STUDY GROUP: Topics In Jazz Bass Volume 1: Harmony, by Danny Ziemann

[Rob MacKillop]

This group is open to anyone interested in Danny Ziemann's book on harmony and the bass - either upright or bass guitar. Of course, having the book will be pretty much essential. I found my copy on Amazon, but hopefully they are elsewhere too. There is a PDF download on Danny's website: https://dannyziemann.company.site/Topics-in-Jazz-Bass-Vol-1-Harmony-PDF-p115962438 "Supplemental audio" can be found on www.dannyziemann.com - front page, just above the images of the book covers, for which you have to submit your email address.  

 

Note: There is no tab in the book. It is pretty much purely centered on Walking Bass. There is a second volume which discusses soloing, but it's advised we work through volume 1 first. If some of you have already started the second book, you might want to start a Study Group thread for that. 

 

The point of a Study Group is to have a few people focus for a while on one book or topic, to help each other out, no grandstanding, no competition, just a willingness to help each other improve. So, to get the ball rolling, here goes:

 

The Harmony book starts with a harmonically simplified view of a major key. Instead of thinking of seven different chords - I ii iii IV V vi viidim - with all their related arpeggios, we can view it simply as - I V7 I V7 I IV V7 I - So in the key of G that gives G  D7/A  G/B  D7/C  G/D  C/E  D7/F#  G. In Danny's Example 2c (page 9) I think he missed out a slash note. The 5th chord is G, but should be G/D? 

 

Pages 11 and 12 provide two patterns. Pattern 1 starts with first bass note articulating the scale: G in Bar 1, A in Bar 2, B in Bar 3. Pattern 2 has those notes up an octave, but displaced to the third beat of each bar. On page 10 Danny distinguishes them, Pattern 1 having the harmonic movement in the bass, Pattern 2 having the harmonic movement in the melody. This is something I'm not 100% clear on. I understand what he is saying, but I think the awareness of why will come through practicing the arpeggios. 

 

So, right now I haven't gone further in the book. I'm practicing the arpeggios on page 11 and 12, which is just the two Patterns in all twelve keys. Having a 5-string bass, I'm including the 5th string in possible versions. Once you see a couple of shapes for each pattern, it is of course easy to move them up and down the fingerboard. Playing in the open-string positions had me using my brain more - I've only had a 5-string bass for a couple of days. I've also glued the two Patterns together, but Danny doesn't ask us to do this. He might have his reasons not to, but I can't help doing it! 

 

He goes on to doing the same with minor keys, and then discusses some resolution issues with descending versions. But I haven't got that far yet, just getting accustomed to pages 11 and 12. 

 

So, anyone want to join in? Any comments at all? 

 

 

 

[Burns-bass]

Will update when the book arrives. I don’t really play straight ahead jazz but I believe I can apply the concepts to music that I do play. Excited to join in.

[Rob MacKillop]

Agreed! 

[Gareth Hughes]

YES! Thanks for setting this up. I need to get the finger out on this, so I’m more than up for joining.