As always, thank you for the amazing content. Your instructional video game is on point. Will be spending a good chunk of time on this one...
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Double Bass New jazz bass video tutorial series
Terrific video Chris, thanks for taking the effort to put it together. It brought back some terrific memories!
So cool to have 9 perspectives compressed into less than 90 minutes.
Your presentation of the relaxed hand technique was great and makes a ton of sense -- I love hearing a well thought out alternative perspective, and it really gives me something new to think about.
So cool to have 9 perspectives compressed into less than 90 minutes.
Your presentation of the relaxed hand technique was great and makes a ton of sense -- I love hearing a well thought out alternative perspective, and it really gives me something new to think about.
@Seanto - Thanks! There is a lot of wisdom to be gained from those guys. Some of them I've been watching for decades!
@kkenda11 - The relaxed hand thing is something that I hear a fair amount of trash talked about in the abstract, but when great players use it live, all i hear people talking about is how great they sounded. The key for me was learning to think of it as "vibrato position", as in "If I wanted to use vibrato on this note, how would I position my hand to make that happen?". That really made it make sense somehow.
@kkenda11 - The relaxed hand thing is something that I hear a fair amount of trash talked about in the abstract, but when great players use it live, all i hear people talking about is how great they sounded. The key for me was learning to think of it as "vibrato position", as in "If I wanted to use vibrato on this note, how would I position my hand to make that happen?". That really made it make sense somehow.
Wonderful video Chris. Spent the morning listening. Great for those just starting as well as "old hands" pardon the pun. The whole idea of being relaxed is so key. Easy to talk about harder to do. Took me awhile. So much fun to see how all bassists approached this tune as well as the nuanced differences in tone, feel and phrasing.
Met a guy while doing a gig a few months ago. He turned out to be the head ER surgeon At USC Med. He was also an amateur bassist. Funny, he called out the titles of a few tunes as we were playing them. After the gig we got to know each other a bit and in the course of our conversation he said, "you have very soft hands". I had no idea what that meant so I asked him. He explained that in surgical terms, it meant (highly efficient/no wasted motion). Thought that was cool. Just offering this up as another way to think of being relaxed and producing a good sound.
Again, Mahalo (Thanks) for the great video.
Met a guy while doing a gig a few months ago. He turned out to be the head ER surgeon At USC Med. He was also an amateur bassist. Funny, he called out the titles of a few tunes as we were playing them. After the gig we got to know each other a bit and in the course of our conversation he said, "you have very soft hands". I had no idea what that meant so I asked him. He explained that in surgical terms, it meant (highly efficient/no wasted motion). Thought that was cool. Just offering this up as another way to think of being relaxed and producing a good sound.
Again, Mahalo (Thanks) for the great video.
Thanks, Trey. I can't tell you how many hours I've spent sitting on the side of the stage watching the "big three" (Rufus, Lynn, and John) play over the years. I always marveled at how easy they make it look. "Soft Hands" is a nice way to sum that up... duly stolen! 
Thanks, Tom. I hope people will take the time to explore it. People keep telling me I could get a lot more views by making 10 short videos instead of one long one, but I really like the "novel" format. Looking ahead, if I get a chance to work with most/all of this faculty again, I'm thinking it would be great to hear everyone's thoughts on how they practice intonation. That's just my first thought, though.
Here's the new video entitled "Walking Bass line Topics with Hamilton Pinheiro". It's an overview of bass line topics from beginning to more advanced in an interview format where every bass line played in the video (over 500 measures, all told) is transcribed and edited into the video so it displays as the line is sounding. The bass lines are also compiled into a PDF file that can be downloaded for free Link Removed.
Here's the index of events:
0:00 Title Screen
1:02 Video Overview
3:54 Duo Performance: On The Sunny Side Of The Street
8:08 Introduction
9:43 General characteristics of the jazz language
12:00 Rhythmic aspects of swing in jazz
13:27 Triplet feel in the jazz language
15:34 Role of the bass in jazz
16:30 “2 Feel” bass lines
18:11 Walking 4 notes to the bar
20:24 Clarity in line construction: Simple vs. Complex lines
23:28 Basic line construction for clarity
25:46 Diatonic vs. Chromatic approach notes
28:12 Why do chromatic approach tones work?
29:54 How to build a walking line from a 2 feel line
32:13 Chord connection formulas
35:14 How to practice: Practicing vs. Playing
38:10 Variation in the bass line
40:34 Playing example of varied line construction
42:10 The bass line as counterpoint (discussion and playing example)
45:10 Rhythmic ornamentation and variation in the line
47:22 Practice strategies for line building and time feel
51:04 Bass players and recordings to check out
53:38 On the importance of listening to live music
57:24 Conclusions/wrapping up
59:33 Duo Performance: Stella By Starlight
Here's the index of events:
0:00 Title Screen
1:02 Video Overview
3:54 Duo Performance: On The Sunny Side Of The Street
8:08 Introduction
9:43 General characteristics of the jazz language
12:00 Rhythmic aspects of swing in jazz
13:27 Triplet feel in the jazz language
15:34 Role of the bass in jazz
16:30 “2 Feel” bass lines
18:11 Walking 4 notes to the bar
20:24 Clarity in line construction: Simple vs. Complex lines
23:28 Basic line construction for clarity
25:46 Diatonic vs. Chromatic approach notes
28:12 Why do chromatic approach tones work?
