How To Make Great Jazz Fusion Bass Lines (Teen Town)

Last week's lesson was all about the bass techniques of Jaco Pastorius.

And now we'll take a look at the outro chords to Teen Town, which Jaco wrote for Weather Report. It's a jazz fusion classic that we can use to learn all kinds of interesting things including:

1. How to craft bass lines from music theory ideas
2. 1/16th note funk/jazz fusion/soul bass lines
3. Ascending/descending intervals
4. Double stops
5. Chord tones
6. Dominant arpeggios
7. Which notes sound amazing!

Make sure to scroll down for the free backing track and PDF featuring some of the patterns you can use to create amazing jazz fusion bass lines.

Teen Town (Outro) Chord Progression, Shapes & Backing Track

The chord progression for the outro of Teen Town is:

E13/C#13/A13/F#13

For this lesson, let's just use dominant seventh chords:

E7/C#7/A7/F#7

The root movement is two minor thirds separated by a major third like this:

Knowing patterns like this helps you to navigate more complicated chord progressions with ease.

Download the PDF below with the chord progression and some shapes you can use (they're all moveable shapes). Then, slowly build up your recognition of the root movement and shapes.

When you're comfortable, use the backing track below and start with very simple patterns and rhythms.

Have fun!

Teen Town (Jaco Pastorius/Weather Report)

Here's Teen Town in its full glory.