The bass player must create interesting lines under the chord changes, keep the time flow or pulse steady, and keep the form of the song together. The book starts out very basic so that all bass players can learn. Nothing too difficult, just make sure you are stamping your foot two times per second and that you are counting from 1 to 4 in time with your foot beat. Due to the nature of walking bass lines, the only rhythmic value you will see in this book is a quarter note. There is a big tendency for players to seek for advanced and complicated topics while they still did not master the basics. Paul musso dives into jazz guitar with an emphasis on walking bass lines.
Here is an example with the chord progression c7 f7. Mel bay the bass has been called the most important instrument in any band. Its a great starting place for the beginning jazz bassist. To walk bass lines on the ii v i, all we have to do is learn three different walking patterns. A comprehensive guide to constructing walking jazz bass lines for the double bassist and electric jazz bassist is a complete 12key guide to techniques and devices used to construct walking jazz bass lines in the jazz tradition. As the title says, i would like to learn how to play and compose walking bass lines. It is absolutely crucial for the student to learn the material in the correct order and not to go ahead of oneself.
Learn several essential walking bass line patterns over the jazz standard fly me to the moon. In this lesson i share some essential walking bass patterns. A stepbystep method for developing extraordinary technique on the bass guitar strengthen your overall facility on the instrument with this series of exercises and lessons, presented in an effective themeandvariation format. Constructing walking jazz bass lines, book 1, the blues in 12 keys. For further rhythmic training, i highly recommend the book, modern reading tat. How to create an appropriate walking bass line for jazz tunes. The bass line descends the scale and lands on the root of the next chord. How to create bass lines 5 ostinato or riff bass an ostinato is a repeated rhythmicmelodic. In general, we make this transition smooth by limiting the interval between these two notes to either a half step semitone, whole step tone or a perfect5th. Simple walking bass line for jazz beginners talkingbass. Building walking basslines is a complete method book for learning how to improvise walking basslines. The bass lines in the section are for you to learn, memorize, and play in a real live playing situation. This is a nononsense book that gets quickly to the heart of the matter.
How to create a walking bass line if you know how to create a walking bass line, you can be more creative in your jazz playing. If you know how to create a walking bass line, you can be more creative in your jazz playing. Building walking bass lines bass instruction pdf free download. The term walking is used to describe the moving feeling that quarter notes create in the bass part. The great thing is that james has provided backing tracks for you to get a more in depth knowledge to the lessons. It would best be appreciated by the intermediate to advanced student already familiar with the fundamentals of electric bass guitar technique.
Description of the book building walking bass lines. So what walking bass line the complete bass player. Using common jazz progressions such as the jazz blues. A bassline also known as a bass line or bass part is the term used in many styles of music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic, traditional music, or classical music for the lowpitched instrumental part or line played in jazz and some forms of popular music by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, cello, tuba or keyboard piano, hammond organ. The bass lines are good and one simple addition to know is that just about any chord walking bass line, you can always use a leading tone that is, 12 step below to whatever is the next chord.
Paypal will automatically convert from us dollars to your currency using the exchange rate at the. Written in notation and tablature, walking bass provides a thorough grounding in chord theory as applied to the electric bass. The bass has been called the most important instrument in any band. This series of lessons focuses on separating chords from bass lines, which is good for a. An essential comping technique that every guitarist learns at some point is comping with bass lines. Walking bass lines are a style of playing in which the bass player plays quarter notes which clearly outline the chords and chord tones, seamlessly outlining one chord and resolving to the next. Here is the basic bass pattern you will play over the e7 chord. The specific goal of this book is to familiarize players with the techniques used to build walking bass lines and to make them aware of how the process works. The paperback of the constructing walking jazz bass lines book iii walking bass lines standard lines by steven mooney at barnes. Its made up of the root, 3rd, 5th and 6th degrees of an e major scale for all of you music theory buffs out there.
Learn walking bass from the master of walking bass himself. Building walking bass lines bookcd alb understand and create walking bass lines, the most common approach to jazz bass playing. For a young musician just beginning to dive into the art form, it can seem a daunting task. Hal leonard building walking bass lines bookaudio online. Bass guitara walking bass line is the most common approach to jazz bass playing, but. Bassist wilbur ware was a master at creating swinging lines utilizing these intervals. There are 24 modules and each lesson, a cd and notationtab of the module material, comes in the mail every 2 weeks. Therefore being in control of them and becoming fluent is crucial.
A guitar in standard tuning will never reach the lower bass notes of a real bass, but. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of. Walking bass by johnny rector book and online audio. Five steps to walking basslines on guitar guitar world. Book one of constructing walking bass lines focuses on the blues. Playing jazz guitar bass lines with chords the guitar is an extremely versatile instrument, with seemingly endless techniques and tones around every corner. It is found most commonly in blues and jazz, but as you learn bass guitar, you will hear its influence in almost any style of music. The first chapter covers over a dozen ways to approach a walking bass line. Walking bass lines are an essential part of blues and jazz piano especially if youre playing solo or without any kind of. Through the use of 90minutes worth of recorded rhythm tracks available online using the unique code in the book, players will have the opportunity to put the new learning directly into.
