Walking bass top tips.

[paul_5]

A recent discussion with another player got me thinking about your 'top tips' for walking bass. We agreed that outlining harmony takes precedent over pretty much anything else, but I'd love to know what the great BC hive mind would make the top 10 list.

[interpol52]

Very topical question for me as I am just working through Ed Friedland's 'Building Walking Basslines' book. As you would expect from Ed the book is excellent.

I have really got to grips with playing notes and lines in as many differnt fretboard positions as possible. I'm using a 5 string at the moment and it has unlocked the potential of the B string. 

So my tip before you even get started on building walking basslines is to know the notes all over the fretboard.🙂

[Bob Lord]

the same chord changes tend to crop up again and again, so it's always useful to have a bunch of different ways to (for example) handle a ii-V-I or a I-IV, so you're not always consciously thinking too much about it as you're playing (unless you want to)

I don't think there's anything wrong with sitting down and working out - off the meter - a bunch of different options for connecting chords. Although the ultimate aim is to be able to hang in there as the chords whizz by, you can hamper your progress by practicing in real time all the time - playing with some crazy fast tempo bebop Jamey Aebersold book 43 shizzle before you're ready won't give you enough time to really digest what you need to learn. Sit and really carefully woodshed as many different ways you could outline the chord movements, over really simple changes. Your vocabulary will end up being all the stuff you liked and kept

top tips:

roots and fifths are good, as are 3rds.

being aware of the key and the full chord you're playing under will help you choose the right scale tones

Chromatic approaches, especially to roots, are nearly always great sounding.

It often sounds good when you keep going in the same direction through a chord - it sounds like you've got a plan

don't be afraid to play half-notes

don't be afraid to play the same note again over the same chord!

remember you're playing a song, or accompanying a melody or a soloist. So what you play should be appropriate, and make sense in that context. If what you play would have been the same regardless of what the other people were doing, or what the tune was, then something's wrong

 

[Japhet]

Mix up the chromatic passing notes so that you play above or below the 'target' note. For example a turnaround using G E A and D could be played with passing notes as

Ab G    F E    Bb A     Eb D and then next time round  G# G    Eb E    Bb A    C#D

and then you can swap the passing notes around however you want. You can also often use 2 steps instead of chromatic passes.

[FDC484950]

The most important tip for walking bass is how it should sound and feel. I tend to play walking lines just with my index finger (plucking hand) as it just sounds better. Next tip: just play straight quarter notes - no embellishments, skips, triplets or any other fripperies. I’ve heard it described as sounding like a bouncing rubber ball. It’s origins are in “dance” music so remember it was meant to make people dance!

In terms of the harmony, at first you will want to nail solid root notes on beat 1 and either 3rd, 5th or 7th of chord on weak 3rd beat for one chord per bar, or root/chord tone/root/chord tone for 2 chords per bar. Then gradually start to shape the line with scale fragments, then chromatic approach notes above and and below the chord tone, and after about 25 years you can start playing longer ideas across many bars! 

Ed Friedland’s books are good for getting an understanding of the walking bass. Ultimately once you’ve got the basics, then your music collection is the best possible teacher - learn from the masters - Milt Hinton, Jimmy Blanton, Oscar Pettiford, Ron Carter, Ray Brown, Paul Chambers, Charles Mingus, Scott LaFaro, Jimmy Garrison, Christian McBride and many others!

[project_c]

Joe Hubbard has an excellent e-book on his site, I preferred his approach to the Ed Friedland book back when I was learning. They’re not vastly different but Joe Hubbard’s approach is so easy to internalise that I worked through the whole book and got it into my playing really quickly. 

Eventually once you get the basics down you’ll need to transcribe lines to add to your vocabulary, but the Hubbard book is a great starting point.

[tinyd]

This is a pretty good 1-page fundamental guide from Bert Ligon:

http://nationaljazzworkshop.org/freematerials/ligon/Bert_Ligon_Fundamental_Bass_Lines.pdf

There are more here:

http://nationaljazzworkshop.org/freestuff.php