I'm going to try to learn to play jazz

[thisnameistaken]

So last winter I decided I should learn to play double bass so I could be a jazzer and avoid ever having to join a wedding band. I'm 36, I figure when I hit 40 (maybe earlier) I need to be able to play jazz or else it's going to be Mustang Sally every weekend for poor old Kev.

I saw an ad on Gumtree last week from a guitarist in a similar boat to me, who is looking for jazz neophytes to play with, and we're going to get together and play some standards each week in private to see if we can help eachother improve. He says he listens mostly to Miles, Wes Montgomery and latin stuff, I listen mostly to Coltrane, Horace Silver, Mingus and hard bop stuff. Neither of us want to play '80s fusion.

Any specific advice about what particular bits of harmony theory might be useful to concentrate on for a gig like this? Or advice generally about jazz walking / substitution / finding appropriate modes or scales for given chord types or changes? I'm not hot on theory I'm full of holes and it's something I'm hoping to patch through doing this. I am serious about it though.

[yybass]

Hi Kev

I got started with 'Building Walking Bass Lines' which is accompanied by a CD, then endlessly practicing walking the Blues Scales & Pentatonic notes of Major & Minor sacles.

You will develop your movement around the neck and hear the next chord change, but be patient

[TheRev]

Have a look at Dave Mark's lessons on walking bass (www.davemarks.com). The lessons are based around typical jazz II-V-I progressions and really help to get your ears used to hearing where the bass should go. Once you've got the basics under your fingers, you can easily make it up as you go along.

To begin with, I wouldn't worry about which modes go with which chords etc, just get used to following the changes using root, third, fifth, seventh type stuff, then add in some passing notes on beat 2 or 4, then, once you're comfortable with that, start thinking about modes and fancy pants scales.

A lot of jazz isn't as complicated as you might think. If you have a copy of 'Kind of Blue', try playing 'all blues' - it's a pretty simple repeated bass part.

For what it's worth, I'm in the same boat as you - approaching 40, indie (which I still love) bands don't want you, I don't want to play blues or standard pub rock...so jazz it is!

[Clarky]

I used to (10 years ago) have jazz DB lessons from an old jazzer. I couldn't get the theory, which is why I gave up. But I had the most joy simply playing along to CDs. Chet Baker stuff ( especially the era when he was doing vocals as well as trumpet) is generally very slow paced and melodic and I found that a really good starting point. Also early big band Jazz like Duke Ellington (eg Take the A train) which will often have blues based structures and so will be familiar to you, TNIT.

[Bilbo]

Get hold of Mark Levine's 'Jazz Theory' book and find a teacher (for theory, not bass - so it doesn't have to be a bass teacher).

[Doddy]

I totally agree with 'The Jazz Theory Book',it's the best book around for studying jazz. The Ed Freidland
books 'Building' and 'Expanding Walking Basslines' are great for getting you into walking.
Also,it's worth buying at least one volume of the 'Real Book' and practise walking over the changes.

I learnt the most about jazz from finding a weekly jazz jam,and playing with a bunch of old guys (70's)who had
been doing it for years. We'd just play,and they would occasionally stop and give me advise on things to play and
how to approach things.

Oh yeah......Listen to a lot of jazz aswell.

[TPJ]

[quote name='Doddy' post='982480' date='Oct 9 2010, 01:03 PM']Oh yeah......Listen to a lot of jazz aswell.[/quote]
+1

[markstuk]

Nice :-)

[tinyd]

I'm in the same boat as you - maybe I've been trying to learn jazz a little longer, but I'm doing the same thing - getting together with a guitarist friend and working through some standards. I can't add any advice to what you've already been given but I have to give a big +1 to the Jazz Theory Book - it's great. What we've been doing is to take a tune like 'Take the A Train' and then attempting (with mixed success!) to understand as much of the theory behind the chords as possible. On the side, I've also been learning to play walking bass lines from a few different sources. One thing that I've realised is that I'm never going to be a great jazz bass player because I just don't put the hours in. But I'm still improving all the time so one day I might be a competent player. More importantly, I'm having a lot of fun which is, after all, the whole point!

[crez5150]

What you need is Craig Bludel's guid to jazz...... from 8m10s - [url="http://www.youtube.com/user/planetfrost"]http://www.youtube.com/user/planetfrost[/url]

[thisnameistaken]

Thanks for all the advice everybody I will give that book a go. Currently I'm training with random charts and Spotify just to open up the fingerboard a bit and build confidence.

[JoshJ]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='985555' date='Oct 12 2010, 11:46 AM']Thanks for all the advice everybody I will give that book a go. Currently I'm training with random charts and Spotify just to open up the fingerboard a bit and build confidence.[/quote]
As you know I'm hopeless at playing bass and even worse at theory, but [url="http://www.studybass.com/tools/chord-scale-note-printer/"]this[/url] seems really useful to me.

I haven't tried any scales yet but the chords bit is really good, I put in Dmin7 so I could figure out what scott devine was doing in his "How to practice arpeggios" tutorial.