walking bass line examples over the all blues changes

[Greg Hagger]

Pet peeve tangent: why is it that so many renditions of All Blues, including the purported instructional video linked earlier in this thread, get the changes wrong? In Miles Davis's version, the change is from G to Gm, not G to C7. And the bass repeats the G pattern (i.e., does not change to a C pattern as in a conventional blues) until the turnaround.

I hope someday the correct chords will become common knowledge and people will stop playing those bar band changes.

Hi I’m the person who made the video in question that peeved you so much!

What you failed to notice from my introduction is that this was a jam round the ‘solo’ section of All Blues. Maybe you only watched the jam at the start?

I agree that under the head the bassist would stay on the riff in G but in the solo section moving up to C with the riff or walking is often done and is perfectly acceptable in my opinion. It’s Jazz! You’re free to imply substitutions and additional chords in your bass lines, in fact this is how tunes are commonly developed during solo sections. It adds interest.

Hope that helps.

 

[bmb73]

Dumbed down dirt simple walking bass line. Find the next root note, miss it by one, two or three frets. Now walk to it one fret at a time. Trick is when to leave on your walk and how many frets do you want the walk to be. Doing all that and be on the next root for the change. Going to take some practice to make it smooth.

Here is a Country walk using a three note walk. Walk Ups and Walk Downs on Guitar - Bing video

Making Country Walking Bass Guitar Lessons LOOK BETTER By Scott Grove - Bing video

Now all that said, with a Blues progression you may want a turn-a-round instead of a walk. Turn-a-round, after the last V or V7 to get back to the I chord use a turn-a-round instead of the walk. There are all kinds of turn-a-rounds, I like using a root note for a iii-ii-V7-I (3-2-5-1). The link following will be using a two-measure turn-a-round.

15 Blues Turnarounds You Should Know | Beginner Guitar HQ

Have fun.

Great advice. What worked for me as far as turnarounds, it always seemed like something that you just come up with while playing. You can see what works and what doesn't.

 

[Greg Hagger]

Given that jazz really is dance music, 4/4 is the most danceable key. Unless you're waltzing.

But yeah, I don't consider it to be walking per se if it isn't in 4/4. It's a baseline, but it's different.

You can walk in different time, 3/4 or 6/4 for example. You don't only walk in 4/4