Transcribing Walking bass lines.

[Feda]

I'm going trough the building walkiing bass lines by ed friedland. With it comes a CD with 10 jazz standard tunes. I just transcribed the line on Autum Leaves.. Is this really helping me? Should I instead try improvising over the chords?

 

[Bass of Galt]

I don't think anyone can answer the question "is this helping me?" but you.

You know the lines now - but do you understand WHY those notes work with the progression?

If you can answer that question in the affirmative than I would say YES it is helping you. If all you know is the lines and not the WHY - than you still have more to learn about the lines.

Of course you don't NEED to know the "why" to play the song. But it sure helps if you want to make it your own. Good luck!

 

[Lovebown]

although that book is fine... you are probably better off transcribing bass lines off of "real" records. Check out some recording with an audible bass and a nice band. Something with the likes of Paul Chambers, Doug Watkins, Ray Brown etc. on bass will be just fine.

You have to realize that improvising over the chords will be much easier once you have alittle vocabulary acquired from transcribing. Once you get an idea of how to walk a line , and make it work, write out your own lines and try diffrent ideas like only chord tones, chromatic approach note on the 4 of each bar, no root on 1 etc. etc.

Practice slowly at first with a metronome on 2 and 4 and good luck,

/lovebown

 

[Feda]

Thanks alot! I'm gonna enroll on the adam nitti walking bass class at musicdojo, I think that will help me out quite a bit.
Thanks again.

 

[Lenmonster]

Feda...

If you have any specific questions about Adam's Walking Bass classes, or any of the other classes at MusicDojo, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Len Sitnick
President
MusicDojo.com

 

[Joe Turski]

Re-opened.

 

[WillPlay4Food]

When I was learning 12 bar jazz blues with my teacher, we worked on the following exercises in all the major scales:

Root-3rd-Root-1/2 step above approach
Root-3rd-Root-1/2 step below approach
Root-5th-Root-1/2 step ...
Root-7th-Root-1/2 step ...
Root-Oct-Root-1/2 step ...

Get all of these into your "toolbox" so they become automagic. Then work on mixing them up, using multiple octaves, go 3rd, 5th or 7th below root, etc.

Then try something like this for the following progression:

I-IV-I-I
IV-IV-I-I
ii-V-I-ii/V turnaround

Play the following:
R-3-5-A--R-3-5-A--R-3-5-7--R-3-5-A
R-3-5-7--R-3-5-A--R-3-5-7--R-3-5-A
R-3-5-A--R-3-5-A--R-3-5-A--R-A-R-A

Basically, when you have two bars covering the same chord, arpeggiate the dominant 7 chord (i.e. I7, IV7, V7) in the first bar, and use the approach note in the 2nd bar.

You could also change so you're not starting the 1 beat with the root note, or doing something a bit more solo-like when you have the same chord over 2 bars, etc.

Again, play over multiple octaves, go above and below the root (I guess this would be inversions?). Just experiment.

My teacher always said to nail down all these different ideas to get them into your "toolbox". Get it down to the point where it's automatic. Then practice mixing it up. You don't want to be thinking too much when you're onstage, you just want to be playing.

 

[Feda]

Thanks for the nice post WillPlay4Food! I've been through the excersises on root fifth octave approaches as well as chromatic approaches in Ed's book. I'm now trying to get a grasp on the scale approaches, alot of fun, but also alot of confusion

 

[WillPlay4Food]

Thanks for the nice post WillPlay4Food! I've been through the excersises on root fifth octave approaches as well as chromatic approaches in Ed's book. I'm now trying to get a grasp on the scale approaches, alot of fun, but also alot of confusion

Glad I could help, Feda!

You know what they say, those who can, do; those who can't . . . make long posts on internet forums!