Wheat's BassBook 5.2: A Comprehensive Method & Resource for the Electric Bass Guitar

Walking Bass

Walking is a style of bass playing most often associated with jazz. Books have been written on the subject, so I don't hope to cover all of the bases here, but I will attempt to give you what you need to know in order to start playing walking bass lines.

Rhythm: Four to the Bar
In 4/4 time, a typical walking bass line will play mostly quarter notes (i.e. four notes per bar, all on down beats). Advanced players add lots of rhythmic complexity, but for the sake of our examples, we'll be playing only quarter notes and only on the down beats. Each note will be different from the one before it (i.e. we will not repeat notes), which is what makes walking more difficulty than it sounds. This rhythmic simplicity adds driving force to walking bass lines.

Note Choice
Besides providing rhythmic drive, a major role of the bass in jazz is to outline the chord changes. So, as you might guess, most walking bass lines stick fairly close to the chord progression. In fact, the simplest way to walk is to play arpegios over each chord:

Scale Tones & Passing Tones
But playing arpegios alone (except maybe for certain ballads) doesn't add enough variety or produce the sound that most jazz listeners are familar with. To do that, you need to add other scale tones and passing tones. Scale tones are simply other notes from the scale that fits the chord. The A minor scale--the basis of our first chord--is A, B, C, D, E, F, G. So instead of just relying on the Am arpeggio, we can use any of the notes from that scale.

Passing tones are notes which are technically outside the scale which nevertheless help to make a smooth line. A common passing tone technique is to play a note on beat four of a measure which is one half step away from the next root. The note can be above or below the next root, and it can be either in or out of the scale on which the progression is based. The line below uses scale tones and passing tones:

The passing tones are what really make a jazz bass line swing. Jazz utilizes its own ideas of harmony, developed during its history, which varry somewhat from those used in "classical" music. Passing tones can be used anywhere in the bar, but they are very effective on the last note of any bar leading to a new root note. The passing note can be either a whole or a half step away from (above or below) the new root note, even if this means choosing a note outside of the scale. Notes outside of the scale, used in this way, add tension and color to the line. Passing notes point to the next chord, which helps the listeners (and the other players) anticipate it.

A Simple Formula
Taken together, these "rules" provide us with a simple formula for walking bass lines. Assuming that the progression you are encountering has only one chord per bar, you can use each of the four beats of that bar as follows:

If we apply this approach to our example, we can easily generate several workable walking bass lines. In fact, the example above follows the same logic.

Other situations
There are other situations which you will encounter when using walking bass lines. First, you'll often see bars which contain two (or sometimes more) changes. If there are two changes in a bar, the simplest way out is to play the root and then the fifth of each chord:

If you can think quickly enough, you can play play the root on the first beat of the chord and any other scale tone on the second beat. You might even want to try to play one of the notes which gives the chord its special sound. For instance, the flat third and flat seven are what give a minor seven chord it's sound.

In the first bar, I've chosen the root and third of Am7 followed by the root and seventh (though down an octave) of D7. In the third bar, I've chosen the root and seventh of Am7 followed by the root and third of D7. Bars two and four are the same as in the previous example.

Ballads
Slower songs often require that you play half notes (i.e. two beats per bar) instead of quarter notes. Since each note will be sustained longer, it's important to choose your notes carefully.

What to do when you loose your place
You can already tell that walking bass requires quite a bit of scale knowlege and anticipation. It's inevitable that you'll loose your place once in a while. The usual advice is to keep walking. A lot of bad notes will sound like daring passing notes as long as you eventually find your way back to the root. Keeping the forward rhythm going will not draw as much attention as stopping completely. If you find yourself hopelessly confused, you can either drop to a low E and pound on that until you hear the next change or you can stop entirely and jump back in.

What to play when you see chords you don't recognize
In the best of all possible worlds, you'd know every possible chord and a corresponding scale to play over it. But in the practical world, you'll ocassionaly get trown chords that, for all of your hours of preparation, you don't know how to handle. When you find yourself in such a situation, it helps to break the chord down to something simpler and remember some basics that you already know but might tend to forget in your pursuit of a perfectly sound bass line:

The root will always work
Skip the extensions, go for the basics: Is it major, minor, dominant, or diminished?
Except for diminished chords, the five will work.
Chromaticism is your friend.

