Songbooks with fingerings anotation : jazz bass on top

High D to F? Do you mean in bars 4 and 5? The 8va is just for convenience in reading, because the line goes up to a D two octaves above the open D string. That would be a lot of ledger lines!!!

Bar 4 is F (on G string) to the F an octave below, so I would finger the high F with my pinky and the low F with my index finger on the A. Then it's back to the G string for Db and E then the 8va starts with F, etc. (transition into thumb position) with the highest note being the D in bar 7. The transition between bar 8 and 9 is where the notation drops out of 8va with Bb (bar 8) to Cb (bar 9). Because there are no large interval jumps, I'd stay on the G string through the entire 8va section until bar 8, where I'd play the G harmonic to ease the jump down to A on the 3rd beat. I'm sure other folks might fret the G and shift over to the D string instead for the A, still a jump but half as far.

Hopefully a more seasoned player with a larger brain than mine will suggest other, better strategies.

 

There is a part of me that feel like telling you to do whatever you want...

But thing is there is multiple way of playing this line and even if you had a video recording of what actually happens in the studio, it could be "wrong".

The problem in jazz is that it is improvisation. Even if you want to have perfect position and what not in the end, it should be your ear that dictates where to go, or even in sight-reading, you won't have time to find the perfect placement.

When working on a piece, there is multiple approach to this. Some say that you should stay as much as possible in one position. To me this is more an EB approach. There is also trying to fit every measure in a position based on the first note of the measure. It all depends on what you want to hear in the phrasing of your line.

I like to find a way that I change position most of the time on the second beat. I like the phrasing that it gives. 1, 2 3 4 1, 2 3 4... Some like 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4. It is a matter of taste and will change the sound/fingering of the line.

Here's my attempt at playing the line you wanted. I tried to vary it a little.

PS: it's p. 6 in my book...

 

If you take the time to learn the fingerboard, you don't even think about fingerings when working on a piece of music, at least for your first pass. You develop a system that gets you around the fingerboard logically and it will work for most of what you want to play on the bass.