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

[InhumanResource]

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!

Learn how charts work and keep up on those arpeggios. If you can do that and pay attention to what the players you are supporting are doing, you’ll do ok…but this is a game you have to put done time into WITH other players to get right.

Frankly this is the best way to learn.

 

[akukulich]

The basic guidelines are pretty simple.
Beat 1: Root
Beat 2: Passing tone
Beat 3: Chord tone
Beat 4: Chromatic approach to the next root.
That will get you started.

 

[Indiana Mike]

If you woodshed you can make some progress.

will you be a master ?

keep woodshedding.

good luck. I like the enthusiasm and ambition. Good vibes

 

[Topkat13]

Get busy.

 

[devnulljp]

Crib notes, 2 weeks to get you up and running in a jazz jam off realbook charts.
Follow the changes. Easiest is to hit the root on the 1 of the chord then use your arpeggios, try to link them so you're playing notes that bridge nicely to the next arpeggio but don't sweat it.
If you get lost, hit the root on the 1 of the chord. Minor chord, try a b3 for the next note/major chord play the major 3.
That'll get you started without tying yourself in knots. That's basically what I did, gigging in 2 weeks from a standing start playing jazz on on upright.
You learn a lot playing with jazzers, and it's always OK to experiment.

 

[okabass]

Walking bass in 2 weeks? Well.
Keep steady authorative 1/4 note rhythm. *That's most important*. Don't be afraid to repeat a note (also octave higher). Play around first 5 frets. Use deep double bass type sound (fingers, maybe mute, try tone at 0). That also helps if you note choises are not so perfect.

 

[Ketbass]

All good advice above. It does take more than two weeks to learn how to swing. That’s an acquired skill over time by listening to a ton of straight ahead jazz. I would forget the academic for the moment and concentrate on the feel of the music. Hopefully you dig jazz. That helps. Also if it’s a beginner group, my guess is no one will really have the groove down, so either way, you’ll probably be just fine. Your key will be to lock with the drummer. His role is to lock it down with you. I’ve found at a beginner level, everyone is all over the place.

Good luck and nice to hear you’re expanding your horizons. Rufus Reid’s The Evolving Bassist is also a great book to grab if you can. I just picked it up after a 40 year hiatus and it’s all fresh again.

 

[IamGroot]

Good Luck.

If this is a jam, cool.
If this is a paying gig, maybe not. Years back, I hired a sub piano player for a New Years Gig and fired her at the first rehearsal. Just saying.

 

[projectapollo]

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.

Scott's Bass Lessons has a shortened 8-week version of this book with excellent video instruction by Ed. I liked it a lot. Its focused on the 1-6m-2m-5 progression in 4 keys. Gets you moving around the full fretboard in digestible weekly chunks.

 

[Bill Murray]

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!

https://www.amazon.com/Walking-foot...539&sprefix=walking+in+the+foot,aps,92&sr=8-3



Each page is broken into A, B, C etc. each letter is a full chorus so you can literally just play that walking line the whole time and it would sound sweet!

Try to pick tunes from these books and just sight read. Eventually memorize some lines but this would totally get you by in the meantime.

Coming up with good walking lines takes serious work! Months, years, not two weeks…

 

[DirtDog]

You are not gonna learn that in two weeks.

Agreed. He needs a crash course in chord theory. That’s not gonna take two weeks. Ask me how I know!

The other part is leaning how to read those charts in a Real Book. It’s not too bad once you crack the code, but you’ve gotta crack the code first!

 

[mambo4]

How fast you can learn to fake it depends on what you know already.
Can you parse a jazz chart? If you see | Dm7b5 G7b9 | Cm7 |
do the arpeggio shapes instantly spring into your head?
If yes you might be able to get there in 2 weeks
If no, perhaps not.

I'd suggest focus on "representative" jazz standards like I've Got Rhythm, Autumn Leaves and All The Things You Are, and maybe Blues For Alice. Those tunes will contain the sort of changes common in standards: ii-V-I, blues, and substitutions thereof. I'd also suggest going to https://www.jazzstudies.us/ and grabbing a chart of each on in a several keys.

 

[bassdude51]

Good luck! (A skill and way of playing not quickly learned!)

 

[MultiScaleMale]

Just pray they don't say, "Take a solo".

 

[JRA]

hilarious! fun(ny)!

 

[Sam Dingle]

Shoot me a message we can do a quick lesson on lines I teach all my beginner jazz students

 

[groovepump]

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.

THIS WILL WORK!!! Absolutely. SBL lesson is the quickest most direct way to "think" walking bass . . .

 

[Thumpin6string]

I found this guy very helpful.

 

[biobass]

Just remember the old story of the young kid who started taking bass lessons. After her first lesson, her father asked how it went. She replied, “Great! I learned the first five notes on the E string.” The next week after her lesson she told her father that she learned the next five notes on the A string. The following week her father said, “Let me guess. Today you learned the first five notes on the D string.” She said, “Nah. I didn’t go to my lesson, because I got a gig.”

All kidding aside, it is stressful. I know, I’ve been in your shoes, and we all continue to face new challenges all the time. You’ve been given some great suggestions for resources. But, I think there is a take home lesson from the story above. Lots of good workable bass lines are to be found in the notes between half and second position Simandl. Roots and fifths are always solid. You can play the same note twice!!!

Don’t try to be Ray Brown, Ron Carter, Percy Heath or Paul Chambers right off the bat (although they should be high among those you listen to). Eugene Wright made a fine living playing rather straight forward bass lines that worked beautifully with Dave Brubeck.

Best of luck!

 

[Phil Smith]

THIS WILL WORK!!! Absolutely. SBL lesson is the quickest most direct way to "think" walking bass . . .

There is no "Quick Way", and SBL is not the quickest most direct way to "think" walking bass. You don't "think" walking bass, you "hear" and "feel" walking bass.