One of the ways you can practice this is to play along with a song but don't let yourself play the root on beat one. Play whatever the song requires but no roots on beat one. On beat one you can only play a 3rd or 5th. You'll expand your vocabulary pretty fast by doing that. It's also good for learning the upper neck. Play along with a song but only let yourself play notes above the 12th fret.
@@IanMartinAllison Thanks! And the other thing I would note about walking bass lines (and how to not play the root on 1 of every bar) is this: Whatever note you're on on beat 4 before the chord changes, just play the closest note in the next chord. A lot of times, the closest note for the next chord won't be the root. It'll be the 3rd or the 5th, and will be a half or a whole step away from whatever note you're playing on beat 4.
Two other lessons from upright: Simplicity and economy of motion. Most of the walking lines can be quite simple. You don't need to run full arpeggios on every chord in every measure. Then when you do add these bigger jumps in once in a while its more noticeable. When the tempo gets fast keeping the lines simple and locked to the same exact place in the beat is better than rushing to pull off something you might feel is cool. So economy of motion combined to simple lines tends to keep your hands in the same position. Doubling notes for some of the chords is also another way to give your hands a rest, recommit to the pulse and it can offer a nice change in sound if used for short passages. And I second Scott's suggestion not to over play those ghost notes too often. Electric bass players love adding this in all the time and it starts to sound like hiccups instead of a nice legato, strong quarter note line.
Great video. My own peeve is when a bassist's walking line does not relate to the chord progression - just a string of notes in the key. The bass line should give a solid sense of the chord progression, including leading the ear to the next chord.
Thank you so much for putting out great lessons. You are truly impacting all of us bassists around the world. All of us from West Africa look out for your content all the time. Very informative and entertaining. Cheers! 🎉❤❤❤
Very useful! There are not so many music schools here in West Africa, and your content is sometimes our only bet at a very good source of music education. It will amaze you at how much we learn from your channel. Thank you once again Scott. Keep it going bro ❤
Coming from a Metal and Blues background, I hit 4 of the 7 mistakes. So, thanks for this video. I am looking forward to learning a lot from your channel. Cheers!!!
Not starting on the root makes all the difference and I wish I've known this before THOUGH it makes improvising walking bass lines even harder cause you have to think about the 3rds or 5th instead of the root, it's really a lot of work to be efficient
Great video but I really disagree that playing the root on the one is a “mistake” - we should strive to be able play any chord tone on any strong beat but it’s *almost* never wrong to play a root on beat one. There is so much nuance to walking bass lines and it’s hard to really distill it into rules. I DO agree with most of what Scott says here though!! He’s an amazing player and I watch so many of his videos.
Hey Adam! Thanks for checking out the video 🙃 - I think Scott was suggesting that a player shouldn't be too reliant on always playing the root on the 1. As you say, in most instances this would absolutely work but we can look to use other chord tones to create more variety & interest in our parts. Glad you enjoyed the vid! 👊🏻
I usually play the root on the one the first time or two while the head is being played but start with 3rds, 5ths, etc. once the other instruments start soloing.
I feel the Boogie boogie is a great teaching tool for beginners it's a feel-good Baseline it may not be jazzed to you but it's real satisfying to a beginning bass player to be able to play the Boogie Woogie rhythm just like in the song the chicken so there
Maybe someone like flea is a better example of someone you might assume don't walk but he very much can and does. When he has a playable instrument. Good advice tho I'm just being semantic.
It’s actually bad practice to start measures with the third (it is still subjective; fast tunes, anything can sorta happen) but piano players really laying down support and who listen will tell you that Thirds on downbeat weakens their harmony… so just to your overall point, make LINES -lines that CLEAR the harmony with CLEANLINESS, and dont disturb the ebb and flow of the conversation…i mean you can, but ANCHORING the rhythm snd harmony is hard as hell
yep agreed that in general the third on beat one is bad. some tunes with 1 #1° 2 5s i even turn into 1 6 2 5 for that reason. its all subjective but i mean playing the root on the bass is just so good
I think it's okay to do it every now & then. It can help get your lines out of a rut. But yeah, it's not something you should be doing every other measure. But knowing you CAN play the 3rd just gives you more options.
