Walking Bass Guitar

[dirkji]

This thread is for questions and feedback about the Walking Bass Guitar Lesson.

[Goofsus4]

Great lesson! I have a book on comping that explains this concept but this is much easier to understand, because it builds the concept from the ground up, starting with just playing the roots of the chords.

[m78w]

Hey Goofsus4,
Glad you dug the lesson, the cool thing about this method is that you can apply it to any tune you're working on, just pick a standard and work through the steps.

And if you want to get really crazy you can learn the bassline and then throw the melody of the tune on top instead of the chords, or both!

MW

[DMatthewsBand07]

I liked the lesson a lot. It's kind of funny because I just decided I was going to start working on walking bass a couple of days ago and I was having a little trouble with it. Your lesson definitely came at a convenient time. haha. I'm still having a little trouble with comping rhythms. I can keep the bass and a consistent rhythm with the chords but that can get a little bit dull after a while and I'm having a little bit of trouble with getting some rhythmic variations in there. Oh well. Its only been a week so I guess it comes with time. Thanks again for the lesson.

[DMatthewsBand07]

Oh yeah, another thing is working it into chord melody. I'm sure I'm rushing it a little (that's what I do), but I was wondering if you had any tips for working the melody with the chords and bassline. It makes it a lot more complicated because with chord melody most of the time you have to find an unusual voicing to get the melody note. Anyway. Anything you might have will help. Thanks again.

[neilio]

Great lesson!!!!! The "Step-by-step" is really helpful, for any style of music.
I would add: there's a video by a jazz guitarist in North Carolina named Kevin Van Sant, you can find it on YouTube (YouTube - Jazz guitar - walking bass lesson), or http://www.kevinvansant.com/lessons.html
It's a sample of the video/email lessons he gives, but it all about Walking Basslines for Jazz guitar. It will give examples of what this author has written about.

Great Lesson...keep'em coming!!!

[m78w]

Hey DaveMatthews

If you want to start putting a chord melody under a walking bassline here are three steps to do so:

1) Work out the bassline, start with a 4 or 8 bar phrase first then connect them to form the whole tune.

2) Then add the melody on top of the bassline, make sure to play it on the top two strings. So now you have the bassline on strings 5 and 6 and the melody on strings 1 and 2.

3) Add the 3rd and 7th of each between the melody and bassline on the 3rd and 4th strings. You don't have to do this on every beat maybe just once per chord change to bring out the harmony.

Hope that helps.

MW

[Bebop]

Thank you....very useful lesson.

[m78w]

Hey Bebop,
Glad you dug it!

MW

[Ornithologist]

Great lesson! Just one question, though. What if a chord lasts for more than one measure?

[m78w]

For chords that last for more than one measure you can do several approaches.

1) Play chord tones on beats one and three. So if it's Cmaj7 for 2 bars then you could play the following notes as quarter notes for the bass line.

C D E F#/ G A B C

where C E G and B are all on beats one and three.

2) Use turnaround patterns.

So if you have Cmaj7 for 2 bars you could use.

Cmaj7 Fm7/Cmaj7 or Cmaj7 G7/ Cmaj7 or Cmaj7 Dbmaj7/Cmaj7 etc

So in the first one the bass line could be

C E F B/ C D E G

for the second one it could be

C F# G B/ C B C E

for the third one it could be

C G Db Ab/ C D E C

or any combination of notes you can think of. But the goal is to have the extra chords break up the longer chord and it gives your bass lines more life and interest as you're not just sticking to the chords on the page.

Hope that helps,
MW

[Goofsus4]

The idea of merging walking bass lines with the melody reminds me of yet another reason why playing classical music has cross-over benefits to jazz. The idea of melody on top of just bass strings is the foundation of classical guitar. I was messing around with walking bass lines this morning and realized I'd already been doing this to some degree in my playing of blues, but I just didn't realize it. I'd been calling the walking bass "fill licks." But m78w's lesson made me think of it in a more structured and theoretical manner and that's going to give me some good ideas for comping especially.

Now, the "chord for more than one measure" thing? I deal with that by just messing around with the order of the bass note line I'm playing to add interest while just staying in the same position. Hammerons/pulloff and slides are also useful for mixing up those same bass runs instead of just playing same notes the same way until you move on to the new chord.

