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 answers a question about what actually matters most when learning solo bass.
I recently uploaded a video of myself playing the jazz standard “Summertime” as a solo bass arrangement, and it got a great response — I received several questions along the lines of “how do you actually do this?”
The single most important thing is, unsurprisingly: repetition. Honestly though, that’s true of pretty much everything, so let me also share the next thing I prioritize, which is more specific: song selection.
More specifically, I pay close attention to one particular question: can this song be played using open strings?
Contents
Why Open Strings Matter
When playing solo bass, you’re typically playing the melody on the 1st and 2nd strings (D and G) while playing the bass line on the 3rd and 4th strings (E and A).
The 1st and 2nd strings inevitably need your left hand actively moving to play the melody. If the 3rd and 4th strings also require your left hand at the same time, your left-hand fingering gets overloaded, and it becomes genuinely difficult to pull off a one-person ensemble.
“Summertime” is in the key of A minor, so it can largely be played using the open 3rd string as the bass note, and the open 4th string’s E and open 2nd string’s D are also easy to use harmonically within that key.
So my recommendation, especially when starting out, is to work with keys that let you lean heavily on open strings — A minor, D minor, and similar keys. On the flip side, I don’t really recommend starting with keys loaded with key signatures, like G♭ or D♭ — your left hand ends up overworked.
Hopefully this gives you a useful way to think about taking on solo bass.
The Solo Bass Performance
Here’s my take on “Summertime.”
Picking the right key gets you most of the way there — but actually balancing melody and bass line with two independent hands is exactly where having a teacher’s ear catches what you can’t hear yourself.
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.