Ben Walker Bass: Lessons

Chromatic Approaches For Bass Players: Part 1

Ben Walker Bass — Wed, 15 Apr 2026 17:02:20 GMT

Hey everyone!

This is the first of a new video series i’ve put together covering the use of chromatic approach notes to triads, both within a given chord and using them within a wider progression/moving through chord changes!

Chromatic approaches (and chromaticism in general) are an incredibly powerful tool to have in your locker of vocabulary and as such I would encourage players of all levels to become proficient in their use!

In this first lesson we’re going to look at approaching the notes of the major triad from a single chromatic note below the target chord tones. We’ll look at a couple of useful exercises to develop basic fluency and an example bass groove. As always, the PDF and the backing track i’ve used can be downloaded below!

Chromatic Approaches Pt.1 - Basic

Chromatic Approaches Pt.1 Track

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below for the exercise expansion and the additional bonus groove!

A Staple For Technical Dexterity - The 'X' Exercise

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:01:10 GMT

Hey everyone,

Hope you’re all well! This is a short tutorial covering an exercise that I use on a daily basis to help with my basic level of technical fluency with both the left and right hands. I know it as the ‘X’ exercise because when you work through a bar it looks like you’re drawing an X on the fingerboard. Here i’ll show you not only the basic version of the exercise but several ways in which is can be expanded and modified to get a LOT of additional mileage from it!

Without further ado, let’s get going!

The X Exercise Basic

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Dexterity Through Working On Scales

Ben Walker Bass — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 18:01:01 GMT

Hey everyone,

This lesson follows on from last week’s where we were using broken 3rds to get more mileage from our major scale. This week, we’re stepping it up to broken 6ths!

Broken 6ths not only introduces us to a more angular sound and approach, there are also various technical benefits to be had through working on it such string crossing AND string skipping, both in the fretting and plucking hands.

Enjoy!

Dexterity Using Scales - Basic

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Want To Get More From Your Scales? Try This!

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 18:01:38 GMT

Hey all,

In this lesson we’re talking Major scales, and an exercise that can help you get a lot more out of them by challenging you technically, getting you to see the scale as something other than 8 notes in linear order and helping you with interval recognition! So if you’re a little bored with your scale practice, check this out!

Scales In Broken Intervals Basic

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Developing Vocabulary - Nate Watts

Ben Walker Bass — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 18:01:02 GMT

Hey everyone,

Welcome to another lesson on building vocabulary! This time we’re looking at a Stevie Wonder tune featuring the great Nathan Watts on bass and tune in question is Do I Do! There are lots of fantastic Stevie bass lines out there but for me, this line stands head and shoulders above them as Nate’s greatest bass cut, because it has everything you could possibly want in a bass line!

I’m focusing in on a particular little pentatonic nugget here (and how we can develop it!) but I urge you to go and check out the uncut version….trust me, you’ll be glad you did!

Enjoy!

Building Vocabulary - Nate Watts

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

The Six String Bass - An Introduction!

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:01:51 GMT

Hey everyone,

This lesson is an introduction to one of my musical loves, the six string bass. If you’re new to the six string or are considering getting one and are wondering where to start or how to work with the extra strings, this lesson is for you!

Here we’ll look at the basics, string crossing and work on your absolute fundamentals, which are all essential to getting the most from the instrument! I’ve got some lessons in the pipeline that will expand upon this and give you some more musical examples to work on but this is your starting point.

P.s - If you’re a five string player looking to incorporate your additional string, a lot of the same ideas will also apply!

Enjoy!

Six String: An Introduction

Developing Vocabulary: Stuart Zender

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 17:02:15 GMT

Hey all,

Following on from the lesson I put out where we looking at some Anthony Jackson vocabulary, this lesson looks at a particular fill Stu Zender plays in the outtro of the song ‘Scam’ from the Return Of The Space Cowboy record.

The whole line for that song is absolute gold (i’ll drop a transcription of it at some point!) but when I was going back through that record recently this fill Zender plays really stuck out.

Having transcribed it, I thought i’d talk about how you could take an idea like this and work it into your own vocabulary!

Enjoy!

Building Vocabulary - Zender

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Song Breakdown - Tron Song (Thundercat)

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 17:00:50 GMT

Hey all!

In this lesson I thought it would be fun to take a look at some Thundercat! He’s an absolute monster of a player and some of his tracks feature some really pretty chordal ideas in them including this one, Tron Song. His tunes often feature multiple bass tracks (on the studio versions) so here we’re focusing on the line that has ALL the chords in it!

I’ve recorded this lesson on my 6 string but it’s doable on a 5 String (B-G) if it has 21 frets so i’ve included notation/TAB for both. It’s an intricate part and some of the shifts can be a little tricky but it’s a fantastic study in moving harmonic shapes/ideas around the instrument!

Have fun!!

Playing Chords On Bass Pt.4 - Song Examples!

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 17:02:47 GMT

Hey everyone,

In this lesson we’re going to take a look at some songs that use bass chords in them! I’ve transcribed 3 excerpts from songs for you and we’re going to get into the details and look at how some of the ideas i’ve talked about in the last 3 lessons have been used.

Have fun!

Chord Song Examples

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below - You have a couple of additional songs to dig into! :)

Playing Chords On Bass Pt.3: Minor Triads And Inversions

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 11:02:34 GMT

Hey everyone,

Here is part 3 of this series on playing chords on the bass, and this time we are going to look at playing minor triads using both open and closed voicings as well as looking at the various inversions.

This is the last ‘nuts-and-bolts’ video for a little while as we’re going to get into some musical examples in the next lesson, but the fundamental exercises in these first 3 chordal lessons will really set you up for when we start to look at some more complex ideas.

