Bar 5 uses the pattern r, r, b2, b3 to get the bass lines to work perfectly. For this walking bass line im going to use only two scale patterns as the foundation for the whole thing. A jazz bassist must learn how to walk a line based on the chords of a tune. 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. Imagine being able to listen to any song and recognize every note of the melody by ear. It breaks down a discipline into discrete problems and illustrates solutions for each. It is found most commonly in blues and jazz, but as you learn bass guitar, you will hear its influence in almost any style of music. Since its walking bass piece each note is a quarter note. 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. Walking bass lines always sound cool in any style of music, but are essential to jazz blues and great american songbook jazz standards. Essential walking bass line patterns discover double bass. The bassment is a mean machine groove for bass players.
The musical modes are one of the most misunderstood, challenging and most difficult concepts to explain regardless of your instrument. How to create bass lines 5 ostinato or riff bass an ostinato is a repeated rhythmicmelodic. This just so happens to be done in the key of a but you can play this in any. As a result, this interesting arpeggio becomes a quasileitmotif for the bass line of so what. Basic 12 bar blues in a the walking bass bass tabs.
Strings are vertical while imaginary frets are shown horizontally. In lesson 2, we continued to build patterns for the common chord progressions we see in blues. The walking bass line was developed by upright bassists like ray brown, milt hinton, paul chambers, and ron carter, but now its also commonly played on the bass guitar. For this walking bass line im going to use only two scale patterns as the foundation for the. The bassment free bass guitar transcriptions in standard. Bar 5 uses the pattern r, r, b2, b3 to get the bass lines to work perfectly with the am7b5 chord. Common bass patterns studybass fundamentals one studybass. Bassists can learn to read music notation, chord lyrics charts, or bass tablature. The idea of this lesson block is to give you a beginning understanding of what notes bass players choose and why. In this lesson ill demonstrate how i approach playing walking bass lines and.
Common chord patterns to remember bass guitar player world. A walking bass line simply walks through the appropriate scale of each chord, one note per beat, hitting every beat of each measure. Bass lessons basic 12 bar blues in a the walking bass bass tab. While often associated with jazz, walking bass can be found in any genre. If you ever get confused or feel insecure, you can always return to this.
The electric bass examples from glenn worf and others are also useful for upright if you change a few of the note positions. Basic 12 bar blues in a the walking bass bass tabs bass. For when you have to learn to play the bass right now. So far we have patterns for each chord change in the 12bar blues except for one, moving from v to iv i. These chords are some of the most popular chords in modern music, and today we are going to learn them on the bass guitar. Walking bass lesson 3 jazz blues fundamental changes. Common bass patterns 1 to 10 beginner bass lesson youtube.
In part three of our walking bass series, we are looking at the final changes for the 12 bar blues. To walk bass lines on the ii v i, all we have to do is learn three different walking patterns. Feb 09, 2014 common bass patterns 1 to 10 beginner bass lesson fingerboard with notes bass tab. Chords and walking bass part 1 in this lesson ill demonstrate how i approach playing walking bass lines and chords at the same time. Walking bass lines are a fascinating part of jazz, as they support and mark the harmony underneath the chords and melody. The technique is also called a walking bass line it is used in country, bluegrass and jazz very often, but you can use it in other genres as well. A bassline is a melody line played in the bass by a lowpitched instrument such as the piano, double bass, electric bass, tuba, etc. All of our bass tab pdf is printable and downloadable so you can enjoy it for years to come. And walking bass lines are a continuous sequence of quarter notes, generally played on the beat 4 notes per bar in 44 time. The symbol of the bass clef is derived from the old german way of writing f.
It is common for the harmonic rhythm to vary within most chord progressions. This is a work in progress that will be updated over the. For example, when you do steps 1, 2, or 3 above, you are creating the most basic kinds of ostinato. A walking bass line generally consists of notes of equal duration and intensity typically 14 notes that create a feeling of forward motion. Here is an example with the chord progression c7 f7. Taken together, the essays describe the practice as a whole. Ifr blog instrument blogs bass blog walking bass line exercise 2 5 1 progression join my online ear training workshop in april, 2020.
The goal of a walking bassline is to outline the chord progression but with an interesting. Common bass patterns 1 to 10 beginner bass lesson fingerboard with notes bass tab. After browsing our selection of free bass tab pdf, view our video lessons to help you get started learning your favorite songs from start to finish. Chord tones root, 3rd, 5th, 7th are the most powerful choice you can make when creating your walking lines. Here is a series of walking bass line patterns ordered by chord type major, minor, dominant, and halfdiminished. The bass lines in the section are for you to learn, memorize, and play in a real live playing situation. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of. Walking bass on the piano can be one of the coolest things ever. These riffs work over almost any chord which then moves up by an interval of a 4th to the next chord. 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.
