playing 3rd's and 5th's ?

[Secret Journey]

hey all, can someone tell me or give me an example or song?) of the bass player playing thirds or fifths? Someone recently told me I do that alot(maybe too much?). Im self taught, probably have alot of bad habits, and play by ear, so thirds and fifths are another language to me. thanks for the advice in advance.

[wittynamehere]

Sorry if I am telling you things you already know, but I'll give it a shot.

when they say 3rd and 5th they are talking about the notes of the scale. The C Major scale goes

C -root
D 2nd
E 3rd
F 4th
G 5th
A 6th
B 7th
and back to C the root. of the scale.

So if you start on the C that is at the 3rd fret of the A string, the E that is the 2nd fret D string will be the 3rd, and the G at the 5th fret A string will be the fifth, Also, scales go the other way, so the G at the 3rd fret of the E string is the 5th and the Open E is the third.

Those positions make a pattern you can move anywhere on the fretboard just by moving the place you start the scale. so if you slide up from the C to the D on the A string, the 3rds and 5ths will be in the same places relative to the D as they were to the C.

The reason you play them so much is that they go together (root, 3rd and 5th) to form a major triad, which is a really basic chord, and they sound ok with pretty much every chord played in a major key.

An example of 5ths is pretty much every old country or rock and roll song from the 50's or early 60's

I walk the line

In that you can hear the bass player playing that sort of Oom-Pah line, what he is doing is playing the root note of the chord, then dropping down to the 5th note below, which just happens to be down a string (towards the thicker strings)

as far as playing them too much, It would depend on what you are doing, I'm still a beginner myself so I'm not so hot at coming up with lines other than if I am just screwing around, so I dont have much advice to give, other than listen to players you like and see what they do.

[jpfbass]

^^^^^^what he said

[TheBasicBassist]

did he say you were playing the 3rd and 5th overabundantly and ignoring the root notes of the chord? maybe he/she felt like you were implying other chords? in the example of Cmaj. Cmaj/E could equal C6 or Cadd13 or Cmaj/G could equal Gadd11. So it may be bad if your playing 3rds and 5ths and ignoring the roots depending on the style. But it is always good to mix it up at least a little bit, from where i'm coming from at least. just don't forget the root notes.

so, to answer your question.
no it isn't bad that your playing a lot of thirds and fifths as long as you aren't ignoring the tonic/root. just don't forget to play the root every now and then, because as a bassist, you control the sonority of a chord more or less. this is all, IMO. from my school of thought.