Guitar-bass chords

[trust24]

Are they the same? apart from the two extra strings guitars have i mean

[fretlessman71]

Why would you want to play chords on a bass? Unless you're Jeff Berlin or Michael Manring, of course...

[trust24]

What do you mean? Why wouldnt i want to learn various chords

[dlb1001]

Should be the same...just remember some of the higher extensions (like 9th's, 11th's, etc.) will require two hand tapping.

[Mushroo]

Yes, they are the same.

Chord theory (which notes are in which chord) is the same on any instrument. Learning them on the bass will really help you develop as a musician. Even if you don't actually play chords in songs, knowing them will help you understand what the guitarist is playing and come up with a bass line that fits.

[trust24]

Yes thanks for that. I presumed they were the same. So when they come up with a lead guitar part are they sort of doing it by the same way we would come up with a bass line. I mean by using scales etc

[Fergie Fulton]

Check it out its all there and more if you explore the other charts and diagrams in the links at the bottom of the page.
Some advice, learn to use the simplest finger stretches first, maybe use triads or arpeggios first before moving on and take your time, learn and understand a chord a day you'll be supprised how quick your knowledge will accure as you find ways to apply it.
Remeber they can be played as lines as well as chords.
Have fun.
http://www.activebass.com/basics/ctable.asp

[tranceFusion]

Originally Posted by Mushroo

Chord theory (which notes are in which chord) is the same on any instrument. Learning them on the bass will really help you develop as a musician. Even if you don't actually play chords in songs, knowing them will help you understand what the guitarist is playing and come up with a bass line that fits.

+1. It will help your aural skills in identifying chords and knowing the chord tones is essential in building a bass line.

Originally Posted by fretlessman71

Why would you want to play chords on a bass? Unless you're Jeff Berlin or Michael Manring, of course...

-1

[Deacon_Blues]

In my soon 8 years of playing the bass, I haven't still been in the situation that I've had to play a chord. I won't say it's not useful to know how to finger some chords on bass though.

Basically, yes as the 4 first strings are the same, the same fingering works. On the other hand, as bass is voiced lower than a guitar, chords will sound muddy if you play them in the same way. So instead of doing that, find out theoretically how you could voice the chords in better ways more suitable on bass. Prioritize the root and third, and if needed, the seventh, ninth or whatever color notes you want to use (unless another instrument is playing the same notes, then they're practically redundant). There's no harm playing the fifth, but it mostly doesn't bring much of a benefit either. If you use three fingers to fret a chord (sounds the best to me when you don't use all strings) you have to limit yourself to three notes that you should carefully select.

IMO, the only way to make four note chords sound good on bass is to play them very high up on the neck or bring the thumb to the fretboard side. One chord like that could be E13: E-12, A-17, D-18, G-18 (E-D-G#-C#). Those notes are root, seventh, tenth (third) and 13th (=sixth), only the essential notes to define the chord. The left out notes are the fifth (B), ninth (F#) and 11th (A).

[Bassorama57]

Originally Posted by Deacon_Blues

.. the same fingering works. On the other hand, as bass is voiced lower than a guitar, chords will sound muddy if you play them in the same way. ...IMO, the only way to make four note chords sound good on bass is to play them very high up on the neck or bring the thumb to the fretboard side.

+1
of course there's also Les Claypool. Can't play "Tommy the Cat" without doing a few chords.

[brotherdoc]

I use double stops all the time in bass lines. (I know, a double stop technically isn't a chord)

[trust24]

Originally Posted by Fergie Fulton

Check it out its all there and more if you explore the other charts and diagrams in the links at the bottom of the page.
Some advice, learn to use the simplest finger stretches first, maybe use triads or arpeggios first before moving on and take your time, learn and understand a chord a day you'll be supprised how quick your knowledge will accure as you find ways to apply it.
Remeber they can be played as lines as well as chords.
Have fun.
http://www.activebass.com/basics/ctable.asp

Thanks, Ive now realised that there was this shuffle stly bass line i have been playing that i got from a sight and it is bassically just the A Major chord made in to a shuffle feel line

[dontcallmeQRACK]

Originally Posted by fretlessman71

Why would you want to play chords on a bass? Unless you're Jeff Berlin or Michael Manring, of course...

Arpeggios!

[rarisgod]

From what I've heard, chords are one of the most useful things to learn in musical theory! I have not been able to bring myself to learn much about them yet, and I really think it's what is hurting my playing at the moment.

So speaking of this, does anyone have a really good site where I can learn chord theory, or at least the basics of it?

Chords are extremely important to walking basslines too, I imagine, which is where I'd also like to experiment.

[Brick Top]

Originally Posted by rarisgod

So speaking of this, does anyone have a really good site where I can learn chord theory, or at least the basics of it?

