Somebody calls “All the Things You Are,” and now you’ve got 36 bars to keep in your head. It’s one of the great songs in the Great American Songbook, and probably my favorite standard. It’s also a tough form to control. A blues is a 12-bar form, and I’d argue it’s three times as difficult to have full control over a 36-bar form as it is a 12-bar form.
Quick answer
Learn the 36-bar form with a bass line first. Walk a simple line over the whole form, then play a reduced version, then just the thirds and sevenths of each chord, then the 3-5-7-9. Do the whole form every time, as slowly as you want, but don’t stop. Then connect the notes of the melody chromatically to build your vocabulary.
Chances are you’re practicing it by yourself, too, without an on-demand rhythm section to call every time you practice. That’s actually an advantage, because learning by yourself makes you a better soloist. Here’s how I’d work up an All the Things You Are bass line and then turn it into a solo, starting from the very beginning.
Where do you start with an All the Things You Are bass line?
This is a circle of fourths tune, where the chord progression goes in fourths, and it’s pretty much all ii-V-Is. Start with a very simple bass line over the entire form. Learning how to solo is really about keeping the whole form in your head, and you can do that with a bass line. That’s the first step. You have to be able to do it with a bass line, and if you can’t, you should learn how.
Two things from my walking drills help here. One is a walk-up: start at the bottom of the octave and play 1, 2, flat 3, 3. You can’t do that every single time, but it works so well, and in the drill I play it over this tune. The other is spacing. The bass line has to breathe. A great melody takes you from place to place, and it doesn’t do that by staying in the same register. “All the Things You Are” does stay in the same register for a bit, and then it varies, and the wide intervals on the bridge give it breath and shape. A drill like 1, 5, 1, flat 5 does the same thing for your bass line.
If you want a written line to start from, there’s a free All the Things You Are walking bass line with notation and tab on the main site. And if you’re newer to walking in general, my guide to walking bass lines covers the basics.
How do you play thirds and sevenths over all 36 bars?
Once you can walk it, take that bass line and play a subtracted, reduced version of it. When you solo, you’re not going to be playing all the time, and you have to have an equal command of the rests and the notes. I explain the subtracted bass line in how to solo on upright bass.
In the lesson, I also play a simpler reduced line with more beat ones. I like to play broken, a little looser and off beat one, but if you’re not totally used to playing that way, more beat ones give you an easier line to go off. Then remove the root and play just the thirds and sevenths of each chord, over the whole form.
Do the whole form, not two bars at a time. Practicing two bars at a time helps you with vocabulary, but you don’t get better at playing a whole form by playing two to four bars at a time. You get better by feeling what it’s like to play over a whole form. It’s like learning to lift weights. You don’t just add heavier weights. You feel what it’s like to hold up a heavy weight, even if you can’t fully do the move yet. Even if you can’t show up to a jam session and play a great solo on this form, you’re getting used to feeling it.
Do the whole thing. As slowly as you want, out of time. But don’t stop.
Cole Davis
Here’s the order I go in. Each step covers the full 36 bars.
- Walk it. A simple bass line over the whole form.
- Reduce it. Play the same line with notes taken out, and keep your place in the form. Use more beat ones if you need them.
- Thirds and sevenths. Play them over the form, then as straight eighth notes, then swing the eighths.
- Add the 5 and the 9. Play the 3-5-7-9 of every chord slowly, then in swing eighth notes.
- Improvise around it. You don’t have to play all four notes. Sometimes it’s 3-5, sometimes 9-7, and sometimes a 1 can sneak in there.
When you swing the thirds and sevenths, you really start to hear the tune. It’s kind of revealing itself, and you’re learning the form and the harmony at the same time.
Get your vocabulary from the melody
Jazz vocabulary is a chromatic, scale-based language that we use to connect chords, and there’s no better way to get it than the melody. This melody starts with two whole notes, and they’re two thirds: the third of the F minor 7 going to the third of the B-flat minor 7, A-flat to D-flat. How many ways can you get from that A-flat to that D-flat? Add half steps. Add some more dissonant notes. Then do the same from the D-flat to the G, using just the notes in between those two pitches.
Do that with the notes in the melody and you end up with something that sounds very much like bebop. Maybe you don’t even recognize it as the melody. Maybe it just sounds like a bebop lick, because that’s where bebop licks come from. They come from the melody. There’s no wrong way to do this, as long as you understand how what you’re playing connects the notes in the melody.
For the top of the chords, try an exercise the great John Patitucci showed me. Play the chords to the first eight bars and go up to the 13th on each one: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. It’s a tough one, because the bass isn’t really suited for it. A lot of my students tell me they didn’t know you could play a D on an F minor 7 and have it work. It does work, and practicing this way lets you hear F minor 7 the way a saxophone player hears it.
On electric: Jaco’s line
If you play electric, check out Jaco Pastorius walking on “All the Things You Are.” It’s one of those great tunes that moves in fourths, and his line has lots of tritones and lots of chromatic motion. At one point you’re playing D7 over E-flat 7. That’s not the obvious choice, and it plays beautifully. Some of what he does wouldn’t work on upright, but it works so perfectly on electric. Maybe those dissonances just sound great when they’re super clear.
Coming from upright, I like to play the open strings, but they don’t work as well on electric, so you can close it if you want to. And don’t let a line like this scare you. Play it slowly, look at the tablature, and play it over and over again until it starts to sound like music.
The bass line, the thirds and sevenths, and the 3-5-7-9 for the whole form are written out in the PDF for Jazz Soloing on Upright Bass: From the Beginning. Start tonight with the bass line: all 36 bars, as slowly as you want, and don’t stop.
Go deeper
Jazz Soloing on Upright Bass: From the Beginning
A 5-lesson method for upright bassists who can walk a line but freeze when it’s their turn to solo.
FAQ
How many bars is All the Things You Are?
36. A blues is a 12-bar form, and I’d argue it’s three times as difficult to have full control over a 36-bar form as it is a 12-bar form. You have to have full command over the entire form to solo over it, and that’s tough to do, especially if you’re playing unaccompanied.
What kind of chord progression is All the Things You Are?
It’s a circle of fourths tune, where the chord progression goes in fourths, and it’s pretty much all ii-V-Is. The melody starts on two thirds: the third of F minor 7 going to the third of B-flat minor 7, A-flat to D-flat.
Should you practice All the Things You Are two bars at a time?
Not when you’re learning the form. Practicing two bars at a time helps you with vocabulary, but you don’t get better at playing a whole form by playing two to four bars at a time. You get better by feeling what it’s like to play over the whole form. Isolate sections later, when you’re working on licks.
What’s the John Patitucci exercise on All the Things You Are?
Play the chords to the first eight bars and go up to the 13th on each one: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. It’s difficult because the bass isn’t suited for it. A lot of my students tell me they didn’t know you could play a D on an F minor 7 and have it work. It does work, and it lets you hear F minor 7 the way a saxophone player hears it.
Can you walk All the Things You Are on electric bass?
Yes. Check out Jaco Pastorius walking on it: lots of tritones and lots of chromatic motion, and some of what he does wouldn’t work on upright but works so perfectly on electric. Coming from upright, I like to play the open strings, but they don’t work as well on electric, so you can close it if you want to.
