Have You Met Miss Jones Walking Bass Line
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote Have You Met Miss Jones? for the 1937 Broadway musical I'd Rather Be Right. The A sections are friendly ii-V territory in F. The bridge is the test: it jumps from B-flat to G-flat to D, keys a major third apart, and your line has to find each new root in time. Below you'll find the changes bar by bar, a walking line in F, and three recordings to learn from.
Turn the bass off and it's your gig: the piano and drums keep going and you walk the line. The band counts you in with one bar of hi-hat.
Recorded upright bass, grand piano and a jazz drum kit play the line. Tab is for 4-string bass in standard tuning.
The changes
The bridge is the same in every chart we checked. The A sections vary a little. Bar 2 (and bar 10) is D7 in iReal Pro, D7b9 in Jazzadvice and F#dim in Learn Jazz Standards; all three share F#, A and C, so a line built on those notes works for any of them. Jazzadvice gives Abm7 Db7 | Gm7 C7 as an option for bars 7 and 8. In the last A, iReal Pro adds Bb7 to bar 25 (Fmaj7 Bb7), Learn Jazz Standards keeps F#dim in bar 26 and plays Am7 Dm7 in bar 29 where the others have Am7 D7, and iReal Pro writes F6 for bar 31.
How this line works
- The root lands on beat 1 of 36 of the 40 chord changes, so the harmony is clear. The rest start on the 3rd or 5th, which keeps the line from sounding like a list of roots.
- 39 of the 39 chord changes are approached by a half step or a whole step, so every new chord arrives smoothly instead of by a jump.
- Non-chord tones sit on the weak beats: 14 on beat 2 and 11 on beat 4. That's where passing and chromatic notes sound intentional instead of wrong.
- No note repeats back to back. A repeated note is the quickest way to make a walking line sound stiff.
What Have You Met Miss Jones teaches you
- Roots in fourths: after Fmaj7, most of the A section moves up a fourth at a time, D7 to Gm7 to C7, then Am7 to Dm7 to Gm7 to C7. Every bar hands your line a new target.
- The second A ends differently. Cm7 F7 in bars 15 and 16 is a ii-V into Bbmaj7, the IV chord, and that's where the bridge starts.
- The bridge moves through three keys a major third apart: Bbmaj7, then Gbmaj7, then Dmaj7, then back to Gbmaj7 before Gm7 C7 takes you home to F.
- Each new key in the bridge is set up by a ii-V: Abm7 Db7 to Gbmaj7 and Em7 A7 to Dmaj7. The thirds of the V chords, F in Db7 and C# in A7, sit a half step below the next root, so they make great approach notes.
- The last A puts two chords in a bar more often (Am7 D7 in bars 26 and 29, Gm7 C7 in bar 30), so you get two notes per chord and less time to reach each one.
How to practice it
- Hear the form first. Turn the bass off and play just the root of each chord along with the band until you never lose your place.
- Read the line slowly. Set the tempo around 80 and play the written line with the drums. Slow is the fast way here.
- Loop the hard spots. Turn on Loop, find the four bars that trip you up, and play them until they feel like the easy ones.
- Make it yours. Keep beat 1 of every bar, but change the approach note on beat 4. A half step above, a half step below, a whole step: each one changes the color of the arrival.
- Play it with the record. Put on one of the versions below and play along. That's where the time feel gets into your hands.
Want to build your own lines on these changes? Try the free Walking Line Builder and practice with the click on 2 and 4.
Recordings to hear
- Art Tatum and Ben Webster, The Art Tatum-Ben Webster Quartet (1958), with Red Callender on bass.
- McCoy Tyner, Reaching Fourth (1963), with Henry Grimes on bass.
- Oscar Peterson Trio, We Get Requests (1964), with Ray Brown on bass.
Have You Met Miss Jones: questions
What key is Have You Met Miss Jones in?
F major. It's in F on the iReal Pro, Jazzadvice and Learn Jazz Standards charts. The bridge moves through B-flat, G-flat and D, but the A sections stay in F.
What are the bridge changes to Have You Met Miss Jones?
Bbmaj7 | Abm7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 | Em7 A7 | Dmaj7 | Abm7 Db7 | Gbmaj7 | Gm7 C7. That's B-flat, then a ii-V to G-flat, then a ii-V to D, then back to G-flat and a ii-V home to F.
What tempo is Have You Met Miss Jones played at?
Charts mark it medium swing, which iReal Pro plays between 100 and 139 bpm. Learn the bridge slowly first. Once you can land every new key on beat 1 without stopping, bring the tempo up.
Your next step
This page gives you one line to study. These courses teach you to build your own, on the bass you play.
The 7-Day Walking Bass Breakthrough
Cole DavisWalk through any jazz tune with lines that move, swing, and never repeat themselves.
- Walk through any ii-V-I, major or minor.
- Solve the two-bar problem on static modal tunes.
- Never repeat yourself two bars in a row.
Walking Basslines on Upright Bass from the Beginning
Cole DavisFive lessons from “my walking lines don't sound like the records” to professional-grade walking.
- The chord first: the 1-3-5-7, where every great bass line starts.
- The master move: changing the order of the notes, bar by bar, on an F blues.
- The three questions every bass line has to pass, then the whole method on Autumn Leaves.
Not sure which course fits? Answer a few questions and we'll point you to one.