For when you have to learn to play the bass right now. These walking bass lines will give you a good basis for what to play and how to outline the chords to provide a good solid walking bass line for soloists to improvise over. In jazz, basslines should generally not be too repetitive unless youre intentionally playing a vamp like in blues or boogiewoogie. The function of a bass player in the jazz combo is to work with the piano player and drummer to provide both a harmonic and rhythmic stability for the tune. Apply these patterns to all of the ii v i progressions and blues chord changes in this book. Welcome to this definitive jazz guitar chord chart for beginners. Walking bass line jazz standards swing tune bass by misc. To get started with walking bass lines it is important to be aware of the root notes in each of the chords you are playing. Jazz walking bass books constructing walking jazz bass lines. The bass also has a rich history as a solo instrument in jazz. Some of the chords used in these notated blues lines are different from the original chord progression.
Free ebook downloads, practice tracks, drum tracks and much. One the whole youll find bass guitar chords featured in more progressive styles of music such as jazz and fusion music. In this example, the bass line consists of simple arpeggiations of each chord, giving the overall effect of a simple blues bass line. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of jazz online jazz handbook welcome to the bass chapter of the thelonious monk institute of jazzs online jazz handbook.
R 3 5 6 7 walking bass line theory basics chris fitzgerald. Looking forward to hearing your walking bass lines over autumn leaves. The collection of material of this book is, in our opinion, the basics to playing bass guitar for some event. Here, we will provide you with lead sheets, basic chord melodies, chords and single note solos that you can begin applying over some of the most popular standards right. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of jazz. Here on learn jazz standards, there are a few great posts on walking bass lines for. The second way involves some memorization and will be explained after we covered seventh chords and tensions. This book contains ten walking bass lines to ten of the most common chord progressions from jazz standards. Bundle of 48 backing tracks and 12 pdf files with chord changes. Here, we will provide you with lead sheets, basic chord melodies, chords and single note solos that you can begin applying over some of the most popular standards right away.
Guitar walking bass lines wchords jazz lesson with tabs. Each example includes not only written basslines, but also a series of exercises that stepbystep introduce root motion, chord tones, scale patterns and chromatic halfstep approaches. Jazz guitar workshop walking bass lines the blues in 12 keys the blues in 12 keys is a complete guide for the jazz guitarist demonstrating the devices used to play walking bass lines and chords in solo or accompaniment settings. Playing jazz guitar bass lines with chords the guitar is an extremely versatile instrument, with seemingly endless techniques and tones around every corner. Aug 11, 2015 in previous lessons, we have looked at creating a solid walking bass line to fulfill our supporting role in a jazz ensemble. If you know how to create a walking bass line, you can be more creative in your jazz playing. Constructing walking jazz bass lines book i the blues in 12 keys is a complete guide demonstrating the devices used to construct walking jazz bass lines in the jazz tradition. Jan 22, 2018 an example of scales used for walking bass lines, i try to use mostly the notes in the key of c, the bass line have some embellishment notes and right hand plays chord voicing with some rhythmic. The 244 chord shapes on this page are essential knowledge for any jazz guitarist and will help you to comp chords with creativity, confidence, and variety.
The wonderful thing about it is that walking a basic bass line is not all that difficult once you learn a few simple steps. The definitive jazz guitar chord chart for beginners. How to play a walking bass line with chords guitar. The most common chord movement in the blues not to mention jazz, rock, pop and countryfollows the circle of 5ths, where chords descend in intervals of perfect 5ths, for example from d to g to c. In this post, i want to take abstract concepts about how bass lines are constructed and use them to create practical exercises that help all musicians learn how to improvise walking bass lines in real time. How to keep your bass lines interesting and how to write a walking bass line. Just because you practice scales, chords, patterns, and exercises doesnt mean you will sound stiff and mechanical, or that you will become a jazz great. A jazz bassist must learn how to walk a line based on the chords of a tune. In previous lessons, we have looked at creating a solid walking bass line to fulfill our supporting role in a jazz ensemble. In this lesson well take a look at scale style and intervalic bass lines, and even mix them up a bit. If you are wishing to order the pdfmp3 files please go to the correct page as this product is for the pdf file only. If the op doesnt understand chords, the circle of 4th, and scales, well, time to learn that information first.
All lessons are applied to all 12 keys with written out bass lines and 333 mp3 backing tracks applied to 10 jazz and bebop standard chord progressions with over 150 choruses of written out bass line examples. Therefore being in control of them and becoming fluent is crucial. Its a very popular jazz standard for beginners as its harmonically pretty simple but its a great one to develop and learn things like chord melody and. Top 50 jazz guitar books jazz guitar online free jazz. The book will show the musician how to connect familiar chord shapes with the appropriate bass notes. Believe me or not, but most jazz standards consist in 90% of three main chord types. Strings are vertical while imaginary frets are shown horizontally. Constructing walking jazz bass lines walking bass lines 3 book set for a limited time buy books 1 3 and take our walking bass workshop course free. Practicing in all keys is going to consolidate your knowledge of the patterns as well as help you to freely move around the entire fret board.
