Bass Chords

[Skol303]

I'm just plodding my way through some music theory, getting to grips with notation and the like... (so far, surprisingly fun!).

Anyway, I've just stumbled upon playing bass chords, and from what I've gleaned online it appears to be a case of playing: the root note, the octave of the root note and the 10th note in the scale. At least, it sounds like I'm playing a chord when I do this!

Is it really that simple, or am I missing a huge something here??

Thanks in advance for any tips.

[Bilbo]

Yes, it is that simple, although by playing the octave, you are just repeating the root. I would suggest root, fifth and third (10th). Two notes is nto technically a chord, its technically a double stop, but that's splitting hairs. Where bass chords are concerned, chords over three notes are generally too muddy to be useful. Chord theory as it relates to playing bass is odd because your voicing options are limited by the scale of the instrument, the number of strings and the difficulties that occur when you leave out a root note but you can play a lot using just root, third, fifth, seventh and ninths. You will need to recognise the ifference between major and minor intervals quite soon, though, or you options will be [i]very[/i] limited.

[Fat Rich]

It's actually as easy as 1, 3, 5, 7.

Chords are built in 3rds... root, 3rd, add a third to get the 5th, add another third to get the 7th. But on the bass it can sound muddy and confused hence your playing the 3rd an octave up.

You'll need a few different fingerings to start outlining dominant and 7th chords (and more exotic stuff), there was a book by Jonas Hellborg called Chord Bassics which you could probably pick up used somewhere but it has some weird and wonderful chord shapes that can be agony to play. There doesn't seem to be any chord books for 6 string bass surprisingly.

Using harmonics to outline chords can be fun too but that's a whole new area to get into.

Good luck!

[hillbilly deluxe]

This is helpful,thanks.When i asked on here about chords i was basically told to go and learn to read music.Faith in Jazzers restored,you are not all tw4ts.

[Bilbo]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1221235' date='May 5 2011, 04:35 PM']Faith in Jazzers restored,you are not all tw4ts.[/quote]

Yes we are.

[hillbilly deluxe]

Sorry,i forgot myself for a second.But thanks anyway.

[Fat Rich]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1221256' date='May 5 2011, 04:56 PM']Sorry,i forgot myself for a second.But thanks anyway.[/quote]

No problem, and go and learn to read music!

[Doddy]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1221235' date='May 5 2011, 04:35 PM']This is helpful,thanks.When i asked on here about chords i was basically told to go and learn to read music.Faith in Jazzers restored,you are not all tw4ts.[/quote]

.....Although that will help as it will allow you to see what notes are in what chord,rather than finding a chord shape
and simple moving it around.

The thing with playing chords on the bass is note selection. For example,say you wanted to play a C major 7 chord.
We know that the notes are C,E,G,B. If we wanted to play the whole chord it would be a complete bitch to play,so we can adapt
it. We obviously want to play the root note.The 3rd (E) will define if it's major or minor so you'll want to play that,and the
7th( B ) will also define the tonality,so we'll want that note too. Unless you are playing something like a diminished or
augmented chord,the chances are that the 5th will nearly always be perfect so we can actually leave that note out,while
still playing the strong,defining chord tones.
Now,you can play that 3 note chord in a couple of positions. If you play it with the C root up on the 15th fret of the A
string,you can play the 3 notes in order-C,E,B-and it will sound pretty nice. But if you play the same thing starting on
the 8th fret of the E string you'll notice that it sounds muddy,especially between the C and E.In this case we can raise
the E up an octave and make it the 10th,so we have C,B,E,and it will be much cleaner.
After that it's just a matter of understanding chord structures and applying it to the instrument.You hear people talk about
'bass chords',but any book on chords will tell you what notes to play-the only thing that changes is the application.

I hope that makes some sense.


Edit...because typing B and ) gives that daft sunglasses smiley

Edited May 5, 2011 by Doddy

[hillbilly deluxe]

Sorry,got bored when you got to argumentive chords..............oh look a bee.

