With this installment of Psycho Licks, I'm presenting the second of four installments of a monster lesson called “Walking Basslines Bonanza”! In case you missed the first one, all four of these installments will be geared towards developing walking basslines and using them in conjunction with chords—an often puzzling aspect of jazz guitar accompaniment (or solo jazz guitar)—to outline a G blues. For the curious, this approach is similar to the type of accompaniment I attempted to unload in a couple of the nutty “live” solo recordings (guitar & vocal) I've posted elsewhere on this site—namely the versions of “Twisted,” “Stray Cat Strut,” “Detour Ahead,” and “The Man That Got Away.” In fact, some of the stuff I'll be presenting in the forthcoming installments of this lesson is directly related this “twisted” approach! Feel free to earball those tracks, if you want to hear some “raw” examples of how these techniques can be implemented in a real-life performance situation...

Hopefully these four installments will help you become more technically adept at executing these types of complex figures, as well as provide a deeper understanding of how to improvise with them.

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In Part 1 of this lesson (LICK #22), we discussed the fundamental elements of creating walking basslines. Please refer to that lesson, if any of the following (techniques, notation, feel, etc.) is confusing! Enjoy!

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DOMINANT 7th CHORD INVERSIONS: In solo jazz accompaniment, many of the chord voicings with walking basslines are fairly rudimentary seventh chord shapes and their inversions—basically taking the four different pitches used to create a seventh chord and “flip-flopping” them so they fall in a different low-to-high arrangement. In this lesson, since we're focusing on blues, these voicings will revolve around inversions from the “dominant 7th” chord family (chords consisting of a 1-3-5-b7, à la G7, C7, and D7). For simplicity's sake, all of the dominant 7th chord inversions that follow will feature their lowest notes on the 6th string.

NOTE: Though the basslines we'll work towards creating in this lesson only require that you keep track of each chord's lowest sounding note, try your darnedest to memorize where every single chord tone is within each voicing

G7 INVERSIONS (G-B-D-F): The following figure illustrates four basic fingerings for G7. Since a basic dominant 7th chord contains four different notes, the “root” (G), “third” (B), “fifth” (D), and “flat seventh” (F), we can create four different inversions of this chord, simply by restating the same note sequence from a different chord tone. For G7 (G-B-D-F), this produces chord names like G7/B (a G7 chord with its “3rd,” the note “B,” in the bass), G7/D (a G7 chord with its “5th,” the note “D,” in the bass), and G7/F (a G7 chord with its “b7th,” the note “F,” in the bass).

(*You can hear the FIG below by clicking HERE*)

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C7 INVERSIONS (C-E-G-Bb): The following figure illustrates four basic fingerings for C7 (C-E-G-Bb)—a root-position voicing (a C7 chord with “C” in the bass), C7/E (a C7 chord with its “3rd,” the note “E,” in the bass), C7/G (a C7 chord with its “5th,” the note “G,” in the bass), and C7/Bb (a C7 chord with its “b7th,” the note “Bb,” in the bass).

(*You can hear the FIG below by clicking HERE*)

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D7 INVERSIONS (D-F#-A-C): The following figure illustrates four basic fingerings for D7 (D-F#-A-C)—a root-position voicing (a D7 chord with “D” in the bass), D7/F# (a D7 chord with its “3rd,” the note “F#,” in the bass), D7/A (a D7 chord with its “5th,” the note “A,” in the bass), and D7/C (a D7 chord with its “b7th,” the note “C,” in the bass).

(*You can hear the FIG below by clicking HERE*)

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DOMINANT 7th CHORD SCALE (The Mixolydian Mode): In a basic jazz blues, three dominant seventh chords are interchanged over the course of 12 bars. In short, the simple fact that three different dominant seventh chords are used in a blues progression, combined with the fact that in any single major key, only one dominant seventh chord occurs as a resuilt of harmonizing the major scale (e.g., the C major scale harmonized in 7ths creates Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7, and Bm7b7), we can conclude that three different key centers are traveled through in a basic blues. Furthermore, given that the specific chord types used in a blues are from the dominant seventh family—a chord constructed from the 5th note of any major scale (e.g., G7 constructed from the 5th scale degree, the note G, from a C major scale)—we can use the 5th mode of the major scale—the “Mixolydian” mode (a C major scale oriented around the note G)—to improvise with over these chord types.

