Walking

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

A walking bass line is a melody that is designed to fulfill the dual roles of the bass player - outlining harmony and pulse. A basic walking bass line consists primarily of quarter notes moving stepwise and emphasizing the roots of the chords:

[EXAMPLE]

This type of bass line is central to swing, bebop, and other mainstream jazz styles. In this section, I discuss some simple techniques for creating effective walking bass lines.

One principle is that most often you should play roots on the first beat of each measure, or of each chord change. Another principle is that your line should consist mostly of steps rather than leaps. These two concepts together suggest a large part of what you might play in a walking line. For example, consider the following chord progression:

[EXAMPLE]

If you play roots on the first beat of each measure, it looks like this:

[EXAMPLE]

The next notes you should think about are the fourth beats of each measure. Choose notes that are part of the scale for the measure, but which serve to lead into the roots on the downbeats in the next measure. Normally, you would select notes that lead to the downbeats by step:

[EXAMPLE]

The note on beat four may be thought of as a pickup to the downbeat of the following measure. If the pickup leads to the downbeat by half step, then it need not actually be in the chord for the measure in which it is played. The function of the pickup is more melodic than harmonic:

[EXAMPLE]

Actually, this particular use of notes outside the scale can be justified from a harmonic perspective as well. The note a half step below the root on the following beat can be thought of as a leading tone in that key, which would be the third of a V chord leading to a I chord in the next measure:

[EXAMPLE]

Similarly, the note a half step above can be thought of as a tritone substitution for the root of the V chord:

[EXAMPLE]

However you justify the note on beat four, the next step is to fill in beats two and three. Look for notes that fit the scale associated with the chord and which serve to connect the notes on beats one and four. For example, the above example could be completed:

[EXAMPLE]

While a walking line normally consists primarily of steps, leaps can be as well on occassion. Leaps tend to sound most natural between beats one and two or beats three and four:

[EXAMPLE]

In general, you should consider the guidelines given in the section on Voice Leading in the chapter on Melody in the unit on Music Theory. For instance, leaps should tend to be resolve by step in the opposite direction:

[EXAMPLE]

Note however that while bass lines are melodies, they are generally supporting melodies and not leading melodies. Tension and release can be used, but the balance should be more on the side of release than if you were soloing. The soloist will provide whatever tension he sees fit. It is important in this respect to provide a solid, dependable accompaniment that the soloist can use as a basis.

The above examples have used quarter notes on every beat. The constant pulse of quarter notes seems to give just the right momentum to the rhythm. This is why walking lines are so popular in jazz. Normally, you will want to emphasize the momentum by playing slightly ahead of the beat. That is, play each quarter note slightly before the actual beat. For example, the following walking line is played directly on the beat:

[EXAMPLE]

Whereas in the following example, the same line is played slightly on top of the beat:

[EXAMPLE]

The second example is more typical of a swing rhythm in jazz. The distinction is subtle, but it can make a noticeable difference.

You need not play quarter notes exclusively. One common variation is to replace a given quarter note with two eighth notes:

[EXAMPLE]

These eighth notes are normally played with a more exagerrated swing feel than eighth notes you might use in soloing. In the above example, they were played as the first and third parts of a triplet. This leads to another common variation on the quarter note rhythm - the use of triplets:

[EXAMPLE]

When playing in 3/4 time, the same principles apply, except that it is beat three that serves as the pickup to the next measure, and leaps tend to occur between beats one and two or between beats two and three:

[EXAMPLE]

It is important to remember that walking bass lines are not your only option. Some styles of jazz suggest their own patterns, as was discussed in the previous section. The pulse in these styles may not be well served by constant quarter notes. Furthermore, in some modern styles of jazz, it may be inappropriate to state a pulse so insistently at all. The following sections discuss other ways of organizing a bass part.

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Walking