Jazz Bass CD & Guide by Carol Kaye

NEW UPDATED CORRECTED VERSION!  Greatest Jazz Bass Primer for Walking and Jazz Soloing - the Foundation to the Art of Jazz Playing!

A self-teaching 1 hr. CD and printed Guide set featuring easy learning of foundation chordal notes you need to play Jazz with.  It's an easy study exercise method with the chordal notes and passing tones you need to learn to walk well with along with learning the art of Solo pattern notes to be automatic in both walking and soloing.  Stop struggling with un-workable and ear-destroying note-scales - they don't work and haven never been the way to get a grasp on real jazz playing, the kind of playing you need to fill out your walking jazz style for Standards....Jazz came from chord changes in Standards. Learn the right way, the jazz chordal ideas top jazz musicians have always used since the innovative bebop jazz days of the 1950s.  This method is rarely taught today except by older jazz musician-teachers, and a few younger ones who have learned this.  It's easy to learn as you feel the instant progress you make with chordal patterns, how they change into substitute chordal notes!  This works well as primer for Jazz Improv For Bass book and CD also.

This Updated Corrected CD & Guide (complete with fingerings) was originally produced for rock and blues musicians wanting to get into the Jazz and Standards field of music for better-paying gigs and better working conditions -- but anyone can learn by ear from this easy self-tutor.  You don't have to read music to learn - the accompanying manual-guide gives you the notes, and the theory mentioned on the CD is also in written form for your convenience.  Anyone can learn the same notes that the great Jazz legends Ray Brown, Ron Carter, etal. use(d) for fine walking and understand the major principles of forming great creative lines using the chordal and sub-chordal patterns that Jazz and walking were innovated from in playing Standards - it's not rocket science but easy to get an instant grasp on because...it's taught right (honed from decades of successful teaching).  This package includes free jazz music sheets, theory sheet, triad practice sheet, and example great walking lines sheet etc.

You will learn Major, Minor & 7th Chordal notes and how to think with them to form your walking patterns, the Cycle (most chords of Standards go cyclic!) the most chords in all Standards move - if you know your Cycle, you'll know about 75% of the chordal movements, Stacked Triads for expansive walking for better creative walking patterns, Diminished and Augmented arpeggios for both learning those chordal notes and for substitutions for 7th/9th/11th/13th chords -  ii V7 I chordal progression jazz patterns and the all-important foundation for the very different sub-chordal b5 substitution jazz patterns G7b5b9 is Db7 (Db7/Abm), Db7b5b9 is G7(G7/Dm) - important when you need to know why these jazz patterns work - you get it straight from the real jazz musician way of doing it in this jazz primer yet it's easy to understand because of 40 years playing, and teacher-experience on all levels.

It's necessary knowledge for inventing good jazz walking patterns, easy to learn because it's taught correctly by an experienced educator and awarded top-musician - Carol Kaye, over 10,000 studio recording dates, 100s of gigs/concerts on bass...VOTED #3 in Jazz polls for Elec. Bass in the 1970s magazines while doing concerts, recordings, Jazz Festivals and gigs with the great Joe Pass and the most-admired, great west-coast jazz pianist who moved the ii-V7s around, the legendary influential Hampton Hawes, Miles Davis's and Bird's fav pianist.  This method is the beginner part of the Jazz program developed from live Jazz playing with the finest, honed and taught successfully for years will get you started the proper way, the way real jazz musicians have learned since Jazz was innovated. 

Learn your neck, learn the notes to walk like Ray Brown and other fine jazz bassists and what they do the chordal way - the notes are there, why not learn them? Jazz doesn't function by, nor cannot be learned by ear-killing note-scales which are unfortunately taught today by former rockers. This works because it's from the actual way of getting your jazz together -  Once you have your chordal education and creative idea studies, you can then play Standards and be a real player...there's no cornball stuff here, no fluff or waste of money and time learning with odd-ball note-scale wrong tutors....you can learn the real stuff in jazz you need to play well.  See also:  Pro's Jazz Phrases Bass book and CD, Jazz Improv For Bass book and CD, Elec. Bass Lines No. 3 (for necessary interval practice) and Jazz Improv Soloing DVD Course for a complete jazz study program.

Tthis material is accredited as well as taught at many universities.  Carol Kaye has been a resident bass teacher in several universities, and including the prestigious Henry Mancini Institute-UCLA for years, over 500 seminars and work-shops, Awarded Pedagogy Lifetime Achievement Award for excellence in 1,000s of recordings and education in 2000 by Pittsburgh Jazz Society - Duquesne Univ., honored by Hollywood Composers-Arrangers Award 2004, another Lifetime Achievement Award by Bass Player Magazine, and Women In Music Award Touchstone Pioneer Award NYC 2000 presented by #1 Jazz bass legend great Ron Carter and fine Letterman TV bassist Will Lee, NYC's most popular bassists, and Excellence in Education award by Huntington Beach Performing Artists Academy, etc. - also endorsed by Jazz legends and VIPs.

