Whether you play bass guitar, piano, or guitar (and even when you play a horn), you should know how to construct walking bass lines.
The walking bass line is a quintessential feature of jazz, and understanding how to play one will strengthen your understanding of jazz and your ability to compose and improvise on your instrument.
This post will cover everything you need to know to play a solid walking bass line. This simple 4-step process will help you become a better bass player or embody the spirit of one if you don’t have bass accompaniment on the gig (which does happen!).
First, we’ll discuss what the function of a walking bass line is in jazz, and then we’ll get into the 4-step process for creating strong walking bass lines using quarter notes, which includes:
- Identify the harmony and chord tones
- Put the root note of the chord on the downbeat of every bar (or at the start of each new chord if the harmonic rhythm is faster)
- On the last beat, select what note will lead into the next chord
- Fill in the beats 2 and 3 of your walking bass line using chord tones
If you want to improve your jazz bass playing or play bass lines on an instrument that isn’t a bass guitar, check out the Learn Jazz Standards Inner Circle.
We offer a Jazz Bass Accelerator course that will help you take your bass playing to the next level. We also offer many other courses on playing bass in a jazz context, developing a strong walking bass feel, and tips for playing bass on guitar or piano.
Join the Inner Circle and learn how to play your own walking bass line—with or without a bass guitar.
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Table of Contents
What Is the Role of Walking Bass Lines in Jazz?
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
In jazz, the bassist plays a vital role, setting the rhythmic and harmonic framework on which the rest of the ensemble builds. This task carries a significant responsibility, as the bass line often serves as the musical anchor, driving the groove and steering the harmonic flow of the piece.
What Makes A Good Bass Line?
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Walking bass lines, specifically, must outline the strong chord tones of chord progression effectively while creating smooth and seamless chord movement and providing a solid quarter-note feel.
A walking bass line is a continuous sequence of notes that provides strong forward motion and steady rhythm for the rest of the ensemble. The quality of the swing feel is often created by the rhythmic relationship between the bass player’s quarter notes and the drummer’s placement of swung eighth notes.
Good walking basslines have to fulfill two key roles in jazz music:
- The bass notes must provide a clear harmonic context of the song and often include the strongest chord tones, like the root note, the fifth, and other guide tones.
- Bass notes must also lead the listener through the harmony, emphasizing a smooth transition and selecting notes that naturally, logically, and smoothly approach a target note of the next chord. Often, this requires the use of a chromatic approach note.
Any good bass player (or bass player substitute) will play walking bass lines that clearly anchor the moment’s harmony and move seamlessly through the chord progression using a mix of chord tones and chromatic approach notes.
Check out our post “How to Keep Your Bass Lines Interesting” to learn more about bass lines and how they function in music.
Different Styles of Bass in Jazz Music
Though we’re predominantly talking about the walking bass line in this post, jazz music features many different styles of bass playing. Different styles of bass playing feature rhythmic variations and other stylistic differences that make each distinct.
2-Feel Bass Lines:
A 2-feel bass line is a little different than a walking bass line. Instead of a steady stream of quarter notes, it usually emphasizes each measure’s first and third beats, emphasizing half notes instead of quarter notes.
This gives the song a more laid-back, relaxed vibe. It’s often used in the head of a tune, and it sets up a great contrast when the bassist switches to a walking line in the solos.
Ostinato Bass Lines:
An ostinato is a repeated pattern that keeps going throughout the song. This is a common type of bass line in funk and R&B, but you’ll find it in jazz and jazz blues sometimes. It can create a hypnotic feel that locks in the groove.
Latin Bass Lines:
Like you’d hear in Bossa Nova or Samba tunes, a Latin bass line often has syncopated rhythmic variations that accent off-beats. This gives them a distinctive bounce that can make you want to dance.
Free or Avant-Garde Bass Lines:
In more experimental types of jazz, you might hear bass lines that break all the rules. They might use unusual rhythms and dissonant notes or feel completely unpredictable compared to a traditional walking bass line.
You Don’t Need a Double Bass or Electric Bass Play Walking Bass Lines
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
You don’t need a bass to play the bass.
When we think of bass lines, especially in jazz, our minds immediately picture a double bass or electric bass. Walking bass lines are generally played on bass guitar or double bass, but you don’t necessarily need these instruments to play effective and captivating bass lines—as long as you capture the essence of the bass guitar and can sustain a strong, driving quarter note.
