whats a walking bass line?

[Samick]

whats a walking bass line?

[bottlerocket]

A walking bassline is a bassline where the notes "bounce" around, but not too quickly. Ska bands tend to have walking basslines because they're "bubbly" and go all over the fretboard in a set key and scale/mode.

Good examples:

"The YTSE Jam" by Dream Theater is not a walking bassline.

"Longview" by Green Day is a walking bassline.

The bassline tends to stay in the same mode/scale, although it's possible to change modes and stuff, but they key should always be the same (duh!).

That help?

:thumb:

-Gav

[madthumbs]

I always remembered it by the name. A Walking bass line is i suppose a flowing bass line throughout a succetion(sp?)of chords. And as Gav said, they use the modes and scales of a certain Key and are often used as transitions...

I think.

[andysmit]

i dont kno but from wat the above said i guess it would be where u "walk" up and down a scale, or the fretboard

[andysmit]

well above being gav, my bad

[BassVirtuoso]

A walking bassline is a bassline where the notes "bounce" around, but not too quickly. Ska bands tend to have walking basslines because they're "bubbly" and go all over the fretboard in a set key and scale/mode.

Good examples:

"The YTSE Jam" by Dream Theater is not a walking bassline.

"Longview" by Green Day is a walking bassline.

The bassline tends to stay in the same mode/scale, although it's possible to change modes and stuff, but they key should always be the same (duh!).

That help?

:thumb:

-Gav

Theoretically yes but practically not really.

In Latin songs, you are given a chord progression you must improv over but the bassline you play is not usually referred to as a walking bassline. For latin you have to have a set bassline or at least a basic form, that your repeat and adjust it to the key you are in.

In jazz, it is called a walking bassline because it is usually unrepetitive in form. I'm not the best person to explain the difference so I'll leave it where it isn't controversial.

[TheBassStylee]

cycle of fourths for them jazzers :p
but yea i think gav said it pretty good
my goal is to become good at that jazz stuff when i am playing a bit longer cause im a noob now lol

[Az_Holl]

A walking bassline is essentially a steady succesion of quater notes played by the bass on the down beats over which drums, and other instruements play more complex rythms, typically with a swing feel.
The walking effect is created by a playing a different note on each beat, although it is not uncommon to hit the same note twice in a row.

Thank you Tino D'Agostino

[darrell]

A walking bassline is essentially a steady succesion of quater notes played by the bass on the down beats over which drums, and other instruements play more complex rythms, typically with a swing feel.
The walking effect is created by a playing a different note on each beat, although it is not uncommon to hit the same note twice in a row.

Thank you Tino D'Agostino

I think quarter notes are key in a walking bass line... at least when you are talking about jazz.

[madthumbs]

A walking bassline is essentially a steady succesion of quater notes played by the bass on the down beats over which drums, and other instruements play more complex rythms, typically with a swing feel.
The walking effect is created by a playing a different note on each beat, although it is not uncommon to hit the same note twice in a row.

Thank you Tino D'Agostino
Arghh u bastard, you beat me to it :p

[fingerstyle]

walking bass is what your hear in jazz and blues, most often. usually its four-notes-to-a-bar with some melodic or rhythmical embellishments to kept it interesting.

the role of a walking bass line is to provide a solid harmonic and rhythmic grounding for a piece. usualy the notes in a walking bass are made up of the chord tones of the chord being played by another instrument, and quite often there will be passing or leading tones to create tension and release into a chord change.

heres a really uninteresting walking bass using scale tone notes, chromatic notes and chord notes... its a more jazz version of twelve bar blues...
Track 1

F7 Bb7 F7
G||----------------------|----------------------|----------------------|
D||----------------------|------------0----2----|--3-------------------|
A||-----------------0----|--1----3--------------|-------0----1----2----|
E||--1----3----4---------|----------------------|----------------------|


F7 Bb7 Bb7
----------------------|-----------------1----|--5----3--------------|
----------------------|-------2----3---------|------------5----4----|
--3--------------0----|--1-------------------|----------------------|
-------2----1---------|----------------------|----------------------|


F7 D7 Gm7
----------------------|----------------------|--0----3--------------|
--3-------------------|--0----2----3----4----|------------0---------|
-------6----3----4----|----------------------|-----------------4----|
----------------------|----------------------|----------------------|


C7 F7 C7
----------------------|----------------------|----------------------||
-------0----1----2----|--3-------------------|----------------------||
--3-------------------|-------0----1----2----|--3-------------------||
----------------------|----------------------|-------0----3----2----||

Cheers!

I can explain it in a more simpler way if needed

edit: the chord names wont go over their bars correctly, dammit, so jsut ignore them!

