Uploaded February 2018 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Walking bass lines are really useful in jazz piano - they give you a cool, pro sound and a good sense of rhythm and movement right there on the keyboard if you're playing piano solo. The other big advantage of walking based patterns is they're not that difficult to come up with and practise, as long as you know some scales.
Check out my book: billspianopages.com/how-to-really
Download the PDF walking bass line example:
---A4 size: goo.gl/iQoPH1
---US letter size: goo.gl/qYnbZZ
The tutorial includes a 16 bar jazz chord progression that you can use to practise your own walking bass lines, and some tips on using scale note, non-scale notes and broken chords to generate logical and musically pleasing basslines. It also touches on managing chord identities by positioning particular chord voicings - typically tonic voicings - on the first beat of a bar.
Follow me on Facebook: fb.me/billhiltonpiano
...and on Twitter: twitter.com/billhilton
Walking bass lines are really useful in jazz piano - they give you a cool, pro sound and a good sense of rhythm and movement right there on the keyboard if you're playing piano solo. The other big advantage of walking based patterns is they're not that difficult to come up with and practise, as long as you know some scales.
Check out my book: billspianopages.com/how-to-really
Download the PDF walking bass line example:
---A4 size: goo.gl/iQoPH1
---US letter size: goo.gl/qYnbZZ
The tutorial includes a 16 bar jazz chord progression that you can use to practise your own walking bass lines, and some tips on using scale note, non-scale notes and broken chords to generate logical and musically pleasing basslines. It also touches on managing chord identities by positioning particular chord voicings - typically tonic voicings - on the first beat of a bar.
Follow me on Facebook: fb.me/billhiltonpiano
...and on Twitter: twitter.com/billhilton