Learn from the internationally acclaimed master of jazz chord melody guitar as he teaches you, stepbystep, how to play walking basslines on guitar and combine them with rock solid rhythm guitar chords. How to build walking bass lines with chords on guitar. This jazz guitar chord dictionary is a reference to help you find greatsounding 7thchord voicings to play and improvise over jazz standards. Home learning jazz bass how to write a walking bass line.
If the bass plays chords it often encroaches on the frequencies of the keyboards or guitar. The purpose of this book is to provide the beginning to intermediate jazz bassist a working vocabulary of walking basslines and concepts for improvising. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of. When the harmonic rhythm of a progression of a song is two chords per bar, the bass player will often play a target note on beats 1 and 3. Walking bass lines for jazz guitar by stephan badreau is a step by step guide to harmonizing bass lines on the guitar. T 1 2 a t 3 by chris fitzgerald a 4 t 1 a 2 t 3 a 4 walking bass line theory basics. In lesson 1, we looked at four patterns for playing over the most common chord progression in blues, the i to iv i. Read advanced walking bass lines for jazz guitar online by. Jazz standards for jazz guitar pdf sheet music, tabs, chords. The bass lines are good and one simple addition to know is that just about any chord walking bass line, you can always use a leading tone that is, 12 step below to whatever is the next chord. The few dozen voicings here are also a great way to get started with chord melody. While giant steps can be daunting to improvise over, you can create a walking bass line with only a few notes. Learn to masterfully combine jazz chords with walking basslines taylor, martin, alexander, joseph, pettingale, tim on.
Walking bass line theory basics pdf file chris fitzgerald. Learning a walking bassline on a dominant progression. Walking bass for jazz guitar fundamental changes music book. Scales and chords for the upright bass the following keys should be learned in the order presented.
It contains a huge range of movable scale, chord and arpeggio fingerboard diagrams allowing you to play in any key. Walking bass jazz guitar lesson all the things we are. Simple walking bass line for jazz beginners talkingbass. Jazz bass books bass guitar chords, learn bass guitar.
Walking bass lines for jazz guitar bookaudio files. Just like walking with your feet, tyjwalking bass line is one step after the other that takes you somewhere. This is an important concept to remember, the walking bass line is. A guitar in standard tuning will never reach the lower bass notes of a real bass, but. A slightly embellished version of this kind of line would also be typical of a basic boogie woogie type bass line, as in the following example. Walking bass and chords on a bb blues jazz guitar lesson. Practice the scale until you can play it continuously and fluently.
Once you have some basic rules down, youll be able to make bass lines over any chord progression. Discussion in general instruction bg started by loofunk, jan 5, 2017. Example 24 pattern 1 2 3 1 example 25 pattern 1 2 3 5 example 26 pattern 1 2 3 12 above example 27 pattern 1 2 3 12 below. The term walking is used lescribe the moving feeling that quarter notes create in the bass part. Providing a strong harmonic and rhythmic foundation. Jazz standards for jazz guitar pdf sheet music, tabs, chords and soloing with audio examples. The goal of a walking bassline is to outline the chord progression but with an interesting melodic line that provides a countermelody as above. Written to be the only reference book a bassist will need, bass guitar scales chords and arpeggios is available to download direct from. Walking bass and chords is one of the greatest ways to comp if you are the only one playing behind a soloist like a horn or a singer. Were going to use basic chord tones and repetitive lines that will act as a springboard in developing your own lines. Learn to masterfully combine jazz chords with walking basslines. Listening to jazz recordstapes should be part of every musicians daily routine. Chords that move up a fourth are quite prevalent in jazz, and here are some great ways to connect them.
Chords for chord soloing and comping minor 7th type 1979 download pdf. Chords and walking bass part 1 in this lesson ill demonstrate how i approach playing walking bass lines and chords at the same time. From the blues inflected double bass solos of ray brown to the electric bass bebop of jeff berlin. In this 5 minute masterclass, were going create a bass line over a blues in f. Lets have a look at seventh chords, chords that contain 4 or more different notes and that are used a lot in jazz music. Hands down the best book ive seen is mike downes the jazz bass line book. Bass guitar scales chords and arpeggios is a printable pdf book for bass guitarists. Jazz standards for jazz guitar pdf sheet music, tabs, chords and soloing with audio examples welcome to our archive of some of the most popular jazz standards for jazz guitar. A typical jazz walking bass line is played almost entirely with quarter notes notes that last 1 beat. The book lists on this page are the result of a poll on our forum, in which i asked everyone to list their favorite guitar books.