[Samick]

A walking bassline is a bassline where the notes "bounce" around, but not too quickly. Ska bands tend to have walking basslines because they're "bubbly" and go all over the fretboard in a set key and scale/mode.

Good examples:

"The YTSE Jam" by Dream Theater is not a walking bassline.

"Longview" by Green Day is a walking bassline.

The bassline tends to stay in the same mode/scale, although it's possible to change modes and stuff, but they key should always be the same (duh!).

That help?

:thumb:

-Gav
ahhhh, i rule. i had a feelling longview was a walking bass line

[bottlerocket]

^ It's important to remember, it's not the definition of a walking bass line. There's a lot of music theory mumbo-jumbon behind it as these guys are saying...listen to them. They're a bit more well-versed in the subject than I.

:thumb:

-Gav

[Az_Holl]

Arghh u bastard, you beat me to it :p
I remembered reading the definition in a Bass Guitar magazine and ran to get it :lol:

[fingerstyle]

i wouldnt call longview a walking bass line... more of just a riff played with crotchets. but nevertheless, its hot.

[darrell]

I guess I'll get into some of that theory mumbo-jumbo... Well, not really. The key to writing a simple walking bassline is as follows:

1) Use quarter notes.
2) Emphasize the root on the downbeat.
3) Use chord tones for beats 2 and 3.
4) Approach next chord (downbeat) by step.

That's a very simple look at something that's not so simple. I'm taking Jazz ensemble in like 2 weeks, so I'll let you know how that goes. :-/

[BassVirtuoso]

It's so hard to explain a walking bassline when you take all genre's into consideration. Some guys take it to the extreme and they still consider it walking. IE the "walking bassline" at the end of Donna Lee.

[fingerstyle]

anyone interested in learning more about walking bass creation, go to bassically.net and find jim stinnets (sp?) guide to creating jazz bass lines...

cheers

[godzillarator]

cant the walking bass line be swing eights too as long as its a sustained pattern

[fingerstyle]

yeah you hear that, swing eights, a fair bit... usually in songs with a heavy shuffle rhythm, something like sweet home chicago or something upbeat and bluesy like that.

that sort thing is often used to create interest in four-to-a-bar walking bass, every so often they'll add a swung either note in or a triplet or whatever.

[Joelbassman]

walking bass is what your hear in jazz and blues, most often. usually its four-notes-to-a-bar with some melodic or rhythmical embellishments to kept it interesting.

the role of a walking bass line is to provide a solid harmonic and rhythmic grounding for a piece. usualy the notes in a walking bass are made up of the chord tones of the chord being played by another instrument, and quite often there will be passing or leading tones to create tension and release into a chord change.

heres a really uninteresting walking bass using scale tone notes, chromatic notes and chord notes... its a more jazz version of twelve bar blues...
Track 1


Cheers!

I can explain it in a more simpler way if needed

edit: the chord names wont go over their bars correctly, dammit, so jsut ignore them!
:smash: Nailied it on the head there.

It is also used to outline the chord changes if that hasn't already been said. Get together with a guitarist who knows theory, and get him to play a Cmaj chord in C. Play the Arpeggio to go with it...if you know it. Then Get him to play a Dm chord in C. And play the Arpeggio for that, you will hear the difference quite nicely.

[EADG]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_bass

[crazy_caveman]

anyone interested in learning more about walking bass creation, go to bassically.net and find jim stinnets (sp?) guide to creating jazz bass lines...

cheers

Found...

http://www.instituteofbass.com/bass_lessons/jim_stinnett/cjbl/

[Mein bass]

Very poular in ska,punk and jazz.
It's basically following the guitar or piano/keyboard.

[burtonbassist_101]

some good examples of a walking bassline would be "money" by pink floyd, "green onions" by booker t. and the mg's, and the bass part to the conan o'brian theme song

[blizzard]

walking bass is what your hear in jazz and blues, most often. usually its four-notes-to-a-bar with some melodic or rhythmical embellishments to kept it interesting.

the role of a walking bass line is to provide a solid harmonic and rhythmic grounding for a piece. usualy the notes in a walking bass are made up of the chord tones of the chord being played by another instrument, and quite often there will be passing or leading tones to create tension and release into a chord change.

heres a really uninteresting walking bass using scale tone notes, chromatic notes and chord notes... its a more jazz version of twelve bar blues...
Track 1

F7 Bb7 F7
G||----------------------|----------------------|----------------------|
D||----------------------|------------0----2----|--3-------------------|
A||-----------------0----|--1----3--------------|-------0----1----2----|
E||--1----3----4---------|----------------------|----------------------|


F7 Bb7 Bb7
----------------------|-----------------1----|--5----3--------------|
----------------------|-------2----3---------|------------5----4----|
--3--------------0----|--1-------------------|----------------------|
-------2----1---------|----------------------|----------------------|


F7 D7 Gm7
----------------------|----------------------|--0----3--------------|
--3-------------------|--0----2----3----4----|------------0---------|
-------6----3----4----|----------------------|-----------------4----|
----------------------|----------------------|----------------------|


C7 F7 C7
----------------------|----------------------|----------------------||
-------0----1----2----|--3-------------------|----------------------||
--3-------------------|-------0----1----2----|--3-------------------||
----------------------|----------------------|-------0----3----2----||

Cheers!

