5 Myths About Walking Bass Lines We Need to Debunk
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
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Scott LaFaro - “Autumn Leaves” • Bill Evans Trio - Autu...
Walter Page - “Lady Be Good” • Oh, Lady Be Good
Butch Warren - “Evidence” • Evidence (Justice) (Li...
Ray Brown - “Worksong” • Work Song
Oscar Pettiford - “Tricotism” • Tricrotism
Paul Chambers - “Giant Steps” • John Coltrane - Giant ...
Oscar Pettiford - “Juicy Fruit” • Juicy Fruit
Doug Watkins - “Tune Up” • Tune Up
00:00 Intro
00:11 Welcome and overview
01:00 Myth 1
05:13 Myth 2
08:25 Myth 3
13:56 Myth 4
18:19 Myth 5
22:00 Closing thoughts
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Embellishments are effective in inverse proportion to the frequency of their use.
Mr. Israels! Well said as always. Wishing you all the best, always!
Once I was chastised by a very high level jazz player for playing repeated notes in my lines. He said "jazz is supposed to be a conversation, so why would you keep saying 'hello, hello, hello' over and over?" 🤣
Another player once said to me "you know all that stuff you play between the notes in your lines? Just hear that in your head but don't actually play it!"
Hahaha that’s great 😂 And yeah that’s why I made sure to say “use this wisely” haha
Playing the same phrase (bass line) on the last 2 or 4 bars of a chorus (while varying the content otherwise) is a wonderful way of delineating the form for the audience and band mates, and give some strong structure to our walking bass accompaniment.
Agreed :)
Great to see this video Matt. We played a duo gig years ago (out east, there was an emergency cancelation and somehow I got the call on trumpet) and it was such a blast playing with you. Duo bass and trumpet gigs are not exactly common, but I didn't miss the chordal player. Everything you discussed here is evident in how you play, and it's much appreciated. Also, as a Composer, this is super useful. Thanks for breaking this stuff down so clearly - definitely food for thought when writing out specific lines either for thru-composed sections or for young players.
Hey man! Yes I remember totally. I want to use your name to say hi but don’t want to dox you haha. Thank you again for doing such a killer job last minute! I regret not having a chance to play more! Thanks for watching and your extremely kind words!
Finally, someone said all of that! This is rapidly becoming one of the best bass channels on TH-cam and certainly my favourite!
Wow thank you for your very kind words and for watching!
@@LearnJazzBasswithMattRybicki Thank you Matt for this world-class content! Cheers!
Thing is, you don't want it to sound too chordy, or too scaley, or too riffy, or too random. But then again, you want it to sound all those things, at the same time. Walking bass is a conundrum.
excellent summary haha
When playing jazz walking bass lines I have a tendency of keeping it simple and interesting while trying not to do too much even if it means repeating notes and ideas sometimes. As you mentioned as bassists its mainly all about supporting the musicians around us and outlining/supporting the harmony/chord progression of a tune. Great instructional video by the way!
Greetings from Germany. Your lessons are also very easy to understand, even for non-native speakers. Thank you.
Grüße! Vielen Dank fürs Zuschauen und ich freue mich sehr, dass Sie es verstehen können. Hilft es, die Option für Untertitel zu aktivieren? Ist es möglich, die Bildunterschriften auf Deutsch zu lesen?
It works with the subtitles. Thank you.
In German.
Thank you for your words on Myth number one. So many teachers say that the bass' role is to outline the chords, and I think that is totally wrong. As you say, that's the job of the chordal instruments. Our job in my opinion is to underpin the harmony and set the groove. To me, when it comes to note choices, it's less important to keep to the harmony and more important not to fight it (too much).
Thanks for your comment, I agree i! I think the word "outline" in the tricky part, right? That's why I try to specify something to the degree of "Reinforce" as opposed to "outline" because that sounds like arpeggiation. I think I'm understanding what you wrote I hope? Thanks again
@@LearnJazzBasswithMattRybicki My pleasure, happy to be a part of the conversation! And yes, you read my post correct;ly
As a trumpeter, i just started learning the bass and the myths that you touched on was gold. I think all these years I been mystified thinking the greats were playing more than they actually do. Not so scary now. What a great time to live and play music, thanks for the info.
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you, from the bottom of my heart. This is the lesson/conversation we were waiting for. Very insightful!
