Simple Steps To Walking Bass – Root Note Targeting

Getting Started With Changes

We’re going to keep things easy at every step of the way so let’s start with the most basic of exercises. We’ll just play a single root note for every bar.

This is going to help with our knowledge of notes on the fretboard and our awareness of position playing.

Practice Track:

Start with familiar notes in the lowest area of the bass and then start to experiment with higher choices and alternatives (see video).

Basics Of Improvisation

This is the absolute basics of improvisation. Improvisation can be seen as the application of choice in our music. We’re making decisions on the fly. These don’t have to be big decisions. Improvisation doesn’t have to be long solo lines and huge artistic statements. It can be something as simple as “Do I go up or do I go down?”

I’ve included tracks for this progression in every key and placed them in the order of the cycle of fourths.

As soon as you feel OK with C major, move onto F major. Go through exactly the same process of finding those notes for the progression and then introduce some alternatives. This is all great practice that will make a huge difference as we add more notes into the mix.