I can explain it in a more simpler way if needed

edit: the chord names wont go over their bars correctly, dammit, so jsut ignore them!


I don't know whether you wrote the bassline itself but that is a bad walking bassline.

By using the highlighted notes you change the context of the chord from a major to minor

[Alma]

Yeah, watch your notes.

[Caleb3221]

A walking bassline dosen't, infact, usually stay in the same key/scale the entire time. Especially in jazz, it goes to the key of whatever the chord progression is, and the specific notes come out of the scale of whatever chord you're on(Obviously you don't always play straight out of scales, but close enough).

[kilian]

^^True.

Basically you walk from one chord to the other chord:
- first note is the note of the chord you're in
- last note is a note very close to the other chord (or a 5th note will work sometimes).

And with the notes between the first and the last, you try to walk to the last note.

http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=422886
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=90

Hate me or not, but I found it was pretty simple to create a 'basic' walking bass line. Trust your ear, know the chords and be creative so you don't get boring. I used Powertab to listen to the lines I wrote for my jazz band. And they all loved them, even the teacher who said that I wasn't ready for it.

EDIT:
REALLY, REALLY use your ear. If you are in doubt of a line because it doesn't sound good; change it. And screw theory if you hear that something is good, but you can't place it. It might actually be the third step of a major dissonance chord, which is then diminished when you play A#sus7. :amaze:

[HaVIC5]

I don't know whether you wrote the bassline itself but that is a bad walking bassline.

By using the highlighted notes you change the context of the chord from a major to minor
Nope, its a perfectly valid line. First of all the chords aren't major, they're dominant. Huge, huge difference. Second, because they are dominant, you can play the passing tone of the minor third there and it won't change the context whatsoever. Chromaticism /= implication of specific tonality besides the dominant.

[HaVIC5]

ahhhh, i rule. i had a feelling longview was a walking bass line
Except, it isn't. Gav is wrong. A walking line is 99% of the time improvised, and for the other 1 percent (big band music and whatnot), it gives the impression of improvisation. Longview is far too repetative to be a walking line, and definitely doesn't give any impression of improv.

[EADG]

Longview isn't all quarter notes either.


And you can use chromatics in a walking line, it's called a passing tone. It's meant to lead up to another note, so you know what's coming next.

[roee_co]

Longview isn't all quarter notes either.


And you can use chromatics in a walking line, it's called a passing tone. It's meant to lead up to another note, so you know what's coming next.
a walking bassline doesn't have to be all quarter notes

yeah, longview is definetly not a walking line

[EADG]

a walking bassline doesn't have to be all quarter notes

yeah, longview is definetly not a walking line


But pretty much all of the time, it is. That's why it's called walking, it generates movement.

[roee_co]

But pretty much all of the time, it is. That's why it's called walking, it generates movement.
well most walking basslines are quarter notes yeah but that doesn't mean you can't have a walking bassline without quarter notes.

[HaVIC5]

So long as the pulse of the quarter notes is implied, it's a walking line.

[jaco jr]

Theoretically yes but practically not really.

In Latin songs, you are given a chord progression you must improv over but the bassline you play is not usually referred to as a walking bassline. For latin you have to have a set bassline or at least a basic form, that your repeat and adjust it to the key you are in.

In jazz, it is called a walking bassline because it is usually unrepetitive in form. I'm not the best person to explain the difference so I'll leave it where it isn't controversial.
that would be right, as jazz is often improvised it will be unrepetitive, and in latin songs you will usually keep the same feel and i guess pattern with each chord you move to - eg date rape by sublime, the verse riff is the same just moved about over chords, and thats a fairly upbeat kinda latiny thing:confused: :thumb:

[NavyBass]

:upset: And I always thought it was one that was too tired to run.



:lol:

[EADG]

:upset: And I always thought it was one that was too tired to run.



:lol:


That's called an obese bassline. Technically.

