To get going on your jazz walking on bass, remember to practice the Chordal Scale notes going across the board (up) and back down, to get used to the chordal scale notes.

Then use R235 for the major chords, R2b35 for the minor chords, or you can also use just the notes of the chords: R53R major, R5b3R minor.

If you have two bars of some chord, remember, you can always drop down to the lower 3rd and walk it up to the 5th etc. like: R low 3 4 #4 5 #5 6 7 to the R of the same chord if you’re still there.

If you change chords on the 3rd bar, then you’d play this same pattern: R low 3 4 #4 5 5 R 5 (actually any scale pattern here would be quite stale, altho’ you can play sometimes, a scale going down from the Root for a short distance, like R(8) 7 6 b6 5 3 R 5 something like that. It’s wise to get your chordal notes together so that you can hook onto ANY chordal note (not necessarily the Root of the chord, that’s always pretty corny if you’re closer to another chordal note instead), and remember that 2nd sometimes too.

Also, drop in an anticipated note sometimes on the 4-and. Be sure to listen to people like Ray Brown (only listen to the BEST for walking), and listen a LOT to the Standards I tape of mine too, which gets your ear used to hearing good walking note choices, and has the good jazz guitar feel on it you need for a good background to play to.

I’m getting done this week with the Jazz Improv book you will want to get a little later (or some of you are maybe ready for it now). Shows the right steps in getting your melodic chordal note improv together using all the finest of jazz phrases. You will need to get the “Pro’s Jazz Phrases” booklet tho’, for all the vocabulary phrases you will need — this book helps with getting your walking together too.

– Carol Kaye (February 18, 1999 )

These playing tips quoted from Carol Kaye’s website with permission. Visit her website for many more invaluable gems in the “Education’ section at http://www.carolkaye.com.

A veteran of over 10,000 recording sessions, Carol Kaye has written extensively on bass guitar technique. Contact Info: http://www.carolkaye.com

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My thumb is in the same place in both pics. This will help you gain the pivoting thumb technique you need for safe left-hand fingerings.

And for rock-funk-blues-gospel etc. types of pop music, don’t use your 3rd finger in place of your 4th finger, ever.

You can assist your 4th finger with your 3rd finger and sometimes when dropping down on the same fret use your 3rd finger (underneath, speaking of sounds now, down in sound is underneath) your 4th finger R 5th R, but aside from that, finger only 1-2-4-4.

When playing jazz soloing, and arpeggiating, of course you can use your 3rd finger, but never in place of the 4th finger.

If you look at your wrist, you will notice it turning sideways a little to accommodate that weak 3rd finger (which shares a ligament with the 4th finger), and that (IMO) causes carpal tunnel.

None of my students have ever had carpal tunnel (me neither) or tendonitis, etc. Just wanted to make sure you’re using the proper LH technique.

– Carol Kaye (March 27, 1999 )

These playing tips quoted from Carol Kaye’s website with permission. Visit her website for many more invaluable gems in the “Education’ section at http://www.carolkaye.com.

A veteran of over 10,000 recording sessions, Carol Kaye has written extensively on bass guitar technique. Contact Info: http://www.carolkaye.com

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Helpful playing tips from a legend of the bass guitar

Why I teach chordal tones instead of unpractical scales is easy to understand: all music song forms are formed around CHORDS, and the bass player has to know how to funtion in chordal progressions, know what chordal notes to play and how to movethem.

For decades, I’ve had so many so-called “scale-trained” students come to me for lessons — they can play a god-zillion amount of scales yet cannot play a simple chordal song at all. They don’t even know a simple jazz blues, can’t follow chords with their ears, and have NO IDEA of where their basic chordal notes are, cannot play a simple R35 arpeggio across the neck in *one* position.

This belies how terrible those scale-teachers are! Some have even been taking lessons for 2-3 years and could never play ONE TUNE! I get them to playing a tune first lesson and many are walking good lines in the jazz chords on the blues….in one lesson!

How? Simple, I teach them the basics of chordal notes, chordal scales (never note-scales). How chords move and function….and they are both angry and thrilled (angry at their past waste of time and money and thrilled to find out it was NOT THEM! That they did have talent, that they CAN learn!.

Most of your bass lines are made up from chordal notes, for all styles, altho’ the jazz styles require a more complete line of theory, it’s still thinking in *chords*! Jazz improv (and walking lines) use mainly chordal notes with some lead-in chromatics, some b5s on the cyclic chords, and yes, even an occasional scale (rarely tho’!) for connecting the chordal notes.

Pianists and trumpet players seem to overdo their jazz improv with a few scales, but if you really listen to the jazz patterns, they are formed from chordal notes, stacked triads, and the pivotal b5 chord substitutes: G7b5b9 (with the b9 replacing G), IS Db7. Db7b5b9 (with the b9 replacing the root) IS G7. No two other chords are like this.

Slonimsky wrote a WHOLE BOOK based on this pivot b5 pattern use (and mistakenly named “Thesaurus of Scales”), no, it’s not a “scale” book but a book of b5 patterns which even composers like John Williams, etc. Quincy Jones get some of their film screen compositional patterns from. Chordal tones of the pivotal b5 chords!

– Carol Kaye (February 26, 1999

These playing tips quoted from Carol Kaye’s website with permission. Visit her website for many more invaluable gems in the “Education’ section at http://www.carolkaye.com.

A veteran of over 10,000 recording sessions, Carol Kaye has written extensively on bass guitar technique. Contact Info: http://www.carolkaye.com

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