The function of a bass player in the jazz combo is to work with the piano player and drummer to provide both a harmonic and rhythmic stability for the tune. Walking bass line theory basicspart 1by chris fitzgerald. The bassment free bass guitar transcriptions in standard. Luckily, fener play has a plethora of easily digestible lessons that highlight the basslines of some of the. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of jazz online jazz handbook welcome to the bass chapter of the thelonious monk institute of jazz s online jazz handbook. Pc clearly is the one in the drivers seat for this recording. When creating a bass line, how do i know what notes im allowed to use.
The description below is for the pdf and audio files. The jazz bass line book advance music downes, mike on. A good starting point when constructing walking bass lines is to use the intervals of the root, 5th and octave. Each example includes not only written basslines, but also a series of exercises that stepbystep introduce root motion, chord tones, scale patterns and chromatic halfstep approaches. Scroll down to view pdf bass tabs from our artists and bands starting with the letter a. These are movable triad patterns and by just playing the same pattern at other frets you will change keys.
Now its time to learn how to create a complete bass line from scratch. To download a pdf bass tab, browse the list of alettered artists, then find the bass tab you wish to download. The mp3 files have the piano panned all the way left and the bass all the way right so. While some knowledge of music theory is necessary, excellent bass lines can be. Bass tablature for a cool little jazz line by bass lessons. Learn jazz bass soloing with essential arpeggios and scales. The jazz standards in the real book are more balanced in that respect and fea. Of course you can learn to read basslines and reading is important, but id venture that 90% of the bass work you hear in rock, blues, pop or jazz is done on the fly by the bass player.
This tune is mainly made up of a ii v7 i in major and a ii7b5 v7 i in the relative minor. The bassline construction method explored here uses chord tones, approach notes and basic reharmonization. The bass note of the chord is the most important note and will usually be played on the first beat of the bar or where the chord changes. If you like these ideas and want more information, my books walking bass lines for jazz guitar and walking bass lines for bass guitar are available at. Power tab files are usually more accurate than ascii bass tabs. The bassment is a mean machine groove for bass players.
Theres no real way to definitively state that, yes, these. Also, dont forget to write out your lines at first and really practice these. The symbol of the bass clef is derived from the old german way of writing f. The bassline construction method explored here uses chord tones, approach notes. Its free and it is packed with lots of materials and tips that are essential to learn the correct initial approach to the instrument. These blues bass lines are like having a one chorus lick that you can rely on to always sound good when you play it. Each example includes not only written basslines, but also a series of. One very important and widely used jazz guitar technique is playing bass lines in combination with chords. The purpose of this book is to provide the beginning to intermediate jazz bassist a working vocabulary of walking basslines and concepts for improvising. Jazz bass books constructing walking jazz bass lines. First off, before we begin, it is important that you take a look at your skillset.
Playing jazz guitar bass lines and chords terence wright. Without those substitutions the chords would be as follows e7 a7 d7 g7. This style heavily utilizes the roots and 5ths of chords. Simple walking bass line for jazz beginners talkingbass. How many notes have paths leading to their letter names. Here you fill find jazz walking bass line books, excellent resources for learning to play jazz walking bass lines. Constructing walking jazz bass lines walking bass lines 3 book set for a limited time buy books 1 3 and take our walking bass workshop course free.
R 3 5 6 7 walking bass line theory basics chris fitzgerald. To download a pdf bass tab, browse the list of slettered artists, then find the bass tab you wish to download. Walking bass exercises for jazz guitar lesson with tabs and audio. For this walking bass line im going to use only two scale patterns as the foundation for the whole thing. Playing lines based on root notes should be every players starting point when learning bass. Often when playing with a guitar or keyboard player you can follow the chords they play. More than 460 free transcriptions for bass and other instruments on basslessons. If you have a solid rhythm section, then anything you put on top has a good.
The bass plays an equally important role as any other instrument in music. Many of the documents on this page are in pdf format. For ascending lines im using the scale degrees 1 2 3 5. Get a hold of the fundamentals before tackling this.
Walking bass line jazz standards swing tune bass tab by misc unsigned bands. Mike downes the jazz bass lines book free ebook download as pdf file. Take a one or two bar phrase and transpose it to all 12 keys. Building bass lines 5 it is common practice by jazz bassists to simplify a walking bass line by playing only on beats one and three, usually during the beginning of the tune when the melody is being played. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of. This simplification is known as a twobeat bassline. Jazz organ bass lines walking bass lines on the hammond organ. Walking walking shuffle equinox style jazz waltz 34 time bossa nov. The bassline is a very important part of songwritingproducing and along with the drums, forms the backbone of a song, the rhythm section is essential to the overall feel of a piece of music. 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. Next, right click on the bass tab file and choose save as. This is a nice websiteblog about playing upright bass.
Walking bass lines for jazz guitar by stephan badreau is a step by step guide to harmonizing bass lines on the guitar. Weve assembled a list of our top five bass lines and. Misc unsigned bands walking bass line jazz standards. Rewrite words using notes on lines or in spaces as required. A slightly embellished version of this kind of line would also be typical of a basic boogie woogie type bass line, as in the following example. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of jazz online jazz handbook welcome to the bass chapter of the thelonious monk institute of jazzs online jazz handbook. The majority of the presentation will focus on walking bass lines in a 44 meter.
