II-V walking bass lines
Lesson time: (2min 37sec)
Walking bass lines in the Dm7-G7 bars can be based on scales and/or notes of the chords.
Free lesson
This lesson is part of the course Advanced Blues Piano: Shuffle & Extended Harmony
Watch this lesson for free below.
Lesson transcript:
Exploring D Minor 7 and G7 Walking Bass Lines
When we play these D minor 7 and G7 bars in the bass, there are various ways of doing it.
First Approach: The Run-Up
The first method I demonstrated before was to use a run up from D to G.
- Remember from C Jam Blues in part one:
- Start with a tone first and then move up in semitones: D to E.
- Then, I just went down the scale from G to C with no extra notes.
We can call that a rundown, if you like. This gives you this classic bass line.
Additional Approaches
Now, there are many other ways you could play around these chords:
- For instance, you could do a run-up on the G as well, going to the C above, starting with a tone first and moving up in semitones.
So, that will give you this.
- You might not want to go that high. In fact, you might start here and do a rundown on D.
So, there we haven't used any extra notes at all because D to G can just be played on the white notes:
D minor - G7. Again, no extra notes.
Scale Passages and Triads
Those 2, 5, 1 bass patterns used a lot of scale passages. You can also play bass lines based on the notes of the chords.
In this case, the triad:
-
D minor could be like this:
-
The G could also just be root, third, and fifth.
Here's a more elegant way of doing this:
- This approach doesn't take you so high and includes the flat 5 to take us to the G.
So there you are:
- Chromatic linking note: A, A flat, G.
- Then you can go down a G triad.
Conclusion
So now you've got four or five different ways of playing this walking bass line over the last four bars, or at least bars 9 and 10.
Try to get out of the rut of playing it the same way every time.
About the instructor
Critically acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Tim Richards is one of Britain’s most experienced jazz educators, teaching piano privately for over 30 years, as well as at Morley College, Goldsmiths College, the University of Surrey, Premises Studios and other venues in the UK and abroad. He has produced numerous titles for Schott Music, including the best-selling two-volume Exploring Jazz Piano, Blues, Boogie & Gospel Collection and the acclaimed Improvising Blues Piano. He is also co-author, with John Crawford, of Exploring Latin Piano and Brazilian Piano Collection.More recently Schott have published Jazz, Latin & Modern Collection (15 pieces for solo piano), comprising Tim Richards originals alongside pieces by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, and the two volume set Beginning Jazz Piano (now a two-part MusicGurus course).“The real joy of Tim’s music… is that it is both hugely educational but also such great fun to play. Anyone with the slightest interest in learning to play or teach jazz piano should really acquire a set of Tim’s books.” PianoDaoAs a performer Tim has been a presence on the UK jazz scene since the 1980s, also playing the blues with UK and US legends such as Otis Grand, Earl Green, Dana Gillespie, Larry Garner, Joe Louis Walker and Mojo Buford. He has released over a dozen albums as a leader (featuring many of London’s best jazz musicians including Pete King, Gilad Atzmon, Tony Kofi, Jason Yarde, Seb Rochford, Ed Jones, Dick Pearce and many others), and toured all over Europe with line-ups ranging from duo to nine-piece. His latest recording, the album ‘Telegraph Hill’ by the six-piece Hextet, was described in The Observer as "A true joy from beginning to end". More info can be found on his website www.timrichards.ndo.co.uk read more