bass chords or harmonics on 2 adjacent fretted strings

[daz]

I was reading something from a songbook of tunes from Primus, and the guy was saying that if you cant get your fingers around certain of Les Claypool's tricky chords and harmonics that a good way to [i]approximate[/i] certain of them was by using the fretting of two adjacent strings only, ie: the D and G. (He only showed a couple of these that were relevant to the song)

Anyway messing around with this it got me thinking that sounding the D and G together makes some sort of chord or pleasing harmonic sound fretted all the way up the neck. Its certainly easier for us afflicted with small hand syndrome than those finger yoga exercises that some can do on a bass (not me obviously) So i wondered is there some sort of chart or some way of finding out what the note is that comes from fretting any two adjacent strings? I tried looking at it via my tuner but it didn't seem to like it.

Sorry to be so muddled in my explanations I hope you understand my meaning. If you dont understand please say so and i will try and elucidate.

Edited March 8, 2011 by daz

[paul_5]

[quote name='daz' post='1153899' date='Mar 8 2011, 02:55 PM']is there some sort of chart or some way of finding out what the note is that comes from fretting any two adjacent strings? I tried looking at it via my tuner but it didn't seem to like it.[/quote]

This is because you're playing two notes together, and most tuners only like to deal with one note at once. If you're barring the thinnest strings together, then you've got an inversion of an implied chord - bear with me - The 'root note' of the chord you're implying is the note on the G string. Confused? here are some examples:

hold down the D and G strings at the 9th fret, now play the open E string. See? it's most of an 'E chord', but without an 'E' at the bottom (you've inverted the chord) similarly barre the same strings at the 2nd (or 14th fret) and play the open A string - sounds like an A chord, right? the reason for that is that you've got two notes from the A chord (E and A), but the lowest note isn't an A (which is the usual thing to do on a bass).

It's a really useful method of filling up space in a mix. Long story short: whatever note you've got on the G string is the root note (letter name) of the chord you've implying.

Hope this helps

Cool, now I'm off to play 'Jon the fisherman' and 'here come the bastards'...

[Doddy]

[quote name='paul_5' post='1154493' date='Mar 8 2011, 09:02 PM']hold down the D and G strings at the 9th fret, now play the open E string. See? it's most of an 'E chord', but without an 'E' at the bottom (you've inverted the chord)[/quote]

.....and without the third.

Basically when you are playing two notes on the same fret you are playing a root and fifth.
So,if you play an E on the G string and a B on the D string you have a root and fifth of E. If you also play the E on the
A string you've got E,B,E (root,fifth,root 8va),which is what guitar players call 'power chords'. They are tonally
ambiguous because there is no third to identify if it's major or minor,but they are useful for filling out the sound.

Harmonic chords work in the same way.