To put our theory into practice, consider a real-world example: CMaj7#11. What would you play if you found a bar of this in a progression? The root (C) always works. In this case (since this is not a diminished chord) the five (G) works. That gives us two of the four notes we need. Simplifying the chord to CMaj7 (i.e. chopping off the extensions) should generate some chord tones (C, D, E, F, G, A, B). Now we only need one more note, and we can fill that with a passing tone.

A Real-World Example
All this theory becomes a lot more sensible when we tie it down to an actual tune. If you're already familar with playing blues lines, then it's not a big jump to tackle a tune like "Mr. P.C." from John Coltrane's Giant Steps (1960). The song has two sections, a "head" which includes a short melody which is repeated twice and a body where the instrumentalists trade solos. Then the head apears again at the end of the tune, to signify that it is coming to an end. Here's the chord progression for the head:

If we begin by playing noting but quarter notes (four to the bar), how shall we approach this progression? Well, for the Cm chords, we could play some combination of C Aeolian or C blues. That covers five of the twelve bars. But what do we do about those measures (3, 7, & 11) with two chords per par? C Aeolian and/or C blues will work for the first two beats, but what about beats three and four?

That Bb/C is what's known as a "slash chord." Composers use slash chords as an easy way to specify a certain chord inversion or voicing. In this case, the chord is Bb but the composer wants the lowest note in that chord to be C. As a bassist, you'll generally play the note to the right of the slash, though on this tune, the bassist tends to play Bb on beats three and four. Either approach would be correct.

Now we've addressed all but two bars: the Ab7 and the G7+9. Ab7 is easy enough. We generally use either a mixolydian or lydian mode for dominant chords. But to get the G7+9 you either need to know more about chord theory or you need to simplify. In this case, we'll take the easy way out and ignore the extension (i.e. the +9) and treat this chord as G7. So for G7, we'll play G Mixolydian.

Here's the progression again, this time with a workable walking line written out. This is a hypothetical line, not one taken from any recording.

An Analysis
Here's a measure-by measure analysis of the thinking behind this chorus. The chord or chords are listed first, then the scale approach(es).

Cm: Cm aeolian ascending line
Cm: Cm aeolian descending line
Cm Bb/C: root & third of the Cm arpegio over the Cm. Root & third of the Bb arpegio over the Bb.
Cm: C minor pentatonic with a chromatic approach note (F#) on the fourth beat
Fm: F minor pentatonic lick
Fm: F minor pentatonic lick continued
Cm Bb/C: same approach as for measure three
Cm: Cm Aeolian lick
Ab7: A lydian ascending line
G7+9: G mixolydian ascending line
Cm Bb/C: Root & fifth of the Cm arpegio over the Cm. Root & third of the Bb arpegio over Bb.
Cm: C minor pentatonic lick

Exercise
After you've tried the above examples and tried walking a bit over the same progression, try writing out some of your own lines. Sometimes taking the time to write out a line can show you ways of approaching it that you might not have noticed otherwise. If it helps you, write down a brief analysis of your line, as I have done above. This approach may seem overly academic, but it does work. Once you've written out a few, try walking your lines (and ones that you improvise) first at very slow tempos and then at increasingly faster tempos. Always work with a metronome. Choosing the notes is only half the battle. Your line has to give the tune its rhythmic pulse while enhancing the harmonic context.

Summary
At first, walking jazz lines can seem intimidating even to players with years of experience in other contexts (at least, that was my experience). But by understanding the basics of jazz bass lines and spending time working on your lines, you'll eventually be able to tackle the toughest songs at the most intimidating tempos.

Exotic Scales

The major and minor scale and the modes cover a lot of musical ground, but here are some other scales that you might find usefull. Assume the root in all of these examples is C.

