Bye Bye Blackbird Walking Bass Line
Ray Henderson and Mort Dixon wrote Bye Bye Blackbird in 1926. It was a pop hit that year, and by the 1950s it had become a jam session tune; Miles Davis recorded it in 1956 with Paul Chambers on bass. It's in F and hardly ever leaves, so the hard part for a bassist isn't the changes. It's keeping the line moving over the same few chords. Below you'll find the changes bar by bar, a walking line in F, and three recordings worth hearing.
Turn the bass off and it's your gig: the piano and drums keep going and you walk the line. The band counts you in with one bar of hi-hat.
Recorded upright bass, grand piano and a jazz drum kit play the line. Tab is for 4-string bass in standard tuning.
The changes
Players add and swap chords on this tune all the time, so charts disagree in several spots. We use the bars where iReal Pro's Jazz 1460 chart and the Jazzadvice chart agree, and the majority reading where they don't. Bar 6 is Abdim7 in the Jazzadvice and Learn Jazz Standards charts; iReal Pro plays Am7b5 D7b9 there instead, and both of the other charts list Am7b5 D7b9 as an option. Bar 10 is D7 in iReal Pro and Jazzadvice, C7 in Learn Jazz Standards, and Gm(maj7) on an older-style lead sheet. For the first four bars of the bridge, iReal Pro walks down by half steps, F7 | E7 | Eb7 | D7b9, and Jazzadvice prints those chords as an option; the other charts play F7 | F7 | Am7b5 | D7, as shown here. Bar 23 is Db7 in iReal Pro, or Abm7 Db7 in Learn Jazz Standards. In the last A, iReal Pro holds Fmaj7 in bar 27 and fits Am7b5 D7b9 into bar 28. Learn Jazz Standards also marks the Gm7 C7 in bars 2 and 4 as optional and plays Gm7 C7 in bar 16 instead of holding F6.
How this line works
- The root lands on beat 1 of 27 of the 36 chord changes, so the harmony is clear. The rest start on the 3rd or 5th, which keeps the line from sounding like a list of roots.
- 34 of the 35 chord changes are approached by a half step or a whole step, so every new chord arrives smoothly instead of by a jump.
- Non-chord tones sit on the weak beats: 20 on beat 2 and 16 on beat 4. That's where passing and chromatic notes sound intentional instead of wrong.
- No note repeats back to back. A repeated note is the quickest way to make a walking line sound stiff.
What Bye Bye Blackbird teaches you
- Making one key move: the A sections keep coming back to Fmaj7, with Gm7 C7 (the ii-V of F) in between. The harmony won't push your line anywhere, so you've got to change direction and register yourself.
- A diminished passing chord: the root of Abdim7 in bar 6 sits a half step below A, the third of Fmaj7, and a half step above G, the root of Gm7 in bar 7. Play A in bar 5 and the roots walk down A, Ab, G.
- Bars 9 to 14 sit on Gm7 for most of six bars, broken up only by D7 and C7. That's where walking lines start repeating themselves, so mix scale runs, arpeggios and chromatic approach notes.
- The bridge opens on two bars of F7, then a minor ii-V, Am7b5 to D7b9, pulls you into Gm7. In bar 23, Db7 sits a half step above C7, so its root slides straight down into bar 24.
- The last A brings back that minor ii-V (Am7b5 D7b9 in bars 27 and 28) before the ii-V home to F.
How to practice it
- Hear the form first. Turn the bass off and play just the root of each chord along with the band until you never lose your place.
- Read the line slowly. Set the tempo around 80 and play the written line with the drums. Slow is the fast way here.
- Loop the hard spots. Turn on Loop, find the four bars that trip you up, and play them until they feel like the easy ones.
- Make it yours. Keep beat 1 of every bar, but change the approach note on beat 4. A half step above, a half step below, a whole step: each one changes the color of the arrival.
- Play it with the record. Put on one of the versions below and play along. That's where the time feel gets into your hands.
Want to build your own lines on these changes? Try the free Walking Line Builder and practice with the click on 2 and 4.
Recordings to hear
- Miles Davis, 'Round About Midnight (1957), with Paul Chambers on bass.
- Ben Webster, Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson (1960), with Ray Brown on bass.
- John Coltrane, Bye Bye Blackbird (1981), with Jimmy Garrison on bass.
Bye Bye Blackbird: questions
What key is Bye Bye Blackbird in?
F major. That's the key on the iReal Pro, Jazzadvice and Learn Jazz Standards charts, and it's what instrumentalists usually call. Singers often want it somewhere else, so check before the count-off. Everything on this page is in F.
What's the form of Bye Bye Blackbird?
It's 32 bars, AABA. The first A is 8 bars around Fmaj7, the second A spends most of its 8 bars on Gm7 and C7, the bridge starts on F7, and the last A heads back to F.
What tempo is Bye Bye Blackbird played at?
Charts mark it medium swing. Miles Davis's 1956 recording on 'Round About Midnight runs about 122 bpm, which is a good target once the line's under your fingers. Start slower if you need to, then work the metronome up.
Your next step
This page gives you one line to study. These courses teach you to build your own, on the bass you play.
The 7-Day Walking Bass Breakthrough
Cole DavisWalk through any jazz tune with lines that move, swing, and never repeat themselves.
- Walk through any ii-V-I, major or minor.
- Solve the two-bar problem on static modal tunes.
- Never repeat yourself two bars in a row.
Walking Basslines on Upright Bass from the Beginning
Cole DavisFive lessons from “my walking lines don't sound like the records” to professional-grade walking.
- The chord first: the 1-3-5-7, where every great bass line starts.
- The master move: changing the order of the notes, bar by bar, on an F blues.
- The three questions every bass line has to pass, then the whole method on Autumn Leaves.
Not sure which course fits? Answer a few questions and we'll point you to one.