So where did you hear that there was some pattern to repeat over and over?
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Learning Walking Bass
- Thread starter David B Wilson
- Start date
I'm not sure if you are speaking to this specifically, but transcribing great basslines and studying great bassist will always help you. Your goal is to make it sound like they do. You're not reinventing the wheel in this lifetime nor the next. Eventually, your own style will emerge.
An easy way to get started is what I learned on Scott's Bass Lessons.
Just play the roots of a progression.
Then play Root - 3rd
Then play Root - 5th
Then alternate between the 3rd and 5th
Then try adding chromatic notes to approach the root from above or below while keeping some of the previously mentioned bits for spice.
Then if your ear is good and the progression allows you enough room, you can start playing with other degrees than just the 3rd and 5th, but those are always easiest (for me) to hear and they get you to what sounds like a passable walking bass line fairly quickly. At least quickly enough to encourage you to keep tinkering.
Just play the roots of a progression.
Then play Root - 3rd
Then play Root - 5th
Then alternate between the 3rd and 5th
Then try adding chromatic notes to approach the root from above or below while keeping some of the previously mentioned bits for spice.
Then if your ear is good and the progression allows you enough room, you can start playing with other degrees than just the 3rd and 5th, but those are always easiest (for me) to hear and they get you to what sounds like a passable walking bass line fairly quickly. At least quickly enough to encourage you to keep tinkering.
This basically what his teacher is trying to show him. I guess there's supposed to be some other magic that makes it happen. The punchline of the gag, is that's there's not any one thing. There's a whole bunch of things that happen over time.
When you approach building a walking line from a theoretical standpoint you engage your ears also. Thinking about the theory does require a lot of mental processing, and that is why you slow down, so you can study and think. But over time as you gain proficiency with a tune, you ears start to take over and the mental processing requirement diminishes.
Using your ears is great, but when you get into complex jazz harmony, it can actually be faster and way more accurate to stop and analyze the chord progression so you have some idea where the key centers are. Often the answer is not obvious, and often it is ambiguous. After studying the chords, you realize it's possible to analyze some parts of the progression in multiple ways, as if certain chords were functioning in multiple keys. The are lots of chords in jazz standards that are a very difficult to actually analyze as functional.
With this type of progression my ears often can't make sense of what is going on until I analyze and chose a way of thinking about the progression that makes sense. Then I can practice various lines over that section of the chord progression using the key center I have decided upon, until it makes sense to my ears. Once it's played in well enough, my ears take over and my fingers know where to go.
I do very much agree that ear training is incredibly important. I did big band record lifts and even played in a university band for before I ever studied theory. It was a lot of work to memorize the recording well enough to rehearse with the band. Now I can sight read most big band chord charts with little problem. Some of the more advanced jazz standards do require a bit of study though, for the reasons I mentioned above. I have come across this occasionally with big band charts as well.
Yes and it's difficult to be patient and learn to walk. There are a lot of things that you think about in the beginning that make it very difficult to produce even simple walking lines. But over time much of it becomes automated. You see a chord symbol, hear where you are in the tune, and just know what you want to play. As I mentioned in my last post, sometimes with more complex jazz harmony, you do have to slow down and figure some things out. But with a little study and practice, each tune becomes largely automated.
However, just because you know a song well enough to play it without thinking too much does not mean there is no benefit to be gained from slowing down and thinking about the music from a theoretical standpoint. In fact I suggest that you continue studying and practicing, so you can figure out and automate even better ways of playing a walking bass line over the changes.
I expressed that thought more or less all at once, but I failed to state that these steps can be spread over any amount of time.
So maybe spend a whole week or month on just one of those steps before moving on to or incorporating the next. I think the "magic" is the point at which the purpose of any one step clicks--which will differ for all players in both the moment and interpretation of said epiphany.
It reminds me of a convo I've had with guitar players on speed training as it relates to John Petruccis Rock Discipline.
He says to alternate between a speed that's too slow, too fast and comfortable and it slowly increases the comfortable speed.
He never dictates how long to spend on any step or that it's guaranteed to click in any given amount of time.
No practice routine works if the practitioner can't determine some means of tracking his / her own progress.
When I was learning, my teacher taught me to try and connect chord tones with scale tones so that the line flows smoothly up and down along with the changes...hard to describe with words
When I was in HS jazz band I learned that you can never accept the 2 and the 4 enough and that was what made the line swing. I also learned that the drummer in HS jazz band always played his hi-hat on 2 and 4 which made locking in easy since I could see the high hat. Not sure if every drummer does that my my HS jazz band drummer definitely did.
When I was in HS jazz band I learned that you can never accept the 2 and the 4 enough and that was what made the line swing. I also learned that the drummer in HS jazz band always played his hi-hat on 2 and 4 which made locking in easy since I could see the high hat. Not sure if every drummer does that my my HS jazz band drummer definitely did.
Ed’s book “Building Walking Bass Lines” is a great place to start.
- Dec 13, 1999
- 11,736
- 8,941
- 70
- Disclosures
- Chuck Sher publishes my book, WALKING BASSICS:The Fundamentals of Jazz Bass Playing.
That may work for high school jazz band, but I wouldn't recommend it for playing with a small ensemble of accomplished players.
Ed, care to go into more detail....
IMO you do not see the 2 and 4 in chord tones, perhaps in sus and add chords, but, not much after that. So ---- if following the chords and using chord tones I would leave the 2 and 4 alone.
I welcome your comments....
A tip for achieving good rhythm/phrasing in walking bass:
There is a natural tendency to "think the bar lines" in our playing. In other words to mentally subdivide our phrasing like this:
1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |
But I think the walking line "swings" harder if you mentally subdivide as follows:
1 | 2 3 4 1 | 2 3 4 1 | 2 3 4 1 | 2 3 4
In other words, instead of starting your count from beat 1, you are counting down to 1.
There is a natural tendency to "think the bar lines" in our playing. In other words to mentally subdivide our phrasing like this:
1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 | 1 2 3 4 |
But I think the walking line "swings" harder if you mentally subdivide as follows:
1 | 2 3 4 1 | 2 3 4 1 | 2 3 4 1 | 2 3 4
In other words, instead of starting your count from beat 1, you are counting down to 1.
Last edited:
- Dec 13, 1999
- 11,736
- 8,941
- 70
- Disclosures
- Chuck Sher publishes my book, WALKING BASSICS:The Fundamentals of Jazz Bass Playing.
Doh! Should read “you can never accent the 2 and the 4 enough”
I’m gonna blame autocorrect since it can’t possibly be user error.....
Various resources -- please excuse any "repeats".
Walking Bass Lines Lessons — Discover Double Bass
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Walking Bass Lines Lessons — Discover Double Bass
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