Whole tone scales
Formula: R, 2, 3, #4, #5, b7
Chords: C+, C+7

Lydian Dominant
Formula: R, 2, 3, #4, 5, 6, b7 (Lydian w/ a flat seven)
Chords C7

Harmonic Minor
Formula: R, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, 7 (Aeolian with a natural seventh degree)
Chords: Cm, Cm7

Jazz Melodic Minor
Formula: R, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, 7 (Ionian mode w/ a flat third)
Cm7, CmM7

Bebop Major
Formula: R, 2, 3, 4, 5, b6, 6, 7
Chords: Cmaj7, C7

Bebop Minor
Formula: R, 2, b3, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7
Chords: Cm7

Bebop Dominant
Formula: R, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, b7, 7, R (Mixolydian with an added natural seven)
Chords: C7

Half-Whole Diminished (a.k.a. Octotonic)
Formula: R, b2, b3, 3, b5, 5, 6, b7
Chords: C13b9, C13#9

Whole-Half Diminished (a.k.a. Diminshed)
Formula: R, 2, b3, 4, b5, b6, 6, 7
Chords: Cdim7 (C, Eb, Gb, Bbb)

Altered Scale (a.k.a. Dimished Whole-Tone)
Formula: R, b2, b3, 3, b5, b6, b7
Chords: C7, C7alt, C7#5#9, C7#9

Practicing Improvisation

To improvise is to spontaneously create. You can spontaneously create a song or chord progression, but in general the term is used to appy to imporvised solos. We've all be dazled by tallented players who are also amazing soloists. They seem to be able to create beautiful interesting lines out of nothing. But, of course, if you've made it this far in the book, you already understand a lot of the theory and practice that goes into playing a solo. Besides a good ear, a knowlege of scales and harmony will only aid you in your quest for beautiful, spontaneous compesitions. But a knowledge of scales and chords alone won't get your there. You need to practice soloing so that you can come up with your own solutions to the sorts of problems soloists encounter.

One effective strategy is to begin by tring to solo over blues progressions. The great thing about blues progressions is that they are easy to keep in your head while you're soloing over the top of them. Other more complex changes can be hard to work on without the aid of a tape recorder, phrase sampler, or another musician to play the changes.

Recording devices are a very handy tool when it comes to practicing improvisation since they allow you to record a series of chords (or a bass line) and then play it back while you try out solo ideas over the top of it. Even a simple tape recorder is useful for this task, though there are other more advanced technologies which can help as well: sequencers, phrase samplers/loopers, session trainers, etc. I use a Boomerang Phrase Sampler for this task.

The basic procedure:

Set up your recording device.
Tune up your bass.
Pick any progression of chords that you'd like to solo over (a blues, a passage from a song you like, a jazz standard, etc.) and record about five or ten minutes of it, preferable with a metronome (a clock or stopwatch comes in handy for this step).
Be sure to count off the first four beats so you'll be able to find the begining during playback.
Now play back the recording and solo over the passage.

Some pointers:
On the first couple of passes, focus on getting the roots together. Then try try arpegios and/or scales and/or modes over each chord. Listen while you play. Make a mental note of what works and what doesn't. You may want to jot down ideas that you think work so that you can practice them separately and always have them at your fingertips (these are often refered to as "licks"). The most important thing is to try and hear melodies though the progressions. If you can sing at all, you might try singing them and singing as you play your bass can often make your playing more melodic.

Reading Music

Depending upon your musical situation, you could go your entire life never reading a line of music in standard notation. Musicians communicate in many ways. We often demonstrate our lines to each other in person or use chord charts as a short-hand way of representing musical ideas. Many players are quite happy with tabulature for notating difficult melodies. Recordable media (tape, disk, etc.) are also efficient way to communicate musical information.

But I'm not trying to talk you out of learning standard notation. Doing so opens up a world of musical opportunities to any player, and learning to read isn't as hard as you might think. Not only will you be able to read bass books and articles not written in tab, but you'll also be albe to read trombone books (their range closely matches ours), bassoon books (theirs goes only a few notes lower) and bass lines written as a part of piano music. It doesn't take the rest of your life to learn how to read music. It just takes regular practice. And if you try it for at least a month, you'll see continual steady improvement. It will get easier, I promise. And once you have it under your belt, you'll be able to play all sorts of (paying) gigs that you might not have otherwise had a cance to play.

Reading Rhythm Notation, Part I (Counting)
Standard notation, among other things, is a visual means of representing the pitch and duration of musical notes. Before we learn the pitches of the notes, let's learn to count some rhythms. This chart summarizes many (but not all) of the note values you'll encounter most often in written music:

Each of the five lines of this chart shows a different note which indicates that a note is to be played for a certain amount of time. You'll notice that, for sake of simplicity, the same note is used for each exercise. The note is (open) E.

