Landegode
Verified buyer
10/26/25
Great course.
Take 5: Walking Bass
Learn How To Create Walking Bass Lines
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About this course
Learning how to craft walking bass lines is not only essential for bassists, but it's also the quickest way to learn how to recognize the underlying harmony of any tune or progression, particularly if you’re playing jazz or blues. Combining the harmonic structure of the tune with melodic direction and an appropriate rhythmic feel is the key to creating great walking bass lines.
In this Walking Bass edition of Take 5 from Stu Hamm, you’ll be guided through an accelerated curriculum designed to give your walking bass chops a solid platform to build upon.
”I’ll kick off this edition of Take 5 with a short primer where we’ll talk about key concepts and approaches for creating and playing walking bass lines.
Then I’ll guide you through five Walking Bass studies, taking you from the very basics to more sophisticated and challenging approaches. I’ll play each bass line over a rhythm track for you, and then I’ll break it down, pointing out all the details to help you take YOUR walking bass game to the next level.”
Throughout the course, Stu will guide you through key walking bass concepts, like proper left hand grips to walk and outline different kinds of chords, shape the harmony, use approach notes, chromaticism, rhythmic embellishments, tone shaping, and more.
You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.
Grab your bass and let’s dig in with Stu Hamm!
In this Walking Bass edition of Take 5 from Stu Hamm, you’ll be guided through an accelerated curriculum designed to give your walking bass chops a solid platform to build upon.
”I’ll kick off this edition of Take 5 with a short primer where we’ll talk about key concepts and approaches for creating and playing walking bass lines.
Then I’ll guide you through five Walking Bass studies, taking you from the very basics to more sophisticated and challenging approaches. I’ll play each bass line over a rhythm track for you, and then I’ll break it down, pointing out all the details to help you take YOUR walking bass game to the next level.”
Throughout the course, Stu will guide you through key walking bass concepts, like proper left hand grips to walk and outline different kinds of chords, shape the harmony, use approach notes, chromaticism, rhythmic embellishments, tone shaping, and more.
You’ll get standard notation and tabs for all of the performance studies. Plus, you’ll be able to use TrueFire’s learning tools to sync the tab and notation to the video lesson. You can also loop or slow down the videos so that you can work with the lessons at your own pace. All of the backing tracks are included to work with on your own as well.
Grab your bass and let’s dig in with Stu Hamm!
What you'll learn
- Navigate a 12-bar jazz blues progression with substitution chords
- Maintain efficient hand position while playing walking bass lines
- Learn to recognize underlying harmony in chord progressions
- Understand the fundamental concepts of walking bass line construction
- Develop ability to combine harmonic structure with melodic direction
Release date: 05/03/2021 • 0h 58m runtime
Sample lessons
Level 3: Walking Bass Lines
Key Concepts at Play
Level 3: Walking Bass Lines
Performance
Level 3: Walking Bass Lines
Breakdown
What's included
18 lessons • 5 charts • 5 Jam Tracks
Take 5: Walking Bass Lines
Hi I'm Stu Hamm. Welcome to this Walking Bass edition of Take 5.
Learning how to play walking bass lines is not only essential for bassists, it's also the quickest way to learn how to recognize the underlying harmony of any tune or progression, particularly if you're playing jazz or blues. Combining the harmonic structure of the tune with melodic direction and an appropriate rhythmic feel is the key to creating great walking bass lines.
I'll kick off this edition of Take 5 with a short primer where we'll talk about key concepts and approaches for creating and playing walking bass lines.
Then I'll guide you through five Walking Bass studies, taking you from the very basics to more sophisticated and challenging approaches. I'll play each bass line over a rhythm track for you, and then I'll break it down, pointing out all the details to help you take YOUR walking bass game to the next level.
Throughout the course we'll dig into key walking bass concepts like proper left hand positions to walk and outline different chords, shaping the harmony, using approach notes, chromaticism, rhythmic embellishments, tone shaping, and more.
Working your way through these 5 walking bass studies is really going to help you get your walking bass approach together. So if you're ready to get started, grab your bass, and let's walk!
Learning how to play walking bass lines is not only essential for bassists, it's also the quickest way to learn how to recognize the underlying harmony of any tune or progression, particularly if you're playing jazz or blues. Combining the harmonic structure of the tune with melodic direction and an appropriate rhythmic feel is the key to creating great walking bass lines.
