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In popular music
Popular music

Popular music is music that is accessible to the mainstream and disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to classical music, which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally....
, a walking bass is a style of bass accompaniment
Bassline

A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, and electronic music for the low-pitched Part#Music or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the bass guitar, double bass or keyboard ....
 or line, common in jazz, which creates a feeling of regular quarter note movement, akin to the regular alteration of feet while walking
Walking

Walking is the main form of animal locomotion on Earth, distinguished from running and crawling . When carried out in shallow waters, it is usually described as wading and when performed over a steeply rising object or an obstacle it becomes scrambling or climbing....
 (Friedland 1995, p.4).

Thus walking basslines generally consisting of unsyncopated
Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beat in a meter ....
 notes
Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written Modern musical symbols....
 of equal value, usually quarter note
Quarter note

A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note . Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem ....
s (known in jazz as a "four feel"). Walking basslines use a mixture of scale
Musical scale

In music, a scale is a group of musical note collected in ascending and descending order that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical work including melody and/or harmony....
 tones, arpeggio
Arpeggio

In music, an arpeggio is a broken Chord where the notes are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously....
s, and passing tones to outline the chord progression
Chord progression

A chord progression is series of chord s played in order. Chord progressions are central to most modern music and the principal study of harmony....
 of a song or tune, often with a melodic shape that alternately rises and falls in pitch over several bars.

Walking basslines are usually performed on the double bass
Double bass

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
 or the electric bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
, but they can also be performed using the low register of a piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
, Hammond organ
Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electronic organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to Church as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, Rock and r...
, or other instruments.






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Encyclopedia


In popular music
Popular music

Popular music is music that is accessible to the mainstream and disseminated by one or more of the mass media. It belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to classical music, which historically was the music of the elite and upper strata of society, and traditional music which was disseminated orally....
, a walking bass is a style of bass accompaniment
Bassline

A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, and electronic music for the low-pitched Part#Music or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the bass guitar, double bass or keyboard ....
 or line, common in jazz, which creates a feeling of regular quarter note movement, akin to the regular alteration of feet while walking
Walking

Walking is the main form of animal locomotion on Earth, distinguished from running and crawling . When carried out in shallow waters, it is usually described as wading and when performed over a steeply rising object or an obstacle it becomes scrambling or climbing....
 (Friedland 1995, p.4).

Thus walking basslines generally consisting of unsyncopated
Syncopation

In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beat in a meter ....
 notes
Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written Modern musical symbols....
 of equal value, usually quarter note
Quarter note

A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note . Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem ....
s (known in jazz as a "four feel"). Walking basslines use a mixture of scale
Musical scale

In music, a scale is a group of musical note collected in ascending and descending order that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical work including melody and/or harmony....
 tones, arpeggio
Arpeggio

In music, an arpeggio is a broken Chord where the notes are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously....
s, and passing tones to outline the chord progression
Chord progression

A chord progression is series of chord s played in order. Chord progressions are central to most modern music and the principal study of harmony....
 of a song or tune, often with a melodic shape that alternately rises and falls in pitch over several bars.

Walking basslines are usually performed on the double bass
Double bass

The double bass or contrabass is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow string instrument used in the modern orchestra. It is a standard member of the string section of the orchestra and smaller string musical ensembles in European classical music....
 or the electric bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
, but they can also be performed using the low register of a piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
, Hammond organ
Hammond organ

The Hammond organ is an electronic organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to Church as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues, Rock and r...
, or other instruments. While walking bass lines are most commonly associated with jazz and blues, they are also used in rock
Rock music

Rock music is a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950's. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences....
, rockabilly
Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, and emerged in the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a Portmanteau word of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development....
, ska
Ska

Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and Calypso music with United States jazz and rhythm and blues....
, R&B, gospel
Gospel music

Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
, latin, country
Country music

Country music is a blend of popular American music forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in Traditional music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s....
, and many other genres (Friedland 1995, p.4).

Examples


Walking bass often alternates quarter notes:



giving rise to the term.

Many boogie-woogie basslines are walking bass lines:



Walking bass often moves in step
Step

The term Step or Steps may refer to:* Walk* Dance step, the building block of many dances* Step dance, a dance style where the footwork is the most important part of the dance...
wise (scalar) motion to successive chord roots, such as often in country music
Country music

Country music is a blend of popular American music forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in Traditional music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s....
:

Walking Bass I Iv


In this example, the last two quarter notes of the second measure, D and E, "walk" up from the first quarter note in that measure, C, to the first note of the third measure, F (C and F are the roots of the chords in the first through second and third through fourth measures, respectively).

In both cases, "walking" refers both to the steady duple
Duple

In music, duple refers to Meter . Duple is also a duration of 1? the regular note value duration in compound meter and or triple meter....
 rhythm (one step after the other) and to the strong directional motion created (ibid); in the examples above, from C to F and back in the second, and from root to seventh and back in the first.

See also

  • Bass run
    Bass run

    A bass run is a short instrumental break or fill in which the Bass , such as an bass guitar or a double bass and the bassline are given the forefront ....
    , a short instrumental break or fill for the bass instrument (or instruments)


Source

  • Friedland, Ed (1995). Building Walking Bass Lines. ISBN 0-7935-4204-9.


External links

  • type="text/javascript">DisplayLink("http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sttpeVdSYTs", "(*)") An audio/video example of a walking bass line played on electric bass guitar, created specifically to accompany this Wikipedia entry (GFDL/Creative Commons) by Dave Muscato, session bassist, for information purposes only.