Walking bass is often shrouded in mystery. Many writers jump straight in at deep end, using advanced concepts that can confuse the novice walker. I have partly covered the subject before, but this too was fairly advanced. There are many bassist that i teach who are not necessarily jazz players, but would nonetheless like to be able to create affective walking bass-line when the need calls. To endure in today´s industry, musicians often need to adept in as many styles as they can. Walking bass is an important skill that can only add to the modem bassist´s set of musical tools. I plan to give you some foundational concepts, which can help you create effective and functional walking bass lines.
So how would we define the term? Walking bass not only creates a constant flow of rhythmic motion, but also underlines the chord sequence, creating a fundation for harmony. Chord sequences, as we have seen in previous columns, come in many flavours, but for convenience I will be looking at sequences that have a set amount of chords in a bar, starting with two chords per bar. You will find that there are some sequences that have a chord on every beat (usually slow ballads), but it is more common to have either one or two chords per bar.
Some tunes, especially in modal jazz, vamp on one chord for several bars. If you have a chord for each beat of the bar in bar of 4/4, the most straightforward approach would be to play the root note of each chord, since walking bass-line are usually based on quarter-note values. You could use other notes for one chord per beat sequences, but these would generally be other chord tones or linking notes, so the overall focus would be to provide root notes.
Wowever, my focus in this post is sequences that have two chords per bar. I am going to use a Imaj7, VI7, II-7, V7 sequence, which is commonly used in jazz, often —but not always— as a turnaround to lead back to beginning of a different sequence in the same key. I´m going to use the key of C major for my Example, and the first thing to do is to map out where all the root notes for each chord are on the neck. So the sequence will be Cmaj7 and A7 in one bar, and then D-7 and G7 in the nex bar. We will then keep repeating this sequence with a view to creating variations of the bass-line with each successive repetition —walking bass lines tend not to overly repeat themselves.
To create variation you need to be able to link the various root note of each chord in different octaves, and I would suggest that you start out by playing the sequence with just root note on beat 1 and 3 as half notes. So where are all the C notes on a four-string, the 3rd and 15th frets of the A string, the 10th and 22nd frets of the D string, and the 5th and 17th frets of the G string. The best way to play them in succession, howerver, is to play them in octaves in relative positions, so you would play the C at the 3rd fret of the A string followed by its octave, the C at the 5th fret of the G string. You would then move position and play the C at the 8th fret of the E string, followed by its octave, the C at the 10th fret of the D string, and so on. You may only rarely use the higher positions above the 12th fret, but it´s good to know where they are.
The main point is that you know where all the Cs are on your bass, as we are effectively creating a map of where the roots are located for each of the chords in our chosen sequence. You should do this same exercise with the roots of the otrer chords as well, so you need to find all the As, Ds and Gs on your bass neck using the same process —don´t forget the open strings!
Now that we know where all the root notes are for these chords on the fingerboard, let´s analyse the relationship between them, If we start with the C at the 3rd fret of the A string for the Cmaj7 chord, we can then look to see where all the As are in its vicinity, for the A7 chord that the Cmaj7 is moving to. The most obvious A would be the open A string, down three frets form the C. This A appears at the 7th fret on the D string and the 2nd fret on the G string. From this we can deduce that there are four different As that we could move to that are close to the C at the 3rd fret on the A string.
Once we have decided what A root note we are going to move to from the C, we can then look for the D notes that are in the vicinity of the A. As the chords will move from A7 to D-7 and then from D-7 to G7 back to the original Cmaj7, we can do this for every change in the sequence. You will notice several choices for each successive root you land on; which direction you move in is up to you.
In example one I have shown some of the available options and highlighted the fact that, apart from the 'minor 3rd down / major 6th up' relationship between the C and A root notes, the root note motion is down in 5ths and up in 4ths, which can be mixed and matched as you please.
Example two and three
What if we want to create a full walking line? We need to add notes that come on the second and fourth beats, so that our bass-line ends up having four beats to the bar. Since we are hitting root notes on the first and third beats, we can use chromatic leading notes on beats two and four, thus creating tension that resolves.
We can start doing this by playing the note a semitone below each root note —no matter whether we are moving up or down— as demonstrated in example two. We can then try doing the opposite by playing the note a semitone above each root note, as in example three. Either of these approaches will work, but you may want to create a smoother line by combing both approaches.
Example four
Example four demonstrates the use of both methods by leading chromatically up to the next root, if the root note is higher in pitch. This use of root note, chromatic leading note, root note, chromatic leading note and so on creates a common theme in jazz of tension and release, with the chromatic leading notes creating the tension that is released when the root of the chord is reached. If you compare example four with example two and three, you will notice that it looks smoother visually. You are of course welcome to use diatonic scale tones in your lines as well for more variation.
Example five
Example five shows us the same root note motion as in example one. However, we now have four quarter notes to the bar and a combination of the approaches used in example two and three are employed to create a smooth walking line. I suggest you practise these methods in other keys and also with other sequences, so that you become familiar with the approach and can improvise with it by taking it in any direction on the spot.
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