And The Bass Walks On

Jazz is pretty cool, right? Well, it's certainly got its good parts, anyway, and one of my favorites is the Walking Bass. It sounds really simple, especially compared to a lot of other jazz techniques, but as you might guess it's actually got a lot going on under the hood. Why does such a basic rhythm work so well in such a complex style? And how do they know which notes to play? Let's find out!

Sources:

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Ron Jones
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And thanks as well to Henry Reich, José N., Logan Jones, Eugene Bulkin, Jody, Yan Han, Abram Thiessen, Anna Work, and Oliver! Your support helps make 12tone even better!

Also, thanks to Jareth Arnold and Inés Dawson for proofreading the script to make sure this all makes sense hopefully!

[ghadymrad]

"It wouldn't be jazz if we always did the easy thing" ...

[camf]

How walking basslines work has always been a question I've had in the back of my mind. Thank you so much, I love your videos.

[maywasp]

Talks about resolving tension.
Draws a nuke.
I like it.

[Sreven]

Jazz Bassist here. Nice to see an explanation of how this works, as it's just something I had to learn on my own. Picked up through feel more than anything, as I never really learned the names of notes and all the other music theory stuff mentioned in the video. Something I really want to work on if I'm to ever move on to more professional jazz playing.

[lazyjackass]

Walking bass is my favorite upright bass sound. As a drummer, I find myself becoming enamored with it without realizing it. The thing is, once you place limiting paramaters on a musical technique or style, music finds a way to still make it interesting and entertaining.

[Max-tinq]

Best bass lesson I've ever watched. 1st time that I could understand it. Thank you so much.

[fabianpilinski]

I’m a bassist and this explains walking bass better than most YouTube videos I’ve seen, thanks

[ATTACKoftheSTRINGS]

ha, I love how you drew in a Mandelbrot set when talking about not following the pattern! That’s some quality joking right there!

[xtruthunfiltrd]

Jazz bassist here, you covered everything very nicely!

[grberendzenproductions]

As a jazz bassist, I'm happy you decided to show folks how important and innovative we are. I usually pick the beat 4 note on the spot by feel. Sometimes I know beforehand, if we're playing a standard that gets played often, though you've got to mix things up, so strike that thought.... And, I love the "jazz hands"!

[orphanos]

I love all of your videos so much, you've taught me so much and i've applied a lot of it to writing and it just all makes sense to me now, thank you

[guillequerol]

I think this is my favorite 12tone video so far. Keep on rocking dude.

[bcubed]

When he said "walking bass don't care, " I was expecting him to draw a honey badger.

[colinedmunds]

this is cool. having something you've always understood but couldn't really explain in a meaning full way ("dunno, just FEEL it, man") broken down like this is super useful

[GregsBassShed]

Excellent video - you summarise walking bass brilliantly. Perfect!

[nemo]

Good video/narration, entertaining and informative. We play bass because we like the bass, like the sound, like the shape, and we can lean on it while we play. But some of us don't think about the technical elements; we merely play a note that "fits" in the tune and one note suggests another so we follow the notes the same way a mountain man follows a trail . . . or we simply read the notes written on the score.

[Professorelliot]

I was actually just wondering about this yesterday. Informative as always!

[MrMiau]

love how you drew a tau when talking about not doing the easy thing

[wnxa]

heiii, never watched any of your videos til today...automatically turned into a 12tone big fan!! awesome job, greetings from chile

[vincentkoster]

the best video I've found on walking bass! very easy to understand and remember, respect!