Basic Walking Bass

Walking Bass lines are used in rock, blues, jazz, gospel and many other genres.

I would like to share the basic idea of building walking bass lines using chord tones.

Let's try playing a 4 chords progression in the key of G.

The chords are - Am7|D7 |Gmaj7| Cmaj7|.

We need to identify the notes in these chords.

Am7 - A C E G
D7 - D F# A C
Gmaj7 - G B D F#
Cmaj7 - C E G B

Now, each note is a quarter note (1/4).
The timing is like this - 1234|1234|1234|1234 (one note each).
The basic idea is always to play the root notes on the "1".
You can try different arrangement of the notes,
the exercise below is an example of what you can play.

e.g. ACEC|DCAF#|GBDG|CBDG

Get a guitarist to play along with you and experiment which notes sound better.

More complicated walking bass lines can be formed using modes,passing notes and need not start with the root note.

Have fun.

Famous Slapper

To be a good slapper on the bass, one need to have a good sense of rhythm and know what notes to hit (Ghost notes play a big part in funk slap style).

Would like to name a few good bass players whom we can study.

1) Stanley Clarke
2) Victor Wooten
3) Stu Hamm
4) Abraham Laboriel
5) Louis Johnson
6) Larry Graham
7) Mark King
8) Marcus Miller
9) Vail Johnson
10) Flea

There are many others in the world but these 10 listed are some of my favourites.

Play around with your amp settings, pickup selection, frequency cuts to get the tone you like.

Cheers

Night School

Hi,

For those who are familiar with Stanley Clarke, will surely know this song "School Day".

There is this part at his lastest DVD titled Night School, where many popular bass players improvise School Day with their style.

Some of the bass players include Stu Hamm, Brian Bromberg, Jimmy Johnson, Marcus Miller, Wayman Tisdale and etc.

Grab a copy now. :)