If you have a metronome handy, set it to a relatively moderate beet (80-100 b.p.m.) and tap your foot along with the click. Your foot should hit the floor with each click. If you don't have a metronome (and I strongly suggest that you invest in one) just tap your foot at a steady tempo. The moment when your foot hits the ground is known as the down beat. Practice counting aloud (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, . . .) with each down-beat of your foot, and keep your down beats in synch wit the metronome. After you're comfortable counting, try playing the open A string along with the down beats (one note per down beat).

Besides the down beat, there is also an up-beat. The up-beat occures exactly half-way between any two down beats. So the up beats should occur when your foot is at it's highest point in the air. To count the up beat, we say "and." On the counting chart, the "ands" are marked with plus signs. Practice counting along with the metronome as you have already done, but this time add in the upbeats (i.e. 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and . . . ). Be sure not to slow down your counting. Only the 1, 2, 3, and 4, should occur on the down beats (i.e. the click of the metronome). The ands should fall in-between. (When you're first starting out, it's tempting to put every note on the down beat; resist this temptation). Once you're comfortable counting the down beats and the up beats, begin playing along on the open A string along with the down beats and up beats (strike the string once for each down beat and one for each up beat).

Quarter Notes
The third line of the chard shows quarter notes (four of them):

You'll see four black dots with single, vertical lines attached to them. In musical lingo, the dots are called "heads" and the lines are called "stems." Beneath each note, you'll see a number, and between each pair of notes, you'll see an addition sign (+). This bit of standard notation puts to use what we've learned about counting. Each quarter note starts on a down beat and lasts until just before the next quarter note begins (exactly where each note ends depends upon the passage. Standard notation has ways of indicating the relative length of the notes, but for now we'll stick to the basics). Take a breath, tap your foot, and count off "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" before starting with the first note of the quarter note line. After you've played the last note (there are only four of them), stop. Not so hard, eh? It shouldn't be, you've playing quarter notes (whether you knew it or not) as long as you've been playing bass.

Eighth Notes
The fourth line of the counting chart illustrates eighth notes:

Notice that eighth notes are also black dots, but each pair of eighth notes is connected by a single, thick bar (there is also a way of writing single eight notes, but we'll get to that in a bit). This black bar is what separates eighth notes visualy from quarter notes. Notice that half of the eighth notes are on the down beats and half are on the up beats. Keeping your tempo the same as when you played the quarter notes, count off and play this group of eighth notes.

We can create other values by continuing to sub-divide the basic (quarter note) beat into shorter notes or by combining beats together into longer notes. Let's start by combining quarter notes into longer notes.

The second line of the counting chart shows two half notes. Notice that half notes are constructed with a hollow head (it looks like an oval) instead of a solid dot (like quarter notes). This is the feature, along with the stem, which distinguishes half notes from all other notes. You'll also notice that the first half note starts on beat number 1, while the second starts on beat number 3. When we play a half note, we hold it for two beats. Even though we will always count using quarter notes (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, . . .) or eighth notes (1, +, 2, +, 3, +, 4, +, . . .), in this example we will only start a note on the first and third beats. The first half note will end just before the second half note begins. The second half-note should be just as long as the first (be careful to hold the note out to its full value. Don't cut it off just because it's the last thing you have to play. A half note should always be two beats long, whether it's the first or last note in a piece). Catch your breath, count off, and play these two notes as you count along with your metronome.

Whole Notes
If you combine two half notes (or four quarter notes) together, you get a whole note:

Whole notes last the entire length of the measure, no matter how long that measure may be. In our example, a whole notes last for four beats. One whole note lasts as long as two half notes, four quarter notes, or eight eighth notes (hence the names of each). By now you have undoubtedly noticed that each of our examples is four beats long (even if we play more or fewer than four notes). Not all music is arranged in groups of four beats (though much of it is, and that's why we've started here).

Sixteenth Notes
Dividing any eighth notes in half gives you two sixteenth notes:

So we have four sixteenth notes per beat. You can count these several ways, but I prefer counting them "one-e-and-a, two-e-and-a, three-e-and-a, four-e-and,a" (the "e" notes are long e's as in "tree"; the "a" notes are short, as in "ah"). The down beats and the upbeats (i.e. the "and" beats) are in the same place as they would be if we were counting eighths. The "e" and "a" beats fall between each the up beats and the down beats.