A walking bass line is the most common approach to jazz bass playing. On the whole chords on the bass guitar work best when the other chordal instruments stop playing. Demonstrates the techniques used by professional jazz bassists to construct walking jazz bass lines. Bass tabs bb jazz blues bassline a foggy day bassline bireli. One very important and widely used jazz guitar technique is playing bass lines in combination with chords. Welcome to our archive of some of the most popular jazz standards for jazz guitar. A walking bass line is a more creative form of bass playing than the other swing styles because you choose new notes each time you play the same song. Jul 21, 2016 walking bass line jazz standards swing tune bass tab. We explore how to walk that bass in your left hand up basic triad shapes and scale fragments. The video is based on a recording i made and transcribed. Pay attention, burn through this as fast as you can, and you. Breakdown sean mcgowan youtube the circle of fifths made clear duration.
I showed it to my teacher and it is now the focus of my lessons. This means the 3rd of the major chord has to be lowered half a tone. The essential guide to walking bass for bass guitar players introduction 2 1. Please practice handwashing and social distancing, and check out our resources for adapting to these times. Walking bass for jazz guitar distils over 40 years of virtuosity and skill into one beautiful jazz guitar book. In this lesson i am going to go over a walking bass comp on a 12 bar bb jazz blues and how you play it on guitar. Cindy moorhead continuing our exploration of cool things to do with a jazzblues chord progression in a rhythm section, id now like to demonstrate an accompaniment, or comping, technique favored by jazz guitarists, pianists and organists alike over a swingstyle walking bass line provided by a bassist, second guitarist or keyboardists left hand that provides. Constructing walking jazz bass lines book i the blues in 12. Most chords you will come across in jazz piano will be one of these five types of chords and so its important to understand their function. These three chord types may obviously have a variety of different voicings, but the vast majority of these voicings has usually one of mentioned chords as a base. The bass lines in the section are for you to learn, memorize, and play in a real live playing situation. This set of playalongs and chord charts is a great addition to the walking bass lines course.
Another common chord progression is not a progression at all, but is instead multiple bars of the same chord. Walking a bass line with the left hand is a skill every jazz, rock, and pop pianist should know. Here on learn jazz standards, there are a few great posts on walking bass lines for bass players. Youll find every chord shape you need to get started with all the important jazz chords for guitar right here. If youd like to go more advanced, i can wholeheartedly recommend you the jazz theory book. Autumn leaves is a popular song written in 1945 and the original lyrics are in french. How to read piano chords looking for a way to make your bass lines move. Walking bass exercises for jazz guitar lesson with tabs and audio. This is a supplement for the lesson on walking bass. This is a a way of playing that i use really a lot in situations where theres no bass player, so mostly duo settings with a guitar player, singer or horn player. Walking bass on the piano can be one of the coolest things ever. At first, ill focus completely on how a walking bass line is formed. The following is an example of a common bass line construction when the harmonic rhythm is moving at the rate of two chords per bar target notes are designated with t, and approach notes are designated with a. Walking bass guitar is an important comping style for any jazz guitarist to study when learning how to play jazz guitar chords if you are new to playing walking bass guitar lines and want to learn an easy method for learning them, i highly recommend checking out this guide that i published before working through the material in this lesson.
Learn how to build and play walking bass lines on guitar and combine these with chords video, guitar tabs, and backing track. Five steps to walking basslines on guitar guitar world. When you can cleanly and smoothly play the bass line, add the chords. Also included in each example are the scales, modes and. These blues bass lines are like having a one chorus lick that you can.
I think this chord movement gives the music a feeling of flowing downhill. Chord tones root, 3rd, 5th, 7th are the most powerful choice you can make when creating your walking lines. We are going to start with three main types of scaleschords. Once weve covered that, ill show how to add chords here and there while playing the bass line. If you want to download a free ebook of 15 ii valt i licks then subscribe to my. Printable pdf ebook method containing 40 major jazz guitar licks with tab. Playing a walking jazz guitar bass line is a captivating method of comping for other musicians, and yourself. The intervalic bass line is created from your knowledge of what notes make particular chords. The function of the bass is to provide the foundation.
How to write a walking bass line learn jazz standards. This exercise is nothing more than a i vim iim v bass line playing two. Walking bass line theory basicspart 1by chris fitzgerald. Here is a common guitar walking bass study in the style of joe pass based on a jazz blues chord progression. The suggested fingering for the scale is to the left of the diagram. Nov 30, 2018 walking bass for jazz guitar distils over 40 years of virtuosity and skill into one beautiful jazz guitar book. The first jazz walking bass line etude we are going to learn is over the first eight bars of giant steps. Here is the bass lines for autumn leaves that everyone contributed to last week. Playing jazz guitar bass lines and chords terence wright. For a complete guide to walking bass lines be sure to check out. A progressive approach is used to introduce walking bass technique. Martin taylor walking bass for jazz guitar fundamental. More than any other ingredient, the jazz tradition is based on listening. Johnny mercer wrote the english lyric in 1947 and its since been a pop and jazz hit in both languages.
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