Enjoy and happy practicing!

Minor Triads

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Playing Chords On Bass Pt.2: Major Triads And Inversions

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 11:03:26 GMT

Hey everyone,

Here is part 2 of this series on playing chords on the bass, and this time we are going to look at playing major triads using both open and closed voicings as well as looking at the various inversions.

These exercises were really important for me when it came to viewing harmony as something other than blocks built from the root, so I absolutely recommend working them into your playing as we work towards moving through progressions!

Enjoy!

Triads And Inversions

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Playing Chords On Bass: The Basics And WHY They Are Important!

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 09:00:50 GMT

Hey everyone,

This is part one of a mini-series i’m filming about playing chords on the bass! Within this we will get into the basics, triad inversions, different voicings, expanded voicings, how we can play through changes and potentially a couple of lessons on solo arranging in the way I did for In The Bleak Midwinter!

In part one we’re going to look at some fundamental ideas to build fluency as well as talk about WHY we might want to work on chords as full chords rather than as arpeggios.

Enjoy!

Chords On Bass

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Behind The Scenes - How I Record My Bass!

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 09:01:40 GMT

Hey everyone,

A very Happy New Year to you all, I hope you all had a relaxing holiday period! I’m in the process of finalising the edits for a new multi-part series of lessons i’m looking forward to sharing with you all but in the meantime, I thought I’d give you a little look behind the scenes and show you where/how I record my bass when I go into the studio!

The studio in question is Colossus Studios based in Bolton, UK. Owned and run by Declan Pearson, i’ve recorded there multiple times and this video shows exactly what happens when we record, including a little explainer about mic choice by Declan (he knows SO much more about that stuff than I do…).

Any questions you have about anything in the video, feel free to ask!!

https://www.colossus-studios.co.uk/

Classical Exercises To Build Technique

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 09:00:36 GMT

In this lesson, we’re looking at exercises from one of my all-time favourite resources for technique building: The Virtuoso Pianist by Charles-Louis Hanon.

This method was composed to train the Pianist’s fingers in speed, precision, agility and strength and we can use these exercises ourselves to achieve exactly the same things! The exercises are built around the major scale, and they gradually break up the scale in progressively more complex and demanding ways!

I might eventually arrange all 60 exercises for electric bass but for now we’ll take a look at the first of them, and for those on a paid subscription we’ll also get into ways we can modify them and expand in order to gain maximum mileage from each exercise!

Let’s dig into it!

Classical Exercises to Build Technique

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Getting Your Octaves Together

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 09:02:14 GMT

In this lesson we’re going to look at building octaves. Octaves are a piece of vocabulary that crops up in bass lines across many different genres, and as such it’s extremely beneficial to build significant fluidity with them! One example I gave inside is Jamiroquai’s Canned Heat (Transcription coming down the line!) but many MANY disco lines also use a lot of octave vocabulary and given that we almost always need to skip strings for them, nailing down exactly how you’re going to approach them is worthy of attention! As such we’re going to look at multiple exercises to do this along with some simple ways of expanding them!

See you in there!

Building Octaves - Basic

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Learning The Fingerboard - Your First Steps!

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 09:01:41 GMT

Learning the bass fretboard can feel intimidating when you’re first getting started! In this lesson I’m breaking down several ways you can take your first steps to properly learning your bass fingerboard!

The key is to take it one section of the neck at a time, and one piece of information at a time, and to practice in short blocks rather than hammering …

How To Transcribe Songs QUICKLY!

Ben Walker Bass — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 09:01:24 GMT

In this lesson, we’re getting into the subject of transcribing songs that you need to learn rapidly, whether that’s because you have a gig, a rehearsal or perhaps an audition where there are significant time constraints.

The key thing to remember here is that this isn’t a detailed, note by note transcription, it’s a method for transcribing when you need …

The Endless ii-V

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 09:01:50 GMT

This lesson looks at an exercise I discussed in last Friday’s article on consistency, one I call the ‘Endless ii-V’ exercise. I can’t remember where I found this but it’s something I’ve used as a tool to work on my basic command of harmony across the fingerboard for around 12 years or so!

It’s built around the cycle of 5ths and splits it into a series of ii-V progressions, the details of which will become clear when you watch the lesson!

You can then expand these ideas into other harmonic progressions, but this version of the exercise gives you a perfect starting point!

See you inside!

The Endless ii-V Basic

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

Developing Vocabulary: Anthony Jackson

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 09:01:08 GMT

In this lesson, I’m getting into the subject of developing vocabulary we’ve learned through the process of transcription and what better place to start than the great Anthony Jackson (I promise there is none-AJ material coming soon ;) ). Here, I’m taking a fragment from the Move Me No Mountain bass line and looking at various different ways I could seek to extract new ideas and vocabulary from it.

If you want the complete transcription for this song, you can find it here.

Let’s develop some ideas!

Vocab Development Move Me No Mountain

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!

String Crossing: My Go-To Exercise

Ben Walker Bass — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 14:02:28 GMT

Welcome to my first lesson! To get started, I want to take a look at a particular diminished exercise that has been an absolute staple of my own practice routine for over 15 years and one that REALLY helps me maintain my basic level of fingerboard dexterity! Why do I like it so much? Because it works alternating pairs of fingers on the fretting hand, involves string skipping and string raking on the plucking hand – a really multi-functional exercise where you can get a lot of mileage from a given chunk of practice time!

Let’s get into it…

Download Diminished String Crossing Exercise Basic - Full Score PDF

Download PDF

For those of you who are paid subscribers, you’ll need the expanded PDF linked below!