(plays jazz guitar)
- Hi, everybody, my name is Jens Larsen.
In this video I'm going to
go over how you can play
walking bass and chords on a Bb blues.
So, I played and transcribed
a one-chorus example
that I'm gonna analyze
and I'm gonna talk about
how I made the bass lines,
what kind of chord voicings I'm using,
and talk a little bit
about the techniques
involved in playing it.
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The first thing we should do
is probably just to take
a look at the example,
and then I can break it down
into smaller bits and pieces
and talk about the components
that it's constructed of.
(plays guitar)
The way I'm playing this type of comping
is sort of a combination
of having the chords with
the root as the lowest note,
so you kinda need to stay in the area
where you can play the chord,
because if you wanna add a chord,
then there has to be one available,
and most of the time you
kinda need to have the root
as the first note in the
bass line on the bar.
So, you're kinda limited to
the places where that happens,
like this.
For the rest,
I'm trying to connect
those with the bass line,
and the bass line is then spelling out
the chords that I'm on,
so I'm keeping it kinda simple
and just using fairly basic
chord tones, or scale tones of
of the chord that I'm on.
And at the same time I'm
thinking about where I'm going,
so I'm trying to make a bass line
that's gonna logically move
to the next note that I need to hit,
which is often the root of the next chord.
The first bar starts
with a chord on the one,
so I'm playing this Bb7 with a 13,
a drop 3 voicing that you
probably already know.
And the bass line is
just the Bb major triad,
so I'm playing the Bb
here, and then up to D, F,
and then I have a leading note for the Eb
which is this E,
and then I actually add
another leading note,
which is just to sort of create
a little bit of variation
in the bass line,
because the walking
bass line is, of course,
essentially just quarter notes
all the time, so (guitar).
But here I'm adding an extra note,
just because it sort of
breaks up the groove a bit,
and that's a nice
variation to have in there,
so start with the chord,
up the triad,
and then here I'm adding the third,
because that's also a leading note,
so I now have this sort
of chromatic encircling
of the Eb (plays).
And then I'm hammering
on to the Eb (plays),
and then adding the chord afterwards
so you get this (plays).
And this just creates a lot of movement,
which is kind of nice, it
just breaks it up nicely.
And that's a nice effect to
have if you can get it in there.
There are probably a few places
you need to puzzle this out in advance
and see if it's possible,
and then you can have
some variations of your
bass lines where it works.
So now I'm on the Eb (plays),
and here the bass line is also
just using chord tones, so
first the root, chord,
which is just an (plays),
so this Eb7 with a 9,
coming out of just an Eb shell voicing,
down to the 7th, 5th,
and then I wanna go
back to Bb in bar three.
And the Bb I wanna play
is actually (plays)
this Bb shell voicing.
And I'm using an A,
because that sort of
fits the root (plays),
and then I can lead up to the Bb again.
So my A leading note, I'm
harmonizing in this example.
So I put an A7 under it,
and then I can sort of
just slide that up (plays)
into my Bb7 (plays).
So here I have a Bb7.
Now I'm not playing the 13,
I'm just playing the shell voicing.
And then same bass line,
actually, just Bb major triad,
leading note, and now
I'm going to F minor,
I'm not going to Eb,
but the E is still a valid leading note.
So this is a good example
of how you can have some bass lines
that will actually take you
to several different places.
So instead of going down to the Eb,
I can go up to F minor in bar four.
And the idea here is that
I'm gonna play (plays)
F minor for half a bar,
(plays) E7 for half a bar,
to take me to the Eb in bar five (plays).
And the way I do that is (plays).
So first the root, then the chord (plays)
and then the 5th,
and then I move to the E7 (plays),
chord,
(plays guitar)
5th,
(plays guitar).
(plays guitar)
So really a simple idea,
because I'm just (plays)
playing this ii-V with
a tritone substitution
and repeating the bass
line, which is just I-V-I-V.
Then I move to Eb (plays)
and here I play the chord on the one,
also because we are sort of
in a strong point in the song,
so when you're coming from
from bar four to bar five,
so where you're in a new four-bar period,
then it often makes sense
to put the chord on the one,
just to restate, like now,
now we're starting a
new segment of the song.
We tend to feel music
in groups of four bars,
and that is something
to be sort of aware of
when you're comping,
whether it's with bass
lines or without them,
that needs sort of an
emphasis in a certain way.
You will hear also
that if you listen for when
drummers are making fills,
it's usually at the end of some period,
and it'll come out at the
beginning of the period.
On the Eb7 (plays),
the next chord is an E diminished (plays),
so the bass line actually
just kind of has to stay.
