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Curriculum

Walking Bass: Two Months of Walking the Changes

For those who finished bass fundamentals and now want to walk over chords and navigate jazz-blues changes

This 2-month track takes someone who finished bass fundamentals into walking bass — walking over the chords. The whole idea is one thing — the bass walks the chords. On beat one you land on the chord, and on beat four you bridge to the next one. Everything stays in F so you build your walking muscle step by step. You learn 4- and 5-string together.

Month 1 finds the chord tones (R-3-5-7) on the fretboard, builds lines with a density ramp (root → root-fifth → chord tones → approach notes), and connects chords with chromatic approach notes to finish a full 12-bar F blues. Month 2 adds ii-V-I, enclosure, and ornaments (ghosts and fills) to record a graduation walking line that strolls smoothly over an original progression.

Fifty minutes a day, and each ends with one walking line you can check against a metronome. The goal isn't flash — it's smooth voice leading, aiming at the next chord in small steps. Two months in, you'll navigate blues and ii-V-I freely, with hands that walk the moment they see the chords.

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0/32 days done
Walking Day 1 — F7's safe stones (chord tones) Bb7 & C7 chord tones — same shape, different home Chord tones up and down — arpeggio walking F7 chord-tone arpeggio — Week 1 product
Root line — walking the progression in whole notes Root-5th line — one step up in half notes Chord-tone arpeggio — the feel of quarter-note walking F7→Bb7 arpeggio walk — Week 2 product
Chromatic approach — to the next root from a half step above or below Scale approach & dominant approach — the three faces of the approach note Putting an approach on beat 4 — a walking line where the approach note lives Approach-note walk F7↔Bb7 — Week 3 product
Swing quarter-note feel — even, forward-moving steps First half of the 12 bars — walking eight bars of F7 and Bb7 Second half of the 12 bars — the C7 turnaround and a full run-through Walking the full 12-bar F blues and recording it — Month 1 graduation
ii-V-I chord tones — Gm7, C7, Fmaj7, the skeleton of three chords Linking Gm7 → C7 — from ii to V with an approach note Linking C7 → Fmaj7 — from V to I, the resolution that arrives home Completing the ii-V-I walk — Gm7-C7-Fmaj7, the road home
Chromatic enclosure — squeeze the target from above and below to land Root enclosure — wrap the starting point of the walk and land Third enclosure — wrap the color of the chord and land Enclosure walking — wrap the target C from above and below to land (week 6 complete)
Slipping in a ghost note — a small in-between step to make the line breathe Eighth-note fill — two notes on a weak beat that bridge to the next chord Hammer-on ornament — pluck once, let two notes flow Ornamented walk — breathe life into F7 with ghost and eighth fill (week 7 complete)
Reading the graduation changes — an original ii-V-I + turnaround loop Walking the changes — landing on chord tones, bridging with approach notes Adding ornaments + rehearsal — ghost and eighth fill breathe into the walk, loop without stopping Graduation — record the ii-V-I + turnaround walk

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