You’re so welcome!
Most definitely! This clears up a lot of indecision (and a bit of apprehension) in my approach to playing walking basslines. I feel like I just got a whole lot better at it.
@@tomdbass1 That is AWESOME to hear!!
Topic & examples in this Video are Great!…After viewing the video,one thought that came to mind…”Less is More” is not a Myth 🎶🎶🎶
Thanks Matt!
Yes sir! Thank you!
So true, after 30 years of playing walking bass in blues or jazz, and mostly on electric which allows for way more fancy stuff, I’ve drastically reduced the amount of notes played because: RHYTHM FIRST, make it swing, it doesn’t matter if you do R-R-5th-7th | R-3rd-5th-5th on the same chord being played twice in a row in the progression, if it swings, it wins 🤷🏻♂️
Yes sir, totally agree
Great video, very clearly thought through and presented- thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching
Great advice and thank you for wearing a lav mic instead of having a relic huge Sm7b in yo face !
Haha thanks for watching and appreciating the mic thing. It’s actually
Kind of hard to figure out! I’m still
Working on getting the best sound. But that big mic in the face trend is a bit much I agree!
As an organist, I also find this very helpful. Thank you.
Wonderful!
Good video. This is the first thing I've heard or seen from you and yes, I just subscribed. Thanks for taking on the daunting task that all music teachers have to deal with, that being trying to describe what a melody is, and how to make one without limiting the students choices. Keep up the great work.
Thank you so very much for your kind words, for watching, and subscribing!
Thanks Matt once more for your time and your love doing this.Great video as usual.Your channel is a true present.
Thank you!
This is such a great video! Love your channel! However I would like to make an amendment on the myth#5 that is about note choises.
I think notechoises is actually very important in regards to "planning ahead" in your basslines. Its very hard to get the right feel if you cannot plan ahead longer than the next quarternote. It was during a longer period when I really made an effort to transcribe other bassists choises of notes (and feel of course) that I could eventually relax enough to get the proper feel for the music. I think that notechoises and rhythm are interconnected in that way.
This was true for me anyway. I suspect that maybe I'm not all alone in this.
Hi there thanks for your very kind words and for watching! What you're saying here is an amazing level of subtlety that's really so true. The idea that you presented really blew me away, sincerely. But let me push back just a touch: given a *binary* choice between notes and feel, for argument's sake, a listener will "forgive" wrong notes exponentially more than they would forgive bad feel. Broadly, I wasn't saying notes aren't important (I mean, I know you know I wasn't saying that) but rather that feel is often under-valued in the equation and note-choice is often overvalued. All that said, again, what you wrote is wonderfully observant. Thanks again!
@@LearnJazzBasswithMattRybicki Wow! Thanks for the kind words! I really love this discussion ;-). I actually agree with you 1000%. My comment was just intended as an amendment and not any critique at all. But I do think one can complicate this just a little bit at least. I really think that "myth#5" has a given place in a list of myths like this! If any one forced me to make this choice at gunpoint I would easily choose rhythtm/feel over notes any day of the week. But I guess my thought was: Is it actually ever going to be that binary in reality? Maybe rhythm is the destination and notechoices is a vehicle to get there? Maybe one can look at it that way? I have no idea, but I think about this a lot as this opened up things for me so much in my own playing.
@@linusklevebrant6006 Yes I totally understand and agree! I think the "myth" was (like the others, but especially this one) about sort of just reminding all of us to stay balanced with note vs. feel. Especially those players who are maybe just starting on the path, the note thing is so hard, it often becomes a priority "accidentally". So the "myth" is sort of just a reminder I guess. I really appreciate your thoughts on this, thanks for talking with me
Nice vid dude - thanks for the plug! I wrote that article when I was a wee lad back in college, like 2005 or so. Wow! Time flies.
Pete!! Man, thanks for writing it. It’s sincerely stuck with me (obviously). Hope all is well man!
@@LearnJazzBasswithMattRybicki hope you are well too - great job with the channel!
Love your vids and your books Matt! (I’ve learned Easy Does It and working on The Gravy Waltz out of your Ray Brown book now). I’m curious, when you go through and learn these transcriptions, especially to the level that you have analyzed them (ex. Paul Chambers Giant Steps line) is that burned into your mind and if/when you play that live or are you able to remove yourself from the transcription and do your own thing? I ask as I have a tendency to kind memorize things in a verbatim fashion, which is kind of a curse that I’m trying to break. For instance if I were to get to the level of playing with others, and had to play Easy Does It, currently I know I’d default to playing the transcription because it’s burned in my head like a program.
