Gypsy jazz upright bass, Vol. 2: Repertoire

This followup to Gypsy jazz upright bass, Vol. 1 focuses on developing core gypsy-jazz repertoire for upright bass.

Are you new to gypsy jazz bass playing and need guidance on what basslines to play? Or perhaps you’re experienced but feel like you always play the same thing, and you want some inspiring new ideas? This is the course for you.

It consists of 15 performances, featuring only bass and rhythm guitar — no soloist. For each tune, Arnoud spends a chorus or two on different bass styles, including the “two feel,” basic walking bass and advanced walking bass.

The full list of tunes is below. It represents a variety of styles and tempos within gypsy jazz — medium swing, fast swing, ballads and bossas.

To learn from this course most effectively, treat these basslines as etudes. Learn them and play along, then extract your favorite ideas for use in gigs or jams. The idea is to give you plenty of bassline ideas and inspire you!

Each tune has a video of Arnoud’s full bass performance, plus an audio-only version with rhythm guitar mixed loudly (so you can play along with it). Toggle between them by clicking on “Video” at the bottom of each lesson.

Enjoy this course, and best wishes with your bass playing!