Now let's look at something you've undoubtedly seen before: the C major scale:

The Major Scale/Ionian mode, Once Again

A Bunch of Quick Definitions:
Music is writen on a staff, and a staff contains five lines and four spaces. Music for the bass guitar is written on what is called the "bass clef" and also known as the "F" cleff (because the two little dots which are part of the bass cleff are on either side of the line used to designate F. Notes (the little black marks that indicate you should play something) can be written on any of these lines and spaces. They can also be written on lines and spaces extending above and below the staff by the use of added lines called "ledger" lines. As you can see in some of the examples below, the B is written on the space imediately above the staff and the high C is written on the first ledger line above the staff.

Below you'll fine the notes of the C major scale as they are written on the staff. The letter name of each note is written directly beneath it. Beneath the staff is a diagram of the C major scale showing the note names in their locations on the fretboard.

Play the above C major scale slowly and concentrate on each note as you play it. Force your mind to recognize that the second space of the staff is (and ever shall be) C. Try saying the names of the notes out loud (or sing them on pitch if you can manage that) as you play them. Try to remember which note goes with which line or space.

The notes in the next example are also all in C major, but they go down to the low E (the lowest note on the four string bass in standard tuning). We'll deal with them more in the reading examples, but try to get a feel for the locations of as many notes as you can.

Quarter Note Rhythms in 4/4:
Our first reading examples will be comprised entirely of quarter notes. There will be one on every down beat of the bar (or measure) and each bar will contain four beats. If it helps you, tap your foot steadily and count "one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four" each time your foot hits the ground. The moment when your foot hits the ground is called the down beat. For the time being, we'll only be playing on the down beats.

Gear

I've played a lot of equipment over the years though I haven't owned that much of it myself. I'd like to share my thoughts on equipment essential to bass players and also give my opinions on specific pieces of equipment that I've played and/or owned. I have never been endorsed by any manufacturer (I'm still waiting for that ship to come in), so I'm not getting any kick backs for recommending any of these products. That said, taste in gear, like taste in anything, is a highly objective affair. I'm only reporting on my own opinions based on my own experiences. As in anything else, you'll have to try things out and form your own opinions.

Basses
Every player needs a decent bass. I started out on a short-scale Kay electric that looked something like a Gibson SG. I remember dreaming about it and going to the pawn shop/music store to drool at it. My mother was cool enough to buy it for me for my 14th birthday. It cost $80 and was a decent starter bass.

I played the Kay for a year and a half before I bought a new Fender Jazz Bass Special (a 1984 model), which I've been playing ever since. It's been though one fret job and is still going strong. I'm a big fan of Fenders because of their fairly wide string spacing (which paradoxically fits my hands better even though my hands are small), their tone, and the feel of their necks. Nothing else quite feels like a Fender, and since I cut my teeth on them, it's hard for me to like anything else. A few years ago, I picked up a fretless version of the same bass.

In May of 2000, I bought a Carvin LB76 (six-string, fretted bass). Now I find I'm playing the Carvin quite a lot, though I still prefer the Fender for some things (especially for slap). Since I've always liked chords on bass, the six string gives me a lot more options. I really wish I'd bought a six-string bass sooner than I did, as it's been a very nice addition to by bass collection and often inspires some good writing. The best six-string basses I've played are by Ken Smith and Modulus Guitars (the Quantum Six is my current dream bass, but they list for $3299, so I won't be buying one anytime soon--probably not anytime in the next decade).

A starter bass should be affordable, play well, and have a good tone. Luckily, most of the major manufacturers of basses make entry-level basses, and many of these are quality instruments. I particularly like the introductory modles from Fender, Yamaha, and Ibanez. The Mexican-made Fender Jazz Bass has all the playability and sound that a beginner needs (and beats the hell out of a pawn show Kay). Yamaha's low-end basses are also very well made. Ibanez, while I like their tone less compared to the other two manufactures, have a remarkable feel and slim necks which many players with small hands find more comfortable.