Thanks John! (I think it's John?) I really appreciate your kind words. That's a wonderful question - for me, it's mostly I'm able to remove the transcription because honestly my memory is not that good ha! But for a fair handful of things - like parts of a certain transcription (intros or something) - I agree that I also have a hard time *not* doing those things on a given tune. Like the way that Ray plays "The Days of Wine and Roses" - I constantly play that the way he does and I get so annoyed with myself haha. So I think my answer is a little of both. If I were to take the next step and think about how to change that (if I wanted to or if you wanted to), I would say I would try to spend dedicated time figuring out *something else* to play on a given piece while in the practice room. And then turn my attention to that before I'm about to play that song on a gig - basically consciously trying to avoid what's been done by someone else and try to apply what I've worked out. Lastly, though, don't forget that imitation is a big part of learning the music! I think it's more than OK to copy someone as we work towards creating our own "voice". Thanks again!
So good, helpful and appreciated Matt. thanks
Thank you for watching!
Thank you for your excellent tutorial!
Thank you for watching and your kind words!
Thank you.I’m interested
Thank you!
The myth about repeating ideas is a hard one to justify. The idea of starting themes and varying them is huge in music. Its part of what we love as listeners. I've started studying sam jones version of Jeaninne and he comes back to that wonderful line repeatedly
Thanks for your comment and for watching! But I'm sorry, I'm confused - you say "hard one to justify" ..meaning you don't agree? Or am I reading that wrong
Nice! Great thanks for examples!
My pleasure!
I wish it were possible to give this video more than just one thumbs-up. Great stuff.
Oh wow thanks!
The walking in itself is ok.
A stumble can occur sometimes.
A sidestep can occur sometimes.
Like with walking on the streets constant normal walking is totally ok.
wow, great video. thank you so much for this
Thanks for watching!
When i , guitarist, play C7 b9/b13 i do not play the fifth in the chord does that mean the Bass Player can not play the fifth or can he or she play this note when he or she is playing the walking bass line? thanks for the very interesting lessons
Thanks for watching and for your great question. It’s all good if you’re both playing the fifth - and in fact it’s pretty much fine for both of us to play the same thing at any point, with any note. It’s a question of degrees though. If in theory you’re always playing exactly what the bass plays then that’s going to sound weird. And for the bass to play the #11 for example in a passing moment is more than fine. It’s just a general approach - it’s like “*take into account* what the other person is playing”. If you’re playing a LOT of the same note choices that are chord tones it’s fine but will sounds little unsophisticated. If it happens in passing here and there it’s absolutely
Part of the normal
Course of things. Generally, though, it’s my understanding that you and a pianists voicings are going to, by default in more advanced language, contain a higher “percentage” of the extensions than chord tones. So if all parties are aware of and take into account the general approach of the other players (harmonically), we can make a more complete sound. This is all generalized though! And what I was saying in the video is too! Again it’s more like “consider what the other person will likely be doing and decide from there”. If a guitarist WANTS to play a lot of the same choices as the bass, there’s no real police that will show up! There’s no “real” serious consequences / other than someone else may or
May not like your choices. I *would*
ask though, most of all, please please please be aware that guitar (especially amplified guitar) has a ton of frequencies that interfere with the bass frequencies - making it even harder to hear the bass. Please take that into account!
@@LearnJazzBasswithMattRybicki So in short we can say: "everything is possible!" Thanks for your answer
@@erikpors9775 Hey again - I realized that I totally misread your question. I missed the "..can NOT play.."...so my new, hopefully clearer answer, is that 100% the bass player can (and probably will) play the 5th if you're not playing it. It will sound good if they do, in fact. Thanks again
Berklee B-flat blues jam approved :)
Milt!!!!!!!!!! Hi!!!!! 🎉🎉🎉🎉😊😊😊 how are you? How great to see your name
Great thanks. Still deep in the music. And in touch with Davey. Wonderful to see you doing your thing. 🎉
@@miltonline oh amazing. I’m gonna try to email or text you and see if what i have still works
Hello!what are two book behind you? One is Ray brown book.what is other?
