Building a walking bass line on the double bass is the core of double bass performance in the jazz context.

From big band to small ensemble, being able to spell out an effective jazz walking bass line is key to holding the ensemble together both regarding chord changes as well as rhythm and groove.

In this post, legendary bassist Ron Carter walks you through exactly how to create compelling walking bass lines on the double bass.

Before we jump in, let’s watch an excerpt from Ron Carter’s tonebase course, which this post was derived from:

This entire course is available through a 14-day free trial to tonebase. 

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Building jazz walking bass lines with chord tones

Carter starts off by instructing us to understand the chord changes from the get go.

Let’s start with the 12 bar blues, the quintessential jazz progression that every bass player should come to master:

Carter makes clear that the key to understanding walking bass lines is to understand the amount of total choices present.

For chords with 4 convenient notes present, there are 256 possible bass lines per measure.

Understanding this vast sea of possibilities makes you realize that the key to choosing the right path lies in feeling and listening with your ear.

Practice this set of changes by creating lines through the available notes:

As Carter says, let your ears and hands guide you through the matrix of notes available.

Adding non-chord tones to your jazz bass lines

Carter suggests now to add in non-chord tones. What are they?

Non-chord tones are simply notes not present in the root chord. For example, chord tones in F major (the first chord in the above progression) would be F, A, and C, and some non-chord tones could be E, Ab, Db, etc.

Once you’ve established your chord tone bass line, add some non-chord tones on the off beats (beats 2 and 4), and with some clever stepwise motion leading into the downbeat, you’ll find yourself with a great bass line that will get the rhythm section locked in.

Here are a few ways to approaching integrating these notes:

• Chord alteration: Replacing one or more notes from the diatonic scale with a neighboring pitch from the chromatic scale.
• Replacing chord: Instead of playing another note of the same chord (playing an F chord for a whole bar), we can completely change the chord in the second half of the measure.
• Passing tone: Adding a note that is a non-chord tone but lies between two notes of the same chord (passes from one note to another); for instance, moving from F to C, playing a B-natural as a passing tone from an A-natural (third of F).
• Leading tone: A note neighboring the chord we are approaching; for instance, playing a B-natural under an F-chord while moving to a C-chord.

Conclusion

These are the basic building blocks to forming compelling walking bass lines, but mastering this skill requires years and years of developing intuition as a bass player in the realms of rhythm, groove, harmony, and counterpoint.

The best way to learn how to build compelling jazz walking bass lines on the double bass is to hop into a rhythm section and simply practice. Get a blues vamp going with the chord progression from earlier and experiment with different combinations. These are the habits that will build your musical intuition.

And if you want to watch the entire lesson from earlier for free, click here to sign up for a free 14-day trial to tonebase.

tonebase Bass is the #1 resource for mastering the double bass, and it has never been a better time to take your progress to the next level.

Happy practicing!