Five String Basses
Five-string basses are very popular these days. But, I've encountered very few five string basses that I really like. On cheaper fives, the tone is usually weak and the low B is floppy. There are a few good ones out there (besides expensive custom-shop models). The Fender American Jazz Bass Deluxe V is very good. It feels like a Fender and has plesantly wide string spacing. The low B is very solid becuase all of the strings go through the body. The Yamaha TRB-5 has even wider string spacing and versitile electronics which give you a lot of different tones at your fingertips. Many players choose to start on a five string these days, and that's a perfectly sound decision.

Fretless Basses
For about a year, I owned an Ibanez SR400 FL, which is a fretless four-string bass. I liked the neck, but never could get used to the tone (which seemed a little dead to me). I recently traded it for a 1988 Fender Jazz Bass Special Fretless, which I like much better since it is almost identical (except for the missing frets) to the bass I've been playing for the last fifteen years.

Cases

Whatever bass you buy, invest in a good hardshell case, a well-padded gig bag, or both. Hardshell cases give your bass the best protection for the hazards of the road. You can simply throw your cased bass in the back of a truck or equipment van and never worry about it. Gig bags are very convenient for transporting your bass to and from practice or to and from a friend's house. They're lighter and more practical for these situations than a hard-shell case.

Amps
I've owned quite a few amps over the years. I started out, like many bass players, with a cheap Peavey (KB100). Mine was actually a keyboard amp with three inputs. I used one of these for my drum machine. Peaveys are rugged and dependable, but their lower end models tend lack a lot when it comes to tone. Years later, I moved up to a Peavey Megabass rig (400 watt head + a cab with an 18" and two 10"). That was, for me, the perfect high-volume rig. But it was so big, and so loud, that I had to get rid of it. Now I own a Yorkville 400B combo (400 watt rack-mount head + one 15"). It is rugged, portable, and beautiful to listen to. I've also played SWR and Eden amps, though I've never owned either. I've been very impressed with Eden amps and cabs. And my next amp (if my Yorkville ever gives up the ghost) will probably be an Eden.

Practice Amps
Once you're playing regulary with a band that has it's own rehersal space, you'll probably quickly tire of lugging your bass amp back and forth between your home and your rehersal studio. Most players opt to buy a small practice amp for use at home, or for using during quiet rehersals and small gigs. The best practice amp I ever had (and never should have sold) was a Galien-Kruger 200MB. It had a beautiful tone (perfect for slapping), a built in compressor, and a built in chorus. I bought it used for $250. GK doesn't make the 200MB anymore. The equivialant one they make now would run you nearly $1000. That's a bit out of my range. If it's not out of yours, you don't need my blessing.

Now I have a very good, and very affordable, practice amp: the Peavy MicroBass. I don't usually like Peavy gear (with a few exceptions as I outlined above) but this one IMHO has a better sound than any other practice amp in it's price range ($175). It has an unbelievably bassy tone for such a small amp, and it is loud enough for small gigs. I love it. If you've got a little extra cash to spare (say $400), there is a range of good practice amps from SWR, Genz-Benz, and many others.

Miscellaneous Equipment

A good tuner is essential stage gear even if you have a good ear (and especially if you set the intonation on your bass). Sabine makes a very good tuner about the size of a pack of cigarettes (so it will fit in your case). I use a Zoom 506 (multi-effects stomp box) which has a built-in (silent) tuner which I like very much. Now that I'm used to having a tuner available at the flick of a footswitch, I don't ever want to be without one. Most of the major effects companies make stomp box tuners. I also have a small QuickTune tuner that I sometimes use with my bass. It's also handy for acoustic instruments, as it has a built-in microphone.

A metronome is an absolute must. Practicing with a metronome helps you develop a steady sense of time and lets you chart your progress when developing speed.

Phrase samplers are the best practice tools I've ever discovered. I use a Boomerang Phrase Sampler and it's an incredibly useful tool. Phrase samplers let you sample a phrase and loop it. Many also allow you to add other phrases to the looped one, creating arrangements on the fly. It's great to be able to loop a bass line or chord progression and then try out other melodies or harmonies on top of it. Having a phrase sampler is like having a friend who never minds playing they rhythm parts over and over while you try out variations. I wish I'd had one when I was first starting out. Using it has reallyl helped my playing.

