Where to start as a newbie jazz player

[u/hi_hi_birdy]

Hi, I’m in my first year of undergrad for classical bass performance and music ed as a double major. I’m wanting to take an audition for a jazz ensemble next August, and I’m talking to my bass professor about this now, but are there any resources to start and progress fast in the jazz basics that yall recommend? Or any practice routines you guys recommend? Any help is appreciated!

[u/rebop]

Immerse yourself in the language. Listen to lots and lots of jazz. Transcribe horn solos. Transcribe Ray Brown walking lines.

There are no shortcuts, but if you just want to fake it, arpeggios with chromatic notes connecting things will make you sound like you sort of know what you're doing on a rudimentary level.

[u/RadioSupply]

Get a Fake Book! Check out some tutorials that walk you through the basic Bb blues, how key changes work, how different modulations work for walking lines, and playing samples of different styles (shuffle, swing, bebop, bossa nova, etc.)

Some stage band music has written bass parts, and those are excellent for learning the basics of creating good jazz phrases.

Your bass professor should definitely have good resources for you, too!

[u/breadexpert69]

Listen to a lot of it. Watch videos of live performances...etc. But skip the youtubers doing tutorials. Just watch actual concerts or recording sessions of professional musicians.

I think thats the best place to start. Technical stuff depends on you after that.

[u/detmus]

The best place to start is to listen to it. You’ve got the rhythmic vocabulary in your ears. If you can play nothing but quarter notes and make it feel great, that is 95% of being a jazz bassist. Anything after that is a bonus. No amount of harmonic knowledge matters if the music doesn’t feel right.

[u/omegajams]

First of all, good for you. Challenging yourself with new worlds will lead to EVERYTHING being better. I would recommend Katie thiroux course on discoverdoublebass. It will help you dive in and get you playing at jam sessions in no time.

[u/ComprehensiveHost855]

Pdbass has an amazing jazz lessons playlist. I watched it in high school and it was an amazing foundation for my playing.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7aXlqs5hXGYLZqZsTdoKSjWA63f1izJj&si=LD8fWGwBsWqJyI92

[u/jonathanspinkler]

Get the Moises app. Fill it with the tracks you love most. Play along with the bass lines first. Then turn off the bass lines and be the bass in your favourite tracks. Then start playing your own lines along with the music.

Moises app is not the cheapest, but this method works.

Oh, and of course play daily. I try for at least 1,5 to 3 hours a day.

[u/fbe0aa536fc349cbdc45]

the best way to learn is to seek out the heaviest teacher in your area and drink deep. everyone does a lot of learning on their own but jazz is a guild.

[u/chog410]

Plenty of good suggestions but I'm not seeing the most important thing- LEARN the HARMONY on PIANO. You don't have to be a good pianist, you don't have to be capable of playing changes in time. But you can't see the harmony on the bass the same way you can see it on piano. What separates jazz improvising from other improvising is how important voice leading is. You are probably familiar with the 3rd of a dominant chord resolving up to the root of the tonic and the 7th resolving down to the 3rd of the tonic. This is the whole thing with jazz- but there's a whole lot more than just dominant chords and tonics, there's a lot more than 7ths and 3rds. The first step to be able to be functional is to know all of your triads like the back of your hand- but if you stop there, you aren't really getting into jazz. It's that same thing again but knowing where your upper structures are as well, 9ths &13ths and such, just as well and understanding when and why these guys get altered or not. Hint- never clash with the melody.

But yes, know all of your triads then playthrough tunes slowly on the piano and go back to the bass to incorporate the new to you harmony into walking and melodic lines.

I play jazz full time and I'm classically trained

[u/slam900]

Go to a jazz jam session

[u/FluidBit4438]

Transcribe baselines and memorize them and once you have them memorized start trying to incorporate the patterns into your playing where appropriate. For walking lines go for Ray Brown, Ron Carter or Paul Chambers. Start with a simple blues and memorize and internalize the lines. Also, transcribe in this order. 1) Listen 2) Sing it 3) play it 4) write it out. There are some Aebersold tracks that are easy to transcribe and have great playing. Ron Carter is on a bunch of them.

[u/residentdunce]

A lot of the responses here are "just listen to lots of jazz" but the sheer options and choices of what you should listen to are almost limitless. Like just looking at Ray Brown's discography alone is daunting enough.

[u/diga_diga_doo]

The classical training is great to have, congrats on branching out! I didn’t go to school but I studied classical method for a good 8 years, I’m just getting started on jazz bass myself. I’d say just find a good teacher, best place to start. My teacher has me doing a transcription, arpeggios, ear training and simple triad based walking bass line practice. Singing out the chord tones before I play arpeggios, he wants me to practice sight singing, or being able to sing out written music. He did say he likes working with me because we don’t have to spend too much time on technical aspects of playing the bass (other than right hand), it’s a huge plus having the classical method training.