Hey man, it helps. Honestly, everything anyone posts or suggests helps. I read it all, 'cause I am serious about this instrument.

And yep, I use the "Dbro patented tuner method" along with flashcards, and sight-reading and arranging and transcribing and whatever method I can to get to know the neck better, and guess what? I DO know the neck better. It's an ongoing thing, and next year I will know it better than I do this year. After a month or two I will explore the the bass side in more detail; However, I know the 'G' and 'D' strings on that side cold, and can play a 1625 and a 1645 in any key... As I evolve I will get more adventurous...

And yep, I simplified EVERY tune I learned to a "whole note" root note ringing out for 4 beats, and I have gradually escalated to a tenths and melody type process that gives me the "meat and potatoes" of a song so I can go out and play. Am I ready to do full bass compasses while soloing? No. Did Steve explain it to me? Yes, and I know what I have to do to get to a point of where I can be taught. lol Poor Steve, such a good teacher. Not his fault he was stuck with such a difficult student! hahaha

Awesome reply, thanks again for contributing to a thread that is spiraling out of control from the original poster's intent, but loaded with a lot of content. Handy. Walking bass, or any kind of contrapuntal improvisation is a tough one, even for those who have made serious headway.

lol See, Brett... Steve... Greg... etc etc, you guys can't possibly see what it is that you do from the perspective of a baffled idiot. Seriously, pretend it's a five year old that you are instructing, or trying to convey ideas to and the game changes, radically. Don't get me wrong, I think all of you guys are amazing, and I love what you do, and I buy all of your stuff even though I am not ready for it. lol All good, though because I WILL be ready for it soon enough. I think that maybe even though the "masters" see the "holes" in their playing, and know the "illusions" for what they are, the neophyte sees/hears only the music. And really, that's what it's all about...

No worries, I ain't down on anything, but I do take this whole "getting better at music" thing quite seriously. I'm actually having more fun than ever at the moment with music. I love the Stick, even though it hates me hahaha Nothing good comes "easy". The right decision in a difficult situation is usually the "harder one". I'm learning fast, and believe me when I say that everyone's input has been invaluable, even the people I piss off. lol I am especially enjoying this thread, tons of insightful and practical replies. Nice. Thanks, guys! Yes, music humbles me daily, minutely even hahaha But I like to have a chance to "play with the crayons" so to speak...

Walking bass, yep I want it. Bad. Am I willing to work for it? Sure am. Will I take a shortcut if it's available? Yep. Any advantage I can get, I will take. If I can take steps to learn a concept that will benefit me in multiple ways, I will follow those steps. Even if I have to create 'em myself. Will I ever be as good as Steve, Greg, Bob or Brett? Doubtful. DO I care? Nope. I never gave a fat rat's ass about "being as good" as Paganini, Vai, Gambale, Stern or MacAlpine, all I wanted to do was play music along the same lines as my heroes... And now, several decades later I have added a new instrument complete with new heroes... I don't have ten hours a day always, and I don't have another 30 years...

The holy Grail here IS to play ANYTHING with Independence. Contrapuntal improv simultaneously with both hands. Will it take a lifetime? Yep. Maybe longer for me... But guess what... if i only make it halfway, then that's fine with me. Maybe I only learn to create the "illusion" of independence... That's okay too. So yeah, the overall goal, the end game is independence. Ultimately, that is what i want. if I never get it, and I am only ever able to play over motifs that are "pre-constructed" using melodic motifs that are also "pre-constructed", well that's okay.

What's NOT okay, is taking 2-3 months to learn a fucking song. That is unacceptable to me. it's also not okay to me that I don't know where the notes are. Uncool. It's also unacceptable that I don't have a basic strategy to learn a tune down. Past tense, I have that now.

As far as physical technique goes, that is... the ability to execute notes... not a problem. I feel like I could play with my feet if I had to... it's the "sandwich" that brings a bit of trouble, y'know, piecing them together... Left and right hand "sides". I'd kind of like to abandon that mindset and just play one entire instrument. In time I suppose...