Did you know that most of the 1960s recordings for your fav groups were innovated and recorded by mostly jazz musicians (and big-band horn sections)? Jazz creativity can be easily learned for better musicianship...it was innovated from chord changes of Standards, sub-chordal patterns, a fine system not taught much today, and cannot be learned from note-scales but by understanding and playing the chordal patterns of the 1950s, moving with the chordal progressions - not by licks but by a thorough understanding of how to play the chords something.  You can't do from the failure note-scales at all.  You can learn it well from one of the real jazz pro's of the 1950s Jazz scene in LA, jazz guitarist with Teddy Edwards group, playing bebop jazz gigs with Jack Sheldon, Red Mitchell, Harold Land, Hampton Hawes, Don Randi, Joe Maini, LeRoy Vinnegar, Billy Higgins, Frank Butler, many many others in the late 1950s heavy jazz scenes of LA where music was hot, not west-coast cool.

Personally taught over 5,000 bass student-musician professionals, over 500 seminars and workshops in colleges and universities throughout the USA, influenced 10s of 1,000s of career musicians, over 1 million tutor books sold..........the finest Jazz soloing and walking foundation from #1 leader in bass and jazz education since 1968. Highly endorsed by Prof. Joel Leach, 10 Pacific Jazz Festival winner 30 years at Cal-State Northridge, Jazz Bassist Legend Jim Hughart (former student), Jazz sax studio legend Plas Johnson ("Pink Panther"), and former student the great John Clayton (as well as former student, Alf Clausen former bassist but now composer-arranger award-winner of Simpsons TV shows, and Moonlighting, several movies etc.).  Just 1 hour a day practice is all it takes - you don't want to over-do practice at first as the ol' brain falls asleep after 1 hour and you're just moving the fingers, not learning.  It's the material that is critical to learn from, not the wasted hours of time spent on your instrument that makes you a good musician or not.

See and hear jazz film clips at www.carolkaye.com both bass and guitar. This comes autographed and well-packaged for shipping with many extra free jazz sheets, theory & reading sheet etc.  .   www.carolkaye.com  ckaye@ca.rr.com    Carol Kaye, 26504 Bouquet Canyon Rd. #107, Santa Clarita, CA 91350.  Hear Carol on 2 Bob Edwards NPR Interviews www.bobedwardsradio.com    Free Lessons/Interview at    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9idtdWAAEA

Some of the 1,000s of studio recording credits of Carol Kaye on bass (see guitar list on website, this after a lengthy jazz guitar career in the 1950s) - see website for more info and live video on home-page, hear soundclips in "Library" www.carolkaye.com :  Buckinghams "Mercy Mercy Mercy", Most of the Beach Boys hits, including Pet Sounds and orig. Smile - "Good Vibrations", Help Me Rhonda, God Only Knows, I Get Around, California Girls, Heroes & Villains, Fire, Cabinessence, Caroline No, Wouldn't It Be Nice, Sloop John B, Vegetables, many others, Ray Charles In The Heat Of The Night, Eleanor Rigby, America The Beautiful, I Chose To Sing The Blues, I Don't Need No Doctor, Don't Change On Me, Feel So Bad, etc., Stevie Wonder's "I Was Made To Love Her", Lou Rawls "Natural Man", Joe Cocker "Feelin' Alright", Barbra Streisand "The Way We Were", Gary Lewis Playboys "This Diamond Ring" etc., Indian Reservation Paul Revere & Raiders, Hold Me Thrill Me Mel Carter, Bernadette and Can't Help Myself 4 Tops, Hikky Burr Bill Cosby/Quincy Jones, Hondels hits, Jan & Dean hits, first 2 lps of Monkees, 4 Tops Can't Help Myself and Bernadette, Wichita Lineman Glen Campbell, Godfather Theme & Love Story by Andy Williams, Going Out Of My Head etc. Lettermen, Games People Play & Comin' Home Mel Torme, Boots & Sugar Town etc. Nancy Sinatra, When I Die by Motherlode, Call Me Chris Montez, Something Stupid w/Frank & Nancy Sinatra, Midnight Confessions Grass Roots, Batman Theme Marketts, Homeward Bound etc. Simon & Garfunkle, Whipped Cream Herb Alpert -- A few of Carol's TV shows featuring her bass parts: Mission Impossible, Ironside, Kojak, M*A*S*H*, Brady Bunch, Kojak, Streets of San Francisco, Cannon, Room 222, McCloud, Hawaii 5-O, Wonder Woman, Addams Family, Bonanza, The Lucy Show, Alias Smith & Jones, etc.............

