Originally published June 3, 2013, lightly edited for clarity.
I have been playing and working on walking bass lines for many years and only recently thanks to my current teacher, Kevin Bales, have I realized my approach has always been more scale note based as opposed to chord tone based. Big mistake, right? When you look at the note job of a bass line, which is to outline the chord sound and since my lines were more linear with scale tones, I was not really supporting the harmony as well as I should have. So I guess my message to you is to definitely spend some time working with the chordal approach on your walking bass lines. The following video walks through composing a walking bass line using triads. Walking bass is one of the styles I teach. For personalized coaching on walking bass lines, online bass lessons via Zoom are available.
