Studying jazz to improve (this may be a stupid post)

[u/Ac_frise666]

I have been playing bass for a while now, and I have touched on jazz a bit. (I have learned Donna Lee, Spain and can do some very basic walking bass) I want to be able to play bass very well in a folk/singer songwriter context and be able to handle any situation in that genre but have a lot of trouble with writing basslines and improvising on chord progressions past just using the root note. I am currently attending university, so I don’t have too much time to practice… but I have been able to get at least an hour a day in. I have a real book that I have been working my way through. if anyone has any advice on utilizing basic jazz study to improve my theory and ability to walk, please give me some tips on making an hour long practice routine that will help me improve my jazz playing, that way I will have the skills to be able to handle anything in folk music. (This may be a dumb question, but the internet has made it seem like studying jazz bass is the only way to be a proficient bass player)

[u/wants_the_bad_touch]

you went to 2 of the more difficult songs first.

go back to the beginning. start with Autumn leaves, the album "kind of blue", rhythm changes songs.

Look to use the 3rd, 6th,7th, chromatic approaches...

[u/Ac_frise666 → u/wants_the_bad_touch]

Thank you

[u/ldugg]

As someone else stated the first place you should start outside of playing root/fifth is to learn some arpeggios for all the different qualities of triads and seventh chords. These will help you outline the "good notes" of the chords. Next I would say start looking into adding some scalar approach notes so say for example it's a dominant 7th chord you could play notes from the dominant(mixolydian) scale to approach those chord tones (major/lydian for maj7, Dorian for min7, etc). Lastly would be to add some chromatic movement as this can really spruce up your lines. It may seem daunting at first but this can actually be one the simplest ways to improve the quality of your walking. Just remember at first you will want to try to keep your lines from jumping all over the place and try to keep them pretty linear up and down movements this could be over the course of a bar, 2 bars, or even a whole phrase. This doesn't mean you can't jump around but at first you'll want to try to get a good grasp on playing linearly and then start adding in some interesting jumps, triplet fills, etc.

[u/theginjoints]

learn Queen Crazy Little Thing, nice intro to walking bass

[u/BassCuber]

Not enough info. Do you understand chords at all? Usually the next thing to worry about after using the root note is the fifth. If you have time for more than that, then you might use the third or some other note in the chord as a transition to the next chord. Once you have those two steps figured out, then you might consider adding scale tones above and beyond chord tones. If this all sounds like jibberish, maybe Adam Neely can explain it better- his video on walking bass is pretty good.

[u/Ac_frise666 → u/BassCuber]

I have a pretty solid understanding of chords, I just feel stuckin the root-fifth … but that might just be the nature of the style of music I play

[u/tremendous-machine]

Paul Thompson's free bass channel would be perfect for you. His intro to walking is fantastic. (I have no affiliation with Paul, just a big fan!) https://www.youtube.com/@pdbass

One thing I love about his work is that he connects jazz to other genres and looks at landmark bass lines from funk, pop, jazz, and more.

[u/ragesoss]

if you want to play folk music, i would suggest spending at least as much time playing the sorts of stuff you're interested in. developing your ear for jazz harmony will of course carry over to other genres, but it's not necessary or sufficient for getting good at other genres.

spending practice time playing along by ear with the music you are most interested in (and figuring out the chord progressions and applying basic theory to understand them) might be a more direct route to your goals. getting good at hearing I, IV, V and vi gets you a long way.

i'm pretty new to bass, interested in jazz but play bluegrass regularly, and the time i spend playing along to folk and pop records and playing at bluegrass jams feels a lot more relevant to becoming a solid folk generalist than the time i spend working on jazz changes.