A few of 100s of Kaye's 100s of Movie credits: Thomas Crown Affair, In The Heat Of The Night, On Any Sunday, Across 110th Street, Pawnbroker, In Cold Blood, Pawnbroker, Airport, Sweet Charity, New Centurions, To Sir With Love, Change of Habit, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, Le Mans, Plaza Suite, Sugarland Express, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Back to and Beneath Plant of The Apes, Change of Habit, The Forbin Project, Duel, Tin Cup, Goodfellas, Big Jake, Smokey, theme of Shaft, Ghost, Valley of The Dolls, Downhill Racer, Oscar Awards shows, specials with Bob Hope, Lena Horn, Frank & Nancy Sinatra, Herb Alpert, Motown, Red Skelton, GIT on Broadway (Motown), Andy Williams-Pet Clark etc. see film-clips at  www.carolkaye.com 

LESSON TIP from Carol Kaye: "When I teach, everyone learns very fast (of course you have to practice 45-50 minutes a day, that's all you need ever for good meaningful practice to learn jazz walking) and sometimes I don't repeat this often enough. It's important once you start on your journey of thinking chordally, to go back and repeat the basic G Chordal Scale, going over the arpeggiated chordal notes up the neck and be sure to say the chord name *out-loud* as you play these notes too......you need to know what chord you're playing as you play these notes and the only way is to say the chord-name ALOUD as you're doing it until it's etched in your brain so you can then function automatically."

"The C chordal scale notes going up and in reversal (going down) the neck is a critically important arpeggio to practice also....again, be sure to say the name of the chord. You'll be surprised how this kind of practice on a continual basis improves your playing in combos and bands. My prof. students come back and seem surprised that they gain so fast in their playing...hey we dont' waste valuable time here....it is easy once you work on the right materials and *remember* to always say the chord name out-loud for a few weeks in a row until you feel like you automatically "got it".

If you're new to this, be sure to (at first) to also name the notes not with note-names, but the chordal members of the chords: Root, 3rd, 5th Root whatever you're playing. This is critical (at first) too....when you're reading chord charts and you come across chords like Em7b5 you better know where your 5th is so you can flat it..etc. When you first sightread chord charts, no you won't play b9ths, nor major 7ths, and mostly not even 4ths (sus chords) for a long time until you get really excellent in creating good up and down lines on your neck ....go with the basic chordal notes, but keep in mind that the most-common excellent walking pattern is: R 2 3 5 (major chord: Root 2nd 3rd and 5th) and if it's minor it's R 2 b3 5 it's just that simple whether you play a maj7 or maj9 chord (major to us bass players) or m7 m9 or m11 chord."

"For dominants, it all depends if you want to play that b7th or not - it's really not necessary since the 7th 9th, 11th and 13th chords are *all* major chords, that's all that is necessary as you learn to put your walking jazz lines together, but yes, you can use the b7th in nice hills and valleys types of walking lines along with the b5 passing notes on the 4th beat when changing from one cycle chord to the next. For instance, going down on any 7th chord (or 9th, or 11th, or 13th...to you the bassist, they're all the same chord) you can play (going down) R b7 5th b5th and I think you'll soon notice the b5 is always one fret above the root of the next cyclic chord you're playing....hence, never think of note-names, but the numbers and you're always safe."

"Soon, you think only of the chord names and then as you play tunes, if that - it gets very automatic.  You will hear (because you've practiced chordal note arpeggios) how the chords are moving, and then no, you're probably not thinking even of the chord name. You hear how the chords are moving and the usual 1, 2 or 3 fret breaks in-between cyclic chord progressions - practically ALL standards have cyclic chordal progressions in them 75% of the time..so bone up on your Cycle study too (and name those chord triads out-loud too!)."

"Pretty soon with your chordal note ear training and ears-fingers connections in-place, you'll be like Joe Pass when he was bugged by note-scale nonsense learners who asked him "what are you thinking about when you're playing your jazz improv?" reply from Joe: "I'm thinking I have to stop at the store on the way home to buy some milk." Remember, you never play note-scales "over the chord", you play the chord. Do the system that has always worked, chordal tones, sub-chordal patterns etal., it's fun, easier than you think and fast. Music functions chordally."

See Carol Kaye jam jazz with the great George Benson on home-page  www.carolkaye.com - other film-clips of jazz jams also.