Help! Need to learn Walking Bass in 2 weeks !!

[PatrickJ]

In the New Year I'll be meeting up with a guy I met on the internet for a bit of a Jazz standards jam.     

 

Learning jazz and walking bass has been on my to do list all through lockdown I just lacked motivation to pick up and play.   In recent months I've been playing a lot more but not much focussed practice and now I've gone and committed myself to this new beginners jazz group.

 

It's been pitched as a beginners level so I'm not expecting to master anything in just a few short weeks but I want to show up being able to play more than root notes to a 2 feel (which was the extent of my last jazzcapade). 

 

I have a Real Book to hand and I'll be spending a ton of time on arpeggio exercises but any other tips, help or advice that the BC community can offer me to get me on my way to build some level competence would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks

[nilebodgers]

I’d recommend this free course, you should be able to whizz through the first 2 modules on a superficial level and that should be enough to fake it.
 

https://www.walkingbasslessons.com/walking-bass-lines-course/

 

 

[T-Bay]

I could be being completely stupid (and when it comes to musical theory, I frequently am), but couldn’t you just fudge it by playing pentatonics up and down the fretboard? No experience in jazz but it has got me by playing a few old rock and roll standards.

[nilebodgers]

If you don’t have it already get a copy of iReal, it’s a great practice tool for jazz backing tracks.

[PatrickJ]

25 minutes ago, nilebodgers said:

If you don’t have it already get a copy of iReal, it’s a great practice tool for jazz backing tracks.

I do have this app!

 

41 minutes ago, nilebodgers said:

I’d recommend this free course, you should be able to whizz through the first 2 modules on a superficial level and that should be enough to fake it.
 

https://www.walkingbasslessons.com/walking-bass-lines-course/

 

 

 

Thanks, I'll go check this out

[TKenrick]

There are a few books that are good for getting the essence of walking bass within a limited time frame, and any one of these should provide you with enough to 'fake it' in the short term. You'll need to read notation for all of these, if you're thinking about pursuing jazz then it's best to put TAB in the bin anyway:

 

Ed Friedland's Building Walking Bass Lines

 

Gary Willis Fingerboard Harmony

 

Joe Hubbard Walking Bass Lines

 

Out of the above, Joe's is probably the most immediate if you're looking to get things together overnight.

 

One on the most important things that doesn't get emphasised enough is the feel of walking bass rather than the content of the line; you can get away with a lot if your sense of time and swing are strong. When you're practising walking lines put the metronome on beats 2 and 4 and try to feel a constant 8th-note triplet subdivision even when you're playing quarter notes. These will help you to get the rhythmic feel of things.

[Bilbo]

Roll off all the top and just thump away 'ambiguously'. I did a whole duo gig like this once because of a lunatic piano player. 

Edited December 17, 2021 by Bilbo

[chris_b]

Learn your scales and use those notes to construct pathways between chords. As you get better you can get more creative.

[paul_5]

Nothing wrong with favouring the root over fancy chromatics and fireworks.

 

roll the tone back, palm-mute the strings with the back edge of your hand and play the strings with your thumb - gives a great DB like ‘thump’ with virtually no sustain, so if your note choice is ‘questionable’ then at least it’s less obtrusive.

Edited December 17, 2021 by paul_5

[gjones]

Just grow a Van Dyke beard and wear a beret.

 

Remember to call everybody 'daddio'.

[Grimalkin]

Chord tones on 1 and 3 of the bar, passing notes on 2 and 4. I would stay with the arpeggios and passing notes to outline the changes for now, later you can work on connecting lines between the chords.

[Grimalkin]

Strong beat/weak beat concept - 32.06:

 

 

[Guest]

On 17/12/2021 at 12:26, Bilbo said:

Roll off all the top and just thump away 'ambiguously'. I did a whole duo gig like this once because of a lunatic piano player. 

Usually the type of piano player that’s never heard of rootless voicings and spends the whole gig hammering away in the same range as the bass…

[Bilbo]

3 hours ago, FDC484950 said:

Usually the type of piano player that’s never heard of rootless voicings and spends the whole gig hammering away in the same range as the bass…

He played the whole gig calling standards I didn't know in strange keys, sequeing every tune without stopping and oblivious to me not having a clue what was going on. So I rolled off the top and got the muddiest, most indistinct sound I could and bluffed the whole thing. 

Edited December 18, 2021 by Bilbo

[Doddy]

Ed Friedlands books 'Building/Expanding Walking Basslines' and Ed Fuqua's 'Walking Bassics' are good starting points to learn to walk.

 

The most important thing is to listen to the great jazz players, and check out their approach to walking. Albums with players like Paul Chambers, Ray Brown and Ron Carter are masterclasses in walking bass.

[Richard R]

Not sure how you feel about blatant copyright infringement, but I have the first half of the building walking basslines as a dodgy PDF, copied from the local library some time ago. 

PM me if you're interested. 

[PatrickJ]

1 hour ago, Richard R said:

Not sure how you feel about blatant copyright infringement, but I have the first half of the building walking basslines as a dodgy PDF, copied from the local library some time ago. 

PM me if you're interested. 

 

Fortunately I've got hold of an official copy of the book

Offer much appreciated though.

[WishICouldWalk]

Something to bear in mind is that something that sounds boring and predictable on your own in the practice room will likely sound fine within an ensemble. Don't be in a rush to add variety as walking bass is a lifetime of study.

[ezbass]

I had to learn a whole stack of songs for a black tie, jazz gig a few years back. I’m not a jazz player, but I’ve played in a few blues outfits where I’ve used walking bass lines. When learning the set, I desperately tried to show horn walking lines into everything, only to find that a good proportion of the originals just had a nicely swinging root/V bass line. Once I became away of this, things became easier. Walk where appropriate (underpinning solos is a good place to break them out) but don’t overlook a simpler line that swings, remember that a lot of the original lines would have been played on a double bass and walking everything on a DB is exhausting, so those guys may well have kept it simple, just to be able to do the gig.