The one effect, if it's even fair to call it an effect, that no bassist should be without is a compressor of some sort. There are many rack-mount and stop box solutions out there. Compressors narrow the dynamic range of your instrument, giving you a smoother sound without so many loud peaks. They make you sound more polished and are especially helpful when playing slap. Some people think of compressors as a sign of weakness, but no record studio in the world is without them. I've only used a few: some old DOD pedal and the one in my Zoom 506. Some amps have compressors built in. Some amps have compressors built in. And these are fine as long as they give you a way to set the amount of compression.

Recording gear is a lot of fun, and very useful. There are lots of options these days and all of them are more powerful and more reasonably priced than the cassette-tape based four-track recorders of not that many years ago. Since I work with computers for a living, I prefer computer- based solutions. Currently, I use Sony Acid Pro--a product marketed mostly to the DJ/hip-hop community, but a very nice program for recording anything. It is also, unlike most recording software, very easy to use. Another option, and one that I may be switching to soon, is Ableton Live. Live is also a very easy-to-use program and offers some arrangement features I've found in no other software. And, unlike Acid, it is available for Macintosh and Windows.

The sound is in your fingers...
Try to remember that, ultimately, your sound is in your fingers, not in your gear. There's nothing quite as pathetic as watching someone sound like hell on a $4000 rig. Gear is nice, but you have to be realistic. And you have to avoid thinking that your next creative breakthrough is just one more purchase away. There are no magical shortcuts to playing well. It takes lots of study, lots of listening, lots of experience, and lots of practice. Having dependable gear is important. And good gear can be inspiring. But it only plays as well as you do.

Rehearsing with a Band

Rehearsing with a band requires many skills. First, you have to be competent on your instrument (though being in a band will also help you learn more quickly, since you'll be around other musicians who can help you). Next, you must find people whom you can work with, and you must learn how to use your own abilities to complement and contribute to the band's music. A band of virtuoso musicians who are always fighting isn't a good band to be in (unless you really enjoy confrontation and frustration).

False Starts
I've watched many bands rehearse and some know how to rehearse better than others. Some bands play their songs all the way through every time and never stop to work on parts of the song. Others stop anytime anyone flubs a note. Neither approach is very practical. In the former, you don't get tighter because you don't isolate the rough spots and smooth them out. In the latter, you don't learn how to play through your mistakes. The goal in practicing is to find a happy medium. If a song is completely off, it's best to stop and start over. It's generally best to run though a song from start to finish and then decide which parts were rough and play each of those several times until you have them right. Then you can run the song from the top again and judge the results. You don't want to spend an entire evening on one song, but you also don't want to just practice your mistakes.

Staying Focussed
It's important to make sure that your rehersal time doesn't devolve into pure socializing. Few bands are run with military precision (and I doubt I'd enjoy playing in one that was), but agreeing, say, you'll actually be tuned up and playing from 8:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. goes a long way toward ensuring a base level of productive, on-task (as they MBAs say) work. You need time to socialize with your bandmates, but that can easily come immediatly after or before the designated rehearsal times.

Guests
Along the same lines, I've found it generally a lot better to have "closed practices" where only the band members are in attendance. Playing live requires consideration for your audience. But in rehearsal, you need to be able to start and stop when necessary (regarless of how it might sound from the outside). You also need to be able to express your thoughts about things without the added burned about worrying how it sounds to others (along with that, you'll sometimes be taking criticism for your playing. And that's easier to take without an audience). So, while an occasional guest is fine (e.g. your friend from out of town who never gets to see you live and around whom you and your bandmates feel comfortable) or even necessary (e.g. the photographer from a local paper doing a story on you). It's a good general rule to lock the door and not invite your friends to drop by. If your friends ask to drop by, just tell them about your policy of closed practices and how it helps you get things accomplished faster. Most people are completely undersanding.

Frequency
Some bands rehearse almost every night of the week when they don't have a gig, but that's a bit much most people. Other bands do fine with one or two rehearsals a week. And some bands that gig a lot hardly rehearse at all (except for sound checks). You'll have to find what works for you and your band mates. Most people lead fairly busy lives, and most bands share rehearsal space with other bands. So finding times that work for every person involved can be tough. If you share a space, post a calendar there and mark off days and times that each band will use.

