Chords for The EASIEST walking bass line formula EVER (in under 5 minutes)

Hey guys, how's it going?
I'm here with the one and only Ian Martin-Allison.
Hello, hello.
We've been filming something all week.
I was like, before you go back, we've got to film
a quick lesson.
We were just talking about what we should film it about.
Because the
Jazz Accelerator, if you don't know about the Jazz Accelerator, you can come and study
jazz with myself for, it's a lot of weeks.
I'll put a link down below.
We opened this
course once a year for enrollment.
It's open now.
And [Ab] I was like, Ian, let's make a video
about jazz.
And I asked Ian, I was like, what's been your biggest takeaway for jazz?
[F] And you said, well, it's this walking bass thing, right?
Yes.
So we are going to try and teach [Fm] you how to play a super simple walking bass formulae.
Formula.
Formula [Ab] in under five minutes.
So hit the countdown now.
Okay, so here's the deal.
I feel like there's so many [F] ways you can walk a bass line.
And
when I first started, I was trying all these different approaches and I wish someone told
me right away that you [N] play chord tones on beats one, two, and three, and then you pass.
So I try to think of this as root three, five pass or chord tone, chord tone, chord tone
pass.
So let's actually put this into a progression.
What this [D] means is I'm going to play [Eb] three
notes that belong to [Gm] the chord.
And then [N] I am going to pass chromatically a half step
away from the next [F] target root note.
So what's our progression?
The chord [E] progression will be C, you can write this down [C] if you want, right?
C major seven
to A dominant [A] seven, _ D minor [D] seven to [Em] _ [G] G dominant seven.
That's just like a one, six, two, five
in the key of C for any of you fancy bonds out there.
Okay.
So how do [Ab] we create a walking
bass line around that?
[N] Well, first of all, you need to familiarize yourself with this
root motion.
So get really used to playing [C] a C, an A, [D] a D and a [Gm] G, but don't just do
it there.
[C] Maybe play a C, maybe [A] an A up here, [D] maybe the D, [Gm] maybe the G.
There are a lot
of [C] ways to do it.
How about the C?
[A] How about the A here?
How about the [D] D here and [Gm] the G
here, right?
Or you [Cm] could start with the C here, [A] A, right?
[D] D, G, [E] right?
Especially in
this part of your instrument, familiarize yourself with that root motion and then [F] the
chord qualities, let's build [Gb] them.
So if we're thinking about C major, well, we have a C
[C] major triad, root three, five or root three, five.
Those are two really great ways to see
this, right?
And [Em] then if you play this, [G] you get to pass to [Gm] the next one.
So my A is up
here, right?
So maybe I'm going to [Ab] play, _ [A] right?
And then your [Ab] ear allows this note, which
sounds so wrong, right?
If you just [A] sit on it, but since you're moving to that A, it's
so nice.
So the first bar, I don't know.
How about this?
[E] Root three, five, [A] pass to the
A.
Okay.
Now from this A, wow, we could play, now it's an A major.
So we have [E] A, the fifth,
[A] the third, the root.
Well, we could play this.
_ _ [Eb] _
[Dm] So all he's [A] playing is root three, [Db] five, [N] chromatic.
Actually, you played root five, three, [Eb] chromatic.
But what you said might [A] be better.
Root [E] three,
five, chromatic.
[D] Yes.
Well, both work, right?
Absolutely.
So we're essentially going chord
tone, chord tone, chord [Eb] tone, chromatic passing note, moving to [D] the next chord, right?
Now
that next chord, [N] you know, when you first start doing this, just target the root note,
[G] right?
Yes.
So play chord tone, chord tone, chord tone, chromatic [F] passing note, moving
to the next chord.
And I mean, like, what is a chromatic passing tone for us in this
[Ab] formula?
It is a note above or below the root that we're moving to.
Yeah.
From a half step,
right?
So if we're thinking about targeting D, [G] chromatic approach to D would be [Eb] either
a D sharp or E flat [Db] or a C sharp or D flat.
So in this thing we're doing, _ _ _ _ _ _ [D]
right?
[Ab] That
sounds great, man.
So let's play that.
I'll play the chords for you.
You play the walking
line.
Here we go.
One, two, three.
[C] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [Dm] _
_ And then it'll be [G] moving to that G seven, right?
So
what do you do on the G seven [D] to get back around to the C major?
All I did since I was
here is I played a D and now this is a D minor, right?
So D it's flat [A] third, the fifth.
[Ab] And
then I just chromatically [G] walked it down to the G and then we get to that [G] G seven.
And
what are you going to play to get to that C major?
So many ways to do this.
But one thing
that I really like to do on a five chord is just [Dm] actually play down [D] root five octave.
Yeah.
Cause they're called tones.
You don't need to put the thirds in if you don't want
to.
Right.
So how about eight, [G] five, one.
And now you [B] can go here [C] _
or you could play.
_ _ Oh, that was nice.
That was nice.
So [Eb] chromatic pass from either above your target or below
your target.
[E] Now what you [B] should do is go and get some simple chord sequences.
Obviously
start with this one first, the C, A seven, D minor, G seven.
Go around that for a few
times just to get [F] comfortable with what it feels like under the fingers.
And then I'd
recommend taking a standard like autumn leaves and just doing the same [Cm] formula with that.
The chords are_
_ [Eb] _ _ _ [F] If you use that same [Eb] formula_
[C] _ _ _ [F] _
Okay.
_ [G] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [Em] [Bb] If you dig this stuff, if you want to
learn [Gb] more about jazz and I highly recommend that you [N] do because it's such a great way
to learn the instrument, learn about chords, learn the fretboard and everything in between.
It's been a massive, had a massive impact on myself in terms of my playing.
And I expect
you'll the same.
Oh, for sure.
For sure.
Yeah.
If you're into jazz, go check out the jazz
accelerator program.
It is open for enrollment right now and it's only open once per year.
Okay.
So go check it [Abm] out.
The link is down in the description below and hopefully we
will see you on the inside. _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _