Today we’re going to look at an aspect of walking bass development that is rarely talked about in teaching methods: Vocabulary.

Walk That Bass

When we learn how to play walking bass, we are usually taught the theory, how to improvise and navigate a chord progression. While it’s true that walking bass lines are generally improvised, one of the things most often neglected in the learning process is vocabulary.

Learning the common vocabulary used in many walking bass lines is equally important, as you’ll see certain lines come up time and time again.

Transcribing walking bass lines is great practice as you’ll see how the bass masters do it, and then be able to apply them to your own playing.

Learning pre-composed lines is also a great stepping stone to walking bass, you get to play a walking line without the added pressure of improvising. So, this method is ideal for beginners!

What Is Vocabulary?

Musical vocabulary is just a way of describing the phrases, scale patterns, arpeggio sequences, passing notes and so on that you use when playing music. In this way, music can be compared to learning a language, you use certain sentences and phrases in different variations in order to hold a conversation.

Talking is a form of improvisation; we speak to other people in a language and we decide what we want to say, but the letters and words are already there. There’s no script in a general conversation, but we use already existing words and phrases to speak.

You can learn a musical phrase in one key and apply it to another key, it’s a pattern that you can use in lot’s of musical situations. Once you know what phrases work and where, you can recycle them.

The more that you transcribe and learn from pre-composed phrases, the more you begin to recognise them and incorporate them into your own playing.