two octaves and paying particular attention to position shifts and string crossing, making sure no one finger that you are plucking with is favored, working on arpeggio exercises in all inversions and open and closed positions, all of that is great for getting some of this in your ear and a certain familiarity with the fingerboard. But you need to augment your work on understanding (theory) and physical approach (technique) with some ear training. And some pretty formal approach, not just pulling stuff off records, actually sitting at the keyboard and playing and singing intervals in the first octave, second octave, triads in all inversions in closed and open positions, 4 parts, 4 parts and a tension, 4 parts with two tensions. Teachers (well good teachers) are great at working through all of this stuff with you.
I've written a book on the fundamentals of building a walking bass line, here, that might help with direction....
 
#7
Ed Fuqua said:
Link Removed not that much older than you.
Click to expand...

What's kind of funny to me is that my name is Kevin as well.

Ed Fuqua said:
sitting at the keyboard and playing and singing intervals in the first octave, second octave, triads in all inversions in closed and open positions, 4 parts, 4 parts and a tension, 4 parts with two tensions.
Click to expand...

And here I thought I was done with 4 part stuff... At least I'm familiar with 4 part writing, voice leading, inversions, etc.

Ed Fuqua said:
Teachers (well good teachers) are great at working through all of this stuff with you.
Click to expand...

Sadly, my school/work schedule and current financial situation does not facilitate studying with somebody. Hopefully that will change in the near future.

Thanks, though, for the advice. I will look into the suggested book.
 
#9
Ed Friedland has a fantastic book called Building Walking Bass Lines, published by Hal Leonard. I recommend it highly.
There is a bass version of the Real Book bass as well, but this won't help you with theory. It will however give you many jazz standards with the chord progressions and the melody in bass clef.
 
#14
Ed Fuqua said:
Kevin is too. With a teacher.
Click to expand...

Yes, I understand that studying with a teacher is preferable. However, my work/school schedule keeps me busy from 5am-10pm with only a few hour long or so breaks during that time. At some point I will probably begin studying with a teacher, but for now I'm looking for things I can do on my own between the hours of 10pm and 5am, hours most teachers are unavailable.
 

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