Beginners guide to walking bass lines bass tabs bass. A followup to building walking bass lines, this book approaches more advanced walking concepts, including modal mapping, the twofeel, several must know changes, and other important jazz bass lessons. It is technically demanding, harmonically advanced, and extremely interactive. I have included your bass lines in here so see if you can find your line as you play through these. Standard lines jazz and bebop standards book iii in the constructing walking jazz bass lines series for the jazz bassist is a comprehensive guide demonstrating the devices used to construct walking jazz bass lines in the jazz standard tradition. Constructing walking jazz bass lines book i the blues in 12 keys new 2hr mp3 playalong free download featuring all chord progressions in 12 keys from part ii of the book available from website. As joe pass says a good bass line must be able to stand by itself, meaning that you add the chords where you can. In 44 time there are four quarter notes in a bar, in 34, there are three. This is the first step in developing walking bass lines. The main point to consider when constructing walking bass lines is how to create a smooth transition between the last note of the current chord, and the first note of the next.
Fundamental concepts for walking bass a systematic method ebook by george urbaszek. Essential walking bass line patterns discover double bass. The two most important ingredients to this comping style are the feel and the bass line. In this lesson ill demonstrate how i approach playing walking bass lines and chords at the same time. When piano players copy this idea of walking bass lines, they generally do so by using their left hand to play the same role as that of the bass player. By explaining the basics of intervals, chords, and scales, the author builds a framework for understanding walking bass line patterns. These blues bass lines are like having a one chorus lick that you can rely on to always sound good when you play it. Though learning how to walk a bassline and comp at the same time can take a lot of experience and time in the woodshed, there are a few rules and pointers you can follow in order to get you off on the right foot as you begin to explore the world of.
One very important and widely used jazz guitar technique is playing bass lines in combination with chords. The cd includes recordings of the lesson materail as well as detailed explanations by mark. I really liked all of the lines that you guys wrote and hope you enjoy playing through this line as well. Constructing walking jazz bass lines book iii walking bass lines.
A good starting point when constructing walking bass lines is to use the intervals of the root, 5th and octave. This is a a way of playing that i use really a lot in situations where theres no bass player, so mostly duo settings with a guitar player, singer or horn. A walking bass line generally consists of notes of equal duration and intensity typically 14 notes that create a feeling of forward motion. Bass lessons beginners guide to walking bass lines bass tab standard string tuning g,d,a,e recommended 1. Start with the basic book and then move to the advanced book. For example, when you do steps 1, 2, or 3 above, you are creating the most basic kinds of ostinato.
Jazz bass books constructing walking jazz bass lines. The term walking is used to describe the moving feeling that quarter notes create in. There is a web site, that has an excellent remote learning course for bass. Book i by steven mooney, 9780982957097, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Below is the bass tablature for the basic blues in e bass line. And i really recommend marks study book of bass guitar. A followup to building walking bass lines, this book approaches more advanced walking concepts, including model mapping, the twofeel, several must know changes, and other important jazz bass lessons. A walking bass line is the most common approach to jazz bass p. In my previous post, how to keep your bass lines interesting, we defined what a bass line is and what its functions are, and looked at a few ways in which we can creatively negotiate chord changes. The first level will be to develop bass lines using triad chord tones only and resolve to the next chord root in the most economical way i. Building walking bass lines by ed friedland goodreads. To cite just a few representative studies, drumming sioros et al.
These riffs work over almost any chord which then moves up by an interval of a 4th to the next chord. Now its time to learn how to create a complete bass line from scratch. Its been approx 34 months that i follow the lessons and its really surprising to see progress with my playing on the bass and my music teory knowledge is getting better and better. Accompanying audio includes a jazz trio for practicing standard tunes. How to write a walking bass line learn jazz standards. Lessons in this segment focus on the fundamentals of bass playing. When learning how to play jazz guitar, one of the things that many players want to explore and get under their fingers is walking basslines. Walking bass line theory basicspart 1by chris fitzgerald.
Walking bass by johnny rector digital sheet music for e. Plus, if you can read the lines in this book youll be able to read pretty much just anything. Exercise 1 demonstrates this with several examples. Chord tones root, 3rd, 5th, 7th are the most powerful choice you can make when creating your walking lines. I have this book and no only is it a great way to get some very nice walking bass lines down, its a nice book for piano technique as well play the bass lines in both hands, together. How to play walking bass lines at the piano cocktail. Approach notes usually occur on the beat before a target note. Jazz is an incredibly difficult music to play in many ways. This book is designed to help bassists create walking patterns that can be used in a range of styles. The essential guide to walking bass for bass guitar. Expanding walking bass lines by ed friedland instructional book. A walking bass line is a more creative form of bass playing than the other swing styles because you choose new notes each time you play the same song. It then grows in information and examples to help you become a walking bassline monster.
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