Walking bass
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In music a walking bass is a bass accompaniment generally consisting of unsyncopated notes of equal value, usually quarter notes (known in jazz as a "four feel"). Walking bass lines are used in rock, blues, rock-a-billy, ska, r&b, gospel, latin, country, and many other genres (Friedland 1995, p.4).
Examples
Many boogie-woogie basslines are walking bass lines:
Walking bass often moves in stepwise motion to successive chord roots, such as often in country music:
In this example the last two quarter notes, D and E of the second measure "walk" up from the first quarter note in that measure, C, to the first note of the third measure, F, C and F being 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 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
Source
- Friedland, Ed (1995). Building Walking Bass Lines. ISBN 0793542049.
External links
- [Bass Lines] - 244 Million Bass Lines in F
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