The Jazz Bass Line Book: String Bass Book

Downes respects where students actually are, meeting beginners with clear concepts while offering professionals transcribed examples and advanced harmonic applications. The book's scope covers the full range of jazz bass situations your ensemble will encounter, from straightforward 2-feel grooves to modal harmony and slash chords, making it a rare resource that doesn't require supplementary materials.

The book moves from the ground up, starting with the pulse and forward motion of playing in 2, then building toward the sophistication of ballad playing and harmonic abstraction. You're learning the actual language jazz bassists speak, not a watered-down approximation of it.

String bass players who need systematic training in jazz vocabulary, from beginners building their first walking lines to advancing players refining their approach to modal and contemporary harmony. Jazz ensemble directors will find this invaluable for preparing students who lack jazz bass fundamentals.

• Transcribe the examples from jazz recordings before moving on to the next chapter. Seeing the concept on the page and hearing it in context are two entirely different things.
• Focus on one harmonic concept until your fingering vocabulary is automatic. Walking lines and broken feel require muscle memory, not just intellectual understanding.
• Record yourself playing the exercises over chord changes, even simple ones. Listening back reveals rhythmic timing issues and phrase shape problems that disappear when you're just reading.

Assign chapters sequentially to students learning jazz for the first time, or use specific sections as targeted preparation before rehearsals featuring new harmonic territory. For jazz combos or small ensembles, this becomes the text students reference when learning charts that demand more than basic chord tone navigation.

• Walking bass line construction in major and minor keys
• Playing in 2-feel and understanding its rhythmic pocket
• Phrasing and comping approaches in 3/4 time
• Broken-feel rhythm and its application in ballads
• Modal bass lines and harmonic navigation without traditional chord changes
• Slash-chord interpretation and harmonic flexibility
• Transcription and analysis of professional bass models