Double Bass Jazz: What have you played/learned today?

[Groove Doctor]

Beginner to Advanced - what Jazz have you played today?


I was noodling around earlier with Fly Me To The Moon - Julie London version. Pop-Latin-Jazz with a funky/groove edge. Might try this with some tired old Jazz standards and see what happens.

 

[mizmor]

Today I played an F blues (beginner here!) I can read the music pretty fluently so I feel like I made progress!

 

[Tom Lane]

1. Major scales - entire fingerboard, arco, focusing on tone and intonation
2. Billie's Bounce - head, walk a few choruses, arco solo a few choruses. Still working on nailing that high portion of the head every time at tempo. Exploring more arpeggios and tenths in my walking lines based on hearing David Friesen play recently.
3. 20 tunes for rehearsal tomorrow
4. Melodies of My Funny Valentine, My Romance along with Ella's recording, How Insensitive, Someday My Prince, Fly Me, All of Me, Recordame, all arco, nut and most TP too
5. Practice singing the melody to All of Me while playing the bassline and vice versa. Playing the melody while accompanying myself with the bass. Chris' memorize a tune procedure.
8. More arco work
9. Sing a phrase and cop it arco game

2+ hours, I suppose. Later comes transcribing 8 bars.

 

[brassmonkey]

Beginner

Funny I spent time on Fly me to the moon as well. Melody all in thumb position...suggested by a youtube lesson.

Other than that major scales, minor scales, and arpeggios in circle of fifths. Then goofed around trying to make Tom Sawyer a jazz standard.

 

[Tom Lane]

That's cool that as a beginner you're already working through Fly Me in TP. A suggestion, if you'll indulge me: Many folks new to TP have trouble getting into and out of it, so try the first half of the tune at the nut and then work the 2nd half into TP. Something I'm still working on myself, but I'm finding that it gives me more confidence to use TP when I'm soloing or walking. I found it kind of artificial to stay in TP or at the nut for any length of time and later players, from Ray Brown on, at least, seem to go back and forth with ease, as if that octave barrier doesn't exist, which I think is correct from their perspective - there is no barrier.

 

[Huy Nguyen]

In the process of learning melodies I wrote a while back. Working on one particular phrase In 12 keys, forwards and backwards, and alternating playing them forward and backward. New insight of the day: play the same phrase in as many positions as possible before moving on to the next key in the cycle of 4ths. Once that's down, play it anywhere in any key is a lot smoother.

Next is to manipulate the melody or to a standard (working on Pannonica now) as a manner of soloing while mostly ignoring the chords. Moving away from the melody and back. Tension and release. And then doing the same thing by singing the lines and playing them at the same time.

 

[punkjazzben]

I've been looking at Satin Doll today. Melody, walking, and improv, using iReal Book for backing.

I've been focusing especially on using the tonal centres of the changes in my soloing in order to create longer melodic lines with a bit more space and room for development. Working out the tonal centres of any given tune also helps with internalising and remembering the changes, I find.

EDIT: Just played Baby It's Cold Outside as a call-and-response with my wife on trombone. For pure enjoyment and no other reason. Music is a gift

 

[brassmonkey]

I'm with you tcl. Trying to build that callous.

 

[Tom Lane]

I'm with you tcl. Trying to build that callous.

I found the callous came quickly. 2 months, maybe. Playing in just TP, quickly, 1 month maybe. Playing along the entire fingerboard, in and out of TP, less quickly, most of a year. Scale practice really helped. Melody practice utilizing both nut and TP really helped. I'm much more comfortable soloing along the entire fingerboard now than even a year ago. It's becoming a non-issue so that now when I hear higher pitched notes, there's no apprehension about playing them.

 

[brassmonkey]

Good to know. As a trumpet player I'm like ***! When I see 3 ledger lines and then I remember I'm playing
bass.

 

[sean_on_bass]

Beginner to Advanced - what Jazz have you played today?


I was noodling around earlier with Fly Me To The Moon - Julie London version. Pop-Latin-Jazz with a funky/groove edge. Might try this with some tired old Jazz standards and see what happens.

Did something similar with my trio over the weekend. We were getting REAL sick of that tune but tried playing in a latin style and now it's fresh again! Changing time sigs can be fun too, like 4 to 3 and vice versa.

I'm now working on learning a set of jazz standards inside and out, melody and all for my trio...Alfie, Alice in Wonderland, & Pure Imagination to name a few.

 

[Tom Lane]

I suspect that Fly Me will work will in 7/4

 

[pbass888]

1.Ear training program... Chords
2. Singing this years kisses solo lester and billie
3. Minor keys melodic and harmonic all 12 keys at 120
4. 4 part chords in d major with modes at 60
5. 4 melodies I'm working on.... A la ed fuqua... Autumn leaves, easy to love, sept in the rain and our love is here to stay..singi and chords
6. Reading... Omnibook "perhaps" pg 72
7.rythmic studies book belson
8.blues solo in g
9.harmonic analysis and chord scales for all of me
10 . Playing along with PC and red garland on 'a garland of red"

A good day spent in "the process"

 

[punkjazzben]

I dusted off my copy of Rufus Reid's The Evolving Bassist today.

