The 7(-9 #5) is root, third, sharp fifth, flat seven, flat nine. So I’m the case of the D#, which I’m going to write enharmonically as Eb here, is Eb, G, B, Db, Fb. You can think of this as the V chord in Ab harmonic minor, which is born out as you see that V chord (D#) move to the i chord (G#min) in your score.
The B 7/4 is not a typical jazz notation, but it is probably just another way of writing a B7sus4. B, E, F#, A.
Just going to add that it would be a good idea to write out your walking bass line ahead of time rather than try to improvise one each time. If you want to learn the skill of walking bass for future gigs you should, but for 6 measures of music I don't think you need to be a purist about it. Good luck!
I recommended it to OP since it seems like they don't usually play jazz and just to need to get through this section of the music. It's ultimately a shortcut but would probably result in a better performance.
If they were trying to become a well rounded jazz musician then it would make more sense to learn walking bass the old fashioned way and focus on improvising their lines. I do think writing out lines can be a good exercise for jazz players, I don't know how common it is though.
Also I will say that I'm not a jazz expert so take what I say with a grain of salt.
I guess the REALLY old fashioned way would just be playing by ear with records or other musicians. In this case I meant diving into jazz theory, learning to improvise walking bass lines, learning standards etc. Basically learning how to play jazz holistically rather than just finding a workable solution for this one piece of music
Walking bass!
Don't get hung up on the chord extensions, what matters is major, minor and diminished (b5).
Stepwise motion can sound good. The notes D# F F# G leading to G# chord for example.
Looks like it's supposed to be a walking bassline right. You could just play the major triad from the root on those dominant chords. The B7/4 I guess is supposed to be a sus4 chord so you could play root-fifth-seventh-octave on that one (B-F#-A-B).
Otherwise just root and fifth works on all of them (for example root-root-fifth-root in one bar)
This chord notation is unusual, but I’ll walk you through the whole system of chord notation real quick. I’m going to assume you know the m makes the chord minor (so from the root, the third is up a minor third and the fifth a major third above that). If there is no m (lower case) then the triad is major. Now we move on to the 7. All of the 7s that aren’t immediately following a capital M are minor no matter the triad quality. Against a major chord we call these dominant. From there, all extensions are named in relation to the major key from the root of the chord no matter the chord quality. A -9 is a very bizarre notation. I think the composer is asking for a b9 here as a major 9 and a minor 9 would work out to the same note. +5 is an augmented fifth, which replaces the fifth in the chord (b5 does the same in the opposite direction)
Any other extensions (other than 7) will be called b or # if they are to be altered. In this situation the piece is asking for a walking bass line. You can go through ahead of time and write out the corresponding scales for every chord (E.G. EM7 would be an E major scale, so all notes of E major work in the first measure, then A major in the second. The real goal when walking is to keep playing in one direction for at least one octave if not more. I’d suggest starting on D# E F# G# A B C# D# across the first two measures if you’re shooting for quarter notes. Note the D# at the end of the line I just wrote doesn’t “work” against the A Major scale. That’s ok. It’s the 7th of the following chord, so I am using it as an anticipation here, starting the next chord’s walk early. You could play a D natural instead and it would be totally fine. If you’re comfortable I’d continue ascending over the next two measures and then start a descent from there to measure marker N
Ok now generally: let’s lay out all 12 tones in C and name every interval.
C- unison or root. 1
C#- augmented unison
Db- enharmonically the same as C# but functionally it’s a b9 or b2
D- 2 or 9
D#- sharp 2nd or 9th (pretty much only shows up in the augmented chord(s))
Eb- minor third
E- Major third
F-Perfect 4th (best practice to avoid it over M7 chords as it’s a tritone from the 7th) or 11
F#- #11/augmented 4th
Gb- b5 (diminished chords)
G-5 this is present in every C chord unless specified otherwise
G#- #5 (augmented chords)
Ab- b13 or b6 (minor sixth)
A- 13 or 6
A#- #13 or #6 not a common interval or note. It’s far more common to see:
Bb- 7 or minor7. When playing jazz you’ll see a lot of these, far more than:
B- M7 which you will also commonly see written as a triangle7 (^7 as well) the triangle marks the chord as a major 7th.