29:54 How to build a walking line from a 2 feel line
32:13 Chord connection formulas
35:14 How to practice: Practicing vs. Playing
38:10 Variation in the bass line
40:34 Playing example of varied line construction
42:10 The bass line as counterpoint (discussion and playing example)
45:10 Rhythmic ornamentation and variation in the line
47:22 Practice strategies for line building and time feel
51:04 Bass players and recordings to check out
53:38 On the importance of listening to live music
57:24 Conclusions/wrapping up
59:33 Duo Performance: Stella By Starlight
This is exactly what I'm needing in my music right now! I've decided to take my walking more seriously and have been trying to figure out where to start. Thanks for doing this!
Delightful and informative. Showing the transcribed lines at the bottom of the video makes it much more valuable. Heading right into my music room to practice! Thank you Chris.
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Chris-
Regarding the 2 feel lines you said it’s best to not embellish until you know what to embellish and how. Can you recommend an exercise book that starts with basic half notes and slowly adds in other rhythms? I find making ballads sound good with forward movement to be difficult. I think exercises like this will help me. Thanks. Also I would love a master class on this subject at the SJW in July
Regarding the 2 feel lines you said it’s best to not embellish until you know what to embellish and how. Can you recommend an exercise book that starts with basic half notes and slowly adds in other rhythms? I find making ballads sound good with forward movement to be difficult. I think exercises like this will help me. Thanks. Also I would love a master class on this subject at the SJW in July
I don't know of a book like that, but it's a subject worthy of a book for sure. If I were writing such a book or presenting such a class, a lot of time would need to be spent promoting awareness of the musical space that any embellishment would be trying to fill. When working with students in my studio, we practice building 2 feel embellishments in relation to the melody; they most naturally fit where the melody has space because they are basically rhythmic counterpoint.
When in doubt about when to embellish, look for the spaces between phrases or long held tones in the melody. When you listen to records, notice how these spaces tend to be filled collectively by the piano player, drummer, and any other comping instrument. A great example of this kind of "in the cracks" contrapuntal playing is Christian McBride on the iconic duo recording of Isfahan from Joe's "Lush Life" album:
So on the one hand you have half notes that cover the changes, and on the other, this kind of rhythmic and melodic counterpoint with the open space in the melody. The next step I usually work on with students is using their walking bass vocabulary but changing the rhythm of it to fit in those spaces. I'll think about this some more. I definitely want to do a whole video on 2 feel at some point for the series.
Holy crap I never heard that, Post more of that! That must be a young Christian Mcbride!
Thank you Chris Fitzgerald for that very thoughtful answer. I need to do some very focused listening. Your example was excellent.
Hello Chris, this is a great video. I find that most of the walking bass 'rules' are very simple to understand, yet very hard to keep them in mind when playing. Active reminders are crucial (at least for me) and your video offers a huge lot of them, with the precious possibility to watch it over and over again.
I would like to ask about the sound of your bass, if you don't mind. I love it, it's very natural and 'civil' to my ears. I have a feeling like being in the room with you two. Is it just the mic? What mic is it? I always thought that putting a mic to the F-hole is a sound engineer's professional suicide
I would like to ask about the sound of your bass, if you don't mind. I love it, it's very natural and 'civil' to my ears. I have a feeling like being in the room with you two. Is it just the mic? What mic is it? I always thought that putting a mic to the F-hole is a sound engineer's professional suicide
Thanks! Regarding rules, as I say in the video, I don't think they are something that should be kept in mind while playing, but rather while practicing. Ideally, while playing the goal is to be conversing. This is one of the hardest lessons for many of my students to learn, and I forget it myself more often than I care to admit.
About the sound, honestly I think most of the sound on the video is just room sound. Hamilton took care of all of the setup for these 3-4 videos we did in my office, and we knocked each one out in 90 minute sessions in the middle of whatever day of the week it was last spring that we constantly had 90 minutes free (actually, I think it was his normal lesson time plus the 1/2 hour after - once his recital was done, we had some "lame duck" time, and he asked if I would participate in some videos for his series). At first, we weren't even going to use a mic on the bass, but he worried about being able to tweak the balance when we played duets in post production, so I dug out an H-clamp and an old Shure Beta 57 from a box on the shelf and stuck it on the bass just in case he needed that feed for editing later. He did the video post production, and I ended up doing the transcription and editing of titles and musical excerpts.
My guess is he used the mic only on the duo performances since there seems to be some sort of panning going on there. I just went back and listened, and this seems to be the case. Whenever I am playing by myself, it's just room sound and that's the sound of my plywood office bass picked up by the same mic that recorded our voices. During the duets, there's room sound with panned directs for balance. That would probably be a terrible spot to mic the bass for amplification, but for a gentle recording nudge it seems to have done OK.
