Jean-Claude A.
Verified buyer
09/10/25
What a great bassist !
It's a good way to master the basics. Nicki Parrot is really great.
Upright & Upfront
Learn How To Sing While Playing Jazz Bass
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About this course
Upright bassist, recording artist and highly acclaimed jazz singer, Nicki Parrott has released more than 30 records, is a first-call bassist for mainstream jazz players, and a frequent headliner at jazz venues and festivals worldwide. We’re thrilled to welcome Nicki to the family with her first TrueFire course, Upright & Upfront!
”I spent many years playing with, and learning from, many legendary jazz musicians including Les Paul who hired me to join his combo for the weekly Iridium gig in New York City. Les encouraged me to sing, which eventually led to becoming a bandleader and recording artist. Esperanza, Katie Thiroux, Kristin Korb, Miriam Sullivan are just a few examples of jazz bass players who also sing and have successful careers.
I’ve designed this course to share many of the upright techniques, jazz feels and performance approaches that I’ve learned along the way. But I’ve also included a series of lessons that focus on singing while playing the bass to hopefully inspire you to do the same.”
Throughout the course, Nicki will guide you through a series of lessons and performance studies covering walking bass lines, developing a great “two feel”, breathing and vocal warmups, scatting, learning to sing and play at the same time, Charleston grooves, funk grooves and lots more.
You’ll apply all of the techniques and approaches concepts over backing tracks for musical context. The feels and tracks include blues, traditional jazz standards and tunes from the popular American song book such as I’ll Take Manhattan, The Water is Wide, The Man I Love, Blues in the Closet, It Had to Be You, Sweet Georgia Brown, Rhythm Changes and more.
You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson.
You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are also included to work with on your own.
Grab your upright, and let’s get “upfront” with Nicki Parrott!
”I spent many years playing with, and learning from, many legendary jazz musicians including Les Paul who hired me to join his combo for the weekly Iridium gig in New York City. Les encouraged me to sing, which eventually led to becoming a bandleader and recording artist. Esperanza, Katie Thiroux, Kristin Korb, Miriam Sullivan are just a few examples of jazz bass players who also sing and have successful careers.
I’ve designed this course to share many of the upright techniques, jazz feels and performance approaches that I’ve learned along the way. But I’ve also included a series of lessons that focus on singing while playing the bass to hopefully inspire you to do the same.”
Throughout the course, Nicki will guide you through a series of lessons and performance studies covering walking bass lines, developing a great “two feel”, breathing and vocal warmups, scatting, learning to sing and play at the same time, Charleston grooves, funk grooves and lots more.
You’ll apply all of the techniques and approaches concepts over backing tracks for musical context. The feels and tracks include blues, traditional jazz standards and tunes from the popular American song book such as I’ll Take Manhattan, The Water is Wide, The Man I Love, Blues in the Closet, It Had to Be You, Sweet Georgia Brown, Rhythm Changes and more.
You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson.
You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are also included to work with on your own.
Grab your upright, and let’s get “upfront” with Nicki Parrott!
What you'll learn
- Create bass solos using chord tones and melodic licks
- Improvise vocally over jazz chord progressions in rhythm
- Transition between different rhythmic feels (Charleston to swing)
- Incorporate melody into improvised solos
- Build a personal arrangement with intro, vocal choruses, instrumental solos, and ending
Release date: 12/18/2021 • 2h 24m runtime
Sample lessons
Creating Walking Bass Lines
Demonstration
Walkin' the Blues
Overview
Walkin' the Blues
Performance
Walkin' the Blues
Breakdown
What's included
46 lessons • 21 charts • 10 Jam Tracks
Upright & Upfront
Hi I'm Nicki Parrott. Welcome to Upright & Upfront.
I spent many years playing with, and learning from, many legendary jazz musicians including Les Paul who hired me to join his combo for the weekly Iridium gig in New York City. Les encouraged me to sing, which eventually led to becoming a bandleader, recording artist and touring musician.
Esperanza Spalding, Katie Thiroux, Kristin Korb, Miriam Sullivan are just a few more examples of jazz bass players who also sing and have successful careers.
I’ve designed this course to share many of the upright techniques, jazz feels and performance approaches that I’ve learned along the way. But I've also included a series of lessons that focus on singing while playing the bass to hopefully inspire you to do the same.
Throughout the course we'll explore walking bass lines, developing a great “two feel”, breathing and vocal warm ups, scatting, learning to sing and play at the same time, charleston grooves, funk grooves and lots more. You'll have all of TrueFire’s learning tools so you can work with the content in your own way, and at your own pace.
We'll learn to apply the concepts in the course over blues jams, traditional jazz standards and tunes from the popular song book like I'll Take Manhattan, The Water is Wide, The Man I Love, Blues in the Closet, It Had to Be You, Sweet Georgia Brown, Rhythm Changes and more.
Are you ready? Grab your bass, and let’s get started.
I spent many years playing with, and learning from, many legendary jazz musicians including Les Paul who hired me to join his combo for the weekly Iridium gig in New York City. Les encouraged me to sing, which eventually led to becoming a bandleader, recording artist and touring musician.
Esperanza Spalding, Katie Thiroux, Kristin Korb, Miriam Sullivan are just a few more examples of jazz bass players who also sing and have successful careers.
I’ve designed this course to share many of the upright techniques, jazz feels and performance approaches that I’ve learned along the way. But I've also included a series of lessons that focus on singing while playing the bass to hopefully inspire you to do the same.
Throughout the course we'll explore walking bass lines, developing a great “two feel”, breathing and vocal warm ups, scatting, learning to sing and play at the same time, charleston grooves, funk grooves and lots more. You'll have all of TrueFire’s learning tools so you can work with the content in your own way, and at your own pace.
We'll learn to apply the concepts in the course over blues jams, traditional jazz standards and tunes from the popular song book like I'll Take Manhattan, The Water is Wide, The Man I Love, Blues in the Closet, It Had to Be You, Sweet Georgia Brown, Rhythm Changes and more.
Are you ready? Grab your bass, and let’s get started.
Creating Walking Bass Lines
Solid walking bass lines is the foundation of everything from jazz to rock. In this lesson, you'll learn 3 important tools to help you create solid walking lines. We'll cover the scale approach, the chromatic or half step approach, and the chordal or arpeggio approach. Just 3 tools is all you need to create walking bass lines over any song or blues at any tempo!
Walkin' the Blues
Learn how to walk the bass on 3 choruses of a C blues using the scale, chromatic and chordal approach in our walking lines.
Walkin' the Blues
Put all your practice to good use and jam on a C blues with piano and drums backing.
Walkin' the Blues
Now I'll break it all down in detail!
Developing Two Feel
You'll learn what a simple two feel is and how to make it swing! Learn when to use a two feel, and how to spice it up by adding extra quarter notes, 8th notes and triplet notes.
I'll Take Manhattan Etude
Play 2 choruses of a two feel on the standard tune, I'll Take Manhattan. We'll start very simply and then add the spice!
+ 39 more lessons
Reviews
3 results
Mathew w.
09/28/23
Wondeful course
New to double bass, this course is wondeful. Great instruction and songs Hopefully more upright bass stuff will come to truefire (hint hint)...
ValerieG
Verified buyer
01/08/22
Well done
This course is well laid out for all aspects of playing jazz bass. The split screen is great for seeing what each hand is doing, and having it written out in music and TAB makes sure everyone can understand.
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