This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he rounds up bass solo performances and breakdowns over several famous jazz standards.
This is a roundup of videos and articles where I play and break down bass improv solos over well-known jazz standards.
Whether you have no idea where to even start with a jazz bass solo, or you’re just looking for fresh phrase ideas, hopefully there’s something useful here.
Contents
A Bass Solo Over an F Blues Progression
This one walks through a beginner-friendly way to build a solo using the minor pentatonic scale — it’s a breakdown of the construction, not a polished performance.
Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆
A Bass Solo Over “Autumn Leaves”
One chorus of improv over the chord progression of this jazz standard staple.
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
A Bass Solo Over “All of Me”
A bass improv solo over the progression of this popular jazz standard.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
A Bass Solo Over “Fly Me to the Moon”
Another staple tune — one chorus of solo, plus a breakdown of how the solo was put together.
Difficulty: ★★★★☆
A Bass Solo Over “Days of Wine and Roses”
Another staple tune. For a full notation and performance breakdown, see this article.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
A Bass Solo Over “The Girl from Ipanema”
A bossa nova staple that comes up constantly at sessions. For a full notation and performance breakdown, see this article.
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Bassists Get Called On to Solo at Jazz Sessions Too
A lot of bassists have never soloed at all — I was exactly the same before I started going to jazz sessions.
But back when I could barely keep up playing roots and 5ths, let alone anything prepared, getting told “alright, take a solo” was genuinely rough.
Soloing obviously isn’t something you pick up overnight, and it takes real practice — but branching out into practice beyond just bass lines is what deepened my chord vocabulary and understanding, and made playing music a lot more fun along the way.
Breaking a solo down on paper gets you only so far — getting real-time feedback on whether your own phrasing choices actually land is exactly where a teacher accelerates things.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.