Customer Reviews

Playing Keyboard Bass Lines Left-Hand Technique for Keyboards

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I was really psyched up to go through this enire book methodically and become a baseline expert, but I quickly got bogged down and discouraged. The first two excercises go through a simple bass line progression in all 12 keys and have the right hand comp-chords written out. Unfortunately the CD plays so fast that I had trouble playing along with it perfectly and ended up reinforcing sloppy finger technique. All the rest of the exercises show the left hand only and do not show the right hand comp-chords. That presented a problem for me because I am not secure on right hand voicings and rhythm so I had to pencil in the comp rhythms from the first two excercises onto the following exercises. Starting with the 5th exercise the book stops showing the bass lines transposed into all 12 keys and instead only shows them transferred into about 4 keys. The book "helpfully" suggests that the student transpose it in his head into all the other keys. Well, that sounds easy until one actually tries doing it, especially as the CD only has (very, very fast) accompaniments for a few of the keys instead of all 12. I found that the base lines were so similar to each other that it got pretty boring to practice after a couple of weeks. I'm putting the book aside for the time being because I've found some other books on keyboard voicings that are a better use of my time. I realize Valerio's book is the only one available on the subject so I shouldn't complain. It's probably my fault that I can't seem to find the right approach for making good use of the book. Perhaps I should just play the left hand without a right hand at all, and only play in the keys he wrote the exercises in. I really don't know.

Sets a foundation for the pianist to begin playing bass lines.
I have been playing for a long time, but have been unable to
get it together with my left hand for a walking bass.
This book gives the fundamentals and just enough
interesting variations to give you a standard repertoire,
and a springboard to exploring more.

It is also helpful for any aspiring jazz musician on any
instrument. The scales and leading notes used can be applied to
playing smooth flowing improvization.

Most samples are presented in two or three different keys,
but it is still up the the student to everything them in all keys.

Well worth the price - a fraction of the cost of a piano lesson
for a life's changing technique, even if it's not a ton of material.

I would also concur that this is a must for any serious beginner, intermediate or intermediate advanced jazz-keyboard player who wants to learn jazz baselines.
It teaches base lines for all kinds of major and minor scales, diminished scales, different time signatures, waltz, bossa-nova etc

As a trumpet player my right hand is far more advanced than my left hand. Using this book has helped to close the gap between my hands, while also helping me to better understand the bass lines I play over while soloing!

This book was a disappointment. A lesson about online shopping. If I had seen this book on the shelf, or even just read the other reviews, I would have known right away that it was not the book I was looking for:

I was not looking for a book filled ENTIRELY with walking bass lines. The book should really be called "Playing Keyboard Walking Bass Lines." I mean, the whole book is nothing but quarter-notes! Bass lines are supposed to have RHYTHMIC variation!

I was not looking for a book that has to re-write every exercise in multiple keys. I hate reading music! Just show me the freakin' riff and I'll figure the rest out myself! On the one hand the book "assumes" that you know your chords and right-hand voicings -- you'd think if we know that much then we'd know how to play more than one key.

There's nothing wrong with this book if these are the kinds of bass lines you want to learn. I just found it very narrow in what it covers -- could've covered more if they didn't waste so much page space on writing in all 12 keys!! Dumb.