Playing Keyboard Bass Lines Left-Hand Technique for Keyboards [Paperback]

John Valerio (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1998

This step-by-step approach to learning how to play left-hand bass lines at the keyboard includes examples and exercises covering the chord progressions and styles players will encounter. Keyboardists at all levels will benefit from this book's focus on: walking bass lines, playing in a "two-feel," waltz time, Latin styles, putting both hands together, and more. The exercises for each chapter are recorded on the accompanying CD.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0793569273
• ISBN-13: 978-0793569274
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #550,841 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Base Line Practice If You Love Drills, May 27, 1999

By 

Herbert (Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing Keyboard Bass Lines Left-Hand Technique for Keyboards (Paperback)

I got this book hoping for some good "base line" advice. Well, I have to admit this book was a lot more complex than I thought a book on this topic would be. Usually, jazz theory books have maybe a page or two dedicated to base lines. Well, this book is about 100 pages dedicated to all kinds of drills for base lines, mostly the II-V-I progression. Basically it's filling in base notes in between chords, using chordal or non-chordal notes, in different time sequences. The CD runs through all of the drills, which are mostly minor permutations of the last one played. I was kind of hoping for a little more advice on how to construct good base lines if you're using other types of progressions. And also maybe something on how baselines relate to chords, pedal point, slash chords, or non-tonal polychordism. Then again this is just a book on base line playing, so I won't be hard on this book because this stuff is obviously very challenging, and it requires a lot of practice, so this author decided that this is the only way to go with it. Get it if you're into to base line playing for old standards.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, great content and well organized, March 10, 2006

By 

Chris Goldthorpe (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Playing Keyboard Bass Lines Left-Hand Technique for Keyboards (Paperback)

This book is very well written and well organized, it exceeded my expectations and covered not just how to play good bass lines but how to play off the bass lines. It is also very nicely printed and easy to read, my only complaint being that a few of the exercises have unnecessary page turns in them.

The book introduces a series of simple rules for creating bass lines, shows examples of how each rule is used, then puts the different rules together with plenty of exercises. What I like best is how the author explains how he builds up the lines rather than just presenting a sequence of notes to play.

The areas where I got most out of this book where in how to play the right hand against a walking bass to create to create lots of rhythmic interest. It also gave me a much better idea of how to use rootless chords effectively, which is something I never quite figured out until I went through the exercises in this book.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good walking bass reference in jazz style, November 30, 2006

By 

Mike in Toledo "[e-mail]" (Toledo, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playing Keyboard Bass Lines Left-Hand Technique for Keyboards (Paperback)

I have been playing for less than 2 years and am self taught. I am not super serious - it's more of a hobby. Since I have a keyboard with all kinds of bass sounds, I figured it would be cool to start ading some bass lines to my piano pieces. Problem is, I really have no training or knowledge of how to do this, other than playing the root of the piano chord with the bass note, maybe with some kind of rhythm. So, I thought this book would be a great help to get me started. First of all, the scope of the book is limited to walking bass lines in the jazz style. I like jazz, but I was hoping for a more comprehensive text concerning different styles. For example, I love the way Mike Gordon from Phish plays bass. And I like how the R & B bass players play. Are there some rules that I could follow to sort of get that vibe? Well, not in this book - no soul style bass - just the walking bass. That being said, I learned a lot right away about rules for constructing a walking bass line and how they should relate to the chords you are playing. Definately woth 15 bucks, I just wish I could find more material on the subject. The other thing I noticed is that while this book is full of information, no novice player would be able to pick the actual playing up quickly, it would take a LOT of practice. You are basically playing scales with the left hand - that's it. So if you are good at scales, you have a major advantage. Then, you are basically jazz-style comping with the right hand. Well, this takes a lot of skill to develop both the ability to hit all the chords and to use the independence required to do this.
One thing that really turned me off was in the preface, the author basically says you need a lot of skill and knowledge to get through the book, which is true to be able to play everything right away. But there was a comment to the effect that the reader should know 9(common jazz) variations of each of the 12 chords before going through the book. Well, that's great for people who have taken piano lessons for 10 years - but that's not me and I think it's kind of pompous to suggest that you have to be that proficient before proceding. I wouldn't let that hang you up - you can still get some knowledge out of the book, even though you won't be able to play everything right away.