Playing Chords?

[Zachry23]

I've been playing bass for 4 months now, and receiving lessons. I have utilized FastTrack Music Instruction Series 1 & 2, too. Great books, however, they don't go into playing chords( multiple notes in one beat). Furthermore I just purchased my first songbook Blink 182 only to discover that they play lots of cord at a high BPM(136). I provided the sheet music to help explain. My areas of concerns are at the bottom of page.

I am having trouble with this, when playing chords one after another, do you have to attack only on the downstroke or what? I guess i'm confused.

Any info on this subject, and any bass picking technique info would be much appreciated.

[MalcolmAmos]

OK notice the 3rd clef down is the tab clef. Notice the chord name is shown. Now notice when the chord is A the tab is showing you sounding the 3rd string open (that produces an A sound) and sounding the string 8 times - why 8 times? Well, the bass clef has 8 notes shown and the tab has 8 notes shown, so the song wants 8 beats per measure. Then when the chord moves to the F the tab shows you fretting the 4th string at the 1st fret (yep that produces an F sound) and again you sound it 8 times.

Does that help?

Have fun.

P.S. the chord being shown as A5 etc. that is telling the rhythm guitar people to play an A5 chord all you have to worry with is the A note. Rhythm guys play chords you play notes. Just do what the tab clef tells you to do right now. After awhile you won't need tab and will be able to figure it all out by yourself.

[CBgaragebassist]

you can do Stanley Clake-ish flamenco strum technique and flick out and hit the chord then hit the chord again when bringing your fingers back in.

[Turock]

Those are not chords. There is not enough information provided to define a chord. Those are double stops.

[BananaKing]

Originally Posted by Turock

Those are not chords. There is not enough information provided to define a chord. Those are double stops.

+1

It's just the root and a 5th. Very easy to play quickly one you get the basic fingering down.

[Sparkdog]

Depends on the music, but you will likely find that playing actual chords on bass (i.e. root, 3rd, and 5th) doesn't usually work very well. The reason is that combining those low tones can make for a very muddy sound.

Lots of players use double stops instead because it just sounds cleaner. Something like a root/3rd, root/5th will give the feel of a chord but actually be more musical sounding.

Spacing out the interval like a root/10th works even better in many cases. (The 10th is an octave above the 3rd)

[Jazz Ad]

Mmmhh. It's good to expose your knowledge and stuff. Now, anyone care answering OP's question?
Double stops (2 notes) or chords (3 or more notes) can be played either with up and down strokes or just down strokes depending on the situation.
For angry rock, it usually sounds better using downstrokes only. Mute the strings a bit with your palm. It will help sounding beefier and cleaner.

[MarkTAW]

The second note is probably not necessary if you just want to get through the song. The second note is a fifth (e.g. C5, D5) so it's C and the fifth of C.

G
D 5 <-- 5th of C
A 3 <-- C
E

This serves to fatten up the C, without adding too much character.

As for how to play it - I'm sure there's a variety of ways. Here's a couple that I would do (and have done on numerous occasions).

1. Downpicking only. You get more control & a more consistent sound this way.

2. Strumming all the strings, while using your left hand to mute the E and the G strings. Use your middle finger to mute the E string & the lower portion of whatever fingers are available to mute the G string & strum all the strings as if you were a guitar player. Experiment with doing this closer to the neck rather than right over the pickups.

That said, I've played, or not done this depending on the situation, even in the same song with the same musicians. If the bass rig was sounding extra boomy, I may decide not to play these and just stick to the root notes.

[Phil Smith]

Originally Posted by Zachry23

I've been playing bass for 4 months now, and receiving lessons. I have utilized FastTrack Music Instruction Series 1 & 2, too. Great books, however, they don't go into playing chords( multiple notes in one beat). Furthermore I just purchased my first songbook Blink 182 only to discover that they play lots of cord at a high BPM(136). I provided the sheet music to help explain. My areas of concerns are at the bottom of page.

I am having trouble with this, when playing chords one after another, do you have to attack only on the downstroke or what? I guess i'm confused.

Any info on this subject, and any bass picking technique info would be much appreciated.

Fret the C with the first finger on the A string and the G with 3rd or 4th on the D string depending on your technique and pluck the A and D string at the same time in the same way that you would pluck one string. You can pluck down with your thumb or up with your index finger of your right hand.

[nysbob]

As stated above, a chord has a minimum of 3 different notes.

