For my portfolio I have included a live performance, a studio recording I recently did with a band, and 3 clips of me improvising over jazz standards in a guitar, drums and bass trio context. I have compiled all of these clips into one big video submission and labeled each of them “part 1” up to “part 5” respectively.

In “part 1” of the portfolio, I’m playing “Detroit” by Marcus Miller as part of a gig with “The Tyler Kent Trio” with an excellent drummer ‘depping’ last minute. In order to prepare for this, I focused on isolating the tricky double thumb fills within the verses and bass solo break by first slowing them all the way down to around 60bpm half time, making sure I can consistently replicate them perfectly in time with no mistakes before bumping up the tempo anywhere between 10bpm and 30bpm that feels most natural, and repeating the process up to full speed. I also made sure to couple this method with speed bursts at full tempo where I allow myself to be sloppy at first, which is important as it gives me a chance to get used to activating the fast twitch muscle fibres in my forearms that I need to rely on in order to play these fast lines, and over time it gets less and less sloppy as I get used to how it feels, which also prevents me from being unable to progress past a certain tempo with the first method alone (usually around 120bpm 16th notes). This method in conjunction with starting slow and gradually building speed is extremely powerful, as playing slowly is great for honing specific hand/finger positioning and precise control over the motions, and also timing, which practicing full speed only would be highly ineffective for. The next thing I did to prepare for the show was to aim to nail the tricky fills in the context of playing through the entire song during rehearsals while focusing on locking in with the drums and keeping smooth and fluid articulation/phrasing rather than purely playing the right notes in time. As for the performance itself I did make a few mistakes, and felt a little tense and nervous, so for the future a good thing to focus on would be to consciously practice staying relaxed while performing until it becomes second nature, and also to be more willing to improvise and take risks so I can shift my focus more towards putting on a good show rather than trying too hard to be perfect.

In “Part 2” of the portfolio, I recorded bass guitar for an upcoming original song to be released, also with the Tyler Kent Trio, and my approach to playing through the song was similar to “Detroit” in “Part 1”, where I’d mainly stick to a pre composed idea but throw in small improvisations, and the idea with both is to be a solid foundation without being too repetitive or boring. During the recording session, I played through the song a few times in this way, then I sat down with the producer afterwards to select and merge the best parts of everything I played. There was also a short improvised section bridging the chorus and verse together during the guitar solo, which originated from a triplet idea the drummer played on the toms. When I recorded my part I used a mixture of intuition/ear and knowledge of arpeggio shapes on the fretboard to improvise an arpeggio-based idea matching the rhythm of the toms, then the guitarist learnt this idea by ear so he could double it an octave up during his turn to record.

For Parts 3, 4 and 5, I played the jazz standards: Lady Bird, Blue Bossa, and Autumn Leaves respectively, all in a guitar, drums and bass guitar trio context. For “Blue Bossa”, we agreed on the overall structure of playing the whole form twice for the head, followed by a guitar solo for 2 choruses, then a bass solo also for 2 choruses, then finished with 2 choruses on the head. For “Autumn Leaves” the structure was exactly the same, but instead of 2 choruses for every section, we did 1 chorus for every section because “Autumn Leaves” totals 32 bars with the structure A-A-B-C, which is twice the length of “Blue Bossa”‘s straightforward 16 bars. For “Lady Bird” the overall structure was also exactly the same as “Blue Bossa”, but this time after the bass solo and before the final 2 choruses on the head, we traded solos with the drummer for 4 bars each. This section with the trades also lasted 2 choruses, and for the first chorus the structure was 4 bars of solo drums, then 4 bars of solo bass with comping guitar, then 4 bars of solo drums again followed by 4 bars of walking bass with comping guitar. For the 2nd chorus the structure was 4 bars of solo drums, then 4 bars of guitar soloing, then 4 bars solo drums followed by 4 bars of guitar soloing again.

For each of these jazz standards, my approach when it comes to improvising basslines is that I’d start by learning the chord structure of the given tune, then learn where the corresponding root notes are on the fretboard. After this I’d learn to visualise and feel where the 3rd of each chord is, then the 5th by improvising simple basslines restricted to the root and each interval. I’d then repeat this process for the corresponding triads, then 7th arpeggios, and after I’d start introducing passing notes, both chromatic and within the chord scales, by which point it starts to sound more musical, but only because I mastered the fundamentals first. Also, I practiced all of this with both quarter note walking feel and more simple 2-feel. However, when I first looked at these tunes I’d already reached a point where I was automatically able to do all of this off the bat, and with this approach alone it’s easy to fall into bad habits and sound repetitive, so what I did was create 3 phrases for every unique 2-bar cell based off techniques such as enclosures, and having strong notes (root, 5th, 3rd, 7th) on beats 1 and 3, and passing notes (chromatics, 2nd, 4th, 6th) on beats 2 and 4, while making sure one phrase moves up the instrument, one moves down, and the other is somewhat static, so I’m free to move wherever I want on the instrument when I link all of these phrases together. I also make sure I internalise 2 different fingerings for each phrase, which further increases flexibility. Once I’ve learnt to link everything together and consciously use all of this new vocabulary, making sure I can ‘hear’ what I’m playing, I then revert back to improvising basslines without thinking about any of this information and realise that I’m able to play interesting ideas that work much more naturally, allowing me to focus my attention more towards what other band members are playing and how I can enhance how they sound.

When it comes to soloing, I have a different approach, part of which is an exercise where I play every available note of the chord arpeggios up and down the bass restricted to a 5 fret ‘block’, but the arpeggio changes every time the chord changes, and the idea is to be able to visualise this and land on the next available note, which really helps to engrain the chord changes into my muscle memory as well as breaking out of a common mentality of bass players to always land on the root note on beat 1. I also learn vocabulary from great musicians such as Jaco Pastorius, adapt it to multiple fingering, chord types/progressions and rhythms/rhythmic placements, then apply all of this when using this new vocabulary as a motif over any jazz standard I’m working on in order to internalise elements of it into my own ‘voice’.

In terms of who engages with the type of music I’m playing, there’s a small minority of people from my generation and younger who regularly engage with the more traditional type of jazz that I played in part 3 to 5 of my portfolio, which is much more popular with older generations, but this could work to my advantage as there are many elements of this music present in more modern fusion music that appeals to younger generations, such as “Detroit” from part 1 of the portfolio, and leaning the jazz standards has given me a better understanding of these elements, which I can apply to my own music moving forwards. The recording from “Part 2” has much more appeal to fans of blues/rock music, so learning to apply more jazz inspired elements such as the improvised lick I mentioned could expand the appeal to more jazz/fusion oriented audiences. In terms of access to the music, learning to maximise marketing through social media is extremely important and something I need to work on.