Introduction to Walking Bass for Jazz Guitar Video Lesson

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One of the most frequent questions I get from readers and students is, “How do I learn to walk a bassline on the guitar?” Though there are many ways to accomplish this goal, one of the exercises that I found helped me, and that has helped my students over the years, is learning how to match up horizontal scales with chord inversions as a first step to exploring basslines on the guitar.

In this video lesson, we’ll look at how you can integrate horizontal scales on the 6th and 5th strings with chord inversions in order to begin your journey to learning how to walk a bassline for jazz guitar.

Click to download the PDF for this lesson.

 

Video Lesson

 

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10 Responses to "Introduction to Walking Bass for Jazz Guitar Video Lesson"

1. John says:

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   Interesting lesson as always Matt.
   This brings another dimension to practicing these chord shapes. Makes it a bit more interesting and helps to connect the scales and inversions. Not to mention the walking bassline over the chords is one of the coolest jazz guitar sounds.

   

   January 23, 2012 at 12:20 pm
   1. Matthew Warnock says:

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      thanks John, I’m already planning a follow up to this one where I talk about how to add notes on top of the chord inversions in a similar fashion, as well as using diatonic subs instead of inversions, should be fun!

      

      January 23, 2012 at 12:23 pm
2. Bill Giles says:

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   Great stuff Matt!

   Thanks,
   -Bill-

   

   January 23, 2012 at 1:46 pm
   1. Matthew Warnock says:

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      No problem Bill, glad you dug it!

      

      January 23, 2012 at 2:17 pm
3. Jim says:

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   Thanks Matt! I like your approach, straight forward. I need a walking bass. Im looking forward to a few other walks when your in a walking mood. Best regards, Jim Sacra

   

   January 23, 2012 at 2:47 pm
   1. Matthew Warnock says:

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      Thanks Jim, yeah I’ve got a few more of these coming up for sure, one of my favorite topics!

      

      January 23, 2012 at 3:24 pm
4. larry says:

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   matt please explain drop 3 as i thought it meant –do not play the 3rd ie the a for fmaj7

   

   January 25, 2012 at 10:45 pm
   1. Matthew Warnock says:

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      Hi Larry,
      You can find a detailed explanation of Drop 3 chords here, as well as fingerings for all those chords with inversions.

      http://www.mattwarnockguitar.com/guitar-resources/chords/drop-3

      If you have any more questions please let me know.

      

      January 26, 2012 at 5:18 am
5. john says:

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   Great stuff Matt, thanks.

   Just FYI, there are a couple of typos with the chord symbols and tab on pages 3 & 4 of the PDF.

   

   February 13, 2012 at 8:46 pm
   1. Matthew Warnock says:

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      Thanks John, just a copy/paste error from the notation to the tab, got it all fixed up, the link is now to the corrected PDF, thanks!

      

      February 13, 2012 at 8:58 pm