Tabs and Backing Tracks - Passing Notes and Chromatic Approaches (Patreon)

My fellow bassists,

Sorry for the huge number of files!! But hey you're getting your money's worth 😎

Ok so these are all tabs and backing tracks for my latest lesson on passing notes and chromatic approaches. A passing note is a note that comes between two chord tones. A chromatic approach is very similar but it must be a half-step above or below the next chord tone, and it must be a note outside of the key, otherwise it's just a regular old passing note.

I want you to improvise walking bass lines over all these progressions. Walking bass lines are just where you play a quarter note on every single beat.

Take a look at Autumn Leaves level 1 tab and you'll see it's only root notes. Level 2 includes some 3rds and 5ths, and level 3 includes chromatic approaches and passing notes.

This is how I want you to practise improvising bass lines over each of these chord progressions. If you're new to this, start really simple with just playing the root notes. Once you're comfortable with that, add the 3rds and 5ths, and then the passing notes and chromatic approaches.

While walking bass lines are only really found in jazz, they are an incredibly useful exercise that I did for about a year in order to reach a point where I can improvise bass lines with many different rhythms. So even if you have no interest in jazz, don't underestimate how much these exercises can help you.

As always, let me know if you have any questions at all and I'll make sure to answer ASAP!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you in the next lesson!

Charles