They will sound somewhat muddy on a bass unless you stretch out the voicing...i.e. an A chord played A string open, C# on the D string 11th fret, and E on the G string 9th fret. The color notes of the chord are over an octave above the root and as a result sound okay.

[JTE]

Yada yada...

The transcription the OP presented is easy. I'm assuming the guy in Blink 182 uses a pick. Strum down and hit both strings wtih the pick, just like a guitar player. If you play with your fingers you can pluck both notes at once, using a different RH finger for each string. Or you can just strum down with the back of your finger so the nail works like a pick.

Yeah, technicall double stops ain't chords, but this is in the technique section not the theory section so I ignored that part of the discussion yesterday.

John

[Infernal Affair]

Originally Posted by JTE

Yada yada...

The transcription the OP presented is easy. I'm assuming the guy in Blink 182 uses a pick. Strum down and hit both strings wtih the pick, just like a guitar player. If you play with your fingers you can pluck both notes at once, using a different RH finger for each string. Or you can just strum down with the back of your finger so the nail works like a pick.

Yeah, technicall double stops ain't chords, but this is in the technique section not the theory section so I ignored that part of the discussion yesterday.

John

Exactly what he said. And I'd like to add while yes, they are technically doublestops, C5 and D5 are commonly called power chords. Power chords are basically two notes, root and fifth. Technically power chords are not "real" chords.

Since this is "Adam's Song," I would just play it with downstrokes on a pick. But any of the techniques JTE described would work, albeit with very different tones.

[johnczyk]

mark hoppus plays with a pick,-so i am guessing he strums them both together and rather quickly!

[johnczyk]

So you are saying the F5 or A5 is a reference for the rhythm guitar player and not the name of the basschords?

[Infernal Affair]

I think I understand what you're getting at, but it's not quite right. While the guitarist will probably get the most out of the chord names, they're the chords for the song regardless of instrument. For the A5 and F5 Hoppus is still playing according to the chord, but he's just playing the root.

[jschwalls]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

Mmmhh. It's good to expose your knowledge and stuff. Now, anyone care answering OP's question?
Double stops (2 notes) or chords (3 or more notes) can be played either with up and down strokes or just down strokes depending on the situation.
For angry rock, it usually sounds better using downstrokes only. Mute the strings a bit with your palm. It will help sounding beefier and cleaner.

great post.. thumbs up.. !!!!!!

[sgbass321]

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

Mmmhh. It's good to expose your knowledge and stuff. Now, anyone care answering OP's question?
Double stops (2 notes) or chords (3 or more notes) can be played either with up and down strokes or just down strokes depending on the situation.
For angry rock, it usually sounds better using downstrokes only. Mute the strings a bit with your palm. It will help sounding beefier and cleaner.

I always thought a double stop was when you hit 2 or 3 notes at exactly the same time...no strumming at all.

[Falcynn]

Originally Posted by JTE

Yada yada...

The transcription the OP presented is easy. I'm assuming the guy in Blink 182 uses a pick. Strum down and hit both strings wtih the pick, just like a guitar player. If you play with your fingers you can pluck both notes at once, using a different RH finger for each string. Or you can just strum down with the back of your finger so the nail works like a pick.

Yeah, technicall double stops ain't chords, but this is in the technique section not the theory section so I ignored that part of the discussion yesterday.

John

This. Mark Hoppus usually plays with a pick using mostly downstrokes, having played this song a few times I can tell you that's probably the best way to play it as close to the recording as possible. Although you can play it whichever way you feel is more comfortable of course.

[JTE]

Originally Posted by sgbass321

I always thought a double stop was when you hit 2 or 3 notes at exactly the same time...no strumming at all.

Nope. "Double Stop" means exactly what it says. You're stopping two strings at the same time. That is the technical term for what's going on here.

John

[sgbass321]

Originally Posted by JTE

Nope. "Double Stop" means exactly what it says. You're stopping two strings at the same time. That is the technical term for what's going on here.

John

ummm what? i really think double stop are where you play 2 notes at the same time...you stop the 2 notes by fretting them then you plunk them at the same time.

Maybe im wrong but then a bunch of websites are wrong too...

about.com-"Two musical tones played simultaneously, on one instrument."

Wikipedia- "A double stop, in music terminology, is the act of playing two notes simultaneously on a melodic percussion instrument (like a marimba) or stringed instrument (for example, a violin or a guitar)."

answer.com- "The playing of two notes simultaneously on a bowed string instrument, by stopping two strings"