[Goofsus4]

Hey, hey! I'm digging this walking bass thing. I may become a bass player. Get one of those big ole acoustic basses, some dark sunglasses, and hang a cig out of the corner of my mouth...nice.

[m78w]

Well you'll definately get more gigs than us 6 stringers!

MW

[sbadreau]

Shameless plug: Check out my book "walking bass lines for jazz guitar" by me, Stephan Badreau.

[mike_k]

Hey Stephan,

I have previously seen your book on Amazon, and it has some good reviews. Dirk's lesson, has sparked my interest in this approach again (Dirk, thanks for the lesson).

However, I am a little hesitant to purchase a music book without getting to "see inside" it. Could you possibly provide a brief description of the chapters or just list the table of contents?

Thanks,
Mike

[sbadreau]

If you go to GuitarGalleryMusic.com DVD and Sheet Music Catalog and search my name stephan badreau the table of content is viewable (I need to get that "search inside" feature on amazon, thanks for reminding me!)
My approach to this style seem to be different from other material I've see on the subject, which prompted me to write the book. I take a more "guitaristic" angle. The basic premise being, if there are 2 chords in one measure, for example, that already yields 2 of the bass notes needed, you just need to connect the chords with an appropriate bass tone. If only one chord is present I have some tricks I use, like using chord inversions to add a chord, that are all described in the book. Instead of thinking about building a bass line with chords on top, I use the chord changes to guide my bass note choices.
I hope that helps, let me know if you have anymore questions

Stephan

[william dhondt]

Hello,

The lesson about walking bass lines is indeed very clearly explained and the step by step method from Dirk is very usefull. That reminds me of a mel bay book I have. I can recommend this book for 100% for this style of guitarplaying: Fingerstyle jazz guitar, teaching your guitar to walk by Paul Musso.
By the way can anyone tell me if the PGmusic program , Jazz guitar solos is interesting to buy and can we buy it in Belgium or is the only way to get it the internet.
thanks

william

[m78w]

Hey Mike K and William,
Thanks for the kind words about the lesson, glad you dug it!

The book by Paul Musso is very well written, it's a book I've used in the past and has lots of great material in it.

The PG Music program is OK, not great. I love their Band in the Box progam but am not a huge fan of the add ons like Jazz Guitar Solos. Having said that it's not that expensive so if you don't mind burning a few bucks checking it out I'm sure you'll be able to find some use out of it.

Also it is available only on the internet as a download outside of North America as I understand it. But you might be able to have them mail you a hard copy as well if you pay for the international shipping from Vancouver.

MW

[Fernando]

A Wonderfull and very educational lesson

[PamweChete]

Originally Posted by sbadreau

If you go to GuitarGalleryMusic.com DVD and Sheet Music Catalog and search my name stephan badreau the table of content is viewable (I need to get that "search inside" feature on amazon, thanks for reminding me!)Stephan

Interesting book. I have been looking for something along these lines. I may just give this a try.

[sbadreau]

Well PamweChete,
If you end up getting my book and you have any question, you know how to find me. I would be more than happy to answer anything.

[silverstrummer]

Ive been looking for somthing like this for quite a while now--just to put the icing on the cake--and make it easier for people who struggle with notations--do you have this --esp the last bit in MP£--it would make it so much easier for me

Silver

[silverstrummer]

sorry MP3

Silver

[m78w]

If you email me I can send you a midi file for the examples.

MW

[silverstrummer]

Thanks Matt--dont know how you find the time--I suppose the old sayings are usually true--"If you want something done ask a busy man (sic)"

Silver

[sbadreau]

And if you have any question about my book, I am happy to help.

[jazzdaz]

Thanks Matt, great lesson.

I think after learning some chords and scales, this should be the first lesson towards making jazz music.

Cheers

jazzdaz

[m78w]

I agree, it's a great way to learn the neck, and it makes playing with another guitarist easier as you can keep the pulse and harmony going at the same time.

MW

[hot ford coupe]

Great Lesson. I also really liked the Van Sant lesson. It was the best explanation of the technique I've ever seen. this is the kind of lessons I live and breathe for.