Chords for The Greatest Walking Bassline Approach (You've Probably Never Heard Of)

_ _ [A] _ _ [D] _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ [B] _ _ _ Forgive me for being overdressed.
_ I just got back from a wallpaper gig.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ We use a
lot of strategies when creating [F] walking bass lines.
_ Scales, _ arpeggios, _ drops, _ _ [Bb] _
_ [C] _ _ [Bb] skips, _ _ _
_ [F] and other things that I [N] talked about in this video.
But are you familiar with the
walk-up?
The walk-up is a simple but highly effective approach to walking bass lines,
and you're going to hear it on most of the jazz records you own.
A huge part of jazz harmony
is based on moving in fourth intervals.
For example, take your standard 2-5-1 cadence.
It's moving in fourths.
Pick almost any random jazz standard composition, and you'll find at
one example of this kind of movement.
Take the blues.
The last four bars moves exactly like this.
The standard walk-up uses four beats, one measure, to get up one fourth, and it even has a formula.
[C] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [F] _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ [F] From the root, it's whole step, half step, half step, half step.
This type of walk-up will work
on any minor chord in any key, as long as it's a bar long, or dominant seventh chord.
For example,
it'll work in the first two bars of the blues.
[G] _ _ [Ab] _
_ [Bb] _ Or if you're playing autumn leaves,
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [A] _
_ [Bb] how about in a mellow tone?
_ _ [Db] _
_ [D] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ [A]
You can even use it during the bridge of a rhythm changes.
_ _ [C] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Gb] _
_ [G] There's not a lot of science involved with playing walk-ups.
It's just a smooth,
connected line that moves in one direction using only major and minor seconds.
It works.
There's also a version of the [E] walk-up that works well over dominant seventh and major chords,
and that one goes half, half, whole, half.
[C] _
_ [D] _ _ _ [F] _ _ _
And [C] there's a version we can tweak if we're playing
on minor seven flat five chords or half diminished chords that goes half, whole, half, half.
_ [Db] _ _ [E] _
_ [F] _ _ [Bb] You'll hear all of these on records, but focus on the first version, master it, and then see if you
can start incorporating the other ones when necessary.
Learn your walk-ups in every key.
_ [C] _ [Db] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
_ [Ab] _ [Bb] _ _ [B] _ _ [Db] _ _
_ _ One good way to practice is just to cycle through the circle of fourths and see how [G] far you can get
without stopping.
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [C] _ _ [Eb] _
_ [F] _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ _ _ [G] I know, [Bb] I know, we're [C] only talking [Eb] about four beats here, [Gbm] but remember,
[Ab] your walking [B] lines, every [D] single note [Gb]
affects [G] what happens on the bandstand.
_ [Db] _ _
[D] _ _ [Gb] _ _ [Bb] Ultimately,
[B] the goal is to play [D] smooth, connected lines [Ab] going mostly in one direction [Db] without even
thinking about it.
So, [Eb]
I don't know [Bb] about you, but I got some practicing to do.
Good luck.
_ _ _ _ [B] _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ [Gbm] _ _ _ _ [Ab] _ _