Walking Bass Lines

When I was a young player, I was hungry to play jazz, and in particular walking bass lines. It took me a long time to find someone who was able to explain to me, from a technical standpoint, how you created the sound of “jazz licks,” and how you improvised and walked over chord changes.  In fact, it wasn’t until I took a lesson with Jeff Berlin when I was sixteen that my eyes started to open.  He was the first on that was able to explain to me what a walking bass line was.

If you’re reading this and you’re interested, this is how you build a walking bass line: chord tone (usually the root of the chord,) scale tone, chord tone, passing tone. That’s a very cut and dry explanation, but those are the basics. For example, if you’re playing 4 beats to a measure, and the chord you’re walking over is C, the notes in the chord C are: C – E – G. We’ll also assume that the chord C, in this case, is in the key of C, meaning you’ll use the notes from the C major scale for the scale tones (C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.) So, a walking bass line over this chord might