When you play a walking bass line....

[jeremy c]

play a minor seventh arpeggio in G (G-B-D-F#), now a minor seventh in C (C, E, G, B).

 

You've named the chords incorrectly; those are Major Seventh arpeggios.

[Nicklab]

When you play a walking bass line what are you thinking? What do you do?

 

What am I thinking? I'm not particularly thinking, I'm just enjoying the music and reacting to what I hear.

 

To get to that point:

I can look at a chord chart for something I've never seen before and because of years of practice, I know:

what every note in every chord is.

what scales go with what chords.

where all these notes are on my bass.

what keys various sections of the song are in.

what all the possible connection notes are.

what is appropriate for the style I am playing. A walk in a blues band and a walk on a jazz tune are very different.

who am I playing with. Some players really need to hear a root on every chord change, others don't.

and a lot more stuff.

 

We all start somewhere. The question is whether you stay there or whether you move on. If you want to move on, Ed Friedland's walking bass books will give you a good direction, if you practice what you learn over a lot of different songs, not just on the exercises in the books.

 

Yes. That.

 

If you're thinking too much you need to study/practice some more. There's nothing wrong with having to think about it. It just means you have work to do.

 

+2.

 

It took me years of jamming and practicing to get to the point where I'm not really thinking about what to play, and I'm reacting to the other players. I might go into a tune with an idea, but almost every time I wind up making some kind of an adjustment in order to suit the tune, the singer's phrasing, or anything else going on in the band. So while learning phrasing is important, it's just as important to be listening all the time. To everything.

[b5pilot]

When you play a walking bass line what are you thinking? What do you do?

 

What am I thinking? I'm not particularly thinking, I'm just enjoying the music and reacting to what I hear.

 

To get to that point:

I can look at a chord chart for something I've never seen before and because of years of practice, I know:

what every note in every chord is.

what scales go with what chords.

where all these notes are on my bass.

what keys various sections of the song are in.

what all the possible connection notes are.

what is appropriate for the style I am playing. A walk in a blues band and a walk on a jazz tune are very different.

who am I playing with. Some players really need to hear a root on every chord change, others don't.

and a lot more stuff.

 

+1

Once again Jeremy nails it. It all boils down to knowing your instrument.

As an example one of the coolest walking bass lines that I've heard in a while, in my opinion, is Stevie Ray Vaughns Stangs Swang. Tommy Shannon rules.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDYxjVEJWSk

 

 

[ZZ Thorn]

+1 on Tommy Shannon. When you play with two of the greatest blues guitarists ever in Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray you will be walking your butt off a lot. One of the great blues bassists, no doubt and he walking defined his style, especially with SrV, who did so many shuffles.