The first section of open string exercises is still a real workout after a while (albeit a slow-burning one). I used to just use the bow, but going the first part (before the triplet section starts) using pizz makes me realise how much work I need to do on developing a fluid right hand technique.

I also went through his natural and harmonic minor exercises - good for your left hand and intonation - plus I did some sight reading from the Rhythm Changes walking bass section, which eventually starts to challenge how well you have the changes internalised as his lines get more complex.

I'm gradually working up to my old routine, which was in four parts:

- warm-up/open strings: exercises from Rabbath or Rufus Reid, focusing on getting a nice, full sound
- scales and arpeggios: pick a key a day and use Rabbath Vol. III for fingering patterns (two/three octaves and three fingerings + three or more rhythmic patterns), OR do main scale/chord types in 12 keys over two octaves going around the cycle of fifths/fourths without stopping
- walking: scalar, chordal, chromatic approaches; a tune a day (this section used to be an etude when I was focusing on classical)
- melody and improvisation: a tune a day, or a familiar tune in a new key (...and this section used to be orchestral repertoire or solo material)

 

[Huy Nguyen]

My lesson from this mornings short 10 minute session: Playing an unintended note can result in a mistake or exploration - a door into new ideas and colors. It all depends on your perspective.

 

[Floyd The Muppet]

I'm in a little jazz trio headed by a big Wes Montgomery fan. Today's rehearsal tunes are Back to Back (or Bock to Bock- depending on what you read), Autumn Leaves,Come Rain or Come Shine, Bumpin, Don't get Around Much Anymore, Easy Living, Gentle Rain, Midnight Creeper, Satin Doll and Yesterdays.
I'm so lucky to have found a decent guitarist in our little community 2 and 1/2 hours South of Sydney.
He has helped me to totally change my playing style and include all those cool bluesey sounds from Hard Bop.
It's great the way we all share this music culture. TB amazes me, as do all the players who just love the bass.

 

[Treyzer]

Every day I work on the details.......Time, intonation, phrasing, ear training, arco. I've learned over many, many years that Rome wasn't built in a day....

 

[Tom Lane]

Every day I work on the details.......Time, intonation, phrasing, ear training, arco. I've learned over many, many years the Rome wasn't built in a day....

Glad to hear that I'm not the only one. David Friesen told me, and many others I'm sure, that he spent the better part of 18 months playing 3-octave scales along with recordings. I'm more than halfway through a similar effort and find my intonation better each day. My goal is to get those scales to become 2nd nature - just rip through them in 3 octaves without thought. Some are already there, and others are partially there, but my soloing has improved dramatically simply because I can find the pitches I hear in my mind's ear without fumbling or sliding into the pitch. I think Rufus will be happy that I've been able to apply his left-hand technique successfully. Crisp shifts without searching.

Today, I did:
Major scales - 3 octaves until near effortless
Melodies - still working on Billie's Bounce at tempo but added key of Bb to start playing it in all 12 keys. Still working on feeling the start of the 2nd chorus crisply, a beat and a half. Singing the melody and identifying the pitches are no problem.
Blues lines in F and Bb - hearing new things all the time, tenths, sevenths, etc, much more sophisticated than my previously primarily scaler and chromatic lines. Thanks again to David Friesen for opening my ears to this. I think I was ready to hear it. Varied the tempo and noted how my fills change.
Arco melodies - working the entire fingerboard, crossing octaves, concentrating on intonation, tone, and expressiveness. Ballads and medium temp swing.
Professionalism/stage fright: first note is ON and in the zone. Hearing my mind's ear and beat immediately, or even before I strike the first note. Related to this is tuning to a piano, not an electronic tuner. Ears open wide.
Singing the melody and playing the bassline and vice versa to a couple of tunes. Accompanying myself. Today it was Jobim's Insensatez and All of Me because they're sticking in my mind's ear. I.e., I can hear the melody, the harmony, the accompaniment, and the solo away from the instrument. Still tough to play a complex bassline while singing the melody at times, but coming along. Playing Insensatez in TP while outlining the bassline was a lot of fun, shifting back and forth and across strings, and very gratifying as I landed the intonation much better than I expected.
Sing a phrase and playing it arco game with as many nuances as I can muster.
Transcribing another 8 bars and trying to play it as Ray did.
2+ hours. The highlight of my day.

 

[Basscat125]

1 hour of scale work 2 octaves in fourths( working through different interval each day) using a four system practice method!
1 hour ed fuquas arpeggio excercise!
1 hour on bach cello suite 2 prelude
1 hour on a new tune satin doll changes melodie chord tones and approaching the chord tones from surrounding notes.

1 hour bass transcription
1 hour solo transcription
1 hour cherokee through different keys.
1 hour ornithology into different keys!

 

[Basscat125]

been doing that for about 5 weeks now with some gradual changes to it!