Double Bass Hearing what isn't on the sheet

[ole Jason]

Doing chord substitutions on the fly is something I feel like I struggle with. There are times when I'll play with a pianist who will comp very literally and I can pick up on what he's doing but other times I feel like I just can't hear what's going on.

I do try to ask after the song when I hear someone doing something funky with the changes but I've found a lot of guys can't really explain what they're doing very well.

How can I work on it? Right now I look through the changes for a tune and try to spot where subs would work. I guess I'm trying to build a mental library of typical places where subs sound good and what they sound like in that context.

Any particular bassists that do this stuff a lot I should be transcribing?

Thanks

 

[TomSauter]

This is such a huge topic that it's hard to know where to begin, but the simplest answer is just to learn a lot of tunes. A lot of standards have similar chord progressions, but with lots of little variations. Go listen to five different versions of Bye Bye Blackbird and you're likely to hear five different ways to play the first four bars.

Here's a couple examples:



The arrangement includes some nice substitutions going up in half steps that could be used on lots of other tunes, like Black Orpheus. At 6:28 he starts a walking solo, and he plays Abmaj7 at the 5th bar instead of Amin7-b. This happens in a few tunes, like Recado Bossa Nova, but most people probably wouldn't think to play it on Autumn Leaves. He even gives the piano player a little grin when he does it. On the first chord of the 2nd a section he plays a C7| F7/Eb. He plays a ton of other substitutions on this one, tritone subs, moving chords around in minor 3rds, etc.

As far as good bassists to listen to, Ron is probably at the top of the list for me. Other greats for this are Buster Williams, Dave Holland, Bob Hurst, Christian McBride, John Pattitucci, Marc Johnson, Ray Drummond, and loads of others.

 

[ChuckCorbis]

Looks like Don Bagley had a pretty nice gig playing with Julie London. That's a great take of Bye Bye Blackbird. I guess Don and her hubby (Bobby) got along just fine. Wow.........she was hot.

 

[SplitNick]

From a theory perspective this site is interesting: http://www.jacmuse.com/improv/harmonicapps/jazz.htm

Probably best to use your ears, but this may help you experiment with some standard subs. Maybe sit at the piano for a while to get a sound in your head then take it to the bass.

 

[meandering]

One way to work on chord substitutions is to play through them on the piano. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just the root in the left hand and three or four note voicings in the right. Mark Levine's jazz piano book is a good place to start. He introduces substitutions with sus and phrygian chords fairly early.

 

[pcreelbass]

One other thing to mention is that if the melody is being played, the substitution needs to sounds good with it. Something Ben Wolfe says to do is to learn to sing the melody and play a half note bass line. When you do this, you will be able to tell which subs will work and which ones won't. It's a great exercise for lots of reasons.

 

[Johnboch]

try not playing the roots all the time. substitutions will come naturally after that. Also, work with suspensions and dissonances (like 4ths resolving to thirds).

 

[HunterBrodt]

Transcribing won't dramatically help unless you can analyze what's going on. So write everything down and do a chordal analysis.