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walking lines recommendation

pbass888

pbass888

Up the Irons! Westham United FC--mile high irons
Supporting Member
Jul 8, 2009
2,298
2,153
Denver
#1
Hi,
I am interested in walking lines and have worked on the following recommended by my teacher.
1. worked thru most (first 40 pages) of todd coolmans book the bottom line
2. read transcriptions to various standards.... walkin by heath...
ray brown, sam jones on the web
3. transcribed some choruses from aebersold vol 1 blues

Where do I go from here? Im sure I could improve my ear (working on it) but how do I get melodic lines and not scale/chord sounding lines when I improvise. Im sure there are some great players hear and would love to hear their advice.

Thank you!!!:bassist:
 
#2
Todd Johnson's "Walking Bassline Modules" DVD is worth checking out. He has his own forum here. Also Ed Friedland's "Building Walking Basslines" book (I think there is an advanced one out as well ) are also great.
 
#3
pbass888 said:
Hi,
I am interested in walking lines and have worked on the following recommended by my teacher.
1. worked thru most (first 40 pages) of todd coolmans book the bottom line
2. read transcriptions to various standards.... walkin by heath...
ray brown, sam jones on the web
3. transcribed some choruses from aebersold vol 1 blues

Where do I go from here? Im sure I could improve my ear (working on it) but how do I get melodic lines and not scale/chord sounding lines when I improvise. Im sure there are some great players hear and would love to hear their advice.

Thank you!!!:bassist:
Click to expand...
Walking is a matter of targeting the next chord's root note and missing it. You can miss it by landing high or low just don't land on it - walk to it. Yep that a good start.

After The Bottom Line I found http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...=aps&hvadid=1153852361&ref=pd_sl_8gvqxacfpl_e to have value.

Beyond that do what your instructor has in line for you.

Good luck.
 
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#4
At the risk of horrid self promotion, I'd like to recommend both a thread here on talkbass called REALLY Learning A Tune and my book, Walking Bassics. Both of these deal with getting the sound of the harmony in your ear and work on making your note choice a personal and melodic response to what you are hearing.
 
#5
Ed a great resource I will check it out asap! A question for you... what do you think about learning some piano (i have never done this)?
thank you for your suggestion and look forward your book and will check out the link.

Ed Fuqua said:
At the risk of horrid self promotion, I'd like to recommend both a thread here on talkbass called REALLY Learning A Tune and my book, Walking Bassics. Both of these deal with getting the sound of the harmony in your ear and work on making your note choice a personal and melodic response to what you are hearing.
Click to expand...
 
#6
fearceol said:
Todd Johnson's "Walking Bassline Modules" DVD is worth checking out. He has his own forum here. Also Ed Friedland's "Building Walking Basslines" book (I think there is an advanced one out as well ) are also great.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much I am obtaining a copy of Ed book from a friend and look forward to it. I will look at Todd Johnsons book and post some links of my progress on youtube.
thank you again!
 
#7
Learning piano is always a good idea, but you can work on these concepts without learning to play (even at a rudimentary level) another instrument. So the question you have to ask and honestly answer is Am I learning piano to get deeper into these concepts or am I using it as a way not to work on them?
Cause there are plenty of folks out there who play and have just worked on these ideas on the instrument they play.
 
#8
Ok Ed I think I get the point I have a long road on the bass and ive been giving the brown records and the metronome a good workout. I will stick to the four strings now and work on your book. Ill post to youtube soon.
Thank you again

Ed Fuqua said:
Learning piano is always a good idea, but you can work on these concepts without learning to play (even at a rudimentary level) another instrument. So the question you have to ask and honestly answer is Am I learning piano to get deeper into these concepts or am I using it as a way not to work on them?
Cause there are plenty of folks out there who play and have just worked on these ideas on the instrument they play.
Click to expand...
 
#9
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#10
Hey, along with reading transcription, if you want to learn how to walk, trancribing the basslines yourself (writing the notes down on staff paper) will be the most profitable thing you could do. It is huge amount of effort, but after I spent 3 weeks transcribing days of wine and Roses, off of Oscar Peterson's we get requests album, I was immediately a much better walker.
 
#11
That sounds really good. ive done a few chorusus from vol 1 of aebersold blues tunes (rufus reid on bass i think) and also ive transcribed walkin by percy heath first 10 chorusus (f blues) but i agree i need to do more transcriptions of actual recordings .... im working on autumn leaves cannonball adderley version by jones (bass). thank you for the suggestion.
Id eventually love to do wine and roses by jaco on std zone!!
Im going to try to get the peterson recording thanks for recomennding it.

engedi1 said:
Hey, along with reading transcription, if you want to learn how to walk, trancribing the basslines yourself (writing the notes down on staff paper) will be the most profitable thing you could do. It is huge amount of effort, but after I spent 3 weeks transcribing days of wine and Roses, off of Oscar Peterson's we get requests album, I was immediately a much better walker.
Click to expand...
 
#12
We Get Requests is an amazing album, and you can learn so much from Ray Brown's playing on this album. The only way to train the ear and hands in my opinion, is to spend the hours working out every note he plays. Nothing against the abersold stuff, but I think you miss the chance to learn the interactions between the other musicians. This album is a trio, and the interaction between Oscar, Ray, and Ed Thigpen is simply amazing. Almost as good as the Bill Evans trio with scott lafaro, but more straightahead jazz. That is the art of walking to me, not just playing the right notes, but interacting with the other musicians in a meaningful way. I don't believe that can be learned from any book, but only through transcribing and playing. Cheers!
 
#13
Rufus Ried's 'Bass Lines' is a good book of walking likes.

personally, I think the best way to build your lines is just to get jamming. find someone else who knows some standards and play. stay on one tune for at least ten minutes.. youll start to run out of new ideas and have to get more imaginative to keep your lines original. :D
 
#14
thank you ive arranged for my first live playing with a piano player thur about 1 dozen standards we will see how it goes... ill let you know. thank you again for your help

waKo said:
Rufus Ried's 'Bass Lines' is a good book of walking likes.

personally, I think the best way to build your lines is just to get jamming. find someone else who knows some standards and play. stay on one tune for at least ten minutes.. youll start to run out of new ideas and have to get more imaginative to keep your lines original. :D
Click to expand...
 
#16
Alot of good stuff here. Eds book is great. Some
new thoughts to add...

When transcribing, don't just listen to the notes but listen to how they are played. Is he pushing the beat or laying back and why? What does a good "bounce" in your tone sound like? How does playing high on the fret board change the sound of the group? Stuff like that.
 
#17
Thank you ... yes playing with feel is something im struggling with...my playing is very 'stiff' right now even when i play along with records (i do record some parts of practice) I need to devleop the feel of jazz..


Also Im in the process of learning a bunch of ii-v-i walking patterns in all keys to add to my repetoire... these are ones ive heard percy heath, ray brown , sam jones play on some standards and also from ed's book.

The feel at this point is really missing from my playing. I do practice with a metronome ( set to '2 and 4') but need to develop a strong sense of swinging the beat. i like the way ray brown seems to lead the beat. its really the rue in the gumbo

thanks for the suggestion

Jazzerbone said:
Alot of good stuff here. Eds book is great. Some
new thoughts to add...

When transcribing, don't just listen to the notes but listen to how they are played. Is he pushing the beat or laying back and why? What does a good "bounce" in your tone sound like? How does playing high on the fret board change the sound of the group? Stuff like that.
Click to expand...
 

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