[SteveK]

Can't really add to the above, other than...
Chords generally sound sweeter the higher up the neck you go. Chords played around fifth fret or lower can sound quite ugly.

[iconic]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='1221275' date='May 5 2011, 05:03 PM']Sorry,got bored when you got to argumentive chords..............oh look a bee. [/quote]

[Skol303]

^ Sincere thanks to you all for the very useful advice kindly given.

You've just clarified a number of further questions that I had brewing since my initial post, so again, greatly appreciated.

...a weekend of getting to grips with chords awaits! :-)

[GonzoBass]

Although it's not entirely accurate nor complete,
this illustration might give you a few ideas for creating your own chord chart
(especially if used along with Doddy's [u]excellant[/u] post)-

[Skol303]

^ Thanks for the useful chart, Gonzo, and again to the rest of you for the advice here - much appreciated.

I spent some time working on chords over the weekend and it's starting to make much better sense to me now... I've actually been making my own chord chart, which is perhaps a more satisfying endeavour than it sounds! ;-) I might upload it in due course, in case it helps other beginners like me in future.

[ZodiaK SineZ]

Thanks for the chart Gonzo! will definitely come in handy

P.S. Skol, are you Danish?

[Hector]

[url="http://www.bryanrtylermusic.com/chordfingeringcharts.html"]This might come in handy[/url]


EDIT - Btw, I think that 4 note voicings are a little too much on bass, and happen to think 3 is a very useful/workable number. Those charts given, you can just cut out the notes that don't do much in terms of defining the chord quality (as per the excellent advice so far in this thread). If you really want to get deeper into it, I recommend checking out Todd Johnson (some great videos on youtube), who has a nice system for harmonising chord melody on the bass and also a new book from Randy Vincent, called [url="http://www.jazzguitarlessons.net/three-note-voicings.html"]Three Note Voicings and Beyond[/url]. Just starting to get into this stuff myself on the 6, and while I don't play in any situations that might require me to comp, it's useful to move away from a linear approach to harmony. Could always do away with drums/piano and split gig profits 2 ways instead......

Edited May 15, 2011 by Hector

[Skol303]

[quote name='Hector' post='1232022' date='May 15 2011, 02:41 PM'][url="http://www.bryanrtylermusic.com/chordfingeringcharts.html"]This might come in handy[/url][/quote]

^ Thanks for the useful link and advice, Hector. Much appreciated

[quote name='ZodiaK SineZ' post='1231928' date='May 15 2011, 01:31 PM']P.S. Skol, are you Danish?[/quote]

^ Haha! No... but it's a good educated guess! It's a nickname that has (unfortunately) followed me through life since my teenage years, when a bunch of us invented stoopid stage names for a band I was playing in at the time: mine was 'skollob', on account of the ****ocks I allegedly speak when I've had a few too many, and it stuck.

As you mention, it's Danish for "cheers" (skål) and also the name of a (god awful) brand lager. So the boozy link is there.

A mate of mine brewed a load of home-made cider and perry for my wedding using Hagar the Horrible as a label; hence my profile pic

Anyway, I'll shut up now before this turns into Jackanory...

[ZodiaK SineZ]

Ahh i see! Well that was a much better story than if you'd simply said "Yes, I live in Copenhagen" haha!

[Skol303]

Just quickly revisiting this thread to say that I'm certainly starting to get the hang of chords since reading the advice here; so thanks again folks!

The theory has just about sunk in; I'm now starting to get comfortable with my choice of notes (great advice on that above); and I'm also building up a small mental library of chord shapes/positions. All good :-)

The only thing I'm struggling with is some of the actual fingerings, which can be very tricky it seems and require some kind of 'finger contortion' (or torture?!) at times. But I'm sure that'll improve with practice.

Now I just have to work this new knowledge into some of my music...!