Double Bass Joining a bluegrass band. Get me up to speed.

[turf3]

...Add a few walkups here and there ....

Please, please, keep it to a FEW walkups (or downs). Doing that stereotyped walkup/down constantly, just becomes you yelling "CHORD CHANGE NOW!!!" to a bunch of people who already KNOW when the chords change. Plus, a very large number of guitarists, since they practice alone for hours on end, have already baked a zillion walkups/downs into their bass notes and it's guaranteed that what you do will conflict with what they do; and since the guitarist who can change the way he plays something once it's learned is vanishingly rare, you're not going to get them to abandon their attempts at being both bass-player and guitarist.

There are times I play for three hours without doing that stereotyped walk up to the 1 chord, and I think it sounds better for it.

 

[Jason Sypher]

Please, please, keep it to a FEW walkups (or downs). Doing that stereotyped walkup/down constantly, just becomes you yelling "CHORD CHANGE NOW!!!" to a bunch of people who already KNOW when the chords change. Plus, a very large number of guitarists, since they practice alone for hours on end, have already baked a zillion walkups/downs into their bass notes and it's guaranteed that what you do will conflict with what they do; and since the guitarist who can change the way he plays something once it's learned is vanishingly rare, you're not going to get them to abandon their attempts at being both bass-player and guitarist.

There are times I play for three hours without doing that stereotyped walk up to the 1 chord, and I think it sounds better for it.

I agree pretty much. Too much bass activity draws attention to the bass and away from the tune which is not what you're trying to do. IMHO. What you're trying to do is build the best sounding, most grooving, solid foundation for people to play over/through. Sure, if the players are hotshots and the tune gets a little loose and swingy then by all means keep up and make smart contributions but the reason a tune would get to that point in the first place is usually because you've the groove is happening. Play to serve.

 

[Jimbo Williams]

I agree. I saw a local band recently who had a guy filling in for the regular bassist and all he played was root-five all night and it sounded great. I heard tons of compliments on how good the guy was, even though he may have done 2 walkups the entire night. It gave the other players, who were fabulous pickers room to do their thing.