The Chorus and root notes.

MCBTunes · #1 08-04-2005, 06:54 AM

Well, I'm playing punk so I'm playing a ton of rootnotes, and I'm just well... not that great of a song writter yet. but for this acoustic song I'm having problems I play it on the guitar.

G D A C are the notes of my song. How I play them is below.
E---3----x----x---x----
A---2----x----0---3----
---0----0----2---2----
---0----2----2---0----
---3----3----3---3----
---3----2----3---3----

Now those are for the verse.... when i get to the chorus all I end up doing is changing the speed.

My main problem is when writting on bass all i do is change from 1/4 to 1/8th notes. How do you get other notes to play there?

How would I write a chorus for this?

E-------3(x8)-1(x8)-5(x4)-3(x4)---
---3(x8)--------------------------
----------------------------------
----------------------------------

I'm so confused......it gets boring playing the same thing all song,.

wulf · #2 08-04-2005, 08:22 AM

You mean that G, D, A and C are the chords of your song.

Your options for building a more interesting bassline are either to sing round some ideas in your head and then figure out how to play that on bass (learning basslines from other people's songs will feed you with ideas) or learn a bit of musical theory (a G major scale would do for starters) and then experiment with applying it.

If you want to improve as a bassist and musician, the best option is to work on both in parallel.

Wulf

MCBTunes · #3 08-04-2005, 02:42 PM

ok they are the chords, does that mean the chord name isnt the root note? If so what is?

Also, I know the C major scale by pattern. And it wouldnt take long to figure out G. But how would that help me? Do you just mean any note within that scale will fit the song?

Zebra · #4 08-05-2005, 12:52 AM

The note names in the chords are the roots of the chords. So I'm guessing the chord progression of the chorus is different from that of the verse? FYI your tab staves are upside-down.
Any note in the G major scale should technically fit in, given that's the key of the song. You'll sound more like you're playing the melody, though, if you don't pay attention to the chords. Familiarize yourself with the notes in the chord. It's critical to know the nature of the chords (major, minor, dominate, etc.) You can go with any of the notes in the chords to figure out a bassline.

wulf · #5 08-05-2005, 01:51 AM

Yep - that's why I picked G major. As long as the A chord is effectively an A minor (you've haven't got the third in the shape you're using so it could be major or minor) the whole song is neatly in the key of G major.

I'm guessing that sentence has probably left you with some questions (thirds? majors and minors?)... and that's why getting a handle on some music theory would be a good thing to do.

Wulf

MCBTunes · #6 08-05-2005, 08:56 AM

well i've tried online theory learning and it wasa no go. So I will check out the store for a book.... does it matter ifi get bass or guitar theory books seeing as I play both? Would the bass book add anything ontop of guitar?

wulf · #7 08-05-2005, 10:21 AM

Where have you tried online? There are probably some good resources out there.

Wulf

Zebra · #8 08-05-2005, 07:09 PM

I think a guitar book should be every bit as good, given it goes into enough theory. If you want a comprehensive theory book, as well as some all-around info, I recommend "serious electric bass" by Joel di Bartolo. The best book I've found, but I've never looked at guitar books.

MCBTunes · #9 08-08-2005, 09:21 PM

i've searched on google for info and i've tried resources like activebass.

I've decided to invest in some books.... I'll go to the music store and take suggestions on what I could order online... I am looking to learn scales and chords, so I can write basslines to my guitarists. One thing is, I am not interested in learning to read music. So the book needs to be written or in tab.

do you need to read music for "serious electric bass"?

Other suggestions?

wulf · #10 08-09-2005, 01:37 AM

It's going to pretty hard going to pick up much theory without reading music. It's not really that hard, especially if your primary aim is to understand a bit more about how music works rather than being able to perform stupedous feats of sight-reading!

As far as websites, how about:

http://www.teoria.com/index.html

If you've got flash installed, this will give you the equivalent of a decent book with the benefit that you can hear some of the examples as well as see them.

Wulf