Chromatic Scales for the Upright Bass

Video Transcript

"Hi! I am Branson Garner on behalf of expertvillage.com. Today we are going to be talking about playing walking bass lines on the upright bass using chromatics to create more color in your bass lines. In order to do that, chromatics basically is just half a step away, you know, something like that. Now using chromatics in a walking bass line is best used when you have long stagnant changes, things that stay the same. So we’ll demonstrate that. Alright, so say you have a know change that’s just D minor 7 or say 16 bars and then E flat, so it goes up just half a step. This is what it will sound like using chromatics. Alright, as you can see I just demonstrated using the chromatic method. It doesn’t really change the way that the chord is played, because it is the same change over and over. The biggest thing about using these chromatic script walking bass lines, is that you must hit the root note, in this case the D. Either every 2 bars or every 4 bars or every 8 bars, just to establish some sort of continuity between your walking bass lines. Using those chromatics, establishing that beat on 2 bars, 4 bars, or 8 bars, you can create a great chromatic walking bass lines. Not only is it good for your walking bass lines but it sounds very cool. That is how we can use chromatics in the walking bass lines."