Walking Bass Archives
Walking Bass Made Simple: Chromatic 1–6–2–5 Exercise and Upright-Style Tone on Electric Bass
Learn a smooth chromatic 1–6–2–5 walking bass line and get an upright-style tone on electric bass using palm muting, dead notes, and solid left-hand technique.
Walking Bass Made Easy: How the Circle of Fourths Unlocks the Fretboard
Learn how the circle of fourths can transform your walking bass practice. Build fretboard fluency and groove with this beginner-friendly bass lesson.
Jump Blues on Bass: The Essential Move That Sets It Apart
Learn how to transform your blues bass line with a classic 2-5 turnaround and create a jump blues groove that swings with energy and jazz flavor.
Easy Music Theory: Major and Minor Triads In 3 Positions
This is a serious bass lesson. We’re digging into triads… different positions, using our pinky, major and minor shapes, the whole shebang!
Keep It Groovy: Learn The Bass Line To The Beatles’ “Eight Days A Week”
Today, Ryan Madora keeps it groovy by learning triads, following a chord progression, and applying a walking bass line by taking a page from Paul McCartney’s book and “Eight Days A Week.”
From the Bottom: Take Your Walking Bass Lines to the Next Level
Good walking bass lines can swing the band and outline the harmony, but GREAT walking bass lines will do that and steer the direction and intensity of the music. Take your lines from “following the changes” to “directing the flow” of the music!
Keep It Groovy: Integrating Concepts In Our Walking Bass Lines
In this “Keep It Groovy” lesson, Ryan Madora plays through a very common chord progression in jazz and pop, the 1-6-2-5 chord progression. We’ll learn how to integrate different concepts to begin building a walking bass line.
Keep It Groovy: How to Play a B.B. King Shuffle
This “Keep It Groovy” lesson takes you through one of her favorite B.B. King shuffles, “Paying The Cost To Be The Boss.” This is known as a medium shuffle—not too fast and not too slow. It’s just right!
Keep It Groovy: Super Easy Bluesy/Jazzy Walking Bass
This one features a super easy walking bass line that can make your blues progression a bit jazzier and your jazz walking bass line a little more accessible. Think about it as a good gateway between the genres.
Walking Bass Line Construction
In this video, I’ll talk you through the basics of developing a walking bass line in addition to demonstrating a few approaches. There’s also a nice exercise at the end that’ll really challenge most of you as you explore new ways to navigate chord changes. Enjoy! Follow along with this chord chart I used in this lesson.
Talking Technique: Intro To Triplets In Walking Bass Lines
In the last lesson, we covered adding “burps” into walking bass lines and how to practice them systematically. This time we’re spicing up your walking with triplets. We’ll go over several variations to get these triplets under your fingers and ready to go on all beats of the bar. To keep a focused practice session, we’re going to narrow it...
Talking Technique: “Burps” in Walking
After the Talking Technique Episode on “Killer Dead Notes,” I got a question from Lionel who wanted to know about “the best technique and timing to get those really nice burps in walking bass lines.” I love the way he phrased that question – he asked specifically for not only the technique itself but also the timing. In this episode,...