When someone calls a blues at a jam session
or a gig or anywhere, wouldn’t it be great
if you had a whole bag of tricks to make sure
your bass lines were always fun and always
interesting?
Hi I’m Luke from Become A Bassist and in
this lesson, you’re going to learn how to
take a basic blues bass line and use turnarounds
and walk ups to create authentic next level
blues bass lines that go beyond the basics,
and we’re going to have a ton of fun doing
it!
[Video Intro]
Before we get started and dive into these
turnarounds and walk ups, you should probably
already have a pretty good understanding of
how to make really basic blues bass lines.
If you don’t yet, that’s all good, but
I’d recommend checking out my 6 Authentic
Blues Bass Line Formulas lesson.
I’ll put a link to it right up here and
in the description as well and it’ll get
you up to speed really quickly.
If you know some basic blues lines though,
you can take the next step in making more
interesting bass lines and you can do it using
these things called turnarounds and walk ups.
Let’s go through turnarounds first.
A turnaround in this context just means we’re
putting something at the very end of the 12-bar
blues form that leads into the next one.
We’re ‘turning around’ and going straight
back to where we started.
If you look at the blues form in A we have
up here, you’ll see that the last 2 bars
is just a plain old A chord and if we end
this form with 2 bars of an A chord, then
start the next form with 4 bars of an A chord,
it’s just a lot of A. Have a listen to what
this sounds like.
[plays bass line over track]
See how we get to the end of the form and
it’s just tons of A?
So let’s use a turnaround to break it up
and we’re going to put that in the last
2 bars of the form.
The first, most simple way to break it up
is to make the very last bar an E chord rather
than an A chord.
This will lead into the next form really well
and pretty much all the turnarounds we’ll
be talking about today end up on the E-chord,
and you can just play the same kind of blues
bass line formula for the E chord as the rest
of the song.
That’ll sound like this.
[plays bass line] Hear how it breaks up the
big stretch of A and leads into the next form?
This is exactly what we want.
You can also do something similar but delay
the 5-chord - the E-chord by just a little
bit and walk up into it from the 4-chord below
it.
That’d look like this.
We get the last 2 bars - [plays bass line]
A chord for one bar, then half of the next,
then going to the D, then walking up chromatically
to the E. With the track, it’ll sound like
this.
[plays bass line] Small difference, but you
see this kind of thing everywhere.
Next though, I want to give you 2 more really
common and super authentic blues turnarounds
that will work nearly every time.
We have an ascending one and a descending
one - and each ends up on that same E chord
that we used in the last 2 examples.
Let’s start with the ascending one.
For this, we’re going to start on the 2nd
last bar and play the 1, 3, 4, #4 and 5.
In this key, that means we’re playing A,
C#, D, D# before getting to the E. You can
play them as single notes [plays bass line]
or if you want to make it bouncier, you can
double them [plays bass line] but that’s
the idea.
Rather than just going to the E chord, we’re
leading into it with this ascending line.
You can even mix this ascending line with
the little walk up we had from the last example.
That’d sound like this.
[plays bass line] Even more movement there,
but it still works really well.
The
other variation that gets used a lot is to
play this ascending thing, then go above the
E-chord really quickly to the F above it - the
flat 6 if you want to use the numbers, then
you can kind of fall back into it really fast
again.
That’d sound like this.
[plays bass line] Makes sense, right?
There aren’t any hard and fast rules about
when exactly to use each little device - and
a lot of times, you can use these devices,
even if the other people you’re playing
with use slightly different ones.
I always just try to keep my ears open for
what other people are doing and make sure
whatever I play is actually complementing
what they’re doing.
Alright, the descending turnaround - let’s
check that one out.
This one is going to be in the exact same
place in the form and it’s to sound like
this.
[plays bass line] We’re going from the root
down to the flat 7, 6, flat 6, then the 5.
In the key of A, that’s A, G, F#, F natural,
then E. With the track, it’s going to sound
like this.
[plays bass line] Again, you can use either
of the little extra devices here too.
The walkup from the 4 would sound like this.
[plays bass line] and going up to the flat
6 and back down again will sound like this.
[plays bass line]
So that’s our turnarounds taken care of.
You can mix and match the different ideas
in there and it’s going to make the ends
of your bass line phrases much more interesting
and more fun, but let’s talk about one more
device you can use - the good old fashioned
walk up.
This is great for breaking the monotony of
only playing the same formula the whole time.
You don’t need to use it all the time, but
it can be a really nice way to give your bass
line a bit more variety and a bit more impact,
and it’s really simple.
It works like this.
In the bar before a chord changes, you simply
play the root of the chord you’re on, then
go 3 frets below the next chord and walk up
chromatically to it.
The first place this gets used (and it gets
used a ton here) is the 4th bar of the form.
In the key of A, we’ve already had 3 bars
of the A-chord, and if we put a little walk-up
in the 4th bar, we get some variety and it
really makes the next chord in the form - the
D chord - stand out really nicely.
It’ll sound like this.
[plays bass line] See how it breaks up that
A-chord and leads into the D-chord?
That’s exactly what 
you want.
The 2nd place to put this is in this 2nd bar
of the 4-chord - in this case the D-chord.
We’re going to the A chord next, so all
we have to do is play the D on beat one, then
go 3 frets below the A-chord, which is our
target chord, and walk up into it.
That’ll sound like this.
[plays bass line] Again, it’s giving variety,
but still really functional.
The last place we’ll talk about right now
is going from the A chord in the 8th bar to
the E chord in the 9th bar.
Same deal.
We’ll play the root of the A chord [plays
note], then go 3 frets below the E and walk
up into it.
If we start on the D-chord and play through,
it’ll sound like this.
[plays bass line] Just like that.
Now you don’t have to use all these walk
ups every time through every 12-bar blues
form.
But you can pick your moments.
If you can feel the tension building through
the first 4 bars and you want to release some
of it, you can put the walk up in the 4th
bar and it’ll feel amazing!
But that’s the general idea.
Let’s play through the blues one more time
and mix and match all of these ideas - the
walk ups and the turnarounds and you’ll
see how adding these 2 ideas to your bass
lines gives so much variety and interest.
Check it out.
[plays bass line]
By the way, this lesson, I’ve been using
this traditional blues bass line pattern [plays
pattern] but you can use these walk ups and
turnarounds no matter which kind of bass line
you use.
Now if you want the tracks from this lesson
as well as the tabs and notation for all the
walk ups and turnarounds, then click the first
link in the description, sign up on that page
and I’ll send them straight to your inbox
for free!
You can get started practicing with them in
the next 5 minutes if you want.
Then the next time someone calls a blues at
a jam session or a gig, you’ll have a whole
bag of tricks you can pull from to make sure
your bass lines are always fun and always
interesting.
To recap though, you learned all about turnarounds
and walk ups to spice up your blues bass lines.
You learned the simplest turnarounds at the
end of a blues form were to just play the
5-chord in the last bar or to delay the 5
chord by just a bit, then walk up to it from
the 4-chord.
You learned the 2 classic blues turnarounds
- the ascending one [plays] and the descending
one [plays] and you learned the power of walk
ups and where to use them to give more variety
and impact to your blues bass lines.
Thanks so much for watching - I really appreciate
it.
Make sure you head to the site to get the
tracks, tabs and notation 100% free, but before
you go, make sure to subscribe to the YouTube
channel as well and click the bell to turn
on notifications.
I’m Luke from Become A Bassist and I’ll
catch you soon.