In this portion of the lesson, the Mixolydian mode used to outline each chord from a G blues—G7, C7, and D7 (G Mixolydian, C Mixolydian, and D Mixolydian, respectively)—will be presented, its notes oriented solely along the 6th string (up to the 12th fret) as a foundation for future basslines. As you grope for each pitch, make every effort to memorize that note's location, as opposed to filing it away solely as a TAB number. Pay particular attention to the location of each chord's chord tones as well—the “1-3-5-b7” of each Mixolydian scale, if you will. All of the previously studied inversions will be plugged right into them!

G MIXOLYDIAN (G-A-B-C-D-E-F): The following figure illustrates all seven notes from the G Mixolydian mode as can be found along the 6th string up to the 12th fret (open string excluded).

(*You can hear the FIG below by clicking HERE*)

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C MIXOLYDIAN (C-D-E-F-G-A-Bb): The following figure illustrates all seven notes from the C Mixolydian mode as can be found along the 6th string up to the 12th fret (open string excluded).

(*You can hear the FIG below by clicking HERE*)

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D MIXOLYDIAN (D-E-F#-G-A-B-C): The following figure illustrates all seven notes from the D Mixolydian mode as can be found along the 6th string up to the 12th fret (open string excluded).

(*You can hear the FIG below by clicking HERE*)

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TARGETING CHORD TONES (Connecting Chord Inversions with Chord Scales):

In this portion of the lesson we'll focus on “voice leading” your basslines' notes (all from Mixolydian scales) so that they land on a tone that's a part of each forthcoming chord (e.g., landing on either the “root,” “3rd,” “5th,” or “b7” on the downbeat of each measure fraturing a “new” chord). For practice, two different chord/bassline exercises (each featuring a different “chord pop” rhythm) will be presented, illustrating various ways to use scale tones and/or chromatic passing tones (notes outside the scale) within the Mixolydian mode to “set up” your destination. For the curious, various approaches towards chromaticizing the Mixolydian mode were covered way back in Psycho Lick #7 (Mixolydian Mayhem). However, as far as basslines are concerned, the vast majority of chromaticism involves approaching chord tones from either a half-step above, or half-step below. Your choice is generally dependant upon how you want your bassline to flow. For our purposes, we'll focus on generating strictly ascending (until you get to a reasonably high point pon the neck) and descending (till you reach the nut) movement along the 6th string. After you get the hang of each exercise, try continuing the pattern spontaneously. If you keep traversing the 6th string between its lowest anf highwest points, most likely you'll work yourself into a new “trouble” spot (where you gotta weasel your way into a new chord as chords change) with each 12-bar repetition. Enjoy!

This first practice figure features a steady quarter-note bassline with chords “popping” on beats “one” and the “and” of beat “three” throughout. Notice how the choice of each inversion is purely dictated by the note grabbed most recently along the 6th string. If your goal is to improvise within this style, try to think your way through this sucker, as opposed to simply memorizing its arrangement of chord shapes/scalar movement.

(*You can hear the lick FAST by clicking HERE*)

(*You can hear the lick SLOW by clicking HERE*)

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This second practice figure also features a steady quarter-note basslinewith chords “popping” on beats “one” and the “and” of beat “three” throughout. However, the tricky part lies in grabbing a piece of an inversion in advance of when its user-friendly note along the 6th string is sounded, creating some tricky fingering issues!

(*You can hear the lick FAST by clicking HERE*)

(*You can hear the lick SLOW by clicking HERE*)

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Keep in mind that all of the above concepts (using inversions in conjunction with the Mixolydian scale + chromatic passing tones) should also be explored using the 5th string as a “bass line” focal point. In your own practice, locate each inversion for the three dominant seventh chords explored so far (G7, C7, and D7, as they can be “voiced” from the 5th string), then try to connect them using the correct Mixolydian scale tones as found along the 5th string. Good luck!!

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