In popular music Popular music belongs to any of a number of musical genres, and stands in contrast to art music, and traditional music which was disseminated orally. Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the term pop music usually refers to a specific musical genre, a walking bass is a style of bass accompaniment A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass or keyboard (piano, Hammond organ, electric organ, or synthesizer) or line, common in jazz, which creates a feeling of regular quarter note movement, akin to the regular alteration of feet while walking Walking is the main form of animal locomotion on land, distinguished from running and crawling. When carried out in shallow waters, it is usually described as wading and when performed over a steeply rising object or an obstacle it becomes scrambling or climbing. The word walk is descended from the Old English wealcan "to roll" (Friedland 1995, p.4).
Thus walking basslines generally consisting of unsyncopated In music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be stressed. "If a part of the measure that is usually unstressed is notes Music notation or musical notation is any system which represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols of equal value, usually quarter notes A quarter note or crotchet (British) is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem usually points upwards if it is below the middle line of the stave or downwards if it is on or above the middle line. However, this (known in jazz as a "four feel"). Walking basslines use a mixture of scale In music, a scale is a group of musical notes collected in ascending and descending order, that provides material for or is used to conveniently represent part or all of a musical work including melody and/or harmony. Scales are ordered in pitch or pitch class, with their ordering providing a measure of musical distance tones, arpeggios In music, an arpeggio is Italian for broken chord where the notes are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously. This word comes from the italian word "arpeggi" , which means "to play on a harp". These are formed from scales, the arpeggio is based on the relative scale playing the &,chromatic runs, and passing tones A nonchord tone, nonharmonic tone, or non-harmony note[citation needed] is a note in a piece of music which is not a part of the chord that is formed by the other notes sounding at the time. Nonchord tones are most often discussed in the context of music of the common practice period, but can be used in analysis of other types of tonal music as to outline the chord progression A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing (or contradicting) a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. Chords and chord theory are generally known as harmony of a song or tune, often with a melodic shape that alternately rises and falls in pitch over several bars.
Walking basslines are usually performed on the double bass The double bass, also called the upright bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra. The name, "double bass," derives from the early use of the instrument to double—an octave lower where possible—the bass part written for the cello. It is a standard member of the or the electric bass The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb (either by plucking, slapping, popping, tapping, or thumping), or by using a plectrum, but they can also be performed using the low register of a piano The piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal. Although not portable and often expensive, the piano's versatility and ubiquity have made it one of the, Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ which was invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company.[citation needed] While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a standard keyboard instrument for jazz, blues,, or other instruments. While walking bass lines are most commonly associated with jazz and blues, they are also used in rock Rock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music, rockabilly The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music (often called hillbilly music in the 1940s and 1950s) that contributed strongly to the style's development. Other important influences on rockabilly include western swing, boogie woogie, and rhythm and blues. While there are notable exceptions,, ska Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. It is characterized by a walking bass line accented with rhythms on the upbeat, R&B Rhythm and blues is the name given to a wide-ranging genre of popular music created by African Americans in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The term was originally used by record companies to refer to recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat&, gospel Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music, latin Latin American music refers to the music of all countries in Latin America and comes in many varieties. Latin America is home to musical styles such as the simple, rural conjunto music of northern Mexico, the sophisticated habanera of Cuba, the rhythmic sounds of the Puerto Rican plena, the symphonies of Heitor Villa-Lobos, and the simple and, country Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, gospel music and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s, and many other genres (Friedland 1995, p.4).
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Examples
Walking bass often alternates quarter notes:
- play (help·info)
giving rise to the term.
Many boogie-woogie basslines are walking bass lines:
- Play in C major (help·info)
Walking bass often moves in stepwise (scalar) motion to successive chord roots, such as often in country music Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, gospel music and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s:
- Play (help·info)
In this example, the last two quarter notes of the second measure, D and E, "walk" up from the first quarter note in that measure, C, to the first note of the third measure, F (C and F are 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 In music, duple refers to duple meter. Duple is also a duration of 1½ the regular note value duration in compound and or triple meter.[citation needed] An irrational rhythm, it may also be used as a polyrhythm when played against the regular duration 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
- Bass run A bass run is a short instrumental break or fill in which the bass instrument, such as an electric bass or a double bass (or instruments, in the case of a marching band) and the bassline are given the forefront (van der Merwe 1989, p.283). The bass part for a bass run often differs from the usual bass accompaniment style, in terms of the register,, a short instrumental break or fill for the bass instrument (or instruments)
Source
- Friedland, Ed (1995). Building Walking Bass Lines. ISBN 0-7935-4204-9.
External links
- Bass Lines PDF (41.4 KB) - 244 million bass lines in F
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sttpeVdSYTs [1] An audio/video example of a walking bass line played on electric bass guitar, created specifically to accompany this Wikipedia entry (GFDL/Creative Commons) by Dave Muscato, session bassist, for information purposes only.
Categories: Accompaniment | Musical techniques |
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Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:19:09 GM
The website!! follow me where I update first at also would love it if you subscribed to my personal page at country folk style . walking bass. ...
Q. I have to do this thing at my school and nobody can find the right notes i need help
Asked by Pockey - Wed Aug 5 02:12:47 2009 - - 1 Answers - 0 Comments
A. C F G F is as much as i can give you try ultimate-guitar.com
Answered by ATrueFriendStabsYouInTheFront. - Wed Aug 5 02:17:59 2009