In New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, the bass function was played by brass instruments like the tuba-bass because the climate made maintaining a wooden double bass difficult.
All instruments capable of playing in the lower register, including piano, guitar, cello, and even lower brass and woodwind instruments, can perform the function of bass and play walking baselines.
The takeaway is that walking bass lines are not only for bass players! Every pianist and jazz guitarist must understand the steps of constructing walking bass lines. Even horn players can benefit from constructing bass lines.
BEFORE YOU CONTINUE...
If music theory has always seemed confusing to you and you wish someone would make it feel simple, our free guide will help you unlock jazz theory secrets.
You Do Need Some Basic Music Theory To Play Walking Bass Lines
Learning walking bass lines can be a challenge for any beginner bass player. We’re here to help! Let’s review the basic music theory you need to know to play a walking bass line.
To play a walking bass line, you’ll need to know a bit about the note choices available when encountering any particular chord. In jazz, the basic type of chord is the 7th chord.
When in root position, a seventh chord is made of a root note and a bunch of stacked thirds (however, there are many different chord voicings).
So a Cmaj7 chord will have four notes:
- 7th – B
- 5th – G
- 3rd – E
- Rt. – C
However, you’ll usually want to select the most consonant notes from the chord tones for a clear bass part. The most consonate notes in a chord are the root and the 5th. These are the priority notes when choosing which chord tone to use.
Check out our ultimate guide to 7th chords to learn more.
How to Play Walking Bass Lines: The 4-Step Method
We’ve covered the role of the bass line and many styles of bass in jazz music. Now, we’re ready to build a solid walking bass line.
Here is the outline for our walking bass line method. We’ll keep our rhythms simple: one note per beat. On the first note of each bar, we will play the most essential chord tone: the root. On the last beat of each bar, we will play a chromatic approach tone leading into the next root.
This process will help us outline the chord changes and smoothly approach each new chord.
Step 1: Chord Progression
To write your bass line down, you’ll need bass clef staff paper or a music notation program. Write out your chord progression.
The following chord progression will use mostly dominant chord qualities. Our chord progression is as follows: [V7-I7-V7-ii7-V7-I7].
![Step 1: Choose Your Chord Progression [V7-I7-V7-ii7-V7-I7]](https://images.surferseo.art/d8a9dc57-7b79-4dea-b719-37eee43ff46b.png "Play a Walking Bass Line Like a Pro in 4 Easy Steps (You Don't Even Need A Bass) 8")
Step 2: Downbeats Get Root Notes
Remember, for a strong bass part, the most important notes are the root notes and the 5th. On the downbeat of every bar, write in the corresponding root (if there is more than one chord per bar, write in the root on the first beat the chord is introduced).
Step 3: For the Last Note of Each Bar, Choose How to Lead to the New Chord
On the last beat of each bar, choose one of three options to smooth out the transition to the next chord:
- The fifth scale degree of the first note of the next bar
- Either a half step below the first note of the next bar
- Or a half step above the first note of the next bar
When there are multiple chords per bar, you’ll only have room to fill in the root and the linking tone.
Step 4: Fill in the Blanks
Fill in the blanks! Use your chords and voice-leading knowledge to choose logical (and musical) notes for your bass part. When you are comfortable with your walking bass line in one key, play it in all keys!
Walking Bass Line Examples:
Chords that move up a fourth are abundant in jazz music. You’ll want to know several ways to connect them when playing a walking bass line.
You’ll also want several examples for connecting one chord to its fifth.
Further Practice:
You’ll want to try this process over entire tunes to practice all different types of bass line scenarios.
- Can you play a convincing bass line using a single note, focusing on rhythm and feel?
- Can you play a bass line that stays on one chord for several bars?
- Have you tried incorporating grace notes or skip notes into your playing?
- Can you play a convincing bass line with the half note as your main rhythmic unit?
Choose several tunes and write out several bass parts that clearly define the chords. Be sure to use them as you play with other musicians.
And for more tips and information, check out our post on how to practice playing a walking bass line.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
Accelerate Your Bass Line Game By Joining the Inner Circle
Whether you play the bass or not, knowing how to play a strong bass line is essential to understanding the jazz idiom.
Every great bassist needs to make sure that walking bass line walks.
When you join the Inner Circle, you get access to the Jazz Bass Accelerator course and other courses and content geared toward bass and non-bass players that will help you master the art of the bass line.
Improve in 30 Days or Less. Join the Inner Circle.
