A very common trope in rock, country, and folk music involves walking bass lines that "connect" one chord to another. I've used this in many of my song lessons, and I'm happy to share this list of related lessons if you'd like to brush up on this technique.
If you’re new to this topic, check out my course introduction or view the video below:
If you've ever been curious where the notes (used in walking bass lines) come from, this series of videos may help. I answer some audience questions on this topic, and explain (using fretboard maps, and the same example in 4-5 common major keys) to show what all walk-ups and walk-downs have in common.
Sometimes we'll want to add strumming in between our walking-down bass notes, which is a great way to flesh out a descending bassline. Here's a few lessons explaining this technique in different contexts.
Here's some extended riffs you can practice, each of which features the walk-up and walk-down techniques covered in this course. Video lessons and print-friendly PDFs (with tabs) are available for each exercise below.
Of the many songs I've taught, here's a few favorites that make heavy use of walking bass lines (usually played between chords).
They’re all available with Premium membership here on my Song Notes website!
In addition to my video tutorials, I’ve made a bunch of instructional PDF guides to accompany these lessons. These are all hand-made by me, giving you the helpful info in a print-friendly format you can download or print to reference at your convenience.
Each of these PDFs, along with any jam tracks and extended video lessons I’ve made, are available via the individual lesson pages on this page.
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