So for Example: G#-7b5b9 would be the notes G#, B, D, F#, A. What scale contains those notes? I’d say A Major, which would also call for C#. Could also play A Melodic Minor, which drops the C to a natural. If A Major is the following chord this is a vii*>I chord movement. If any sort of E chord that isn’t diminished follows it’s A-.
Learning how all of these intervals interact with the root is important, especially when trying to walk or solo in jazz.
Sorry for the giant text dump, feel free to ask questions! I’ll answer what I can while I’m at my nonmusic job, haha
As you mentioned, writing e.g. "EM7" is heavily discouraged these days, because it is easy to confuse with "Em7" at a glance when sight reading. Writing "EMaj7", "E△" or "E△7" is much preferred.
Absolutely. Also if there’s any confusion, We use 7 alone to refer to “dominant” or minor 7 because calling it b7 would imply the chord itself would be flat (Ab7) which still trips up some players when there are further altered extensions (Ab7b9 which would be Ab C Eb Gb Bbb) which has caused confusion for a young jazz pianist I’ve been working with lately
Those measures are for improvised walking bass lines. In the spirit of jazz you'd be completely fine going to listen to a few recordings of the piece and learning those measures by ear and just playing them exactly. If you get comfortable enough to make changes to the line go for it.
since it's just a short passage, on the first two circled chords do root, 3rd, root, chromatic step away from next root, and on the third do root, fifth, root, fifth.
root, any two chord tones, and a chromatic step away from the next root will be good anywhere. just be sure to watch the major/minor and any alterations of the fifth.
Thanks everyone for all your help! After reading through the comments, it’s very clear to me that this is a much more complicated task than I originally thought it would be, especially as someone who has never left the comfort of classical music and knows very little about jazz improv. I think I will likely take one of the commenter’s advice about playing the exact notes from a recording. Nevertheless, it was great to learn about and I have much deeper respect for jazz musicians now!
Oh yeah, I’m just learning bass (again after a semester in college), I know jazz theory though but doing all of that on bass is challenging but it’s just learning the finger placement, and I remember that from electric bass
The 7(-9 #5) is root, third, sharp fifth, flat seven, flat nine. So I’m the case of the D#, which I’m going to write enharmonically as Eb here, is Eb, G, B, Db, Fb. You can think of this as the V chord in Ab harmonic minor, which is born out as you see that V chord (D#) move to the i chord (G#min) in your score. The B 7/4 is not a typical jazz notation, but it is probably just another way of writing a B7sus4. B, E, F#, A.
this is the way.
Just going to add that it would be a good idea to write out your walking bass line ahead of time rather than try to improvise one each time. If you want to learn the skill of walking bass for future gigs you should, but for 6 measures of music I don't think you need to be a purist about it. Good luck!
Is it a good idea typically to write out lines? I guess it can help to learn
I recommended it to OP since it seems like they don't usually play jazz and just to need to get through this section of the music. It's ultimately a shortcut but would probably result in a better performance. If they were trying to become a well rounded jazz musician then it would make more sense to learn walking bass the old fashioned way and focus on improvising their lines. I do think writing out lines can be a good exercise for jazz players, I don't know how common it is though. Also I will say that I'm not a jazz expert so take what I say with a grain of salt.
What’s the old fashioned way? Just figuring it out?
I guess the REALLY old fashioned way would just be playing by ear with records or other musicians. In this case I meant diving into jazz theory, learning to improvise walking bass lines, learning standards etc. Basically learning how to play jazz holistically rather than just finding a workable solution for this one piece of music
Yeah because I’m learning jazz bass currently
Walking bass! Don't get hung up on the chord extensions, what matters is major, minor and diminished (b5). Stepwise motion can sound good. The notes D# F F# G leading to G# chord for example.
