Taking your Bass for a Walk

To start out: chord tones on beats 1 and 3 on 2 and 4 chord tones or notes that lead to chord tones by 1/2 or whole step. The notes on beat 4 should move directly to the next chord tone on 1.

 

As he said above + think linnear. A walking line is about maintaining rythm and making it work harmonically on the strong beats. There's both much freedom and much discipline involved. It really helps to know your chords well so you can become comfortable hitting different tensions that work.

 

A good book on this subject is "Building Walking Basslines" by Ed Friedland.

 

+1

 

Another very important way for me is to make a counterpoint to the melody. Sing the melody and lay a walkingbass under it that supports. When you accompany a solo, you can extend the harmonics and inspire the solist.

 

If you have access to piano, that will help immensely. I don't know of any shortcuts, short of learning how chords are constructed.

 

Well, you have to crawl before you can walk. These players you mention had to go through the same process too I'm sure.

Slow down........... enjoy the learning process.

 

Shameless self promotion.

 

First, buy Ed Fuqua's book.

I highly recommend transcribing (or, better yet, commiting to memory) recorded basslines of folks like Ray Brown, Ron Carter and Paul Chambers. These guys are masters at improvising basslines. Keep in mind, however, that improvising basslines like the masters requires a good knowledge of harmony. More specifically, these guys can *hear* the harmony inside and out. No shortcuts here.

 

Ray Brown's bass method book is also an excellent resource.