BASS Player Lesson Ten Página 1 de 5

W AL K I N G B AS S L I N E S 1 0 1 :

B u i ldin g s i m ple w al ki n g li n es u s i n g ch or d t on es :
Walking bas s lines ar e s ome of the neates t and mos t melodic s ounding par ts we get to play as bas s is ts . T hos e of you who ar e
fans of s wing j azz, blues , or boogie ar e pr obably alr eady familiar with the walking bas s s ound. Mos t of us as s ociate the walking
bas s s ound with a s teady quar ter note puls e that outlines the har mony of the tune, us ually played in 4/4 time. T her e ar e many
differ ent ways we can appr oach walking bas s lines . T he s tyle of mus ic bear s a heavy influence on the way a walking line might be
played. I f you lis ten to a lot of j azz, you have pr obably noticed that walking lines in that genr e ar e ver y impr ovis ational in natur e.
Rar ely, if ever , will you her e any r epetitious phr as ing when a j az z bas s is t is walking thr ough the changes in the for m of a tune if
that player is ex per ienced. I t is almos t as if they ar e playing a s olo us ing quar ter notes only. I f you lis ten to a blues bas s is t
walking, a level of impr ovis ation s till ex is ts , but us ually his or her phr as ing will be mor e har monically cons er vative, and lines will
be played utilizing mor e cons is tent ‘s hapes ’ or s equences of chr omaticis ms and chor d tones . Many ‘boogie’ s tyle walking bas s
lines ar e bas ed on a r epetitious or der of chor d tones or s cale tones , and the s hape of the line s tays the s ame over each chor d
change. Ex amples 1- 3 s how a few 8 bar ex amples of what you might hear fr om each of the genr es mentioned:

E x am ple 1 : A j az z s tyle walking bas s line

E x am ple 2 : A blues s tyle walking bas s line

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E x am ple 3 : A boogie s tyle walking bas s line

With any walking bass line, it is important to remember that your responsibility as a bass player is twofold; you are the primary keeper of the pulse
of the time, as well as the foundation of what is happening harmonically. This is especially true in jazz.

In this lesson, we will get into the basics of playing jazz walking bass lines. To start off with, we will use chord tones only to construct our bass
lines. The reason for this is that chord tones (which can be played using arpeggio forms) are what the actual chord changes are made from.
Needless to say then, the most conservative approach to outlining chord changes would be one in which you were only choosing from notes that
were included in each chord.

Jazz tunes mostly consist of seventh chords. Seventh chords are 4 note chords consisting of a root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th taken from a scale. Here is a
list of some common seventh chord types, along with their chord tones written using scale degrees:

T o clar ify even fur ther , her e is a lis t of the s ame chor d types s har ing C as the r oot, along with their chor d tones :

Ch or d T ype I n cl u ded Ch or d T on es

Maj or 7 chor d r oot, 3, 5, 7

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Minor 7 chor d r oot, b3, 5, b7

7 (Dominant 7) r oot, 3, 5, b7

Minor 7 b5 r oot, b3, b5, b7

Diminis hed 7 r oot, b3, b5, bb7

Ch or d I n cl u ded Ch or d T on es

C Maj or 7 C, E, G, B

C Minor 7 C, Eb, G, B b

C7 C, E, G, B b

C Minor 7 b5 C, Eb, Gb, B b

C Diminis hed 7 C, Eb, Gb, B bb

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Chor d tones ar e bes t played us ing ar peggio for ms . Ar peggios ar e bas ically j us t br oken chor ds . F igs .1- 5 s how s ome one octave
s eventh chor d ar peggio patter ns you can us e that cor r es pond to each mentioned chor d type:

F i gu r e 1 : Maj or 7 ar peggio, s ingle octave

F i gu r e 2 : Minor 7 ar peggio, s ingle octave

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F i gu r e 3 : 7 ar peggio, s ingle octave

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F i gu r e 4 : Minor 7b5 ar peggio, s ingle octave

F i gu r e 5 : Diminis hed 7 ar peggio, s ingle octave

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Us ing chor d tones , s imple walking bas s lines can be cons tr ucted s imply by choos ing the appr opr iate ar peggio patter n for each
chor d change. Ex amples 4- 8 ar e walking bas s lines cons tr ucted fr om chor d tones only.

E x am ple 4 :

E x am ple 5 :

E x am ple 6 :

After playing thr ough each ex ample on your own, you will pr obably notice that the us e of chor d tones in your bas s lines outlines
the movement of each chor d change without the need for any fur ther accompaniment. T his s imple, yet effective appr oach makes
for a gr eat intr oduction to walking bas s lines if you have never played them befor e. I f you ar e alr eady able to play walking lines ,
limiting your s elf to chor d tones only is a gr eat way to impr ove your phr as ing if you ar e having tr ouble connecting chor ds
effectively. A chor d tone only appr oach to s oloing is als o a gr eat tr aining method for effective phr as ing and playing thr ough
changes .
After playing thr ough each ex ample, s tar t wr iting out your own changes to play thr ough. I f you have a fake book or s imilar , tr y
this s ame appr oach wor king thr ough tunes in the book. I think you will find that this ex er cis e helps to impr ove your har monic
awar enes s .

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