You’ve learned the rules of walking. Beat four voice leads to beat one. Wrong notes go on beats two and four. Don’t repeat notes. Charlie Haden knows all of that, and on One Finger Snap he shows you for four bars. Then he ignores it completely, and it’s some of the most swinging stuff you’ll ever hear.
Quick answer
On One Finger Snap, Charlie Haden plays four bars of conventional jazz bass to let you know he’s done his homework. Then he goes off into his own thing: lots of repeated notes, not a lot of voice leading, and the root on beat one almost constantly. It sounds so organic and so swinging, and I don’t know how he does it.
One Finger Snap is Herbie Hancock’s tune, and this version is Kenny Barron, Charlie Haden and Roy Haynes on Wanton Spirit. It’s number nine in my series of ten classic bass lines you should know. Charlie Haden is my favorite upright bass player of all time (Jaco is my favorite bass player, period). But he isn’t on this list because I think everybody should imitate his walking. He’s on it to offer a completely different way of walking bass lines.
What does Charlie Haden play in the first four bars?
The tune is really just a theme and changes, and it opens on E-flat 7 for four bars. Over those four bars, Haden plays a typical jazz bass line. It follows the rules. You’ve got some voice leading, wrong notes on beats two and four, walk-ups and walk-downs, some octaves and some octave displacement. That’s conventional jazz bass playing.
It’s not a coincidence that those are his first four bars. He plays them to let everyone know he knows this stuff, because he really has done his homework. He’s really checked out Ray Brown and Paul Chambers. Then he ignores it completely and goes off into his own thing.
Repeated notes and the root on beat one
When I play this line slowly without the track, what he’s doing will surprise you, because it’s so simple that it’s actually unconventional. Lots of repeated notes, not a lot of voice leading, pretty much constantly the root on beat one, and sometimes the root on beats one and two.
Take the next four bars, on E-flat minor 7. It sounds kind of clunky. If I played that, I don’t know if it would have the result I want. I don’t know if it would sound swinging. But Charlie Haden plays it, and it sounds so organic and so swinging. I don’t know how he does it.
In the four bars after that, he repeats notes on beat four and beat one. I always say that beat four has to voice lead to beat one. Haden plays the same note on both, which I tell my students not to do.
I’ve never actually heard anyone imitate Charlie Haden for his walking, because his walking can’t be imitated.
Cole Davis
A lot of people, myself included, imitate him for his sound. His walking is another story. When anybody else tries to walk like this, they sound like an amateur. When he does it, there’s such feeling and such depth that it sounds magical.
Haden wasn’t known for his walking. He was known for having a feel that’s unexplainable. His feel isn’t necessarily a straight-ahead jazz feel, but it’s also the most swinging. He was an enigma, completely original. Somehow this kind of bluegrass-oriented folk bass playing works perfectly next to Kenny Barron and Roy Haynes, two titans of straight-ahead playing. Nobody would ever listen to Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins and say that’s not swinging. Quite the opposite.
How should you practice the One Finger Snap bass line?
This isn’t a bass line I’d suggest my students imitate, but it’s interesting, because nobody else has ever walked like this. Here’s what to listen for as you learn it, all from the lesson:
- Play it slowly without the track. That’s how I play it in the lesson, so you can hear what he’s actually doing.
- Find the rules in bars one to four. Listen for the voice leading, the wrong notes on beats two and four, the walk-ups and walk-downs and the octave displacement.
- Find the rules he breaks after that. Listen for the repeated notes, the roots on beats one and two, and the same note on beat four and beat one.
- Keep the rules in your own lines. I still tell my students that beat four has to voice lead to beat one. When anybody else walks like Haden, they sound like an amateur.
If you’re still learning those rules, start with walking bass for beginners. And for the other half of Haden, his sound and how I got mine from him, see Charlie Haden bass lines and his sound.
What’s in the transcription
The full transcription is Haden’s One Finger Snap line as a PDF score, with a video lesson of about six and a half minutes where I play it slowly without the track and walk through the four textbook bars and the bars after them.
Learn the first four bars this week, then the next eight, and listen for the exact moment he stops following the rules.
Go deeper
Charlie Haden: One Finger Snap
Four bars of textbook walking to prove he knows the rules, then he goes off into his own thing.
FAQ
Who plays bass on One Finger Snap with Kenny Barron?
Charlie Haden, with Kenny Barron and Roy Haynes on Wanton Spirit. One Finger Snap is Herbie Hancock’s tune. Barron and Haynes are two titans of straight-ahead playing, and Haden walks a line next to them that isn’t a traditional straight-ahead bass line at all.
Can beat four and beat one be the same note in a walking line?
I always say beat four has to voice lead to beat one, and I tell my students not to play the same note on both. Charlie Haden does it on One Finger Snap, and it sounds magical. When anybody else tries to walk like him, they sound like an amateur. This isn’t a line I’d suggest my students imitate.
Was Charlie Haden known for his walking bass lines?
No. He was known for having a feel that’s unexplainable. His feel isn’t necessarily a straight-ahead jazz feel, but it’s also the most swinging. Somehow his kind of bluegrass-oriented folk bass playing works perfectly in a straight-ahead context. A lot of people, myself included, imitate him for his sound, but I’ve never heard anyone imitate him for his walking.
Who is Cole Davis’s favorite bass player?
Jaco is my favorite bass player of all time, and Charlie Haden is my favorite upright bass player of all time. His sound is still my favorite, and the way he phrases a melody, in the simplest way but also the most real way, is something I still try to capture.