Hello! It’s a method book that I wrote for the publisher Hal Leonard! www.matthewrybicki.com/method-book
Great topic, I found myself using a lot of repetition (of notes and phrases) and using just a few rhythmic variations. Fortunately my teachers and fellow musicians don’t really argue about it. Again a lot of good informations. Thank you 🙏🏻.
Thanks man, for your continued support!
Thanks!
Wow thank you Kim! How generous!
Thank you, this video was an inside baseball.
Hahaha! That really made me chuckle, thanks
I have to say again how much I enjoy this kind of humor - I keep chuckling about what you wrote
Those last two bars on the Scott LaFaro were... insane. LOL. On the Ami7(b5) I can grasp two beats of the Eb (flat 5), but the two beats of D.. theoretically above my pay grade, but of course it is a simple descending musical passage... just does not compute because my brain would never choose a D on that Ami7(b5) chord.
After another careful listen, the only musical content when the D plays on the Ami7(b5) is in fact the bass. The piano goes silent on beats 3 and 4 on that bar. I was hoping to hear the piano do something other than an Ami7 b5.... so silence is close enough.
I appreciate your attention to detail! Well, if you just look at the whole 3 last bars together - he knows he needs to get from that Eb to some kind of consonant sound on G minor, which is a really important bar. So think of those bars as just "some kind of descending line". That's really all it is!
From a pianist point of view: m7b5 almost always have natural 11ths as extensions. They either have a b9 if its interpreted as the VIIm7b5 from the I major scale, or natural 9 if its interpreted as a VIm7b5 over the I minor melodic scale. In both cases the 11th is natural. Then again, you could always think of any m7b5 as either the VI of ImMaj7 or the V to a I7b9 chord, in which respectively, for Am7b5, that D could be either outlining the 9th of the Mmaj7 or tonic of the I7b9 dominant chord.
Yep!
@@euricorusso9974 Thank you. That makes sense.
@@LearnJazzBasswithMattRybicki - yes, musically it makes sense and rather straight forward. Just based on my tendency to keep it simple, it would not have occurred to me based on the chart.
3:13 ballpark?
Yeah closer to what I meant!
So listen to great ones but do what you have to do / what the piece needs.
I came here for a fishing video. Instead I got music.
Really HOOKED you, huh?
@@LearnJazzBasswithMattRybicki 😂
😂
Such "myths" only emerge because people friggin' DON'T LISTEN TO WHAT THE GREAT MUSICIANS PLAY! If I encounter a bass player who doesn't walking bass well I KNOW that he didn't study Ron Carter or Ray Brown but instead tries to somehow "get the concept on his own". Doesn't work, period.
Yeah that’s kind of summarizes the whole video doesn’t it? “Listen to the greats and do what they do” !
It takes more than simply hearing someone play something
I have looked at examples of people like Ron Carter, Brown , and Paul Chambers. The lines were straightforward. It was the feel and rhythm they put to those notes that made it seem complex. Just like in cooking, the way you blend the few spices and herbs is more important to bring out the flavor of recipe. Bass is the touchstone of the band.
@johndemaria9408 you said it!
@@johndemaria9408 You obviously don't have a real clue of walking bass. Of course the feel and rhythm are important aspects - but the notes of the lines must be well chosen. I as a pianist, for example, have no use for a bassist who may have great feel and energy but always makes strange or inappropriate note choices. And believe me, these bassists are numerous.
Some very boring examples of bass playing. Dull and pedestrian. Not contributing to the musicality at all. Hate the mantra that the role of the bass is just to support
Perhaps you're not a fan of straight ahead jazz? Matt is a top shelf first call player, I was lucky enough play a session with him and loved every minute of it. He literally wrote the book on Ray Brown. The jazz musicians I know certainly don't find his playing dull!
Supporting is not necessarily "just" supporting. It can be decorating and interacting too. But the "supporting" function is at least as important to the overall musical result than the soloist's line.
Accompaniment on any instrument is about supporting the soloist.
Scott LoFaro.... "dull and pedestrian"? LOL wow. The role of the bass is to support, if you want to solo all the time just be a guitar player.
@@PeteCocoPhoto Well put! Now, can you recommend a 2nd camera for me? My primary is a Sony A7iv - need a 2nd shot (4k) but can't afford another A7? I mean, since you're here ;)