In this day it is sort of hard to get pass Youtube when it comes to finding good instructional value, so I couldn't skip the opportunity to share this one. This is a whole clinic on the Blueprint For the Working Jazz Bassist, delivered by nobody else but the legendary Ron Carter!
Even if you don't know who Mr. Carter is, but have any interest in jazz whatsoever, you owe it to yourself to watch this one.
Ron Carter Bass Clinic from Berklee on Vimeo.
When learning how to develop the walking bass lines over jazz standards or other music pieces that require this kind of sound there are two main approaches to doing it, although largely overlapping. One is concerned with the step-by-step method that starts at the bare basics of harmonic understanding and how to express it in music. The other uses the vocabulary acquisition method, i.e. selectin and teaching certain "cells" of bass lines which have been established over time as standard devices in the genre, used innumerous times by the professional players. If compared with methods of learning a foreign language, the first approach would be akin to teaching the student the grammar and other underlying principles of a given language, while the second might be seen as learning common phrases and expressions first, in order to start communicating as soon as possible. Ultimately, if the goal is a high level of functioning in the chosen language, the speaker will need the command of both aspects. Besides that, the first way may be more applicable to less experienced player, with second possibly leaning more towards those with some experience.
This time we are dealing with the latter approach. One of the excellent instructional tools that exemplifies the vocabulary method is a book written by Joe Hubbard, one of my favorite bass educators out there, who will be featured in some of the future reviews as well.
Although not a very large volume, this book manages to pack a lot of great information in a very effective and functional manner. (NOTE: on Hubbard's product page you will see a different cover, but when the order is delivered this is the one you will see). The author starts by identifying and explaining the components that make the ingredients of a good walking bass line, and emphasizes that "As well as the harmonic specificity, the rhythmic specificity must be adhered to in order to achieve an effective outcome with your bass lines".
He then proceeds to present and explain his selection of ten fundamental "phrases" that help to run a meaning full "conversation" within the context of jazz. Those include devices such as chord tones, passing and approach notes, scalar runs etc, along with harmonic adaptation and octave displacement principles that should enable you to make the lines smoother and fluid.
Hubbard explains the harmonic foundation of each of the ten cells and demonstrates how each is applied over a typical jazz blues chord progression. Finally, he puts together a matrix of those options for each of the chord types used, and writes out nine choruses of blues walking bass lines to show how they can be combined and matched in an actual playing situation.
Again, don't let the lean size of this manual trick you into thinking that it is not a big deal, because it does cover a lot of ground, and if you put in proper work it will give you a lot of mileage out of it. The best things that simultaneously you will get instant authentic sounding solution for all the common harmonic contexts, as well as the understanding that should enable you to adapt the lines to any other musical environment. As the matter of fact, once you understand what the ingredients are and how they are effectively combined, that knowledge ought to allow you to build good sounding lines in any situation, regardless of the style and genre.
While there is not really such thing as shortcut to jazz proficiency, this is as close as you can get to it - highly recommended!
Actually, when it comes to sound production on the bass, by far the grand majority of players are on the plucking side, i.e. using fingerstyle, as opposed to using a pick (plectrum) to put the strings into motion. Of course, the two approach are not mutually exclusive, and there have been phenomenal players featuring either of those. I tend to choose based on what sounds better in a given piece of music, all the more so since some styles of music are better suited for one or the other.. That said, the great Bobby Vega, one of the premiere proponents of the pick, says that "you can make the pick sound like fingers, but not the other way around".
Here is another excellent representative of the picking camp - Cody Wright - explaining the WHYs and HOWs of his approach. I find is particularly interesting because he is known for this ferocious funk playing, which is a style typically associated with fingerstyle or slap, but not so much with pick,
Hope this inspires you to look for and experiment with new sonic expressions on bass.
There are probably a few words/phrases in the bass playing world, and particularly in the field of learning, that immediately evoke one of those "love it or hate it" feeling. And there is no doubt that walking bass is one of those.
Those who belong to the latter category mostly don't like the kind of music typically related to this sort of bass lines and feel, i.e. jazz and blues, but they actually fail to perceive this approach to building the foundation in other musical styles, such as pop, rock, ska etc.
In terms of learning bass, the "dislikers" tend to shun the thing for being tedious and lacking excitement. What they fail to see, however, is that both arguments are mostly applicable in the early stages of work, but in the long term it can be downright exhilarating. But, even more importantly, the overall learning benefits from embarking on this path are numerous and hard to reach otherwise. Without going into a long rant, the study of the walking bass will build your harmonic understanding of music as a whole, develop your sense of pulse and rhythm, propel the command of the fingerboard in a non-artificial way etc.
Now, while I plan to do some in-depth coverage of some excellent material available on the subject, there are a couple of very good free online resources that can give you a good start and form a solid foundation for any future study, should you decide to undertake it. If not, this could be enough to open enough doors to better understanding of what you are doing as a bassist in any other kind of band.
Let me begin with someone the readers of this blog are probably acquainted with - Posido Vega. He has what would probably be adequately described as extended lesson about the walking bass, covering all the necessary ingredients: chord tones, scale tones, chromatic approaches. Besides that, he also provides the recipe for putting it all together (i.e. how to organize your learning), as well as a handful of useful "cookbooks" (i.e. books by renowned authors). The lesson is presented in text, with music examples in standard notation and tablature.
The other, but by no means lesser, website that you should visit is the aptly titled Walking Bass Lessons by Tomasz Ziobro. He touches upon the same topics as in the previous case, naturally, but in a somewhat more comprehensive manner, with individual lessons on the abovementioned "ingredients", with the addition of voice leading. Another difference is the formatting of the material, where the underlying theoretical concepts are offered in writing, but the main segment is done in video. As the matter of fact, for the literary challenged, the videos are available on Ziobro's Youtube channel, along with a bunch of his other bass lessons.
So, there you have it! I hope this will both encourage you to tackle the interesting realm of walking bass and help pointing you in the right direction.
So far we haven't discussed any specific styles/genres of music as applied to bass, but this is as good time as any to change that. I mean, getting a firm grip on the fundamental aspects of the craft, in terms of good sound production mechanics (i.e. instrumental technique), music principles (theory) and how they relate to the instrument (fretboard command) are of course necessary, but ultimately - we do want to use all of those while making music with a band, right?
Some styles are considered better as a platform for the overall academic study (jazz), but even within that world, there seems to be a special joy in performing a convincing rendition of some Latin-tinged standard. That said, the term "Latin" is not exactly narrow in meaning, being essentially a geographic reference. In other words, the sheer number of Latin styles can be a rather deep rabbit hole if you decide to go down that avenue. Still, it no reason to be reluctant...
As with any other filed of study, a proper introduction can establish a good foundation to build upon as the time goes by. Well, here is a quite nice lesson presented by Dewayne Pate, a long time professional bassist, best known for his work with Robben Ford.
Dewayne Pate - "Latin Bass Techniques" from Jesse Block on Vimeo.
In some of the future posts I will review some more educational materials on Latin bass, but hopefully this was enough to spark some interest in this great branch of music.
