Those interested in learning or teaching walking bass may have come across "The Low Down, vols 1 & 2" by Danny Ziemann (@dkziemann). Since I have not seen any review about it on TB, I thought I would give it a shot.
I have not purchased the vol 1, which deals with the fundamentals of walking bass, so I shall only review The Low Down vol 2, which contains tons of walking bass lines for blues, rhythm changes and a selection of standards.
The books come as printable PDF e-books. I had mine printed and spiral bound at a printing shop.
The book has 2 sections.
Section 1 is dedicated to blues and rhythm changes in all 12 keys. For each key Danny provides 21 choruses of the blues, and 4 choruses of rhythm changes.
Section 2 contains walking bass lines for a selection of 11 standard jazz tunes (in their respective most frequently called key). The selection covers the different types of chord progressions and styles of tunes. For each tune, there are about 4 choruses of walking bass lines.
The amount of material is impressive: almost 200 pages of walking bass lines! (I personally can work for years with this).
The bass lines illustrate the various approaches to walking bass (chordal, scalar, motivic, chord substitutions, etc.) and use the full range of the instrument, from the nut to thumb position.
The typesetting is done very carefully, and the lay out is very ergonomic and user friendly: consistent use of 4 bars per line, never have to turn a page in the middle of a chorus. I am a very visual guy, and I find that a good layout helps a lot in the orientation through the form of a tune. I hate it when publishers squeeze 5 bars per line, or start a new chorus in the middle of a line; this throws me completely off with respect to the form.
Although the first few choruses are rather easy, the material quickly becomes somehow challenging, occasionally climbing high up on the fingerboard. The material is mostly appropriate, in my view, for intermediate to advanced players who want to expand their fluency and vocabulary.
The indicated chords are the actually played or implied ones, not merely the generic chords. This offers to the student a way of exploring the various options for chord substitution that are available.
I find that the lines are always very melodic, and eye-opening towards new directions of walking.
There are no fingerings, which in my view is really an excellent thing. The process of exploring and exprimenting various fingering options for a bass line is for me at the core of the study, in the aim of developing full mastery of the fingerboard.
There are many different possible uses of Danny's book:
- it can be used as a sight reading book (while I have no significant difficulties in the most familar keys such as F, Bb, etc., I sometimes struggle when it comes to B or Gb...)
- one can commit to one key (or one standard tune) per week (or month, or year, or decade...).
- one can analyze the bass lines in order to get insight into the various approaches to walking bass.
- it can be used for ear training purposes, by sight singing the bass lines.
I personally usually pick one chorus (or section of a chorus) and work on the bass line, by analysing it, playing it with different fingerings, transpose it in various octaves and in all 12 keys, in order to ingrain it in my ears and fingers. I also like to depart from the written line and create my own lines as variations, which I can mix and match at will. The purpose is to eventually own the material and be able to use it in improvised lines.
Altogether, I think that Danny as done a terrific job with this book, and I believe that it would highly beneficial to anyone interested in learning or teching walking bass.
I should add that I had a few exchanges with Danny via the TB PM about techical issues, and that Danny was extremely responsive and immediately fixed the issue. I also had the opportunity of chatting with Danny for almost an hour via zoom about my own development as a bass player: what a generous and inspiring teacher!
I have not purchased the vol 1, which deals with the fundamentals of walking bass, so I shall only review The Low Down vol 2, which contains tons of walking bass lines for blues, rhythm changes and a selection of standards.
The books come as printable PDF e-books. I had mine printed and spiral bound at a printing shop.
The book has 2 sections.
Section 1 is dedicated to blues and rhythm changes in all 12 keys. For each key Danny provides 21 choruses of the blues, and 4 choruses of rhythm changes.
Section 2 contains walking bass lines for a selection of 11 standard jazz tunes (in their respective most frequently called key). The selection covers the different types of chord progressions and styles of tunes. For each tune, there are about 4 choruses of walking bass lines.
The amount of material is impressive: almost 200 pages of walking bass lines! (I personally can work for years with this).
The bass lines illustrate the various approaches to walking bass (chordal, scalar, motivic, chord substitutions, etc.) and use the full range of the instrument, from the nut to thumb position.
The typesetting is done very carefully, and the lay out is very ergonomic and user friendly: consistent use of 4 bars per line, never have to turn a page in the middle of a chorus. I am a very visual guy, and I find that a good layout helps a lot in the orientation through the form of a tune. I hate it when publishers squeeze 5 bars per line, or start a new chorus in the middle of a line; this throws me completely off with respect to the form.
Although the first few choruses are rather easy, the material quickly becomes somehow challenging, occasionally climbing high up on the fingerboard. The material is mostly appropriate, in my view, for intermediate to advanced players who want to expand their fluency and vocabulary.
The indicated chords are the actually played or implied ones, not merely the generic chords. This offers to the student a way of exploring the various options for chord substitution that are available.
I find that the lines are always very melodic, and eye-opening towards new directions of walking.
There are no fingerings, which in my view is really an excellent thing. The process of exploring and exprimenting various fingering options for a bass line is for me at the core of the study, in the aim of developing full mastery of the fingerboard.
There are many different possible uses of Danny's book:
- it can be used as a sight reading book (while I have no significant difficulties in the most familar keys such as F, Bb, etc., I sometimes struggle when it comes to B or Gb...)
- one can commit to one key (or one standard tune) per week (or month, or year, or decade...).
- one can analyze the bass lines in order to get insight into the various approaches to walking bass.
- it can be used for ear training purposes, by sight singing the bass lines.
I personally usually pick one chorus (or section of a chorus) and work on the bass line, by analysing it, playing it with different fingerings, transpose it in various octaves and in all 12 keys, in order to ingrain it in my ears and fingers. I also like to depart from the written line and create my own lines as variations, which I can mix and match at will. The purpose is to eventually own the material and be able to use it in improvised lines.
Altogether, I think that Danny as done a terrific job with this book, and I believe that it would highly beneficial to anyone interested in learning or teching walking bass.
I should add that I had a few exchanges with Danny via the TB PM about techical issues, and that Danny was extremely responsive and immediately fixed the issue. I also had the opportunity of chatting with Danny for almost an hour via zoom about my own development as a bass player: what a generous and inspiring teacher!