About the sound, honestly I think most of the sound on the video is just room sound. Hamilton took care of all of the setup for these 3-4 videos we did in my office, and we knocked each one out in 90 minute sessions in the middle of whatever day of the week it was last spring that we constantly had 90 minutes free (actually, I think it was his normal lesson time plus the 1/2 hour after - once his recital was done, we had some "lame duck" time, and he asked if I would participate in some videos for his series). At first, we weren't even going to use a mic on the bass, but he worried about being able to tweak the balance when we played duets in post production, so I dug out an H-clamp and an old Shure Beta 57 from a box on the shelf and stuck it on the bass just in case he needed that feed for editing later. He did the video post production, and I ended up doing the transcription and editing of titles and musical excerpts.
My guess is he used the mic only on the duo performances since there seems to be some sort of panning going on there. I just went back and listened, and this seems to be the case. Whenever I am playing by myself, it's just room sound and that's the sound of my plywood office bass picked up by the same mic that recorded our voices. During the duets, there's room sound with panned directs for balance. That would probably be a terrible spot to mic the bass for amplification, but for a gentle recording nudge it seems to have done OK.
Poor me. I was hoping you finally found some miraculous way to drag the true sound of the double bass out of the F-hole. It didn't even occur to me that the bass can be miced with something so far away that it won't be visible in the camera ;-)
Thanks for the H-clamp tip! I'll check it out... I'll dig my SM57 from somewhere and start testing. I remember it didn't sound so bad... until the bass moved off its cone... well.
New video version of my ISB presentation is done. Apologies for my scratchy voice on this one - I ended up getting a strep infection at the end of the convention and decided to hole up and turn the keynote into a video in the 10 days since getting back since being more active was not really an option.
Bachrilege: Pizzicato Articulation from Bach to Bebop
Timeline by Topic
00:25 Introduction
06:14 About the pizzicato cello suite edition project; what it is, what it includes
10:37 Bach-Bebop mashup introduction
11:29 Bach-Bebop mashup by Johann Sphere DeByrd
14:09 Similarities between the two styles of interest to bassists
18:04 Why would/should a jazz bassist practice cello suite movements?
20:30 Legato: The most difficult articulation of all for pizzicato players
21:42 Legato techniques in the pizzicato style (overview)
22:31 Hammer On technique
26:03 Hammer On examples in Bach
28:56 Hammer On examples in Bebop
30:41 Creating focused Hammer On examples to practice
32:22 Pull Off technique
33:38 Pull Off technique examples in Bach
34:27 Pull Off examples in Bebop
35:56 Creating focused Pull off examples to practice
37:09 Rake technique
38:39 Rake examples in Bach
40:41 Rake examples in Bebop
42:16 Combinations of techniques in Bach
44:07 Slide (vomit) technique
47:02 Slide examples in Bebop
49:21 Articulated Legato overview
50:23 Articulated legato – left hand aspects
52:25 Articulated legato – right hand aspects
57:02 Articulated legato on the piano: Doris Keyes and “Sleight of Ear”
1:00:25 Treating Bebop melodies with the same attention to detail as cello suite movements (in 3 steps)
1:05:43 Ornithology melody conceived like a cello suite movement (performance)
1:06:32 Technical comparison of musical language between Bach and Bebop
1:13:39 Improvisation using all techniques discussed in video
Will post a link to this post in the ISB thread as well. Don't report me!
Bachrilege: Pizzicato Articulation from Bach to Bebop
Timeline by Topic
00:25 Introduction
06:14 About the pizzicato cello suite edition project; what it is, what it includes
10:37 Bach-Bebop mashup introduction
11:29 Bach-Bebop mashup by Johann Sphere DeByrd
14:09 Similarities between the two styles of interest to bassists
18:04 Why would/should a jazz bassist practice cello suite movements?
20:30 Legato: The most difficult articulation of all for pizzicato players
21:42 Legato techniques in the pizzicato style (overview)
22:31 Hammer On technique
26:03 Hammer On examples in Bach
28:56 Hammer On examples in Bebop
30:41 Creating focused Hammer On examples to practice
32:22 Pull Off technique
33:38 Pull Off technique examples in Bach
34:27 Pull Off examples in Bebop
35:56 Creating focused Pull off examples to practice
37:09 Rake technique
38:39 Rake examples in Bach
40:41 Rake examples in Bebop
42:16 Combinations of techniques in Bach
44:07 Slide (vomit) technique
47:02 Slide examples in Bebop
49:21 Articulated Legato overview
50:23 Articulated legato – left hand aspects
52:25 Articulated legato – right hand aspects
57:02 Articulated legato on the piano: Doris Keyes and “Sleight of Ear”
1:00:25 Treating Bebop melodies with the same attention to detail as cello suite movements (in 3 steps)
1:05:43 Ornithology melody conceived like a cello suite movement (performance)
1:06:32 Technical comparison of musical language between Bach and Bebop
1:13:39 Improvisation using all techniques discussed in video
Will post a link to this post in the ISB thread as well. Don't report me!
The PDF with all examples played in the presentation plus full editions of the Prelude and Gigue is done and can be downloaded Link Removed.
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