How to Play Walking Bass on the Ukulele

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Today we are talking walking bass. We are going to learn how to play a 12 bar blues with a walking bass line, but also I am going to show you how the walking bass is built, how to explain the intervals, how those intervals create chords, how to add color to those intervals to create classic bass lines and then we will put it all together with a turnaround, play-along and a bonus lick.

The 12 bar blues is based on a circle with a I7 chord, IV7 chord and a V7 chord. The first four measures are the I chord, the middle four are two of the IV and two of the I and then the turnarounds goes V, IV, I and then to the V.

All chords are built off of intervals. Intervals are a unite of measurement, specifically they measure the distance between notes. They don't function like miles or kilograms where they go up 1 2 3 4, but rather each distance has a specific name. When you build a chord you start with the root note, the root note is what gives the chord its name. The A7 chord has an A root note, and then from there we build the chord with the intervals. You can think of the intervals like ingredients and the certain combination of those create a chord. A 7 chord, the dominant chord, is built with a root, 3rd, 5th and b7th. The 3rd interval is 4 notes up in pitch, each fret is a note, so once you play the A note you can go up 4 frets to find the 3rd interval. The 5th is 7 frets up from the root and the b7th is 10 frets up from the root. Even though there are 12 intervals there are only 7 numbers, that is why we also get flat intervals, like a flat 7th for example.

A classic blues shuffle incorporates the 6th interval as well, so it goes from the 5th, to the 6th to the flat 7th, the 6th interval is a classic color tone that gives a lovely blues flavor. Even though it isn't in our chord its sound is so connected with blues rhythm that we are going to add it to our bass line. So to build our walking bass we are going to go root, 3rd, 5th, 6th, b7th, 6th, 5th, 3rd. Each of those notes are played as 8th notes with swing and the line happens over two measures.

Knowing what intervals are, how I built the bass line over the A and how to find intervals, can you build the bass line over the D7 chord? Can you build the bass line with different keys? Try and take a key you play like C and change the rhythm from a strum or a shuffle to a very cool walking bass.

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How to Play Walking Bass on the Ukulele