Help! Need to learn Walking Bass in 2 weeks !!

[BaldingEagle]

In the New Year I'll be meeting up with a guy I met on the internet for a bit of a Jazz standards jam.

Learning jazz and walking bass has been on my to do list all through lockdown I just lacked motivation to pick up and play. In recent months I've been playing a lot more but not much focussed practice and now I've gone and committed myself to this new beginners jazz group.

It's been pitched as a beginners level so I'm not expecting to master anything in just a few short weeks but I want to show up being able to play more than root notes to a 2 feel (which was the extent of my last jazzcapade).

I have a Real Book to hand and I'll be spending a ton of time on arpeggio exercises but any other tips, help or advice that the TalkBass community can offer me to get me on my way to build some level competence would be greatly appreciated!

 

[two fingers]

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Walking-Bass-Lines-Builders/dp/0793542049

 

[FatStringer52]

The book two fingers listed above is a very good starting place.

You can also check out some of the video lessons on YT . . .

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=walking+bass+lines

A good starting point is this one . . .

 

[J_Bass]

Do you know the tunes you're gonna play, and the key?

That would help a lot.

 

[Les Fret]

You are not gonna learn that in two weeks.

 

[BaldingEagle]

Do you know the tunes you're gonna play, and the key?

That would help a lot.

Yeah, we've agreed what they are going to be and they are straight out of the Real Book so we're working from consistent sheet music.

The book two fingers listed above is a very good starting place.

You can also check out some of the video lessons on YT . . .

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=walking+bass+lines

A good starting point is this one . . .

Ah, Mr. Devine - thanks - I'll make sure to watch that video.

https://www.amazon.com/Building-Walking-Bass-Lines-Builders/dp/0793542049

Thanks, will check this book out.

 

[J_Bass]

Yeah, we've agreed what they are going to be and they are straight out of the Real Book so we're working from consistent sheet music.



Ah, Mr. Devine - thanks - I'll make sure to watch that video.



Thanks, will check this book out.

Excellent suggestions from the fellow TB'ers above.

So, you know the chords.

My suggestion is start with the arpeggios, root, third, fifth, seventh.

Then, work on the approach notes, chromatic or from the scale.

That alone is a lot of work for two weeks.

Keep it simple, in the first two octaves of the bass. Listen to the tunes obsessively through these 2 weeks. Create a playlist with various versions of the tune, and listen to them everyday.

Like this:

Then write a couple of them:

Learning the melody also helps, write it down:

Then, play as much as you can.


Good luck, you're gonna need it!

 

[BarfanyShart]

Just keep it real simple for the purposes of this two week cram. Only roots on beat one, only a root or fifth on beat three, beats 2 and 4 should also probably be chord tones or maybe a diatonic or chromatic "walk" up or down to the next chord root if you are feeling confident. Don't overthink the harmonic theory, just play along to recordings a lot to get the right feel. If you can get a decent swing feel down, and some familiarity with the tunes, then you could literally play root - root - fifth - fifth all night long, and 90% of people will think it sounds great.

 

[overit]

This sounds like a good opportunity to write out the lines and sight read them at the jam. Writing them out will help you learn what you're playing and by the time the jam comes, you can focus on the swing instead of trying to do both at the same time. Who knows, you might even memorize your written lines by then and/or be able to improvise over your written lines.

 

[BarfanyShart]

And listen to recordings, obsessively. That's really the way to pick up the "vocabulary" and the feel in a hurry.

 

[nnnnnn]

 

[J Gold]

Do you have a good knowledge of what notes are inside of any given chord? Play those on Beats 1 and 3, and connect with relatively non-offensive neighboring notes on 2 and 4.

 

[groovepump]

The walking bass bible: Ed Friedland's Book: Building Walking Basslines.
if you can find it immediately, it will show you how to "think" about walking basslines.

 

[GodPlayedBass]

Practice until your fingers hurt bro. Thats truly the only way. There is no easy way

 

[CallMeAl]

That SBL video is pretty much what I’d advise. Don’t be afraid of “just” roots and fifths. You can play half notes too, or 2 quarters on the same chord tone. Keep it simple, most important thing is keep time.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

In the New Year I'll be meeting up with a guy I met on the internet for a bit of a Jazz standards jam.

Learning jazz and walking bass has been on my to do list all through lockdown I just lacked motivation to pick up and play. In recent months I've been playing a lot more but not much focussed practice and now I've gone and committed myself to this new beginners jazz group.

It's been pitched as a beginners level so I'm not expecting to master anything in just a few short weeks but I want to show up being able to play more than root notes to a 2 feel (which was the extent of my last jazzcapade).

I have a Real Book to hand and I'll be spending a ton of time on arpeggio exercises but any other tips, help or advice that the TalkBass community can offer me to get me on my way to build some level competence would be greatly appreciated!

You just walk around the chords. 1 3 5 7

Transition with notes between preferably shared by the next chord.

Start next chord on 1

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Root on the 1, the rest are dealers choice. Read changes in the real book and practice over changes.
Good luck.

 

[Mushroo]

Do you know how to play 12-bar blues changes? If you know how to play 12-bar blues in saxophone-friendly keys like F and Bb, you will be very popular at jam sessions, I promise!

 

[Danny O Danny]

...any other tips, help or advice that the TalkBass community can offer me to get me on my way to build some level competence would be greatly appreciated!

I took a Skype lesson from Tomasz at Walking Bass Lessons, and he was terrific. There's also tons of great video lessons (for free!) on his website, that start from a beginner level. It sounds to me like he's exactly what you're looking for.

Walking Bass Lessons – More Than Jazz Lessons

 

[J33]

I have all 100+ Volumes of the Jamie Aebersold series. P.M. me the set list and I can see how many of them are in the series. If you're not familiar...it's essentially an older series where if you take out the left speaker...there is no bass and if you run stereo it's for soloing over the changes. There's somewhere between 8 to 12 "jam" standard jazz tracks per volume and I have every volume. You're at the mercy of the tempos they're at...but all the changes should be fairly close to the Real Book...pending on which version you have. Each volume comes with the recorded changes too in PDF format...so I can get the individual tracks sheet music from the series and you can A/B them in your Real Book.