Playing Jazz Bass: A Beginner’s Guide

Hey bass players! Let’s talk about how to start playing Jazz bass. You’ve probably all played a walking bass line before whether that’s in a Ska tune, Blues tune or Jazz tune for example. You might have also hit a wall where you find that you are repeating the same few patterns or you just don’t know how to improvise a walking bass line over a chord progression. BUT don’t worry, this is a common issue. I started in the same place as you, getting lost in jazz tunes, not understanding chord types and progressions and in fact not really knowing how a Jazz tune actually worked!

Since then I’ve studied and played Jazz for over 25 years and I’ve learnt a thing or two! I thought it would be useful to put this video together to help you get started with playing Jazz.

Have a read of this article and then check out the video lesson at the top of this page. At the bottom of the page you’ll also find a link to my Walkin’ Thru Jazz video course which provides a real opportunity for you invest in your Jazz playing and learn how to improvise great sounding walking bass lines from chord charts.

What Do You Need To Learn To Play Jazz Bass?

There are important skills that you need to have to be able to play Jazz bass, but don’t fear as these can all be learnt with the correct instruction and advice.

These are the following areas that you should focus on first:

1. Listening

2. Music Theory

3. Common Jazz Forms

4. Chord Tones

1. Listening

This may sound obvious but listening to different Jazz albums and artists is the most important part of the learning process that you can do. You can’t play a particular style of music if you don’t know how it sounds.

You can learn so much about walking bass by just listening to how the iconic bass players constructed their bass lines. Listen to the shape, the note choices and the feel of their bass lines.

You also need to listen to the role of bass in Jazz tune; where does the bass get busy, where does it play more sparsely, how does bass support the rest of the band? These are the sorts of questions that you should be asking yourself as you improvise your own Jazz bass lines.

2. Music Theory

Have a solid grasp of music theory and in particular chord types and chord progressions. A deeper understanding of 7th chords is important as these chords are used throughout every Jazz tune and form the basis of Jazz chord progressions.

Chord progressions like the 2-5-1 (ii-V-I) progression or the 1-6-2-5 (I-VI-ii-V) turnaround are also important to understand as you’ll see them time and time again in Jazz chord progressions.

3. Common Jazz Form

Learn the common forms for Jazz standards, including the Jazz Blues progressions which are the foundation of Jazz.

There are common Jazz forms which once learnt enable you to play hundreds of Jazz standards. The Jazz Blues is a great place to start as most bassists have a grounding in traditional Blues and playing the Jazz Blues leads on naturally from here.

4. Chord Tones

Learn what chord tones are and how to utilise them in your walking bass lines. You need to get away from just playing root notes if you want your walking lines to sound exciting and you want more variety in your lines. Chord tones give you the tools to do this and understanding what they are open up the use of 3rds, 5ths and 7ths as part of your walking lines.

Where To Get Started…

In the video lesson at the top of this page I give you the tools get started with playing Jazz bass.

The video is split up into these sections:

1. Bass players to check out

2. Resources to help learn Jazz

3. The 2-5-1 (ii-V-I) progression

4. The 1-6-2-5 (I-VI-ii-V) turnaround

5. How to start playing Jazz walking bass lines

6. Learning Jazz music theory

7. Jazz Blues backing track

Click here to check out my Jazz YouTube Lessons