I found playing scales starting on different chord tones helps. Playing C major from E to E etc. Same with arpeggios. Thing is everyone here is right and all the stuff has gotta get practiced. I think the trick is to really enjoy the practice.
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Double Bass Soloing to changes - what can I do to improve?
- Thread starter nathanmcnathan
- Start date
Hi- this is one of my favorite topics with bassists!
For starters, pick out a few easy standards that you have recordings of and try just blowing over the tonal center without thinking of the changes.
For instance, take "Someday My Prince Will Come" in Bb, and just fool around with creating melodies with a Bb Maj7 scale. Then, completely by ear, find the leading tones that outline the chord changes. After you do that for a few hours, figure out the chord changes.
Most of the changes to that tune are based out of Bb, but emphasize different chord tones (i.e. Eb isn't a good note to land on over a Bb Maj7, but of course works great on a C-7). Anyway, when you get moving with this, you'll get what I'm talking about.
If you're a mac user, I've created a few GarageBand files that you can download to practice over. Here's the link to find them:
Invalid Link Removed
There a few MIDI files based on the changes to Waltz for Debby, and My Man's Gone Now. With the Waltz for Debby changes, which are 3-6-2-5 in F for the most part, try blowing over Fmaj7 for awhile to see what you can come up with.
I'll work on getting some standard MIDI file versions as well for all of you PC users out there.
I hope that gets you started. Good luck!
-Phil
For starters, pick out a few easy standards that you have recordings of and try just blowing over the tonal center without thinking of the changes.
For instance, take "Someday My Prince Will Come" in Bb, and just fool around with creating melodies with a Bb Maj7 scale. Then, completely by ear, find the leading tones that outline the chord changes. After you do that for a few hours, figure out the chord changes.
Most of the changes to that tune are based out of Bb, but emphasize different chord tones (i.e. Eb isn't a good note to land on over a Bb Maj7, but of course works great on a C-7). Anyway, when you get moving with this, you'll get what I'm talking about.
If you're a mac user, I've created a few GarageBand files that you can download to practice over. Here's the link to find them:
Invalid Link Removed
There a few MIDI files based on the changes to Waltz for Debby, and My Man's Gone Now. With the Waltz for Debby changes, which are 3-6-2-5 in F for the most part, try blowing over Fmaj7 for awhile to see what you can come up with.
I'll work on getting some standard MIDI file versions as well for all of you PC users out there.
I hope that gets you started. Good luck!
-Phil
My teacher gave me this exercise:
1) Pick a tune.
2) Pick a 3 - quarter note pattern which fits inside 2 beats.
3) Play the scale segment R-2-3 over each of the chords, all through the tune.
4) Repeat steps 2) and 3) for the scale segments 3-2-R, 3-4-5, 5-4-3, 5-6-7, 7-6-5, 7-R-9, 9-R-7.
If you're stuck on roots, mainly practice the ones that don't use the roots.
Practice soloing using different variations of the rhythm, limiting yourself to a select few of the scale segments.
I've found this soooo helpful in my soloing. It really helped me to think beyond roots and to play less, and it's a lot simpler to do than just 'not play roots'. Hope it helps
1) Pick a tune.
2) Pick a 3 - quarter note pattern which fits inside 2 beats.
3) Play the scale segment R-2-3 over each of the chords, all through the tune.
4) Repeat steps 2) and 3) for the scale segments 3-2-R, 3-4-5, 5-4-3, 5-6-7, 7-6-5, 7-R-9, 9-R-7.
If you're stuck on roots, mainly practice the ones that don't use the roots.
Practice soloing using different variations of the rhythm, limiting yourself to a select few of the scale segments.
I've found this soooo helpful in my soloing. It really helped me to think beyond roots and to play less, and it's a lot simpler to do than just 'not play roots'. Hope it helps
EXACTLY what I was gonna say, god-damn it!
