The Tango Bass Line

Hello fellow bassists,

For our 2nd bass tip we will apply some techniques from the previous tip.

Last time we looked at playing a major scale in 10ths. Remember a 10th is just the 3rd of a chord one octave up.Now we will incorporate this into a functioning bass line.

Lets look at a basic tango bass line, it uses the root (1st), 5th and 10th of the chord.

The formula for this style of tango bass line is: Root-5th-10th-5th.

This style of bass line will put our knowledge of 10ths into action!

I wrote out a tango line to the 1st A of the jazz standard ' You Don't Know What Love Is'.

Be sure to pay attention to the quality of the chord (major or minor 10th).

This tango line should be played slow but steady.

Experiment with this '"tango formula" on other songs.

Have fun with the bass!

All the best!