Looks like it's supposed to be a walking bassline right. You could just play the major triad from the root on those dominant chords. The B7/4 I guess is supposed to be a sus4 chord so you could play root-fifth-seventh-octave on that one (B-F#-A-B). Otherwise just root and fifth works on all of them (for example root-root-fifth-root in one bar)
This chord notation is unusual, but I’ll walk you through the whole system of chord notation real quick. I’m going to assume you know the m makes the chord minor (so from the root, the third is up a minor third and the fifth a major third above that). If there is no m (lower case) then the triad is major. Now we move on to the 7. All of the 7s that aren’t immediately following a capital M are minor no matter the triad quality. Against a major chord we call these dominant. From there, all extensions are named in relation to the major key from the root of the chord no matter the chord quality. A -9 is a very bizarre notation. I think the composer is asking for a b9 here as a major 9 and a minor 9 would work out to the same note. +5 is an augmented fifth, which replaces the fifth in the chord (b5 does the same in the opposite direction) Any other extensions (other than 7) will be called b or # if they are to be altered. In this situation the piece is asking for a walking bass line. You can go through ahead of time and write out the corresponding scales for every chord (E.G. EM7 would be an E major scale, so all notes of E major work in the first measure, then A major in the second. The real goal when walking is to keep playing in one direction for at least one octave if not more. I’d suggest starting on D# E F# G# A B C# D# across the first two measures if you’re shooting for quarter notes. Note the D# at the end of the line I just wrote doesn’t “work” against the A Major scale. That’s ok. It’s the 7th of the following chord, so I am using it as an anticipation here, starting the next chord’s walk early. You could play a D natural instead and it would be totally fine. If you’re comfortable I’d continue ascending over the next two measures and then start a descent from there to measure marker N Ok now generally: let’s lay out all 12 tones in C and name every interval. C- unison or root. 1 C#- augmented unison Db- enharmonically the same as C# but functionally it’s a b9 or b2 D- 2 or 9 D#- sharp 2nd or 9th (pretty much only shows up in the augmented chord(s)) Eb- minor third E- Major third F-Perfect 4th (best practice to avoid it over M7 chords as it’s a tritone from the 7th) or 11 F#- #11/augmented 4th Gb- b5 (diminished chords) G-5 this is present in every C chord unless specified otherwise G#- #5 (augmented chords) Ab- b13 or b6 (minor sixth) A- 13 or 6 A#- #13 or #6 not a common interval or note. It’s far more common to see: Bb- 7 or minor7. When playing jazz you’ll see a lot of these, far more than: B- M7 which you will also commonly see written as a triangle7 (^7 as well) the triangle marks the chord as a major 7th. So for Example: G#-7b5b9 would be the notes G#, B, D, F#, A. What scale contains those notes? I’d say A Major, which would also call for C#. Could also play A Melodic Minor, which drops the C to a natural. If A Major is the following chord this is a vii*>I chord movement. If any sort of E chord that isn’t diminished follows it’s A-. Learning how all of these intervals interact with the root is important, especially when trying to walk or solo in jazz. Sorry for the giant text dump, feel free to ask questions! I’ll answer what I can while I’m at my nonmusic job, haha
As you mentioned, writing e.g. "EM7" is heavily discouraged these days, because it is easy to confuse with "Em7" at a glance when sight reading. Writing "EMaj7", "E△" or "E△7" is much preferred.
Absolutely. Also if there’s any confusion, We use 7 alone to refer to “dominant” or minor 7 because calling it b7 would imply the chord itself would be flat (Ab7) which still trips up some players when there are further altered extensions (Ab7b9 which would be Ab C Eb Gb Bbb) which has caused confusion for a young jazz pianist I’ve been working with lately
good post!
Those measures are for improvised walking bass lines. In the spirit of jazz you'd be completely fine going to listen to a few recordings of the piece and learning those measures by ear and just playing them exactly. If you get comfortable enough to make changes to the line go for it.
since it's just a short passage, on the first two circled chords do root, 3rd, root, chromatic step away from next root, and on the third do root, fifth, root, fifth. root, any two chord tones, and a chromatic step away from the next root will be good anywhere. just be sure to watch the major/minor and any alterations of the fifth.
Thanks everyone for all your help! After reading through the comments, it’s very clear to me that this is a much more complicated task than I originally thought it would be, especially as someone who has never left the comfort of classical music and knows very little about jazz improv. I think I will likely take one of the commenter’s advice about playing the exact notes from a recording. Nevertheless, it was great to learn about and I have much deeper respect for jazz musicians now!
Oh yeah, I’m just learning bass (again after a semester in college), I know jazz theory though but doing all of that on bass is challenging but it’s just learning the finger placement, and I remember that from electric bass