We've all heard the walking bass line in jazz and blues music. It's associated with a relaxed atmosphere and often plays as an accompaniment to a soloist or group of soloists. The basic structure uses a scale to create a foundation and movement through a piece. Combined with the percussion section, the walking bass line allows a performer to help accent the fundamental note and give the piece depth. Often the double-bass player comps the bass line based on a chord progression or notated music. Using a relaxed pizzicato technique, the bass guitar or upright bass players pluck out the lowest line to add definition and structure to a composition. Preparation Before you start writing a bass line, you must know the intervallic relationship of half-steps and whole-steps in both major and minor scale. In a major scale, the intervals spacing adheres to the following schematic: whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half. In this example, a C-major scale has the following notes: C, D, E, F,
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