In the blues the bass is the heart of the band. It tells everyone which chord is playing and sets the pace. A walking bass line “walks” through the chord note by note – a new note on every beat. How the 12-bar blues works is explained in Learning the 12-bar blues.
E is the most comfortable key
A blues in E uses the chords E7, A7 and B7. Their roots sit very close together on the bass: E and A are open strings, B is on the A string at the 2nd fret.
EABFour steps
- Root: four roots in every bar – for E7 that’s E, E, E, E.
- Root and fifth: two roots, two fifths – for E7 that’s E, E, B, B.
- Walking bass: in one bar root, third, fifth, sixth going up (1-3-5-6), in the next seventh, sixth, fifth, third coming down (7-6-5-3). For E7 that’s E, G#, B, C# – and then D, C#, B, G#.
- Free playing: invent your own lines with the notes of the blues scale.
In the app’s blues tool a band plays drums and organ – without its own bass, because that’s you. The notes light up as dots on the neck, and the microphone counts how many you hit.
Play the blues