The walking bass concept isn’t just for swing grooves and can be also employed with great results in a rock context with an even-eighths feel.
Although the line is rhythmically animated, with staccato (short, clipped) swing eighth notes and a triplet fill at the end of each bar, it is fairly tame harmonically, as it uses mostly chord tones (the root, fifth and dominant seventh) with a brief chromatic run-up to the fifth. Whether this is a good thing or not is up to your discretion and instincts.įIGURE 1 shows a stock blues walking bass line. The more chromatic notes that are used, the more dissonant the line becomes, as these notes momentarily clash with the prevailing chord. In general, chord tones are the musically safest bet, as they sound harmonically consonant, while scale tones add a touch of light dissonance when heard against an underlying chord. The transition notes can be any combination of chord tones (arpeggios), scale tones that relate to the chords, or chromatic passing tones. To achieve this, you use transition notes to smoothly connect the dots and bridge the gap between different root notes as the chords change.
The line walks from one chord’s root note up or down to the next, mostly in a quarter-note rhythm, with the occasional embellishment. The term refers to a way of playing in which the bass line remains in perpetual motion as opposed to staying on or reiterating one note. Walking bass originated in jazz and blues, but it has since been adopted in other styles.
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