Product Description

The bass has been called "the most important instrument in any band." The bass player must create interesting lines under the chord changes, keep the "time flow" or "pulse" steady, and keep the form of the song together. This book is designed to help bassists create beginning to advanced walking patterns (smooth-sounding lines) that can be used in jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, Latin and country music. By explaining the basics of intervals, chords, and scales the author builds a framework for understanding bass line patterns. Then the book presents one- and two-measure patterns that can be used in playing the blues, rhythm changes, the II-V-I progression, and 20 popular jazz standards. The book is written in standard notation with chord symbols. The CD gives you the opportunity to play with one of the finest rhythm sections around. It is in stereo, with the bass and drums on the left and piano and drums on the right. Since the examples in the book are presented both with sample bass lines and as chord progressions only, you can either follow along with the bass or practice your own lines with the CD as your accompaniment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #210922 in Books
• Published on: 2002-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Spiral-bound
• 96 pages

Customer Reviews

The Good Book for Jazz Bassists
I've been using Hungerford's book for nearly 6 years now and still reference it frequently. Quite frankly, the blank pages are not at all a waste of space. Jazz standards often do not write out bass lines; only the chord changes are given. Plus, Hungerford prepares the student so they can insert their own lines and put their interpretation into the piece. Walking lines do not necessarily stay the same and if you wrote it out on paper, it would. Hungerford ideally prepares the student to go out and read the changes over a pianist's shoulder. No matter what level of play, this book abets the bassist to no end.

First rate -- all the way!
I've bought more than my share of bass books, and most of them don't even
begin to give you the kind of "knowledge" that comes with this volume.

Hungerford sets up his book in amanner that takes you thru "patterns" of
major and minor scales, progressing from simple 1-3-5-3 chords to chords +
scales + accidental notes.

But it gets even better, as he "gives" you the standard walking patterns
that cover the usual ii-V-I progression. And he does this with notes (sorry
kids, TAB is worthless if you want to be a serious player) and
notated finger positions below the staff. Thus, instead of being simply
give a note progression, you can "get it" with the most useful fingering
and shifts as well.

It would be beneficial if you had a teacher when working thru this book,
but you could so it on your own if you understand minimal music theory.

This is really a first rate book if you want to learn to play jazz bass!

Useful/Practical Approach
Let me qualify this by saying I am not a bass player, nor do I aspire to be. I do however have a need to record credible basslines for my guitar soloing. In that regard, this book fits like a glove. There is no unnecessary theory or confusing sidetracks to the goal of playing credible jazz basslines. The book is easy to read,(spiral bound so it opens completely), with large notes. Each jazz standard offers a different lesson which is an ingeniously effective device. This book would have gotten 5 stars from me if it weren't for the small number of typos I found. Most of these are obvious,(page 23, 1st note under a B flat major 7th chord is obviously not going to be a B natural) but perhaps I'm being too hard on the book. It's been said that any fool can make a complex subject complex but it takes a genious to make the complex simple. This is probably the only book on bass guitar I will ever need for my purposes and so I thank you Jay for that !