Its a system that takes weeks or even months to learn the basics, while guitar tab can be learned in a matter. If you plan to play music with others, you need to know what notes to play. Below are patterns for that describe fundamental elements of walking jazz bass. The notes above are all natural however any of this notes can be raised or lowered a half. Lessons in this segment focus on the fundamentals of bass playing. Today, we are going to discuss common bass chord patterns. Simple walking bass line for jazz beginners talkingbass. Walking bass lines in 12 keys, techniques and exercises for the electric bass. It is possible to add rhythmic variations, but in general, a walking bassline drives the song forward step by step. Therefore being in control of them and becoming fluent is crucial. Therefore, the bass is played by the left hand on the lower part of the keyboard of the piano. Playing a walking jazz guitar bass line is a captivating method of comping for other musicians, and yourself. The magic of the boogiewoogie bass line rhythm comes from what we could call a 12 against 4 rhythm. 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.
These are all simpletoplay note patterns and apply in a lot of musical situations. Bass tablature for cool walking bass pattern by misc. Once you have some basic rules down, youll be able to make bass lines over any chord progression. Keep in mind, if you are used to playing jazz walking bass, shout walking bass is quite a bit different. The bass line descends the scale and lands on the root of the next chord. In this 5 minute masterclass, were going create a bass line over a blues in f. The suggested fingering for the scale is to the left of the diagram.
In this lesson i share some essential walking bass patterns. A pattern language for walking bass walking jazz bass. The method has been described as a totally different way to learn about music and improvisation. Scales and chords for the upright bass the following keys should be learned in the order presented. Chord tones are the foundation that we are going to build our walking bass constructions on. And walking basslines are a continuous sequence of quarter notes, generally played on the beat 4 notes per bar in 44 time walking basslines. When i mention 1 to 5, i am only talking scale degrees not chord movement although the 1 to 4 pattern does imply a chord change in examples 3 and 4.
Constructing walking jazz bass lines book i walking bass lines the blues in 12 keys bass tab edition. The two dots on the right of the bass clef symbol surround the line on which f pitch is written. Click here to download the free 3 scale concepts that create killer walking bass lines pdf. It is absolutely crucial for the student to learn the material in the correct order and not to go ahead of oneself. There is a big tendency for players to seek for advanced and complicated topics while they still did not master the basics.
Our collection of tabs, guitar chords, and video lessons is constantly growing, so check back often to find your favorite songs. Walking bass noterange usually the bass lies in the lower sound range of the music. The possible noterange of a walking bass can reach from subcontra a to middle c. Building walking bass lines pdf free download epdf. As always you can download the examples as a pdf here. But for bass players, where this is one of the most sought after questions that usually is faced with an unsatisfying answer on talkbass, use their search to look for musical modes and just look at. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of jazz. For ascending lines im using the scale degrees 1 2 3 5. Walking bass is a form of bass line, or a musical line that usually provides the lowest voice of the musical texture.
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. There are lots of good tunes to learn and play and tracks to pick along with on the. Join my online ear training workshop in april, 2020. 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.
It is possible to add rhythmic variations, but in general, a walking bassline drives the. Walking bass lines pdf ebook in this ebook, joe hubbard unpacks the closely guarded techniques of the jazz masters, outlining easy and simple to use concepts to create great walking bass lines over common chord progressions. Misc cool walking bass pattern bass tab this cool walking bass pattern is fun to play, and also a good warmup. Please practice handwashing and social distancing, and. The function of the bass is to provide the foundation. Go through this concept very slowly to begin with and listen to the sound of each bar, one by one and appreciate the critical differences in the bass line. Ifr blog instrument blogs bass blog walking bass line exercise 2 5 1 progression. Projects, patterns, and essential techniques for custom canes and walking sticks fox chapel publishing stepbystep instructions and expert advice from lora s.
Just found the best bass notation site in the universe, also offering tab to the lesser bass mortals, just cannot understand why it took me so long to find you. This is the most common movement between chords, its literally everywhere, so having some great bass riffs under your fingers will really help you. When the harmonic rhythm of a progression of a song is two chords per bar, the bass player will often play a target note on beats 1 and 3, and an approach note on beats 2 and 4. It keeps the beat, it plays the bass line, and it establishes the groove. Bass parts are presented in easytoread tab as well as in standard music notation bass clef. These blues bass lines are like having a one chorus lick that you can. Walking bass line theory basicspart 1by chris fitzgerald. As you follow the scales, you will always go up low to high then back down high to low. Walking up or down into a chord is a really nice way of making a transition from one chord to another.
Music notation is a great system, but it isnt the most modern, or best system for learn modern bass guitar songs. Walking bass lesson 3 fundamental changes music book publishing. Additionally, you will learn to put it all together using joes walking bass line matrix, where you will never run. Many bass guitarists limit themselves to simple one note patterns, when bass guitar has an expansive amount of resources available, just like guitar. Improvise for real is now being used by both students and teachers in more than 20 countries. Walking bass line theory basics pdf file chris fitzgerald. Using the popular major pentatonic scale and its associated four modes as the foundation for the note sequences, thegrimoirium contains every plausible note sequence permutation of the major pentatonic scale 2. Memorizing these patterns will make it a lot easier to improvise simple walking bass lines over jazz standards. Practice the scale until you can play it continuously and fluently. If you know how to create a walking bass line, you can be more creative in your jazz playing. In this lesson well take a look at scale style and intervalic bass lines, and even mix them up a bit. The boogiewoogie lefthand plays the role of the bass player and drummer in a band, both rolled into one. Boogie woogie bass line patterns sheet music, pdf, walking. Free bass tabs printable, downloadable pdf bass tabs.