Day 3 - Bass Line Theory

Today we begin a multi part lesson that will lead us in to next week as we study the development of bass lines. We will approach the walking bass line from many different theories and how to properly walk on tuba. From an educational standpoint, we are using the blues form as our basis of study. Blues infiltrates into just about any genre of music that came after it so that makes it a great place to start working from. If you want to play jazz, rock, R&B, soul, funk, hip-hip, rap, pop, top 40 or anything like it, you need to know the blues!

Blues Form Analysis

All blues is built in a 12 bar form. Although the form is only 12 bars, the music is circular and as any new elements are added, it all fits in that basic structure. Now there are a few different types of blues out there including major, minor, rock, jazz, minor waltz, sus, bird and more. In the sheet music below let’s look and compare just a simple major blues against the type of blues we would play more typically in jazz.

As you can see from the two chord charts above, the “jazz blues” offers us more harmonic opportunities than the simple blues. Most of the time when you are playing a blues form in jazz you will be using this example. The simple blues is more typical to shuffle and rock.

Root Position Bass Lines

Root, 5th and Octave Bass Lines

Practice Tip

As you build your bass lines and begin to practice, make sure you maintain proper articulation