Walking Bass & Bluesy Tunes

This course features blues and gospel-inspired jazz standards and tutorials

We start with "Georgia On My Mind" and a study on the 3 variations of the blues scale: the minor blues, major blues and extended blues scale. We explore how these scales are used over different chord types and apply them to each jazz standard lesson in the course.

"Summertime" is broken down into a 3-part series. We introduce a simple walking bass which outlines the root and 5th of the chord. This is a nice way to get started with walking bass lines and is also very effective device when playing solo piano.

We then have a study of walking bass line patterns and apply the concepts to the tune "Autumn Leaves".

Finally we explore the use of the minor blues and minor pentatonic scales over the tune "Cry Me A River".

iRealPro Backing Tracks

When practicing walking bass lines, or any medium to up tempo tune, you should play with the metronome on beats 2 & 4. This has a couple of benefits.

In jazz music, the strong beats are on beats 2 & 4, whereas in classical music the strong beats are beats 1 & 3. Playing with the metronome on 2 & 4 will improve your sense of time and also develop a stronger sense of swing.

In jazz bands, you will hear that the drummer hits the hi-hat on beats 2 and 4. If you practice with the metronome on beats 2 and 4, you will become very calibrated with this which will help you stay in time when you are playing in an ensemble setting.

Try to play as quietly as possible so that the metronome or iRealPro is louder than your playing. This will help you become calibrated with the metronome and your ability to feel the time, not just count it.