I personally went to a new level of ability when I started doing walking bass on the piano and really recommend anyone serious in doing solo jazz piano or to get accompanist gigs.

What is walking bass on the piano?

It’s doing a musical line (series of notes) with the left hand and doing a little like a double bass would do in a jazz group. You’re doing the bass line with the left hand. A bass line is a musical series of notes play with lower sounds.

In a piano lesson, I start very simple with this kind of stuff.

First I have the students do only the left hand and play nothing with the right hand. At this point, we go through a series of exercises that gradually brings the student to the next comfortable level. I have the student do it with me in the piano lesson for about 10 minutes! Yes, 10 minutes at least.

Then, once the student has achieved a good level of just playing with the left hand doing the walking bass, we then had the basic chords on the right hand. Again we go through a whole series of exercises to get the student to really see clearly what she/he is doing with both hands.

The step continue until the student can improvise with both hands! Now that is some major fun. Truly most enjoyable!

So deciding to master walking bass (again, a series of notes played with the left that usually accompanies the right hand) can really bring your playing to a whole new level.

By the way, I don’t teach this to the classical students. This is for those who are taking the jazz piano lesson program. And yes, someone can definitely do both, classic and jazz.

Patrick
Los Angeles
lapianolessons.com

bass line · piano lessons · walking bass