[HaVIC5]

that would be right, as jazz is often improvised it will be unrepetitive, and in latin songs you will usually keep the same feel and i guess pattern with each chord you move to - eg date rape by sublime, the verse riff is the same just moved about over chords, and thats a fairly upbeat kinda latiny thing:confused: :thumb:
Then again, Sublime is not latin, despite the semblence.

The Latin musics are incredibly varied. Many North American and Western musicians incorrectly cram all into an invented bland genre thats been dubbed "generic Latin", when there really are a lot of different, very different styles. Bossa Nova. Rhumba. Samba. Salsa. Mariachi. Afro-Cuban. Afro-Peruvian. All with very distinct rhythmic patterns and textures.

What causes the generalization is how all Latin musics are African-derived. Slaves were brought over to the South American and Central American colonies in great numbers from Africa, and like in North America, an amalgamation of musics occured. Latin music, however, as compared to jazz, focuses more heavily on the interplay of rhythm and syncopation, like African music, and less on melody, like European music. The result is a very complex tradition of roles and the instruments that fill them.

The most important role of any instrument in the latin ensemble is actually not the bass player as in jazz, but that of the clavé rhythm. It is a simple, syncopated phrase that is repeated throughout the piece and played by either the set drummer on the bell of a cymbal, or an auxilarly purcussionist playing any variety of high-pitched instruments including the triangle, the go-go bells, the cowbell or the clavé woodblocks. Sometimes this rhythm is implied, but it should be played if at all possible. The most common ones you'll hear at the two-three and the three-two clavés, which go "rest, quarter, quarter, rest, dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter" and "dotted quarter, dotted quarter, quarter, rest, quarter, quarter, rest" respectively.

The bass player's role in this is almost solely a rhythmic one. The line they will be playing will be syncopated, but relatively simple. Their job isn't so much as to provide a glue between melody and rhythm, but more just provide a stronger, more flavorful rhythm. Yes, after Jaco hit the scene, sixteenth note basslines in Latin fusions became the rage, but in the traditional sense, all Latin musics have a somewhat simple, if not very important bassline. The bass and the clavé are the two most important aspects of the rhythm section and in turn, the entirety of the music.

[fingerstyle]

Nope, its a perfectly valid line. First of all the chords aren't major, they're dominant. Huge, huge difference. Second, because they are dominant, you can play the passing tone of the minor third there and it won't change the context whatsoever. Chromaticism /= implication of specific tonality besides the dominant.

HaVIC5, I'm glad you exist. I'm just wondering what blizzard and primus's lines would sound like right now....

Anyways, cheers!

[Criss Frantic]

A walking bassline:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Punkbass/bassline.jpg

C'mon people, work with me here!

[Mein bass]

A walking bassline:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Punkbass/bassline.jpg

C'mon people, work with me here!
Nice. :lol:
That's genious.

[fingerstyle]

^lol nice work buddy

[Aukai]

Chromatics are very important in walking lines, you want to connect the chords smoothly and play notes within the scale and according the the chord qualities, and try not to make big jumps, and try to keep it smooth, its also important to try to find new ways to approach the chords to keep it interesting.

[burtonbassist_101]

A walking bassline:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Punkbass/bassline.jpg

C'mon people, work with me here!

:lol: haha that's great.....:p

[JadedBass]

A walking bassline:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v218/Punkbass/bassline.jpg

C'mon people, work with me here!


Damn beat me to it.:smoke: :chug: :smash:

[HaVIC5]

Chromatics are very important in walking lines, you want to connect the chords smoothly and play notes within the scale and according the the chord qualities, and try not to make big jumps, and try to keep it smooth, its also important to try to find new ways to approach the chords to keep it interesting.
The problem I have with the chromatics in fingerstyle's line isn't that they imply a different harmony - it's that there are too many of them. Chromatics are important, yet, but for a basic walking like, there should be more arpeggiation and chord tones. The point of a walking line is to sketch the outline of the chord and when you use too many chromatics, things become rather too ambiguous. Now, when the solo is being built and is going off into kingdom come, you would be able to branch off and do things like entirely chromatic lines, but not for the basic walking line on the head.

[fingerstyle]

Havic you're right, there are a lot of chromatics in that particular line, but there just seems to be people here that would be like 'oh you f'uckin nOOB you havent used chromatics, go play some country music looozzer!' or seomthing.

nah, generally speaking you'd only use chromatics that often if you were, say, playing over somenes solo that had been going for like, 4 or more chorus's. it creates the illusion that the soloist and band is still moving through the song, rather than sitting around repeating till the soloist can figure out where he's supposed to be.

[BassIsPrettyCool]

Check out the outro of "The Ocean" by Led Zeppelin for what I think is a key example of walking bass...it starts at about 3:17 in the song.

[fingerstyle]

check out any jazz record for walking bass...