Walking bass lines are a fascinating part of jazz, as they support and mark the harmony underneath the chords and. For beginning bass lines, the root of the chord is the most common target note to play because it is the fundamental note of the chord. Especially since im assuming here most of them will just have quarter notes or eight notes. Building walking bass lines bass instruction pdf free download. Essential walking bass line patterns discover double bass. In this lesson i share some essential walking bass patterns. The first level will be to develop bass lines using triad chord tones only and resolve to the next chord root in the most economical way i. Simple walking bass line for jazz beginners talkingbass. You can also resize the bass tabs which makes them perfect for viewing on an ipad, smartphone or other tablet. Exercise 1 demonstrates this with several examples. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of jazz online jazz handbook welcome to the bass chapter of the thelonious monk institute of jazzs online jazz handbook.
The first bass line that we want to learn, has a downward movement and is composed of the root, the minor seventh, the fifth and the diminished fifth of the underlying chords. This bass transcription is the full percy heath walking bass line to but not for me take 2 from miles davis 1957 album bags groove. Walking bass line theory basics pdf file chris fitzgerald. The bass lines are good and one simple addition to know is that just about any chord walking bass line, you can always use a leading tone that is, 12 step below to whatever is the next chord. This article teaches you 3 jazz walking bass line etudes arranged for guitar.
This tune is mainly made up of a ii v7 i in major and a ii7b5 v7 i in the relative minor. Are you trying to find a way in to playing jazz bass. Even though our intent is to spice up the a to c change just by walking up the bass notes from a to b to c, were able to do a lot more than that in this case. If youre amazingly extra awesome, youll be able to sing the melody and make a bass line at the same time. A walking bass line is the most common approach to jazz bass playing. How to write a walking bass line learn jazz standards. There are a couple of exceptions as youll see but for the most part were looking at one line for ascending and one line for descending. The walking wednesday bass line this week is so what. Beginners guide to walking bass lines bass tabs bass.
Oct 26, 2018 in this 5 minute masterclass, were going create a bass line over a blues in f. Nothing too difficult, just make sure you are stamping your foot two times per second and that you are counting from 1 to 4 in time with your foot beat. Pay close attention to the quality of the chords dominant seven or minor. Looking forward to hearing your walking bass lines over autumn leaves. A big part of being a jazz guitarist is accompanying other musicians. While often associated with jazz, walking bass can be found in any genre. Sep 24, 2019 every chord change in the blues should be viewed as an opportunity to create harmonic movement and interest for the listener. Now its time to learn how to create a complete bass line from scratch. Playing a walking jazz guitar bass line is a captivating method of comping for other musicians, and yourself. The term walking is used lescribe the moving feeling that quarter notes create in the bass part. Walking bass lines are a fascinating part of jazz, as they support and mark the harmony underneath the chords and melody.
Just like walking with your feet, tyjwalking bass line is one step after the other that takes you somewhere. It is possible to add rhythmic variations, but in general, a walking bassline drives the song forward step by step. Easy walking bass lines pdf constructing walking jazz. A slightly embellished version of this kind of line would also be typical of a basic boogie woogie type bass line, as in the following example. In measures 1920 the eb7, and db7 are tritone chord substitutions. Click here to download the free 3 scale concepts that create killer walking bass lines pdf. The first lesson will be building walking bass lines in the 44 meter swing style. Chord tones root, 3rd, 5th, 7th are the most powerful choice you can make when creating your walking lines. Walking bass is a form of bass line, or a musical line that usually provides the lowest voice of the musical texture. Walking bass lines for guitar jazz guitar workshop series. A bass line is a melody line played in the bass by a lowpitched instrument such as the piano, double bass, electric bass, tuba, etc. Memorizing these patterns will make it a lot easier to improvise simple walking bass lines over jazz standards.
Walking bass lines always sound cool in any style of music, but are essential to jazz blues and great american songbook jazz standards. These riffs work over almost any chord which then moves up by an interval of a 4th to the next chord. A jazz bassist must learn how to walk a line based on the chords of a tune. When you use our free bass tabs pdf youll be able to download and save them to your computer for future use. Lessons in this segment focus on the fundamentals of bass playing. There is a big tendency for players to seek for advanced and complicated topics while they still did not master the basics. Ill demonstrate how i approach playing walking bass lines and chords at the same time.
