Originally published June 17, 2014, lightly edited for clarity.
This is another lesson on using triads as the core material for your bass lines and in this case jazz walking bass lines. Once again, the bass lines of all styles require that the core harmonic material be triads. Jazz walking lines are no different, but still, many students of jazz seem to be in a hurry to play scale and stepwise choices before thoroughly internalizing their triad choices. I have discovered in my own playing how really practicing walking bass lines just using triads helped make my linear playing sound and feel better. I was amazed at how improving my harmony helped my groove and swing. I hope you enjoy the following video. Walking bass is one of the styles I teach. For personalized help putting triads to work in your walking lines, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.
Here is one page out of the triad material I hand my students, so you can see how I lay this out.
The whole neck is written out, and the three notes of the triad are circled where they sit under your hand: the root, the third above it, and the fifth above that. Underneath is the same thing in notation and tab, played straight and then inverted. This is what I mean by note mapping, which is how I organize the note choices available over a chord.
This is one position for one triad. The full set also maps the third and fifth below the root, and split either side of it, for major, minor, diminished and augmented. Which one you reach for depends on where your hand already is and where the line is going next, and that part is what we work on together.
