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First Steps in Walking Jazz Bass

by Eli Bennett

Jazz means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but in this case I'm referring to four-to-the-bar walking bebop, like Dizzy Gillespie or Charlie Parker. It can be daunting to get started, but my first jazz teacher, actually a piano player at college, told me there are three things the bass needs to do in this bop style of walking jazz:

1. Play the root when the chord changes.
2. Play quarter notes, four to the bar.
3. Interact with the other musicians!

Loose at best, but after some experimentation and listening, I doped my way through it. Here's a short starter course on what I was able to develop.

This style of bebop is all about forward motion and anticipation -- tension and release, tension and release. You want to use the notes you play not only to define the chord you're playing, but to provide forward motion by setting up the chord that's COMING UP. So you need to look ahead to the next two or three chords to decide how you're going to handle "this one."

Lots of jazz progressions move down in fifths, as in iii-vi-ii-V-I. I'll confine my comments to these progressions since they are so common. Chords last largely either 4 beats or 2 beats.

If a chord is 4 beats, you can go scalar down one scale degree per beat, or you can go scalar up inserting an accidental between the 2nd and 3rd scale degree. Also note that the half-step is the most powerful force in music. You want to propel the music forward, and you can do that by setting up anticipation of where the next note will be.

Examples of all of the above, using the progression Bb7 - Eb7 (letters in these examples all indicate single quarter notes, not chords):

Scalar down: | Bb Ab G F | Eb.....
Scalar up: | Bb C C# D | Eb....
Tritone sub: | Bb Ab F E | Eb....

Notice in the last two examples how inevitable the Eb is after the two half steps right before it. THAT is the propulsion you want to create. The E natural under the Bb7 chord in the third example is called a "tritone substitution" - it changes the chord from Bb7 to E7 (with a b5). More on that later.

You can also add the tritone sub to an arpeggio like so:

| Bb D F E | Eb.... (try this with the D BELOW the Bb too!)

Or mix up the arpeggio:

| Bb F D E | Eb.... (Again, try the F either below or above the Bb.)

Also consider repeated notes:

| Bb Bb D D | Eb.....

This can be effective to really "lay down the law" and bring everyone "back to earth" if things have been kind of wild for a couple of choruses.

For two beats per chord, the easiest 2nd note choice is either the 3rd or the tritone of the chord you're in -- which amounts to approaching the next root from either above or below by a half step.

| Bb D Eb....|

| Bb E Eb....|

This will work in either the front half or the back half of any bar.

Within all of this, you need to keep track primarily of the 3rd and the 7th. You need to play major chords as major chords and minor as minor. Similarly, you need to play maj7 chords with the major 7th, and dominant ("plain old 7th") chords with the lowered 7th. The tritone substitution does not work well with maj7 chords. To my ear, the tritone sub works OK under minor 7th chords. You may not agree -- in which case, it's YOUR bass line, play it how you want it!

The tritone substitution changes a dominant 7th chord into the dominant 7th chord a tritone away. For example, the 3rd and 7th of Bb7 are D and Ab. With E under them, they change to D and G#, the 3rd and 7th of the E7 chord. The coolest thing about this substitution is that nobody has to play it but you! The real reason to use this device is that a dominant 7th -- say, Bb7 -- wants to resolve down a fifth, to Eb. The tritone is E, which is a half step from Eb, and there's your inevitable next note. You've set it up AND driven it home, all with just two notes.

NOW: Atmospherics. Feel.

I've always tried to mix up these approaches -- arpeggiated, scalar, repeated -- within a chorus. But use your ears: If the arpeggio thing is sounding kind of sing-songy, go to scalar. When the repeated note trick wears out, drop it. And when the quarter-note thing gets kind of ploddy, try to anticipate when the drummer (or anyone else, for that matter) is going to hit a syncopated accent (like the "and" of beat 4 in the last bar of a whole chorus), and HIT IT WITH 'EM. You will then be entering the world of really playing together, learning each others' styles and tastes and complimenting each other. With enough playing time with a particular musician (I discuss the drummer frequently because the drum-bass interaction is so important), you'll get to know how they set up particular little phrases, and you'll learn to communicate what's coming UP through what you're playing NOW. (It is entirely legal to use your face and body to communicate as well.) This communication through music is the essence of good jazz. It's a lofty goal but entirely achievable.

Good jazz is a dicussion -- you want to interact and inspire each other to play better. Kick people in the pants once in a while by playing something unexpected!

This little lesson ought to keep you busy for a rehearsal or two. It's kept me busy for the last 25 years. Good luck!