FinnDave Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 1 hour ago, chris_b said: 2 notes might fit a theoretical definition but in practice how do you establish major or minor chords with just 2 notes? Root and third? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgsjx Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 37 minutes ago, BigRedX said: And just to throw another spanner in the works, what do you call it when you play the same note simultaneously on two different strings - i.e. D-string open, and the A string fretted at the 5th fret? In theory they should sound the same, but in practice because of tuning, inconsistencies in fretting pressure and the overall tonality of the strings in question they don't, and the result is always richer sounding than just playing a single string. Also is there a way of indicating this in notation? Unison? Write it in TAB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannybuoy Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 7 minutes ago, xgsjx said: Unison? Write it in TAB TAB FTW! I don't really do chords on bass, but I have become a big fan of playing 10ths - 3rds can sound a bit muddly in combination with a low root note, so bosh that 3rd up an octave and it sounds much better to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 45 minutes ago, lowdown said: Also with a small 'o' above/below one of the stems (usually the upward stem, indicating the open string). Sorry. Yes. My bad. In fact I seem to recall that it's common practice to put fret numbers on guitar notation, especially if the required left hand position isn't immediately obvious. Not played in anger for some years now so I'm a bit rusty... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) - Edited February 25, 2022 by Jus Lukin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) But what happens when you don't define the "3rd" but also add another note to the chord? As I said in a previous post in this thread I don't like 3rds on the guitar much, and usually replace them with a 9th. So my favoured version of A will be - A E A B E; and D is D G D E. Generally these will be replacing the A and D maj. but occasionally I'll use them instead of the minor version. IME if you don't define whether the 3rd is a major or minor 3rd, it's usually obvious from the rest of the music. Edited January 12, 2018 by BigRedX Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpondonBassed Posted January 12, 2018 Author Share Posted January 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Jus Lukin said: I'm glad you said that, Dad. My answer was going to be the same, but the first Wikipedia link knocked my confidence! Two notes played at once, or a dyad, are an 'interval'. They can imply a chord, but aren't one. Three notes, or a triad, and upwards are a chord. Of course, they don't all need to be played on the same instrument- a bass playing a pitch at C, a guitar playing a pitch at G, and a singer holding an E will be producing a C major chord together. That's where I was puzzled before I asked the question. I do a fair number of play-alongs where by making note choices I can modify the overall chord that is made between my bass and the accompanying track. Sometimes the results are subtle but there are instances when a semitone here or there can change the mood and direction of a piece dramatically. For an example; when doing repetitive endings to verses, I notice many good players vary their lines slightly and it helps identify which verse is ending It is especially effective if the mood variation suits the lyric, if you get me. In any case it makes a song more interesting to play. While I could adopt the term power chord for some of my double stops, I wouldn't call them chords because until they are played with accompaniment, the overall chord is not complete. I might be talking out of my botty but that's how it looks to me for the most part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 14 minutes ago, leftybassman392 said: Sorry. Yes. My bad. In fact I seem to recall that it's common practice to put fret numbers on guitar notation, especially if the required left hand position isn't immediately obvious. Not played in anger for some years now so I'm a bit rusty... Actually, you could just write tacet bars, because what you end up with when a Guitarist is confronted with notation, is exactely that - Loads of tacet bars. Sorry, casual stereotyping..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Just now, lowdown said: Actually, you could just write tacet bars, because what you end up with when a Guitarist is confronted with notation, is exactely that - Loads of tacet bars. Sorry, casual stereotyping..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happy Jack Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 Just for clarity, next time I play Walk On The Wild Side in the Dog & Duck (sliding double stops all the way through) and a punter congratulates me on my "chords", you'd like me to tell him that they're not "chords", they're "dyads"? And when he says, "WTF is a dyad?", the correct answer is, "It's two notes played simultaneously to create an interval, but not enough notes to warrant being called a chord". And when he says "Are you taking the fosters?", the correct answer is, "No, this how bass players think about their music". Bwahahahahaha!!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnDave Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 And there was me thinking a dyad was some kind of mythical creature, like a faun. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phil.c60 Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 How many notes does it take to make a chord? - more than I play! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sibob Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) A post above (can't see it just now) asks how we would go about 'defining the harmony of a chord without a 3rd note’, but you have to be careful with citing needing to use at least 3 notes to define the 'harmony' of a chord, with harmony itself defined as 'any simultaneous combination of tones.' Playing two notes together creates a harmony, whether that harmony then falls into the western music definition of a chord is another question. Some may say it's semantics, or pedantry. I prefer to think of it as academic Si Edited January 12, 2018 by Sibob 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrixn1 Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 30 minutes ago, Jus Lukin said: Playing an E and a G gives a minor third- is that an Em? Edim? You don't know ... Put in a B or Bb, and you have yourself a bona fide, definable chord of Em or Edim With a Bb, is that Edim or Eø ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) - Edited February 25, 2022 by Jus Lukin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Blank Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Sibob said: Playing two notes together creates harmony, whether that harmony then falls into the western music definition of a chord is another question. I wholly agree with this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 1 hour ago, Jus Lukin said: Those are sus2 chords, replacing the 3rd with the 2nd, in the same way that a sus4 replaces it with the 4th (or actually 11th in many cases). The third isn't in there, so while the chord may have a minor or major feel in context, the harmony itself at that exact point is not definitively either. Doesn't "sus" imply that most people would want to hear the chord resolve to the appropriate major or minor? Certainly a sus4 chord has that feel to me. However I would be quite happy to end a song on one of my sus2 chords. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 3 hours ago, FinnDave said: Root and third? But if there are only 2 notes which one is the root? If you're relying on notes from another instrument, as someone said earlier, then that's more notes. OK so 2 notes counts as a chord, but it isn't because 2 notes can't provide enough information to be usefully called a chord. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) - Edited March 1, 2022 by Jus Lukin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 1 hour ago, chris_b said: But if there are only 2 notes which one is the root? If you're relying on notes from another instrument, as someone said earlier, then that's more notes. OK so 2 notes counts as a chord, but it isn't because 2 notes can't provide enough information to be usefully called a chord. As a bass player you are almost certainly relyng on another instrument to define te harmonic context of your interval, and quite often for whatever chord tone you happen to be playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgsjx Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 1 hour ago, chris_b said: But if there are only 2 notes which one is the root? If you're relying on notes from another instrument, as someone said earlier, then that's more notes. OK so 2 notes counts as a chord, but it isn't because 2 notes can't provide enough information to be usefully called a chord. The context that the OP put makes it sound like it's in relation to a band setting. If it's just bass alone, then you're not going to know whether that B & D is the start of Bm or not, you gonna just have to sit back & enjoy the music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leftybassman392 Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 (edited) Dunno if anybody's said this yet, but an ambiguous chord is still a chord. You can pick two notes completely at random, and if you play them together you have a chord. Giving it a name is a separate issue. Edited January 12, 2018 by leftybassman392 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 1 hour ago, leftybassman392 said: Dunno if anybody's said this yet, but an ambiguous chord is still a chord. You can pick two notes completely at random, and if you play them together you have a chord. Giving it a name is a separate issue. I do that a lot, not becessarily on purpose. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulWarning Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 power chords are great, you don't have to bother with all this major minor malarkey, just turn the overdrive up to 11 and thrash away, thirds sound rubbish anyway with distortion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stingrayPete1977 Posted January 12, 2018 Share Posted January 12, 2018 It doesn't sound like many people here are familiar with curved board instruments? There's plenty of "chords for violin" books out there with only two stops per chord. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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