I'll kick off this edition of Take 5 with a short primer where we'll talk about key concepts and approaches for creating and playing walking bass lines.
Then I'll guide you through five Walking Bass studies, taking you from the very basics to more sophisticated and challenging approaches. I'll play each bass line over a rhythm track for you, and then I'll break it down, pointing out all the details to help you take YOUR walking bass game to the next level.
Throughout the course we'll dig into key walking bass concepts like proper left hand positions to walk and outline different chords, shaping the harmony, using approach notes, chromaticism, rhythmic embellishments, tone shaping, and more.
Working your way through these 5 walking bass studies is really going to help you get your walking bass approach together. So if you're ready to get started, grab your bass, and let's walk!
Walking Bass Lines
What are walking bass lines? It's the most basic form of a bass line and something that everyone should know, even if you're not planning on playing jazz. There's lots of types of music that use walking bass lines, especially blues but you'll hear walking bass in basically anything that calls for playing straight eighth notes.
In this course, we'll look at five different ways to play a bass line, starting simple and then looking at a few different variations and moving into more advanced territory. Before we get started, let's talk about some general things to be aware of when playing walking bass. Let's look at how to position your hands, dial in the correct tone, etc. before we check out our Level 1 example.
In this course, we'll look at five different ways to play a bass line, starting simple and then looking at a few different variations and moving into more advanced territory. Before we get started, let's talk about some general things to be aware of when playing walking bass. Let's look at how to position your hands, dial in the correct tone, etc. before we check out our Level 1 example.
Level 1: Walking Bass Lines
For Level 1, we have our most basic line imaginable, walking bass over a blues in C. When playing bass, we're trying to highlight the chord changes, playing the root when it occurs. The goal beyond this is to outline the tonality of each chord, meaning the 3rd and the 5th of the chord as well. We're keeping it simple, playing the root, 3rd and 5th here, playing quarter notes while making sure to keep them even sounding with the same tone for each note.
Level 1: Walking Bass Lines
For Level 1, we have our most basic line imaginable, walking bass over a blues in C. When playing bass, we're trying to highlight the chord changes, playing the root when it occurs. The goal beyond this is to outline the tonality of each chord, meaning the 3rd and the 5th of the chord as well. We're keeping it simple, playing the root, 3rd and 5th here, playing quarter notes while making sure to keep them even sounding with the same tone for each note.
Level 1: Walking Bass Lines
For Level 1, we have our most basic line imaginable, walking bass over a blues in C. When playing bass, we're trying to highlight the chord changes, playing the root when it occurs. The goal beyond this is to outline the tonality of each chord, meaning the 3rd and the 5th of the chord as well. We're keeping it simple, playing the root, 3rd and 5th here, playing quarter notes while making sure to keep them even sounding with the same tone for each note.
Level 2: Walking Bass Lines
Our Level 2 walking bass study is a shuffle in the key of G. When people think of walking bass lines, most people would think of jazz first, but it's just as important to the blues. The idea here is that we're highlighting the 6th and the 7th of chord, moving beyond the root-3rd-5th triad. Even though it's a shuffle feel, we can keep plugging away with straight eighth notes, even going between straight and swung eighths, which we'll be doing here.
Level 2: Walking Bass Lines
Our Level 2 walking bass study is a shuffle in the key of G. When people think of walking bass lines, most people would think of jazz first, but it's just as important to the blues. The idea here is that we're highlighting the 6th and the 7th of chord, moving beyond the root-3rd-5th triad. Even though it's a shuffle feel, we can keep plugging away with straight eighth notes, even going between straight and swung eighths, which we'll be doing here.
+ 11 more lessons
Reviews
6 results
arnsin
Verified buyer
12/10/22
bra kurs mange små ting som får spillingen min til å gå enklere
Jason
08/03/22
Walking bass
I just love the Take 5 series. Completely achievable, each one just a little bit harder than the last. Great fun, though at the end of it I was no wiser as to how to construct a walking bass line from scratch. Maybe I need to do it again and pay more attention
Boogie50
08/01/21
Walk, dont Run!
Grab your bass and get grooving!! This is an excellent course to start “walking” the bass. Stu is a great teacher with an unassuming style that helps you get this needed skill under your hand and in short order. He starts wit the basics and quickly moves into 5 solid grooves that you can play on the bandstand and get you through most walking situations sounding like a pro!
micktur
Verified buyer
05/25/21
Another great course from truefire. Love it.
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