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 shares five jazz standards you can play as a complete solo on a single upright bass — sheet music included.
Contents
Who This Article Is For
- You want to try solo bass but aren’t sure where to start
- You play upright or double bass and want to play jazz on it
- You want to be ready for the moment someone says “take a solo” at a session
- You want to learn solo bass lines for well-known jazz standards
The video below covers five solo bass arrangements, each with full sheet music. Save it and use it in your practice.
The 5 Songs in This Video
- Autumn Leaves
- Fly Me To The Moon
- Moon River
- Summertime
- Pink Panther
These are all jazz standards, and each one is arranged to stand on its own as a complete solo bass piece — so they work whether you play upright bass or electric bass.
Watch the Video
You can see the sheet music for each song right in the video.
You can also download the sheet music here — feel free to use it:
Subscribe to my YouTube channel here for more bass content like this.
Thanks for reading this far — working through arrangements like these is exactly the kind of practice that benefits from a second pair of ears checking your timing and phrasing.
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.