I agree. But IF you play the third on the one, may "save" the situation if you play after that the root on the third note at the latest. That will clear the harmony instantly. Greets
I think start (occassionaly) on the third only work in the second loop of a section, the listeners already used to the harmony being presented in the first loop.
All of this is pretty subjective to be telling people it's a mistake or the wrong thing to do. To me it sounds like the sort of classic jazz strategies are being presented as the rule of law without any context. It's maybe one of those learn the rules so that you can break them kinds of situations. If someone improvises a walking bass line for a recording, and then later a person does an exact cover of that recording or even the same person plays it as recorded for a live performance, does it suddenly stop being a walking bass line? If I improvise a line once legato and then repeat it later more staccato for effect, it's not walking anymore? I play live every week and improvise heavily based on charts, different songs every week, but not in a jazz context. I like to think I'm bringing a little jazz sensibility into it, but the context and needs are very different. Most of the time the improv for me is more inspired by feel and intuition and melody than arpeggiated chords, which would be distracting and strange to do all the time for this application. The audience is also meant to follow along with the performance so a certain degree of thematic repetition is beneficial. I will sometimes go for a little bit of a walk to emphasize unusual chord changes or to build tension or resolve it nicely. But generally I'm likely to feel out these ideas in rehearsal and then pick and choose when to apply them a few hours later for the set based on the vibe in the room. So I dunno, there are other reasons to do this besides just being a jazz purist.
Also lots of songs have the Boogie Woogie especially Blues Stevie Ray Vaughan bass player uses it a lot makes him a lot of money using the Boogie Woogie Baseline so there
I would love to have more information on Scott's glove. I developed rheumatoid arthritis from Lyme disease and have been looking for the right glove to wear that will help with the pain but also allow full hand movement.
Scott has focal dystonia but has discovered that wearing a glove on his hand alleviates the symptoms and allows him to play. Were it not for his dystonia, I suspect he'd be a successful session musician and would never have created SBL.
Thanks for the good advice! One haeretic thought about it is: I think that two of the greats have "taught" us this kind of overplaying with syncopations and ghost notes in electric walking bass. Which is in my opinion Jaco Pastorius in Weather Report's "Night Passage" and Marcus Miller in "My man's gone now" and "Kix" on Miles Davis' "We want Miles". They both sound good in a way, but even they leave the walking line too often! 🤐
Great video but I kind of disagree with the advice to use the neck pick-up PLUS tone control off PLUS playing at the beginning of the neck. Since there’s also a rhythmic dimension of bass playing, a little bit of punch in tone is something that supports the groove. So I would tend to a warm sound but not so extreme as you showed in the video. In a Band context a punchier tone better cuts through.
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I found his tone in this video to be a bit muddy, so I agree with you. A bit of clarity is in order.
I actually liked the bridge pickup sound more jazzy. More like Jaco. Though, with less tone. And articulation. Full legato just doesn't give that punch. You need to separate quarter notes with tiny breaks. Almost legato but not entirely. It has to groove. That's the most important thing when playing walking bass.
@@grantkoeller8911 there is no such thing as perfect. if the band lays back more, you push more. If they don'r lay back that hard you don't need to push hard. Its good not to be rigid about it. So many great swing recordings end faster than they start! Its okay as long as it sounds good. Slowing down is way worse than speeding up
I would still leave tiny gaps between notes as it makes the line more groovy. Jazz has it's own train kind of groove and I think the key is to maintain those bearably noticeable gaps while walking also tiny bit behind the beat. Or I don't know.. Maybe it's just something that I like very much. 🤩
..maybe it's playing quarter notes till the end but then starting the next note a microsecond late. So the gap between notes is actually because of that.
Good points except starting with other than the root. You'll confuse the hell out of piano and guitar players especially they are counting on the bass player to play the foundation and use upper structures or quadral. an Ab C Eb chord will sound a color of C chord when the bass player plays the root but E or G will sound very dissonant, ambiguous and out. (Not exactly bad in every context but...)
