As you may have noticed in previous posts I’m a big fan of Ed Friedland bass books because I think he puts his best effort to make bass topics easy to understand even for beginning bass players and this book is no exception.
Explaining a concept like walking bass is not so easy but Ed Friedland does a very good job by getting you gradually to understand, in the first part of the book, the relation between root and fifths. He starts with root and a “two feel” (half notes), moving to “four feel” and then letting you freely improvise. You will than going to know the
fifth, some blues and turnaround progression and chromatic approach. Then it’s time to go for scale approach putting them in practice with “I’ve got Rhythm” and that ends the first part of this book.
The second part goes more in depth with scale introducing the thirds and scale modes (mixolydian and Dorian especially). The II-V-I turnaround deserve a special section as Indirect Resolution and at the end you will again get through “I’ve got Rhythm”.
As appendix you have 10 standard progressions to jam with (in split mix mode, as all the 55 tracks in the accompanying CD) having Brad Hatfield on piano, Jim Gwin on drums and of course Ed Friedland on bass.
All lines are written in notation only (actually not all because the author wants you, to put your lines or try to write down the lines played by him) but don’t get afraid if you do not read music: an introductory course in reading notation is at the beginning and you will find only quarter notes through the book as it is focused about concept not rhythmic (the follow-up book will tell about that but this is another topic).
So I will really recommend this book if you want to build a solid foundation on walking bass even if you not read music notation (it will be a good starting point).
Title: Building Walking Bass Lines (Bass Builders)
Author: Ed Friedland
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0793542049
ISBN-13: 978-0793542049
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