This episode shows you an effective way of playing a walking bass line over a very common chord sequence.

1. Creating a walking bass line
Podcast #3 - Additional notes
© Copyright Darren Dutson Bromley 2012

2. Creating a Walking Bass Line.
Learning how to create a walking bass line from a chord sequence is an excellent way of
developing knowledge of chord function, fretboard awareness and an alternative
accompanying style, but most importantly, it sounds really good and will impress all your
mates.
We’ll start with a very common chord sequence of Cma7, Am7, Dm7 and G7.
This is known as a I vi ii V (1-6-2-5) progression. Roman numerals are generally used
when referring to chords, uppercase for major and lowercase for minor. The number
describes the chords position in the key.
For example in a C major scale we have the following notes:
These notes can be harmonised by adding a note a third above and a note a fifth above.
These are called triads and when built from a major scale always follow the pattern
major - minor - minor - major - major - minor - diminished - (major)
The seventh can also be added:

3. Again the pattern of chords is consistent to all major scales.
major7 - minor7 - minor7 - major7 - dominant7 - minor7 - minor7b5
The roman numerals refer to where these chords occur in the scale.
Chord iii for example would give Em where as V7 would be G7. Thinking of chords this
way gives you a better understanding of the general harmony of the piece and also aids in
transposing to different keys.
Taking the root note of each of our chords in the sequence we arrive at a pattern which
looks like this.
We can approach each of these notes from either one fret above or one fret below. This is
known as a chromatic approach note and gives the line much more movement and
direction.
We can now add the chords in. Try to create a feeling of independence between the bass
line and the chord to help achieve the illusion of two things happening at once. The chord
can be played short or held longer to create different effects.

4. To make the chords sound smoother and to help the harmony work better we can change
the Dm7 to D7#9, this has a stronger resolve onto G7 which can be changed to G13,
again for ease of fingering and also because the chord changes sound better. The reason
for this will be covered in later episodes.
Our line now looks like this:
Practise this, slowly at first and ideally with a metronome. Strive for an independence
between the bass line and the chords. Try and apply this technique to other songs and
listen to players such as Joe Pass (the duet albums with singer Ella Fitzgerald are an
excellent example of this technique) and British guitarist Martin Taylor (his solo albums
show what you can do when you take the technique up a level).
See you next time.