Much to my chagrin, there hasn't been much “jazz” vocabulary stuff on this site's Psycho Licks lessons page. So guess what? With this installment of Psycho Licks, I'm presenting the first of four installments of a monster lesson I've decided to call “Walking Basslines Bonanza” lesson to this site! Each of the four installments will be geared towards developing walking basslines and using them in conjunction with chords—an often puzzling aspect of jazz guitar accompaniment (or solo jazz guitar)—to outline a G blues. For the curious, this approach is similar to the type of accompaniment I attempted to unload in a couple of the nutty “live” solo recordings (guitar & vocal) I've posted elsewhere on this site—namely the versions of “Twisted,” “Stray Cat Strut,” “Detour Ahead,” and “The Man That Got Away.” In fact, some of the stuff I'll be presenting in the forthcoming installments of this lesson is directly related this “twisted” approach! Feel free to earball those tracks, if you want to hear some “raw” examples of how these techniques can be implemented in a real-life performance situation...

Hopefully these four installments will help you become more technically adept at executing these types of complex figures, as well as provide a deeper understanding of how to improvise with them. Enjoy!

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THE TECHNIQUE BASICS: Because a typical “jazz walking basslines” approach involves generating a constantly moving bassline (usually in steady quarter notes), sounded in conjunction with syncopated “chord pops” (chords sounded at somewhat unpredictable points, often filling in the cracks between the bassline—think “chord stabs” from a jazz big band's horn section), you'll need to use either fingerstyle technique or a pick-and-fingers approach to articulate these separate parts.

THE NOTATION BASICS: Since the above described approach involves playing two distinctly different parts simultaneously, in notated guitar music, the basslines and chords will almost always be written on a singular staff—with downstemmed notes depicting the bassline. This not only makes it very easy to see how the basslines and chord pops interact, it makes the duration each chord is sustained—while notes from a bassline move underneath—more specific.

THE FEEL: The most fundamental “jazz” rhythmic feel is called swing—a “bouncy” feel involving a triplet-based interpretation of eighth note rhythms. This feel is characteristic of virtually every jazz tune, with the exception of Latin jazz. Though your ears will surely hear the results of this feel in action upon listening to the MP3s included with this lesson, to really nail the nuts and bolts of this feel, it may help to think of visually superimposing the rhythmic structure of a “triplet” (three evenly-spaced notes per beat) over a pair of eighth notes. (Hence the rhythm “template” perched atop each example.) The tricky part? The first eighth note of each beat will be sustained for the exact time value of the first two notes of a triplet tied together. To clarify, try counting out a full measure’s worth of triplets, “one-uh-let, two-uh-let, three-uh-let, four-uh-let,” emphasizing the (italicized) first and last notes grouped within each triplet. These emphasized syllables indicates the precise rhythmic moment the various notated eighth notes will be articulated. Beyond that, play with a “laid back” feel (i.e., playing slightly behind the beat), and you'll be good to go.

THE BASSLINES' NOTES: Since the vast majority of chords we'll be adding basslines to in this lesson will be from the dominant seventh chord family (e.g., G7, C7, D7, etc.), whenever applicable, the modal scale that corresponds directly to that chord type (i.e., Mixolydian, in the case of dominant seventh chords) will be used. This means that each instance a G7 chord sound is being implied, notes from G Mixolydian (G-A-B-C-D-E-F) will be the source material for the basslines. Similarly, in a C7 situation, notes from C Mixolydian (C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb) will be used. Get it? Further, it's worth noting that loads of chromatic passing tones will be used throughout, in an effort to “jazz up” these basslines. These types of approaches with chromatics will be explained as each new figure is presented. (Also, for more tips on chrmaticizing the Mixolydian mode, refer to the ol' Psycho Licks lesson, Mixolydian Mayhem! All the approaches presented there—despite being used in a “soloing” context—may also be used to add chromaticism to your basslines.) In the explanation that precedes each example, the basslines used will also be reduced to a scale/interval formula, for transposing (and vocabulary building) purposes.

THE CHORD SHAPES: As you'll see in forthcoming installments of this lesson, many of the chord voicings used in conjunction with walking basslines are fairly rudimentary seventh chord shapes (and their inversions). The most commonly used of these voicings will be examined in thhis lesson's second installment. However, in this introductory installment, virtually all of the figures presented will revolve around the two voicings depicted below, used to create a static “G7 chord” vamp (meaning unchanging harmony) using familiar bassline motifs.

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The first example below pits these two voicings over a steady quarter note bassline—a moving bass note stated on each beat (count: “one, two, three, four”). Meanwhile, these chords in this figure are “popped” in the following eighth-note syncoptation (attack points italicized): “one-and, two-and, three-and, four-and.” Notice that the bassline in this igure is confined to the 5th string, and involves a descending/ascending move between the notes G-F#-F. In this case, F# is a chromatic passing tone (i.e., note outside of G Mixolydian), simply used to bridge the gap between two G7 (G-B-D-F) chord tones, “G” (the root; 10th fret, 5th string) and “F” (the b7; 8th fret, 5th string). (TIP: Try using your fret-hand's index finger for the F# and F bass notes used along the 5th string.) This chromatic move is a great one to file away in your brain for future use—whenever you want to add chromaticism to a line revolving around the root (a.k.a., “1”) and b7 of a dominant 7th chord. (Bassline Pattern: 1-7-b7-7-1, etc.)

(*You can hear the lick FAST by clicking HERE*)

(*You can hear the lick SLOW by clicking HERE*)

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This next figure is almost identical to the previous example, only in this one, the 5th of G7 (the note “D”; 10th fret, 6th string), is used to create a more intervallic bassline. Notice that the same chromatic approach between the chord's root (G) and its b7 (F) is still being used. (Bassline Pattern: 1-5-b7-7-1, etc.)

(*You can hear the lick FAST by clicking HERE*)

(*You can hear the lick SLOW by clicking HERE*)

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In this first of our two-bar bassline examples, notice that the same chord types are still being used, stated in the exact same rhythm used in our previous one-bar examples. The primary difference? After the chord's root (G; 10th fret, 5th string) is used to kick off the bassline on the downbeat, an intervallic jump down to the chord's 3rd (the note “B”; 7th fret, 6th string) sets off a chromatic walk along the 6th string, up to the chord's 5th (the note “D”; 10th fret, 6th string). This move is then punctuated by a chromatic climb up the 5th string, between the scale's 6th degree (the note “E”; 7th fret, 5th string) and root. (TIP: Try using your fret-hand's index finger to play the “B-C-C#” move along the 6th string.) (Bassline Pattern: 1-3-4-#4-5-6-b7-7-1, etc.)

(*You can hear the lick FAST by clicking HERE*)

(*You can hear the lick SLOW by clicking HERE*)

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In this final figure of our walking bassline lesson, a new twist is tossed into the picture—namely, a rhythmic variation that requires you to hold down a chord fragment while notes from the bassline continue to climb underneath. This happens on the “and” of beat “two” in the second bar, where a C/F dyad is sustained. Also notice that the voicings themselves are trimmed down (i.e., less notes are used to imply the chords). Among other things, this frees up your remaining fret-hand fingers to grab the different notes used in the bassline while still allowing the chordal sound to ring out. (Bassline Pattern: 1-5-1-7-b7-5-b7-7-1, etc.)

(*You can hear the lick FAST by clicking HERE*)

(*You can hear the lick SLOW by clicking HERE*)

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