I don't mean to hijack the thread with a "hey look at my tunes" insert, but here's the sort of thing I have in mind for the Stick... One day. All of these are not too serious, just very quick jams I put together. Like, under an hour for each of them... Some of it is pretty simple. By itself... All put together collectively, it kinda works. All of this put together AFTER suffering an Anuerism... I was a faster, more articulate player before that happened, and I think I may have had better hair, but alas no pirate shirt... bahahaha Just ideas, dudes but this is the sort of stuff that I can rattle off whenever I want. All made for fun. I may have been drinking when I created this stuff hahaha

Stick should be no different, even if I gotta work for it... So yeah, guitar, drums, bass, violin, keys, vocals, lap steel... And now the Chapman Stick! I want to make this work fellas... And more to the point, I want to see other folks make it work too...
















Walking bass is another piece of the puzzle is all, another tool for the toolkit. Just gotta be able to 'lift' the tools...

Dont feel too bad about taking 2-3 months to learn a tune. THIS IS THE NORM FOR ME. I wish I could make it happen in a week but I can't. Like you on guitar, I can learn a song on bass in 2 hours......now we're dealing with a different animal.

Let me expand on that.....
I can learn the both parts for a tune in a week, sometimes less depending on how much time I devote. The prob is meshing the two together to get to a point where the tune is passable. Even at that point, the tune is still not super polished. That point can take a year.....I'm still polishing turds/tunes I learned 3 years ago. And yes, EVERY new song is still a fission experiment to me, although I do carry forward past experience that helps in the independence,.....by that I mean subdivisions of time between left and right hands.

Again dooder, don't feel bad about taking months to get it together. Your making normal progress from what I can see. You're doing stuff with the right hand now that I couldnt even grasp at this point.....

Sorry for thread hijack Rodan...

cheers pal,
k

Scott contact me when ready. Not for a Stick lesson but for a reassurance correspondence.

Juaquin D'Bass

I've been reading through all this about walking bass and thought I had nothing to add about it, other than I've long lusted after that style of playing. You all inspired me to do some Youtube poking around and I saw a couple of intro videos that actually blew my mind. As a keyboard player, I could have been doing walking bass lines as well, but just didn't get it. I think I get it now (in theory). Play the root of the chord on the 1, the fifth or the third (major/minor whatever) on the 3, and use chord tones or melody tones to fill in the rest, with chromatics fair game as long as they're passing tones and you keep using tones that leads you to the next chord. My Stick bass lines are already better than my keyboard bass lines, but with this knowledge, I should be able to feed back into keyboards and make that better as well. Good stuff! I'm not pretending that I can do it yet--but I finally "get" what I've been hearing for years. It thought it was so much more complicated (in theory, not practice.)

I really just came here to listen to Scott's music when I saw it posted. (sorry rodan! Let me not hijack the hijack!)You made me say "Damn!" which is what I say when I really, really like something. I'll say it again: "Damn, Scott." You can play and write and record some fricking awesome tunes! "Lifted" and "Acoustiflage" are easily in the same category as anything (well most things) from Vai or Satriani or Ynvwie. Take Me Away is a jamming rock tune that is close to Top 40 playable (if you had a sexier vocal--sorry, Scott.) Steeljam was---quirky but cool! Anyhoo, keep knocking on yourself if it helps you chill here with us mortals, Scott, but I have a feeling you'll nail the Stick stuff down like all the rest. Damn!

But more cowbell!

I really look forward to this, Brett. Your approach to walking bass is authentic and very musical. I want to learn more about it from you.

Wow! What a mighty thread y'all have created out of my posting! I've read every reply, which took awhile. Digesting everything will take longer.

A couple of short comments - by "higher" I meant farther up the neck - the bass tones are still good, even above the 17th fret. The daunting part is the sight-reading, but sight-singing while navigating my way through note choices seems to help. Also, this morning I mapped out all the approaches to a single note, just to sort it out.

This thread is like a multi-faceted gem. I'm going to have to screw on my jeweler's glasses on start examining it...

Thanks everyone!

R

interesting post. all i can add is listen to the greats like Ron Carter and (i think Brett does this) "think" like an upright player. what i mean by that, and i know Greg has been on this too, is "up and down the neck" with your lines. lotta hand movement...

In my experience, and others too, I think, going past the 12th fret on the bass side is rare. If you do, you may have to jump your hands or uncross your hands, where it is easier just to find a break point to move over a string and move down 5 frets. Your map may help you in this regard.

Good luck and good thread

Great thread, all. I'm right in the middle of this myself. I have nothing to show for it yet and little to add. The only thing that reading this made me think is that we all have to come to walking the bass in our own way. There doesn't seem to be a single path. Mine is different than anyone else, I see.

-Eric