Walking Bass -- The Thought Process

>Hi,
>
>This may sound like a weird question...but I was just
>curious about your thought process while playing
>walking jazz bass lines. For example, if you were
>playing a tune that you were not intimately familiar
>with, and using a head chart are you thinking about
>the shapes or patterns of the chords and how they fall
>on the neck...or are you thinking about the notes that
>make up the chords and what your options are?
>
>Thanks,
>
>T. S.


Hi T.S.,
I think everybody thinks differently, so the fact that I think one way about performing a task (in this case a walking bass line) doesn't give it any more or less merit than how someone else thinks about it. Plus there's the whole issue of "levels" of thinking -- what am I conciously thinking about and what is going on in the background, so to speak.
But if i stop and imagine myself in that situation -- someone puts an unfamiliar head chart in front of me -- I guess it would depend somewhat on the tune but I would try to look first for what are the "usual" things in a jazz tune or standard -- the ii-V-I progressions, 8-bar phrases, a 32-bar form, the bridge temporarliy modulating out of the original key and finding it's way back somehow in time for the final 8 bars -- those kinds of things. If I think of a new tune that way, then the deviations from that format stand out in my mind and I pay special attention to them. If a whole 8 or 16 bars of a tune are in a single key, then I can pay more attention to simplifying the chart.
If indeed we're dealing with a 32-bar standard type tune, then it's good to remember that chord changes are a "serving suggestion," not a mandate. The 1st 3 bars of "I Could Write A Book" go Cmaj, Amin, Dmin, G7, Cmaj. It's a slightly fancier way of taking a melody which works over the I-V-I and dressing up the harmony so it moves instead of being static. If I remember that, then actually spelling everything out is not so important. Will the listener miss the point if I don't actually play an A note under those two beats of Amin7? I worry about making sure the main melodic idea is supported. Within that there is freedom.
When approached this way a tune sounds potentially more fresh and free. It's not each chord that's important -- it's the areas of common tonality. If you do those some kind of justice everything is fine.
But let's say the new head chart is for a Wayne Shorter tune or something that isn't following the harmonic rules of a standard. In that case I want to do whatever supports the melody best. I figure I can't go wrong by starting simple and playing a lot of roots. Chances are that's what everyone else would appreciate anyway. Two or three times though the form, it gets a little more comfortable and easy to experiment.
As far as actually thinking of the notes making up chords, or where they fall on the neck, that kind of thing goes on in the background for me now -- I don't consciously think about it any more although there certainly was a time when I did.

Hope this helps,
Andy

http://www.andrewpfaff.com