carlab87 Posted November 29, 2008 Share Posted November 29, 2008 Hello! Ive only been playing bass for 2 years, im in a band but find it a bit hard when it comes to some notes. In some of our setlist, mainly a couple of cover songs, i follow the guitar chords as im not quite quick enough to pull off the full bass riff....but some of the minor notes dont sound quite right, just wondered if anyone had any advice as to an easy way of working it out? Ive heard playing the root note of the guitar chord is usually what to do but minors dnt seem to work! I understand ive probably made myself look veeery stupid in this message but i just dont know and no-one has ever told me :-( sorry! carla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alun Posted November 29, 2008 Share Posted November 29, 2008 [quote name='carlab87' post='340597' date='Nov 29 2008, 04:38 PM']Hello! Ive only been playing bass for 2 years, im in a band but find it a bit hard when it comes to some notes. In some of our setlist, mainly a couple of cover songs, i follow the guitar chords as im not quite quick enough to pull off the full bass riff....but some of the minor notes dont sound quite right, just wondered if anyone had any advice as to an easy way of working it out? Ive heard playing the root note of the guitar chord is usually what to do but minors dnt seem to work! I understand ive probably made myself look veeery stupid in this message but i just dont know and no-one has ever told me :-( sorry! carla[/quote] Hi Carla. Playing the root should work on any chord eg A will work under A major, A minor, etc. Is there any particular song where you've noticed this? If so, please post and we'll work out what's happening Cheers Alun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam.M Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 Could this be an Intonation issue maybe? Does the note your playing sound somewhat out of tune to the guitarist? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlab87 Posted November 30, 2008 Author Share Posted November 30, 2008 it does sound out of tune to the guitarist, the song i mainly have an issue on is living on a prayer by bonjovi. i do the funny bass riff through the verse but for the bridg, chorus and solo i follow the guitar chords but it sounds terrible :-/ thankies carla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alun Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 What notes are you playing? The chorus might sound a little weird as the original bassline is quite busy and an integral part. Cheers Alun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GreeneKing Posted November 30, 2008 Share Posted November 30, 2008 That's not at all silly Carla. I do know what you mean. Theres a couple of odd ballad type songs the guys I jam with do and playing root A over a Am chord sounds quite wrong. I've had success using a minor 3rd, 5th or minor 7th instead. If you're talking say Am the minor third is C, the 5th E and the minor 7th G. The pattern obviously follows throughout. Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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