This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he shares a one-change fix for walking bass lines that feel repetitive.
“My walking bass lines always end up feeling repetitive” is a question I hear constantly. When that comes up, instead of suggesting you change everything at once, I usually recommend changing just one thing: the octave of the root.
Say you’ve got a bass line like this one. The first time through, you play it in the position you’re used to:
The second time through, shift the G in bar 1 up (or down) an octave:
The caption in the second image reads: “Changing the octave naturally changes the movement that follows it, too.”
That one change alone naturally changes how you approach the next bar, B♭m7, and shifts the overall feel of the whole line.
When you try to avoid repetition by changing every single note or phrase at once, it’s often too much to keep track of, and you end up not landing on the line you actually wanted. Instead, just try “shifting the octave of the root” — that alone creates a real, musical sense of change.
Give it a try.
One-change fixes like this are exactly the kind of thing that are easy to overlook on your own — a teacher can spot the repetitive pattern and suggest the fix in seconds.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.