Days of Wine and Roses Walking Bass Line
Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer wrote Days of Wine and Roses for the 1962 film of the same name, and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Art Farmer, Oscar Peterson and Sonny Criss had all recorded it by 1966. For a bassist it's a great medium-tempo tune. It leaves the key in bar 2, then strings together ii-Vs, a slash chord and two minor ii-Vs. Below you'll find the changes bar by bar, a walking line in F, and three recordings.
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
We follow iReal Pro's Jazz 1460 chart and the Jazzadvice chart, which agree on almost every bar. iReal Pro adds color to a few chords: Eb7#11 in bars 2, 7 and 18, D7b13 in bars 4 and 20, and Eb9 in bar 23. Jazzadvice prints D7 for all of bar 3, with Am7 as an option. Bar 7 is Eb7 in both of those charts, but Learn Jazz Standards and Jazzadvice's option put Bbm7 there, making bars 7 and 8 a ii-V (Bbm7 Eb7). Bar 29 is Am7 D7 in Jazzadvice and Learn Jazz Standards, Am7 Dm7 in iReal Pro. The Learn Jazz Standards chart lays out the second and last 8 bars differently (Fmaj7 | Dm7 | Gm7 Gm7/F | Em7b5 A7 | Dm7 | G7 | Gm7 | C7, and Fmaj7 | Dm7 | Bm7b5 | Bbm6 | Am7 D7 | Gm7 C7 | Fmaj7 D7 | Gm7 C7), so check which chart the band's reading.
How this line works
- The root lands on beat 1 of 27 of the 38 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.
- 37 of the 37 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: 28 on beat 2 and 13 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 Days of Wine and Roses teaches you
- It leaves the key in bar 2: Fmaj7 moves to Eb7, a whole step down. Eb7 comes back for two bars at the end of each A section, so get comfortable approaching Eb from D or E.
- A ii-V that doesn't go home: Am7 D7 in bars 3 and 4 resolves to Gm7, the ii chord, which then holds for two bars.
- Bar 12 puts F under Gm7 (Gm7/F), so the bass steps down from G to F while the chord stays put. Then Em7b5 A7b9, a minor ii-V, resolves to Dm7.
- The last 8 bars have another minor ii-V. Dm7 steps down to Dm7/C, then Bm7b5 E7b9 resolves to Am7, so the bass can walk down D, C, B right into it.
- The ending packs two chords into each bar, Am7 D7 | Gm7 C7, with the roots climbing in fourths (A, D, G, C) until they land on Fmaj7. One more Gm7 C7 turns the tune around.
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
- Art Farmer Quartet featuring Jim Hall, Interaction (1963), with Steve Swallow on bass.
- Oscar Peterson Trio, We Get Requests (1964), with Ray Brown on bass.
- Sonny Criss, This Is Criss! (1966), with Paul Chambers on bass.
Days of Wine and Roses: questions
What key is Days of Wine and Roses in?
F major. That's the key on the iReal Pro, Jazzadvice and Learn Jazz Standards charts. It starts on Fmaj7 but heads to Eb7 in bar 2, so don't let that throw you.
What's the form of Days of Wine and Roses?
It's 32 bars in four 8-bar sections, ABAC. The two A sections match, and the B and C sections take different routes back to F.
What tempo is Days of Wine and Roses played at?
Charts mark it medium swing, which iReal Pro plays between 100 and 139 bpm. It's a good tune for learning the changes slowly, then bringing the tempo up once every chord lands clean.
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.