rhythmic accents for walking bass

I think if you practice doing swinging eighths often you'll be in good shape. Another good figure you should have in your back pocket is the muted swinging triplet eighths that take up the whole of the 4th beat. My teacher called this the "bucket of fish" fill, with fish coming on the 1 of the next bar.

 

Actually the 2 & 4 are the strong accents in the walking bass, so make your rythms resolve on those beats instead of starting them on those beats.
So make it more like this 1 and 2-3 and 4 instead of 1-2 and 3-4.. This is like swinging backward like a bad high school band....

 

If you can't make a line of just quarter notes swing, nothing you add to them is going to get them to swing.

 

Just have to put in the time. I play swinging 8ths both as 1 & 2 3 & 4 and 1 2& 3 4&. Use a metronome and count it out slow at first until it clicks

 

take a look at this great lesson:
Walking Bass – The Concept Lesson – ChrisTarryLessons.com

then go and hear as much steve swallow as you can:

 

This has been one of my favorite videos for years...

 

Here's my transcription:

 

Some things are just natural when it comes to articulation. It's the reason you hear so many bassists doing them. Instead of analyzing, try just playing. That is, start playing and keep going for as long as you can stand it. Somewhere along the way, once you settle in (and perhaps get into a trance-like feeling) some of these natural things will begin to come to you--- naturally.

Hey, I'm not kidding. I never "studied" these things even though I have a degree in theory. I just played a lot, and certain tendencies just started evolving.

At least try it. Let your mind go and become ONE with the groove. Worked for me.

 

And, with a pick!

 

This right here is the answer you seek. (The above post By Russell)

Also, listen to how others do it in the hit songs of your liking. You'll see patterns on when and how they do it. And if you really listen good, you'll know why they place them in those specific parts of the song.

 

This is great! My guitarist is a Scofield junky, so I'll see if the band wants to do this.

 

It may be the first time I hear Stanley Clarke playing standard jazz on double bass... QUITE BAD!!! Poor rhythm, bad intonation and really really bad note choices... (just like that D natural he is playing almost every time in bar 1... ).

There are plenty of excellent jazz bassist to learn from, to name just a few: Ray Brown (the one and only!), Paul Chambers, Ron Carter, Dave Holland, John Patitucci, Christian McBride...

Some great examples:

 

I think it's beyond likes or dislikes, just "not-so-good" jazz bass playing objectively speaking...

 

I hear accents on 2 and 4 pretty much all over the place.

Like I said earlier,tap your foot on 2 and 4 to achieve that feel.

 

A couple of tutorial videos I've watched recently have suggested that you should play accents sparingly and also that you should try and keep the feel as even as possible across all four beats (i.e. you should of course 'feel' the pulse on 2 & 4 but not actually play these notes more strongly). I think the first one of these depends a lot on the context so that if you're playing without a drummer, for example, you might use more accents since there's no drummer hitting those same beats.

<Edited with the videos that I'm referring to>