Bass lessons beginners guide to walking bass lines bass tab standard string tuning g,d,a,e recommended 1. Dec 25, 2014 this installment covers a number of issues related to walking bass line construction. If you know how to create a walking bass line, you can be more creative in your jazz playing. Walking bass lines piano tutorial 5 minute masterclass. From the steely dan album aja border song holy moses. S7 e7 bass bass a7 10fr d7 5 a7 d7 bass bass e7 a7 9 e7 a7 bass bass 10fr d7 10fr d7 g7 d7 d7 g7 bass bass 8fr c. One of the most effective ways of comping is using walking bass lines. Looking for a structured way to increase your current skill level.
And walking bass lines are a continuous sequence of quarter notes, generally played on the beat 4 notes per bar in 44 time. We offer a broad selection free bass tabs pdf sheets to help you learn songs. While walking bass in a band is generally played by the bass guitar or double bass player, being able to play walking bass lines is an essential skill for jazz guitarists when playing without a bass player. In general, it is a good strategy to play the root of the chord on the downbeat of the measure. In this weeks lesson were looking at a very simple walking bass line through the chord. For ascending lines im using the scale degrees 1 2 3 5.
By working with the three etudes in this article you will learn how to. Without those substitutions the chords would be as follows e7 a7 d7 g7. Use the same method that is illustrated with the ii v is. Apr 26, 2017 in my previous post, how to keep your bass lines interesting, we defined what a bass line is and what its functions are, and looked at a few ways in which we can creatively negotiate chord changes.
Even just pencilling in the notes on the notation would get you through a walking bass book. Here is the bass lines for autumn leaves that everyone contributed to last week. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of. When we see a chord progression and need to create a walking bass line, the chords are provided so they are the first clue as to what melodic building blocks are available. Easy walking bass lines pdf constructing walking jazz bass lines. The difficulty in walking bass on the guitar lies in the combination of playing chords and bass at the same time. Boogie woogie bass line patterns sheet music, pdf, walking. Free bass tabs printable, downloadable pdf bass tabs. The function of the bass is to provide the foundation. In this 5 minute masterclass, were going create a bass line over a blues in f.
This is an important concept to remember, the walking bass line is. Chords and walking bass part 1 in this lesson ill demonstrate how i approach playing walking bass lines and chords at the same time. It is absolutely crucial for the student to learn the material in the correct order and not to go ahead of oneself. The split octave bass line is probably the bestknown boogiewoogie bass line. Each topic is indexed by a video time marker below for ease of reference. In essence, were using the b note in our walking bass line, plus the guitars standard tuning to create a very cool sounding chord change.
Learn to play the bass line and the thirds and sevenths all at one time. This can be difficult for smaller hands but we will explore the most effective way to practice this style so that you can play it fluently. This week we are going to work through autumn leaves for our walking bass line. Chord tones should be the first stop on the road to learning how to play walking bass lines. A walking bass line is a more creative form of bass playing than the other swing styles because you choose new notes each time you play the same song. S7 e7 all of me example bass line john marley 3 3 3 5 2 2 4. Easy walking bass lines pdf constructing walking jazz bass. Let us suppose that we want to play the dominant g7 v. R 3 5 6 7 walking bass line theory basics chris fitzgerald. This is a a way of playing that i use really a lot in situations where theres no bass player, so mostly duo settings with a guitar player, singer or horn player. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of jazz. Therefore being in control of them and becoming fluent is crucial.
Share, download and print free sheet music for piano, guitar, flute and more on the worlds largest community of sheet music creators. Jazz walking bass line etudes for guitar jamie holroyd. In this example, the bass line consists of simple arpeggiations of each chord, giving the overall effect of a simple blues bass line. This is the most complicated bass line, but is the favourite of many. The function of a bass player in the jazz combo is to work with the piano player and drummer to provide both a harmonic and rhythmic stability for the tune. From the aretha franklin album young, gifted and black break it to me gently. This is the first step in developing walking bass lines. Walking bass line theory basicspart 1by chris fitzgerald. For this walking bass line im going to use only two scale patterns as the foundation for the whole thing. This tutorial takes a look at five different approaches to playing walking basslines in a 12bar blues progression.