Pay attention, burn through this as fast as you can, and you. From jazz bassist to popular music icon by joshua andrew zarbo, b. This week we are going to work through autumn leaves for our walking bass line. Book has been the most popular book for gigging jazz. For when you have to learn to play the bass right now. The bass lines in the section are for you to learn, memorize, and play in a real live playing situation. From john lee hooker to saltnpepa, here are 10 simple songs you can learn on the bass in minutes.
If you are wishing to order the pdfmp3 files please go to the correct page as this product is for the pdf file only. Throughout the course, you will learn techniques for playing effective walking bass lines over jazz chord changes. The bass is a powerful instrument that has developed over the years and now is used in many different way to create various styles of music. Often it is easy to hear everything but the bassist. Complete lesson for ii v i major soloing with notation, tab and audio for bass guitar. Rather than arm you with a few examples of walking bass lines, this book will show. There are 10 riffs which i think are classic bass lines that are easy to play and you can have a lot of fun with them and muck around with.
For example, when you do steps 1, 2, or 3 above, you are creating the most basic kinds of ostinato. If you are just beginning your bass playing journey, one of the best ways to test yourself and improve is to learn your favorite songs. There is a pdf including all the notes on the neck and sopme tips and tricks to memorise them. Click here for the transcription pdf of paul chambers bass line on airegin a bass player who makes grown men tremble in fear at the mere mention of his name. In this lesson, we will show you a couple of jazz bass lines that will help to open your eyes to the use of chords and chromatics within jazz bass guitar playing. How to create bass lines 5 ostinato or riff bass an ostinato is a repeated rhythmicmelodic. Last 4 bars we have gm7 c7 to f, first we play a bass line which is very common. Lines, in this handout, bert ligon shares some basic concepts of constructing good jazz bass lines. Blues with a bass line jazz piano college 154 youtube. You are also going to get a free backing tracks of jazz standards that we are going to be working on. An easy lesson in essential bass technique with tab and audio.
Scroll down to view pdf bass tabs from our artists and bands starting with the letter s. Bassist wilbur ware was a master at creating swinging lines utilizing these intervals. Also included in each example are the scales, modes and. Jazz bass explores the key ingredients necessary to play great jazz bass lines, including the sound, feel, foundation, and power. There are a couple of exceptions as youll see but for the most part were looking at one line for ascending and one line for descending. Jazz bass soloing fundamental changes music book publishing. The collection of material of this book is, in our opinion, the basics to playing bass guitar for some event. From the funkiest bass grooves to the most lyrical bass solos, from the 50s up until 2020. Constructing walking jazz bass lines walking bass workshop. Just one take, drum tracks made by myself, 20 riffs you should know. How to write a walking bass line learn jazz standards.
Just sign up underneath that page and ill send you a pdf with all the bass lines, links to the actual recordings, plus my analysis of the bass lines and why they work so well. The mp3 files have the piano panned all the way left and the bass all the way right. Use these lines to get you going the right direction when you start playing a blues. Ive had people send me lists that could easily be the top ten most recognizable metal bass lines, and had the top ten most recognizable motown bass lines, which will all still be your favorite, whether you know it or not. You will also have learned a system for analyzing a bass line that will help you to understand why some bass lines work and others dont. Top ten most recognizable basslines seymour duncan. In this example, the bass line consists of simple arpeggiations of each chord, giving the overall effect of a simple blues bass line. The bass lines are good and one simple addition to know is that just about any chordwalking bass line, you can always use a leading tone that is, 12 step below to whatever is the next chord.
A thesis submitted to the graduate council of texas state university in partial fulfillment. The only 4 types of bass lines youll ever need to create. In measures 1920 the eb7, and db7 are tritone chord substitutions. Just found the best bass notation site in the universe, also offering tab to the lesser bass mortals, just cannot understand why it took me so long to find you.
This tempo is north of 290bpm, which may be difficult for many bass players to maintain, however mr. To help you with learning this material, i have included pdf files with standard. In this lesson you will learn a common major triad pattern. Learning walking bass lines is like learning language. Mike downes the jazz bass lines book chord music melody. James jamerson from jazz bassist to popular music icon. Bass lines from chord symbols constructing bass lines from chord symbols is not only a useful skill but is regarded as essential in most forms of music outside of classical music. For example, a short pattern that is played on two strings could be played on strings 12, 23, 34, 45, and 56. Jahrah stevens approach is masterly crafted to ensure that you are playing strong bass lines right out of the gate in all twelve keys with numerous exercises to reinforce each and every concept whether theoretically andor harmonically in a very comprehensive and progressive approach including clearly written directions of the various concepts for the thoroughly written out exercises. Free stuff national jazz workshop a summer jazz camp at. Try to play the phrase on as many sets of strings as possible. A guitar in standard tuning will never reach the lower bass notes of a real bass, but.
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