New member stuck and needs help!!!

[jdlord]

I have been reading this forum and want to say thanks for all of the great info. I have just started playing the bass for my church and they do mostly the new contemporary stuff. I can play along with all of the root notes quite well but I am having trouble learning how to spice it up a little. I am just now learning my scales and modes and anything else I can figure out but I am have such a hard time applying what I am learning. I was wondering if you guys had any advice that might help me out. thanks in advance for everything. david

[crack-boom]

Originally Posted by jdlord

I have been reading this forum and want to say thanks for all of the great info. I have just started playing the bass for my church and they do mostly the new contemporary stuff. I can play along with all of the root notes quite well but I am having trouble learning how to spice it up a little. I am just now learning my scales and modes and anything else I can figure out but I am have such a hard time applying what I am learning. I was wondering if you guys had any advice that might help me out. thanks in advance for everything. david

hey david,

um try playing octives or something when you can... with some of the songs we play at church ill throw in an octive on some of the root notes when i can and as long as it sounds good and fits.

im just learning as well but maybe joining notes too? like when going from d to f# put in an e... similarly when going say from a d to an a throw in a g# or something... im sure more people know more about what im talking about.

thomas

[jdlord]

Thanks for the reply. I understand what you are saying and I do all of that. I guess what I was getting at was I am kind of bored with using roots and the leading tones and simple stuff. I cant seem to get past that point.

[steve66]

Can you tape the songs?. Since you already know the root notes, learn the chords, Try connecting the chords.

[DudeistMonk]

Learn the notes in the chords (arpeggios), use those notes to spice it up. Hit the root as the first beat of the measure and then fill the rest in with chord tones, 5ths always work because they are the same in Major/Minor and so do octaves, other than that major 3rds for major chords, minor 3rds for minor chords, 7th for 7 chords, and the 6th for 6 chords.

So for a Major chord with the root C you could play C-E-G-C and once you are comfortable doing that you can start working out what scales go with what chords. In this case it would be the C Major scale which is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. Any tones from that scale would work as long as you don't place emphasis on the 4th which clashes with the third of the chord.

If you had a C7 chord (the 7 is implied to be minor, unless noted) your chord tones would be C-E-G-Bb-C and you would use the mixolydian scale.

if you had a Cmin your chord would be C-Eb-G-C and you would play the minor scale.