Double Bass Walking and soloing and practice.

[jumpinin]

Work on the chords in the tune, play the first arpeggio up second down. When you get this in your fingers try to improvise freely on the chords, attatch them to eachother. Also analyse the chords, look for places where you can use the same scales 2-3-4 bars.

Arpeggiating thru the changes is a good way to work out leading tones. Another good exercise is to play thru the changes using a single note per chord, avoiding roots and fifths. Try to develop rhythmic ideas while sticking to a single note per change. Then try two notes per chord change and so one and so on. Its sort of a Zen like exercise. If you limit yourself to single note per chord change, your mind will usually start drifting off into more involved melodic lines ... the ones that won't come when you try to force yourself to play "a solo".

 

[Samie]

As Ray Brown said (something like) "Play 10 hours a day and everything will work itself out." That is, anything you do on the bass is going to help.
....

LOl, as funny as it sounds there really are no shortcuts. You need to spend quality time big time with your instruments. You need to know all the notes, second nature. You need to know your scales inside out.

...And then you can start walking. Cause there is "walking" and "walking". You just need to transcribe a couple of aebersold bass lines to realice that these guy know what they are doing. How did you come up with that, you often wonder. Add then, the groove, the timing, the swing, the note choice, the drive, the precise tuning etc. . Even if you "learn" how to walk, it might take a lifetime of gigin' to play like that, if you are lucky(it might take 3 lifetimes if not).

 

[nemo]

Try expanding your concept of what constitutes "covering the changes" to something that... ...and also allows non chord tones on the downbeat that resolve later in the bar.

As for me, I am pretty good at that..





..walks away quietly in awe and with respect, not to disturb the competent players......

 

[bass183]

I'm not sure what I should practice more of, walking or soloing. It seems like one comes at the expense of the other. Any recomendations.

I have focused on walking for some time. Right now, I am more focused on soloing because as someone who mostly came from the school of rock, who has only been playing jazz for 5 years compared to rock for 30, I have difficulty soloing at bright tempos playing a standard bop tune from memory. What is or has helped me is too much to put into words here--it's been a process, is still an ongoing process. I don't think I'm great at it, but I have made a lot of progress over the last year. Learning transcriptions from bassists helps. Learning to play horn player transcriptions helps too, although they can be a bear. Transcribing them yourself is the best, but it is also good to read them & analyze them. I'm currently working on a Hank Mobley solo for a class assignment. We shall see if I can get this thing up to tempo and to play it from memory in a week after I only just finished transcribing the darn thing last night (lol). Some people swear by learning bop heads. I personally think that only helps if you know when and where to place some of that language in other tunes. Some people swear by learning ii-V-I licks, and learning where to put them in the context of tunes, over the ii-V progressions (one of my current teachers swears by that, another does not). Writing out solos using bebop language, literally plagiarizing licks and motivic ideas from other soloist has really helped me a ton. Especially once I learn how to play the written solo and memorize whole or parts of it. Learning how to compose also helps. Soloing is composing. If you don't know what a melodic idea or sequence is, your solos will suffer. Learning every arpeggio and its inversion in the context of a song is also really helpful. Yep, play an entire song using only arpeggios in root position, then 1st inversion, then 2nd inversion then mix it up. Try to do that with eighth notes once you get the hang of it with quarter notes. Listen closely to as many solos as possible--focus on both the rhythm and the melodic material. Fyi, most of soloing is playing arpeggios mixed w/ some scalar movement. You'll see that if you start analyzing. I'm sure everyone on here has great advice. What works for one, does not always work for another, but you won't know until you try any of it.

 

[bass183]

I really do appreciate all the answers to my post, thank you. I should've been clearer when I first posted, my problem has more to do with my hands than the music, I'm studying jazz at City College in NYC and have been given many great concepts to work on. I don't have the chops to solo on anything more than a mid tempo or ballad. Once the tempo gets fast I can't hang. I've been working on playing simple ideas I can execute well, but even with that my chops still let me down at times.
So, what I'm looking for is advice relating to chops building. I need my hands to catch up to my head. And to answer your Chris F's question I have been doing transcribing, some full solos, as well as lines from solos. It's been a great learning experience.
Thanks

Oh hey, just saw this. I'm taking a solo line class in college. Teacher is a horn player. Anyway, he has had us play one octave major and harmonic minor scales in all twelve keys for increasing chops. Here's the deal: always play w/ metronome. Start with 50 BPM and play each scale using 16th notes--click should be on downbeats. He had the class doing this w/ C is starting key. On bass it makes more sense to start with lowest E. Find a fingering that will work once you get past 80 BPM--this is fast. Only advance to faster clicks after you can play all 12 keys w/ good tone and accuracy (he uses old school metronome, so the advancement might be 5-10 BPM on newer digital ones). He suggests that bassists should be able to get this up to 120 bpm. I personally can barely get to 90 bpm for all 12 keys.

The other three things that have helped me out is Ron Carter's 2 finger exercise. It's in his method book. Two of my private teachers showed it to me. I practice it when I feel I need it--sometimes every day for a while. W/ clicks on 2 & 4 and start slow & build speed once I can play it effortlessly for each new tempo. The other thing would be a chromatic exercise that I've made up that I play on one string all the up the FB and back down w/ met clicks. I do this w/ 16th note pattern (fingering 1-3-2-3 and move up one half step & repeat) w/ click on downbeat (I mean the quarter note downbeats, but I'm playing 16th notes). The other thing is long term, but I try to play 2 octave scales--just Simandl's method so I can get the transition of standard to thumb position--at faster tempos w/ bow or not. I think playing scales is a great way to focus on chops. Cause you don't really have to think too much about the notes you're playing--they should be second nature. Anyway, hope that helps.