by If you play for long enough, someone at some point is going to want to play a blues with you.
It could be at a jam session, an open mic, at a real-world gig, or maybe just playing with your buddies on the weekend.
Wouldn’t it be great if you had a whole bag of tricks you could pull from that could take your bass lines to the next level?
If you’ve checked out my earlier blues bass lines lesson, you’ll already have everything you need to play authentic blues bass lines, but in this lesson, you’ll learn how to go beyond those and make your blues bass lines more fun, more interesting and carry more impact.
Check out the lesson here:
Video Not Showing Up Here? Watch On YouTube
Free: Get The Tabs, Notation, And Practice Tracks From This Lesson
Get the free PDF version of these walk ups and turnarounds so you can start practicing with them today. You'll get:
- Each turnaround and walk up in both tab and notation
- Practice tracks so you can practice these lines today
These turnarounds and walk ups are part of the language of the blues. You’ll find them all over tons of recordings and you’ll hear them if you ever check out any live blues gigs.
As you’ll see in the video, you’ve got a ton of different options, but you don’t have to use all the ideas all the time. Just pick your moments and keep your ears open.
As always, if you have any questions, make sure to leave a comment below. I’m always happy to help out however I can.
If you end up using these on a gig or a jam session somewhere, I’d love to hear how it goes. Leave a comment or hit me up on the contact form of the site.
Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!
Cheers,
Like,
Your lessons are always clear, concise and best of all, useful.
I’m constantly learning new songs or (re-learning old ones) to sing and play guitar
at gigs and jams. These days I find myself thinking up basslines to “support” my guitar chords. Your lessons have helped enormously in broadening my bass “palette”.
Cheers,
Paul
Thank you for your time and patience you are a blessing
merci ! Luke,
we are very lucky to discover your very good lesson ! 😉
j’ aime bien pratiquer les 12 bars et les turnarounds !
encore et encore !
Jac from Québec
Luke This is just fantastic- Thank you.
I’m not exaggerating when I say I have learned more in 12 minutes than literally months of looking elsewhere.
As “Jac from Quebec” says; more and more please.
Haha! Not to worry John – I won’t be stopping any time soon!
Luke,
You make it easy to understand the concept of what playing Bass is all about.
Your site is the perfect Fountain of Knowledge for the Aspiring Bass Players.
Thank you very much for your teachings
Andre from Calgary Alberta
Thanks so much for the kind words Andre. I’m glad the lessons are helping!
Thank you so much, Luke. I continue to learn at a very rapid rate thanks to your lessons. I am a retired teacher and have to say that you have the gift for educating people. Your lessons are clear and easy to understand and the resources that you supply us with for practising are second to none. Thanks for all you do and keep it up.
Terry Sinclair
So glad you think so Terry. I work really hard to try and make everything as clear and as useful as possible so I’m happy to hear it shows. Thanks so much.
Hello Luke,
Thanks for the lesson, but I don’t seem to understand the difference between walkups and turnarounds. Are their purposes/functions different? Or is it the same thing with turnaround just being a longer walkup? I understand that both are used to make it sound not boring and more fluid (correct me if I’m wrong), but if their purposes are the same why call those turnarounds and walkups and not with one single term?
Thanks,
Ulfat.
Great question Ulfat. In short, a turnaround takes what would usually be ‘static’ harmony – just one or two chords – and adds a bunch of extra color, chords and notes to it. For example, taking the last 2 bars of an A7 chord at the end of a form and doing all the things I talked about in the video so it’s not just one chord for those 2 measures. It also typically happens at the end of a form. Functionally, it ‘turns you around’ and sends you to the top of the next form.
A walk up is different because the purpose is not to replace static harmony with a bunch of extra things. It’s whole purpose is to lead into the next chord rather than the next form. For example, getting from the 1-chord to the 4-chord in the 4th bar of the form.
Sometimes a turnaround will ‘walk up’ though. In the 1-3-4-#4-5 turnaround, you do actually walk up a bit of that scale, so there is definitely gray area and overlap between the two concepts.
Hey…have been practicing. LOVE the tabs…I feel like a little pro already??. I am 84 years old and still going strong!!
Awesome Tillie! Keep at it!
Thanks for your nice and clear lessons on youtube.
How can I get the tabs on paper, specialy the blues turnarrounds, walk ups and walking basstabs.
Greetings,
John from the Netherlands.
The easiest way John would probably be to print them out for yourself. I don’t offer any physical versions of anything on the site. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with making ‘actual’ books and things like that.