AND what phil said. ( may be Uncle Toad to you )
Whad I say? Get out of the books for a minute and exercise those big ears. No amount of books can compete with your ears.
As Phil and Marcus intimate, listen to horn players, and singers ( Great ones )
The great jazz bass soloists are few and far between, and these select few, to a man have horn players as their big mentors.
Lastly, and not to get corny, try to dig into another place in
your being that may be a bit sad, happy, energetic, pissed off, in love or just plain horny. It wil, as Marcus said, take some time, but it's all in there. Your hope should be to be capable of communicating this to other souls.
God, i'm good.
....Best of luck, though there's not alot of luck involved.Keep it up, so to speak.
One aspect to not neglect is rhythm. You should be creative rhythmically. Which includes trying to do phrases that move across the changes. Humming melodies is great, but the rhythm underneath it is perhaps more important. Which is not to say constructing a melody that sounds like you're tone deaf with 3/4 cross rhythm is going to make you sound great
But if you approach creating solos with rhythm in mind it helps. Plus you want the feeling of transcending the changes, or at least, being in control of them rather than the other way around. Here's an example of what I'm talking about over the last A section of Rhythm changes.
The 2 circled phrases are 7/4 rhythms (in my book anyway...). Even though there is 1 beat of silence after each, the silence is included in the appraisal of the rhythm. It works because the phrase starts on beat 3 of the first measure of 4. Making 7/8x2=14 of 16 beats.
But if you approach creating solos with rhythm in mind it helps. Plus you want the feeling of transcending the changes, or at least, being in control of them rather than the other way around. Here's an example of what I'm talking about over the last A section of Rhythm changes. The 2 circled phrases are 7/4 rhythms (in my book anyway...). Even though there is 1 beat of silence after each, the silence is included in the appraisal of the rhythm. It works because the phrase starts on beat 3 of the first measure of 4. Making 7/8x2=14 of 16 beats.
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Get familiar with chords, as in play arpeggios as much as you can, in time as much as you can, and then "aim" for notes of the chord, either diatonically or chromatically. 3-5-7-9 of every chord, and a diatonic "lead" into the next third of the next third, or inversion. A good series of books for this sort of study is the Bergonzi series. A little hard on the double bass, admittedly, but a worthwhile read.
Take it easy,
E.
Take it easy,
E.
what i've found out from soloing is whenever you play another song's head during your solo(granted the changes are the same, or similar) not only will it turn heads but it sounds really good after an 8th note or 16th note line.
also on a side note... creating tension, "bad notes", and then resolving them is another thing that i find works really well. i was talking to one of my music teachers and he say he knows a trombone player that if the chart began with a C7 he would hit a B nautral on the first beat as strong as possible. and then go down a half step to start his line.
also on a side note... creating tension, "bad notes", and then resolving them is another thing that i find works really well. i was talking to one of my music teachers and he say he knows a trombone player that if the chart began with a C7 he would hit a B nautral on the first beat as strong as possible. and then go down a half step to start his line.
A great way to stimulate some conversation with the other players, ahah
This one group I play with is the worst... We've done gigs where at least one of us quotes Butterfly on every single tune. It's like a really bad joke, but it's hella funny when you're in on it
I also find that singing while playing is a good idea. This is mainly because it helps the solo breathe, us as bassists dont use air to play a solo so for a beginner it is pretty easy to get lost in a solo that is too heavy or "full". This also brings to the point that solos should be something that comes from your mind and what you feel, not from your hands. So whatever your hands are playing you should have been able to sing it.
I like to start with music. Take a solo you really like. Transcribe it (best way) or get it from a book and get to know it inside out. Play it every day until every note, articulation, and dynamic is memorized and in tune. To use the old saying, "make it your own".
Exercises and patterns are great to sharpen more specific areas of your playing, but learning solos are very broad spectrum. They help everything at once.
Exercises and patterns are great to sharpen more specific areas of your playing, but learning solos are very broad spectrum. They help everything at once.
