Techniques Bass Guitar

Hi,

Before reading this lesson, you might want to review Basic Walking Bass and Simple ii V I Progression Using Chord Tone.

As I already explained before about using chord tone to construct our walking bass lines, today's exercise is similar but no root note is used.

To avoid using the root note is challenging but the bass lines produced is more interesting.

Below is a simple ii V I IV Jazz progression in key of D.








I used the 3rd as the first note of the chord.

E.g. The notes in Em7 are E(root) G(3rd) B(5th) D(7th).

The first note I used for Em7 is G.

You can choose to play the line on a lower register.

Hope this is clear.

Cheers

ii V I progression in the key of C is Dm7 G7 Cmaj7

For the above exercise, the notes are all within the chords itself.

This is an easy way to start learning walking bass as well.

Notice that the first note I played on the Cmaj7 is a E note instead of the root.

Since my last note on the G7 chord is a F, it will sound more smooth going to E which is the 3rd of a Cmaj7 chord.

It is not necessary to always land on the root note of the chord.

Experiment and have fun.

Cheers