Agreed it's not something that should be applied to every scenario but its important to not be too restrictive and think creatively too! Thanks for checking out the video 👊🏻
All this is good advice, but the video makes me feel like one huge living mistake who should sell all the bass gear and start collecting stamps or something instead. I've played bass for 20 years and guitar for 30, and I'm considered a quite good bass player around here. But playing a great walking jazz bass line is among the most challenging things I know. I'd say I have a good feel in my playing (so I've heard too), but I struggle enormously with note selection and to be innovative, utilizing the whole fretboard. I'd probably need to ditch my day job and study walking bass full-time for a year to get to the level of proficiency required to be able to even consider these issues "fails". I'm happy when I've gotten trough a jazz song without hitting a wrong note, and I'm thrilled if came up with even one new idea in the line.. I'm not fully sure about the mistake #2 though. I think there needs to be a very short pause between the notes to give the bass line a swinging feel and a sense of drive. You need to put some attitude into the notes. Don't play too softly and smoothly would be my advice on the topic.
great video, I like to focus on what I can do as opposed to what not to do. I feel like some videos and lessons focus on the wrong and not the correct way. You stated the wrong and then emphasized the correct or better way to approach it. I also noticed that octaves weren't mentioned. They're effective in funk but are they useful in walking lines as well, or does that imply too much "jumpiness?" I guess it wouldn't if you walk up to it or start on it, but to add an octave in the middle I guess would be disjointed.
The most common mistake is to walk on an electric fretted bass guitar 😊 Just sounds and feels wrong. I only do get into the swinging thump-thump-thump-a-thump-thump feel in the walk standing behind the vertical neck of my upright with his big vibrating wooden hips gently leaning against mine ❤ Same to just listening a traditional Swing combo with an electric bass player - just isn't satisfactory.
How long does it take to get to walking bass from complete beginner? I have been playing for 10 years, but just this year been reading and taking lessons. I want to learn this, but it's hard for me right now. Just wondering how long it's gonna take me cause a lot of these gigs I see posted have walking as a job requirement.
There is no easy answer to that, it really depends on how quickly you can internalise the ideas and vocabulary. Start with the basics and really work them into your playing for a few months, and apply them to lots of different standards. Be patient with yourself!
Tone is subjective and changes with general trends. Let's see in 10 or 20 years if it's still cool to play an expensive boutique or vintage bass with all but the murkiest bass tone rolled off. Back in the 80s, Jaco was at the opposite extreme. He played walking bass lines with an obnoxious nasal bridge tone and thick chorus effect, and he was the height of cool. There can be a happy medium. I like to hear at least some of the natural tone coming from a really nice bass, like that F Bass.
mistake #8: play an e.bass instead of an Upright! Just kidding... you can walk an electric but.... if you realy wanna get that upright vibe - stay on the lower positions and use a lot of open strings like upright players do!!! like Jamerson did... Practice 1st position chromatic scale and then - practice Major and minor scales at the first position. get my drift?
Jaco also demanded to be the center of attention in every project he was in. A real supportive role bassist will be better to roll that tone down so they don’t step on the frequencies of the soloists.
Yes he did but it fit the music. There is no one tone that can be used for everything. Just like the notes you play, the tone has to fit the song. If you used Jaco tone in a Jazz trio it wouldn't sound good. If you used muffled muted tone in something more up beat with more instruments, you might get lost.
@@hallucinatedovens8414 I didn't say that. I was just saying that you can walk with a bright tone and sound fine. Also, not being Jaco doesn't mean that I can't play walking like he did. He is not the "owner" of the walking bass line with a bright tone style.
I miss Scott in these videos talking about basic playing content. The other videos of late has too much content about gadgets or must have basses. Stuff of little interest to the average player.
I respect that you are a bad ##s on bass and theory, but some of your titles for tips ect seem a bit condescending (to my tastes) I do dig a ton of your content
That is one ugly color for a bass. In fact it's an ugly color period. Triumph sold a car that colur in the 1970s, "Safron", and it looks no less like puke today that it did them. That being said, Scott's Bass Lessons it an incredible resource and if you're not a member, it's well worth joining!
So if a walking style line that moves melodicaly while connecting chords repeats itself then it's not a walking bass line. I beg to differ. Lovebthe vids Scott