Introduction to Scale and Chord Theory

[RDUB]

A really great book that I've used with some of my students, (and I freely admit have never mastered myself - must go back to it and shed one of these days!), is The Chordal Approach by Michael T. Dimin. As he says in the intro, learning to better understand and incorporate harmony into your bass playing can give you a much better understanding of functional harmony, train your ear better, let you play as a soloist or in non-standard combos, like trumpet and bass alone.

I've used some of his ideas playing in a local trio - piano, bass, and vocalist. I use chords and double stops to add more interest to the music. The really big advantage of understanding chords so well is that it gives you a whole new palette for your own bass lines, especially the walking lines you're talking about, rarisgod.

It's another tool, guys! Check it out, play around with it, and have fun!

[fretlessman71]

Allow me to explain my comment, as it's been commented upon so much here...

I have had a number of bass students who learned guitar chord shapes and transferred them to their bass, and wondered why it sounded so bad... yet another group of young players who didn't want to learn single note lines and wanted to play chords like their guitarist friends so they could play the same songs... still another subset of students who think they're ALREADY playing "chords" when they're really just playing the root note over and over again. ("Playing chords" not the same as "Playing OVER chords".)

So allow me to apologize if I came across as abrasive, but I will also remind those of you who didn't major in english that a question that begins with "Why?" can be answered very well with a statement that begins with "Because..."

Knowing the NOTES of the chords - very important and useful.

PLAYING chords on a bass - only useful if YOU think it's cool (which, to be fair, is the only reason you'd ever want to do anything on a bass: if YOU think it's cool).

I have two favourite chords on bass and they're pretty simple

One is an octave with a high fifth, so for example from fret 10 it would be fret 10 on string 1, fret 12 on string 3 and fret 14 on string 4. I love that chord it is very full but remains spacious. It provides a lot of bulk and sort of peaceful clarity and power without muddying up the low end too much.

And recently my new favourite chord is an inverted power chord. A power chord only has a 1, a 5 and an 8(octave). But I play the fifth in the bottom, so it's fifth, first, fifth.

I got this idea from listening to this music from namibia which had accordian and some wicked bass. But the accordian is very encouraging of inversions (due to it's design - the chordal accompaniment buttons are rows of inversions organised in perfect fourths) so the music was full of these great flowing 2nd inversions (a second inversion is where you put the 5th at the bottom of the chord). If you alternate between regular and inverted it sounds great.

I also find it useful to know chord shapes because they're usually important notes in a given tonality so they're kind of nice to bounce around.

I'm all for chords. The one thing is that with the bass, you can't ignore the sound your making and just follow theory in a way that a guitar player could feasibly get away with. If you do this you'll sometimes sound bad/inappropriate/unmusical or whatever. For example, just because you 'can technically' play an added six, doesn't mean it's going to sound good necessarily. It might sound muddy. Of course it's all about context, so sometimes muddy is good! You might want to go for it then. But don't ignore how the texture gets affected because it's much different in the lower frequencies than in the higher ones.

In a new zun zun tune I play a very muddy chordal bass line which is very repetitive and has a percussive quality and the proximity of two low tones (a major third) creates a really awesome growl which I resolve to the note in between to create a sort of pulsation. This would not sound anywhere near as good with just the simple notes. That's another way I've used chords to take advantage of muddiness.

Some people will say you shouldn't use chords if you're a bass player but they're not to be listened to art and creation is about doing what you want and trusting your own judgement.

Oh yeah, also from chords you can get 'broken chords'. Which just means playing each tone at a slightly different time. But it's easier to think of the pattern as a chord rather than separate notes because then you can kind of finger pick it.

Also, that's another thing - I would recommend learning the guitar fingerpicking techniques too for bass because there's a lot you can do that wouldn't appear obvious any other way. A lot of african bass players use the thumb and forefinger technique, as do I, and it works great - it's essentially a hang over from chordal playing. It can be very percussive. If you listen to Extra Golden for example, their bass lines use this technique and sound great.

I know lots of guys are totally dedicated to the two fingers hanging down at oh so accurate an angle and plucking the strings just right etc etc... This is only ONE WAY of playing bass!! There are many alternatives and the finger and thumb technique is a really groovy one that makes much bigger jumps across strings very flowing.

[Mike Dimin]

Originally Posted by RDUB

A really great book that I've used with some of my students, (and I freely admit have never mastered myself - must go back to it and shed one of these days!), is The Chordal Approach by Michael T. Dimin. As he says in the intro, learning to better understand and incorporate harmony into your bass playing can give you a much better understanding of functional harmony, train your ear better, let you play as a soloist or in non-standard combos, like trumpet and bass alone.

I've used some of his ideas playing in a local trio - piano, bass, and vocalist. I use chords and double stops to add more interest to the music. The really big advantage of understanding chords so well is that it gives you a whole new palette for your own bass lines, especially the walking lines you're talking about, rarisgod.

It's another tool, guys! Check it out, play around with it, and have fun!

Thanks for the kind words ... check is in the mail.