The first 6 or so minutes are a great intro to walking bass. Later it becomes more guitar specific.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Marbin crash course in walking bass
- Thread starter VicDiesel
- Start date
-
- Tags
- walking bass
The first thing that I'm going to say is, there are a vast many ways to play Walking Bass. You can go through method book, after TalkBass thread, after instructional VHS, after guitar player tutorial... And there's still more, more, more...
You're playing a song, it has a chord progression, those chords have tones, play those tones in a way that lead into one another. It takes practice, there's no "secret hack to make your walking bass slap!"
I find that people make things more complicated than they need be. Or, to get clicks, they make it complicated: Click Subscribed and get Notified.
The Bass is the bridge of the rhythm section: the Harmony and the Beat. Play chord tones that rhythmically emphasizes time. The best compliment a jazz bass player can get is a horn player being able to hear the chord progression just in the bass. No piano. No guitar. No vibes. Always play jazz bass like there's no drums and no piano.
You're playing a song, it has a chord progression, those chords have tones, play those tones in a way that lead into one another. It takes practice, there's no "secret hack to make your walking bass slap!"
I find that people make things more complicated than they need be. Or, to get clicks, they make it complicated: Click Subscribed and get Notified.
The Bass is the bridge of the rhythm section: the Harmony and the Beat. Play chord tones that rhythmically emphasizes time. The best compliment a jazz bass player can get is a horn player being able to hear the chord progression just in the bass. No piano. No guitar. No vibes. Always play jazz bass like there's no drums and no piano.
This is the best crash course on walking bass lines imho
especially as each of the lyrical "instructions" are reflected in the bass line itself.
especially as each of the lyrical "instructions" are reflected in the bass line itself.
Regardless of the content of the video (could be good, could be bad...I don't know), I'm not clicking on it. I just don't want to feed that guy.
I will post a couple of his shorts, though, for those who are unfamiliar.
I will post a couple of his shorts, though, for those who are unfamiliar.
Everything you need to know about walking is on hundreds of recordings of the masters. Even if a video shows you the notes you still have to go to the recordings anyway or you won’t get it. Watching a youtube video of some guy talking about Ray Brown’s walking is like getting a used subway sandwich from a wino when you’re standing right in front of the best deli in town.
For video lessons worth your time do John Goldsby’s course Lay it Down: Creating jazz bass lines. He’s a living master who’ll get you walking faster and better than a thousand youtube videos. In addition to a few method books he’s also written the definitive book on the history of jazz bass, The Jazz Bass Book. Why waste your time when you have access to the real deal?
For video lessons worth your time do John Goldsby’s course Lay it Down: Creating jazz bass lines. He’s a living master who’ll get you walking faster and better than a thousand youtube videos. In addition to a few method books he’s also written the definitive book on the history of jazz bass, The Jazz Bass Book. Why waste your time when you have access to the real deal?
The guitar player is Dani Rabin, a Berklee graduate with an incredible (IMO) knowledge of music. I've learned a lot from watching his videos on YouTube.
I think his abrasiveness is just part of his schtick to stand out amongst the YouTube hordes. I'd love to meet him in person as his band Marbin seems to have a busy schedule. I suspect he isn't inclined to call a paying member of his audience a "dumb@#$ novice", but I could be wrong.
I think his abrasiveness is just part of his schtick to stand out amongst the YouTube hordes. I'd love to meet him in person as his band Marbin seems to have a busy schedule. I suspect he isn't inclined to call a paying member of his audience a "dumb@#$ novice", but I could be wrong.
Yeah, I'm disecting some of his videos very carefully. Tons of information.
Meanwhile,
Strangely enough, that's not terrible for a 60 second overview. Throws enough in there to get you started, sort of an "executive summary" of some concepts we use. Well done!
But if you can play scales you already know how to play walking lines, blues jazz etc.
Nobody tries playing along to songs anymore?
Nobody tries playing along to songs anymore?
Walking is a lot more complicated than just playing scales. Wouldn't it be nice if it was that easy, but of course you have to start somewhere? Scales, broken scales, walk-ups, tasty insertion of chromatics to create motion and tension, knowing where to use reverses, ghost notes, pauses, drops, lifts, octave shifts, diminished scales and chords, etc.
That is respectively wrong and contentless. @BassicJazzy was right that there is more to it. Marbin's explanation about "thinking backward" is a really good one. After "know how to play chords & scales" that is the big 2nd step towards walking bass lines.
Yes it is. I describes very succinctly how I think about walking:
I care as much "what notes go with this chord" as "what notes go to the next chord?"
Often I care more about the latter
The restriction of practicing using only chord tones is of immense benefit in finding the next note. From that foundation it becomes easier to make passing note choices that fit the feel or genre you’re working with.
You can approach a half step above or below the root of the next chord, or by an interval of a second, a fourth, or a fifth. Anything else and you risk changing the target chord and screwing up the progression, and getting harsh glares from your bandmates.