We can use the root of the
chord as a leading note
up to the next chord, and that's
kind of what I'm doing, so
(plays) Eb, down to the 7th, 5th.
Again, just a bass line is easy to play.
(plays)
And then sustain the chord the same time.
This has to be sort of
practical solutions (plays),
because otherwise it gets
way to difficult to play,
and I'm using the Eb to lead up to the
E diminished (plays),
and here's like first the
E, and then the chord,
and then we get the bass line
for that, that's just down
to Eb,
Db,
and then, again, an A as
a leading note up to Bb.
So we go back to Bb.
And now it's Bb 13 again,
but I'm playing it differently,
because I'm starting on the Bb,
and then the chord on the one end (plays),
again using the triad.
And now I need to go to D half-diminished,
so instead of going to E,
I go to Eb as a leading note
down to D half-diminished.
And here I have this (plays)
D half-diminished drop 2 voicing,
one of the few places where
I'm using a drop 2 voicing,
but it just fits really well
to go from this (plays).
So root,
chord,
flat 5, which is a chord tone,
down to the G7 (plays),
and then here again, adding the chord.
And the voice leading of this (plays)
works really well (plays).
And then a leading note to
the C minor, which is a Db.
And here we get C minor with a 9 (plays),
and that's, again, a four-bar period,
so I'm really stating
it on the one (plays),
and then I start to move up (plays)
to the F, and that's
just moving, really, from
so up the scale C, D, Eb,
and then a leading note,
which is an E in this case (plays),
and then we're on the F (plays),
and then after the F we're
at the chord (plays),
so (plays).
And the leading note to go
back down to the Bb in bar
let's see, that's bar 11,
is a B, and here again
I'm harmonizing this,
so now I'm harmonizing it
so that it's gotta resolve.
It actually works as a
tritone substitution as well,
'cause it's a B7 (plays).
And then I could just slide
that whole thing down (plays),
and then I'm in the last turnaround.
So on the Bb,
again just using the shell voicing,
and then up to the 5th,
which I can use as a sort
of diatonic leading note
up to the G7 in the turnaround.
So up to G, chord,
and then I'm using a Db as a leading note,
down to C, here I'm using
this drop 3 C minor voicing.
And then another leading note,
which is a G-flat, down to F,
and then an F7#9, like this, so (plays).
And then the 5th, and
then I'm back in one.
I think you should notice,
and maybe also try to incorporate
into your walking bass and chord ideas,
is that you can use the
chords in different ways.
So I already talked about
how it's important sometimes
to really just state like (plays)
on the one of a four-bar period
we have the chord and the
bass note at the same time.
And actually you wanna sustain it.
It's not really a short note,
but if I play the first two bars,
then they sound like this.
(plays)
So here, of course, the
first one is just there
to really state now we're in
it's a Bb7 blues, this is a Bb7.
The Eb (plays),
we kind of expect the Bb to come along,
and already just having
the bass note there
is giving us most of the
information that we need.
So we can just use the chord there
to just really state the groove,
and it's just really sort of
a short stab, like a (plays)
like hitting the snare in a drum kit.
And then we have the A7 here, which,
the point of that one is
just to really emphasize
that now we're going back to the I,
and it's just gonna create some movement,
and that's why it's played
sustained like (plays).
And then of course it makes more sense
to also really resolve it (plays)
because otherwise it sounds like
we're in a completely different key.
(plays)
And then, in bar four,
so here we have (plays)
first the F minor 7,
which is maybe a little bit different
from the Bb7 that you might expect there.
And after, we get the E7, which
is a tritone substitution.
And both of those chords are sort of
important colors to introduce
because they're a little bit different,
and if you just play them really short,
you don't really get the benefit
of having them there in the first place.
So those are played sustained (plays).
And then the same with the E7 (plays).
And then, because they're
both played after the beat,
but they're sustained,
(plays)
and we have a lot of tension building
from both the fact that
this is not on the beat,
and that it's a tritone substitution,
it makes sense to really take it down
and play the Eb7 on the one (plays).
So this way of thinking
is also something you
can experiment with when,
and think about when you
maybe record yourself
playing stuff like this.
Does it sound like I could
use long chords some places?
Am I only playing one thing,
or am I also sort of changing that up?
Because I think that's
an interesting thing
to work with as well, and you wanna have,
even with something that is as limited
as walking bass and chords is,
some amounts of variation
and dynamics available,
and I think this is a good
thing to sort of look into.
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That's about it for this week.
Thank you for watching,
and until the next week.
