understanding bass lines

[frogtime]

hi guys

i cant understand the walking bass lines over changes while listening jazz. for example even though melody lets me guess it has the 1 6 2 5 , i cannot be sure whether there are b5s or tritone substitutions etc.

do you have advices for me to understand clearly what chords the bass players are playing?

[fep]

Given this post and your other post about the composition book...

I think you'd be interested in this:

Free Jazz Arranging Course

[frogtime]

thanks man. cool site. do you know any other useful sources that examples are animated that way?

i used to read books about arranging ( berklee, eric turkel..) but none of them could do this impact.

another thing;

in thousands of jazz oriented books counterpoint is overlooked. if you try to be curious about it; you encounter classical harmony books with full of old fashioned idiom with no much thing.

modulation is also a big concept even though jazz books only insist on ii v to new keys. the best situations of modulation is seen in clasiccal compositions. and classical harmony books are bullshit. do you know any books that is deeply into modulation? (not for jazz; in every musical situation)

[wizard3739]

Originally Posted by fep

I think you'd be interested in this:

Free Jazz Arranging Course

Hi Frank, This looks very interesting to me. I 'm going to check it out. Thanks for the link,

wiz

[robertm2000]

I learned about that by learning about root notes in the bass, then learning the inversions of the chords - bass notes that are in the chord will work, and if you know your chord inversions you can use notes that make bass lines that are scalar walking bass type lines.

[Billnc]

Originally Posted by frogtime

thanks man. cool site. do you know any other useful sources that examples are animated that way?

i used to read books about arranging ( berklee, eric turkel..) but none of them could do this impact.

another thing;

in thousands of jazz oriented books counterpoint is overlooked. if you try to be curious about it; you encounter classical harmony books with full of old fashioned idiom with no much thing.

modulation is also a big concept even though jazz books only insist on ii v to new keys. the best situations of modulation is seen in clasiccal compositions. and classical harmony books are bullshit. do you know any books that is deeply into modulation? (not for jazz; in every musical situation)

Learn bass lines on guitar. I enjoyed it so much I started playing bass. The very nature of jazz is improvisational. The bass player is going to do his thing, as an individual artist. The accompanist, the same and the soloist the same, all reacting off each other. The rules of counterpoint require a piece to be written, I believe. You can use the ideas to perform but by nature of improvisation classical counterpoint will break down.

Analyzing the bass and chords and melody together can be interesting, but in reality the players are reacting while all following their own line of thought.

[frogtime]

man for example bass player is playing

C G Bb F Ab Em G D lines again and again

but melody is playing 1 6 2 5 (im talking about friday the 13th of sonny rollins)

since bass player is probably outlining roots and fifths, harmony is possibly C - Bb Ab G7 it means 1 3 2 5 ? but its wrong,

furthermore while trying to understand walking bass, piano is rarely playing thirds and sevenths. so understanding exact chord types is a really big challenge. of course recording is pretty old and its difficult to hear.

understanding real music is not as easy as band in a box

[kaishakov]

What also works well is connecting chord notes with the scale the song is in at that moment or by "bumbing" in those chord tones by playing a half note below or above those chord notes.

There is a good lesson about it on youtube by jody fisher, on how to play walking bass lines on guitar:
Jody Fisher Guitar Quick Tip - "Walking Bass" - YouTube