How to Play Walking Bass Lines

Video Transcript

"Alright, my name is Branson Garner, and on behalf of expertvillage.com, in this segment we are going to be talking about creating walking bass lines, and going a little more in depth on how we can do that. We’re going to be talking about 2 different methods to do that. The first one is the root fifth, which is taking the root of the scale you are on… the change you are on and hitting the 1 and the 5, and also the octave to create that. I’ll demonstrate this, and we will talk a little bit more about it. Basically, it’s something like this. Now this particular method, the root fifth, is used best when say going fast, in a really fast bebop line. Something like that. So you are going really fast and really, really swinging hard, or it is also used say in a ballad. It’s really good for that, and has that nice effect. As you can see, that root fifth really emphasizes the chord changes in that ballad. That is one of the phrases that we can use to create walking bass lines. Another one, is very similar to the root fifth, but it takes also the third and the seventh of the chord, which is the arpeggio, and it pronounces that. So it is little more advanced. So say you have an arpeggio… you’re going…That is just emphasizing the 1 in the chord, in this case it was A, and then the 1, 3, 5 and the 7, and then doing that as you progress through the chord changes. That is 2 ways that we can incorporate into our walking bass lines to create walking bass lines in jazz music. So remember the root fifth and the arpeggio. As you put those, you can create more exciting walking bass lines."