Egos
Finally, the same interpersonal skills that help you get along with people and accomplish things in the "real world" also apply to the practice room. Being abrasive, insulting, or short-tempered with other people has the same negative effects. Most musicians care deeply about making music and have invested a non-trivial amount of time into learning how to create it. This means that their self-esteme can get wrapped up very easily into the success of a project. One of the members of The Police said in an interview I saw on television many years ago that telling a person you don't like the song they've just written is "a bit like telling him his girlfriend is ugly." People get emotionally involved, sometimes too involved, with their creations. Keep this in mind when you voice your opinion about things in a practice setting. It'll help you.

Listening Guide

No one can tell you what you should listen to in order to be a good bassist. Most musicians will tell you that it's important to listen to everything (especially styles and instruments you're less familiar with). All I want to do here is include a few albums which I think have had a substantial impact on my own playing, and on electric bass playing in general. This isn't a popularity contest, so I hope I won't offend anyone by not mentioning a player someone out there admires. I'll be exapanding this list everytime I encounter a new player or remember another who deserves mention, but this is not meant to be a comprehensive list.

The name of the bassist (except for solo albums by bassists) is in parenthesis following the name of the band or artist the bassist acompanies.

James Brown (Bootsy Collins) -- The CD of JB
Bootsy is one of the kinks of funk. His approach is minimal, not flashy, but he knows how to add just the right emphasis to make people move.

The Police (Sting) -- [the entire catalog]
Sting's lines are a perfect example of effective, tasty, melodic minimalism. He can bring the simplest of lines alive by the grace of note choices and articulation.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones (Victor Wooten) -- Live Art
A truly inspirational double-live album with stunningly intricate and melodic bass playing throughout. I've seen Victor live, and this disk captures much of the excitement of his playing.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Flea) -- [most anything]

I first understood slapping by learning Flea's line to "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes" which is on the Chili Peppers' first, self-titled, album. Flea's playing covers a lot of styles, especialy for a player who freely admits that he knows nothing about music theory. He certainly has great ears and quick hands.

Marcus Miller -- The Sun Don't Lie

This album is a bit too clean and synth oriented for my tastes, but it does feature Miller's signature tone and some fine soloing.

Charles Mingus -- [Entire Catalog]

The absolutely incredible bassist, pianist, and composer. Most of his stuff is great. Grab a greatest hits (the Rhino Box is good) or a copy of Mingus Ah Um. Mingus takes lots of great bass solos. One of the best is to be found on "Hatian Fight Song" which is available on many "best of" collections.

Fishbone (Norwood Fisher) -- Truth and Soul

Norwood Fisher is one of the best slap bassists out there. "Bonin' in the Boneyard" was an early classic of slap/funk. This is, to my knowlege, Fishbone's most listenable album. The songwriting is strong throughout.

Jaco Pastorius -- Jaco Pastorius

What can you say about Jaco that hasn't already been said? Probably nothing. He was one of the greatest inovators of all time on the electric bass (especially the fretless). He was one of the first bassists to exploit the full range of the bass. This, is first, self-titled, solo album was released in 1976. It features some of his finest playing and writing.

Weather Report (Jaco Pastorius) -- Heavy Weather & 8:30
Jaco's solo work has been very influential. But you owe it to yourself to check him out in the group that made him famous. Weather Report's Heavy Weather is a landmark jazz/fusion album. And 8:30 is a good live recording that will give you a pretty broad introduction to Jaco's work.

Victor Wooten -- [entire catalog]

Victor has done a great deal to show just what can be played on the bass, and he has something many virtuoso's lack: taste. His first solo release, A Show of Hands is all Victor: no overdubs or punch-ins. But trust me, you'll find that hard to believe. Victor's second solo release, What Did He Say? continues to document his incredible playing. This time around he uses lots of overdubs (the opposite of his no-overdub apporach on "A Show of Hands"). The effects are amazing. The most recent effort, Yin/Yang is a double album aimed much more at the smooth jazz crowd. But the writing is very solid. And one disc is entirely instumental, while the other contains vocal tracks.

Black Sabbath (Geezer Butler) -- [the first thee albums] Geezer Butler's work on the first three Black Sabbath albums sets the stage for all hard rock and metal bassists who came later. Geezer's lines are high in the mix on these discs. He's the sort of bassist who knows when to follow the guitar and when to play in counterpoint to it. His gritty, slightly distorted tone and occasional use of effects also had a lasting influence. If rock or metal is your thing, you have to check this stuff out.

Book Three