bass and guitar combining notes to get a chord?

[TheSlug]

Hi
Can a guitar play a three note chord and the bass play another note to make a different chord?
I.E: The guitar plays an F major, and the bass a D note, and they together make a Dm7? will it sound like a Dm7, or will it sound like the bass is playing the wrong root?
I tried to do a recording of it, but it sounded dissonant, chords do have dissonance though.Maybe its how i play the guitar.

 

[Bob_Ross]

Yes, absolutely correct. In your example (bass plays D while guitar plays F major triad) it will sound like a Dm7. This is one of the beauties of being the bass player: We control the harmony!

 

[bholder]

Hi
Can a guitar play a three note chord and the bass play another note to make a different chord?
I.E: The guitar plays an F major, and the bass a D note, and they together make a Dm7? will it sound like a Dm7, or will it sound like the bass is playing the wrong root?
I tried to do a recording of it, but it sounded dissonant, chords do have dissonance though.Maybe its how i play the guitar.

Sure, though 7ths are particularly tricky, because they're dissonant with the root, and inverting it with the 7th underneath generally puts it right under the guitarist's low note, which is usually the root. But yeah, pick and choose carefully, it works.

 

[Clef_de_fa]

Welcom in the world of bass.

The bass can play all the notes of a chord no problem. It is called an inversion because the lowest note isn't the root. It is the best way to make thing interesting.

 

[mambo4]

the previous 2 posts might seem to imply that the OP's example
(bass playing D under an F maj chord) is some kind of inversion.
It is not an inversion. It's a Dm7 and D is the root.

If the bass played any other note (F, A, C) then it would be an inversion of D min 7.

 

[Rev J]

In jazz they call that "Rootless Voicing". The essential idea is that the guitar or piano is playing the upper voices of a chord and the bass is playing the root. Essentially Jazz harmony can be broken down to stacking triads major, minor augmented, diminished, and suspended either over different roots in the bass or combing and spreading them out across the instruments.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[TheSlug]

Thanks for the replies and answers, guys. So the short answer is, yes, it'll become a Dm7.
I know about inversions, it's been used in many songs. Letting the guitar play the 3rd, 5th and 7th in a chord, and let the bass play the root is however something I haven't experienced, but this helps with me deciding what chords to play in songs.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Thanks for the replies and answers, guys. So the short answer is, yes, it'll become a Dm7.
I know about inversions, it's been used in many songs. Letting the guitar play the 3rd, 5th and 7th in a chord, and let the bass play the root is however something I haven't experienced, but this helps with me deciding what chords to play in songs.

Whoa --- " letting the bass play the root -- something I haven't experienced". Playing the root note of the active chord is the bread and butter of what a bass does.

If you are not doing that we need stop talking about inversions and what notes the bass plays and what notes the guitar plays..... and help you with how to play a basic accompaniment bass line. That starts with playing root notes of the active chord; to the beat (rhythm) of the song.

Trying to help, if I have miss-read -- sorry. Hit me on the head and I'll go back to sleep.

 

[lz4005]

Whoa --- " letting the bass play the root -- something I haven't experienced". Playing the root note of the active chord is the bread and butter of what a bass does.

If you are not doing that we need stop talking about inversions and what notes the bass plays and what notes the guitar plays..... and help you with how to play a basic accompaniment bass line. That starts with playing root notes of the active chord; to the beat (rhythm) of the song.

Trying to help, if I have miss-read -- sorry. Hit me on the head and I'll go back to sleep.

You have misread. He's talking about the bass playing the root while the guitar does not also play the root of the chord.

 

[Biggbass]

something like this?
George Martin is playing a piano chord atop Harrison's Fadd9 (or "F with a G on top," as he said in early 2001) played on his 12-string Rickenbacker, Lennon's Fadd9 played on his Gibson J-160E and McCartney's single note (D) played on his Hofner 500/1 bass.

 

[SteveCS]

In jazz they call that "Rootless Voicing". The essential idea is that the guitar or piano is playing the upper voices of a chord and the bass is playing the root. Essentially Jazz harmony can be broken down to stacking triads major, minor augmented, diminished, and suspended either over different roots in the bass or combing and spreading them out across the instruments.

C/S,
Rev J

Anywhere else, especially where the instruments are predominantly monophonic or have restricted polyphony like most orchestral instruments, and it's simply called arrangement. There are plenty of SATB arrangements where the bass voice does not always sing the bass part or where the lowest note is not the root of the chord.

 

[mambo4]

another common term for bass inversions is "dirty looks from the rest of the band"

 

[Rev J]

Anywhere else, especially where the instruments are predominantly monophonic or have restricted polyphony like most orchestral instruments, and it's simply called arrangement. There are plenty of SATB arrangements where the bass voice does not always sing the bass part or where the lowest note is not the root of the chord.

I understand that. Arranging was my favorite course in music school. I was trying to simplify the concept to fit this format.

C/S,
Rev J

 

[TheSlug]

Whoa --- " letting the bass play the root -- something I haven't experienced". Playing the root note of the active chord is the bread and butter of what a bass does.

If you are not doing that we need stop talking about inversions and what notes the bass plays and what notes the guitar plays..... and help you with how to play a basic accompaniment bass line. That starts with playing root notes of the active chord; to the beat (rhythm) of the song.

Trying to help, if I have miss-read -- sorry. Hit me on the head and I'll go back to sleep.

Sorry for late reply. What lz4005 said, if a guitar player plays I.E. an Fm, which contains of F, Ab, C, and the bass player then plays a C#, you have C#, F, Ab, C, which is a C#maj7. The guitarist plays an Fm, but that is not the chord in the song (somewhat)

You have misread. He's talking about the bass playing the root while the guitar does not also play the root of the chord.

 

[EdsSR505]

While recording an EP I inquired about harmonizing with the bass, the sound engineer looked at me like I was nuts so I dropped it. I wanted to take a 3rd or 5 above the root note. The dude was no slacker, national act guy and started on bass himself. If only we were allowed to be creative outside of funk.

 

[40Hz]

I've always called it reharmonization when we do that.

Check out Aerosmith's Dream On starting at the 3:25 mark where Tommy Hamilton reharmonizes the line and Steve Tyler sings up an octave to kick the whole song up a notch for the finale.

This video does a nice job of describing how it works.

 

[SteveCS]

I understand that. Arranging was my favorite course in music school. I was trying to simplify the concept to fit this format.

C/S,
Rev J

I know you do but really I just thought 'arrangement' was the simplest most obvious term, mainly because the musical meaning is so close to the common meaning. My post was more for OP benefit than disagreeing with anything you said...

 

[lz4005]

Playing suspended root chords and letting the bass alone supply the root is more common on instruments with fewer strings. Ukuleles, tenor guitars, mandolins, etc.

That way you can do 5 note chords on a 4 string instrument.

It can be an arrangement choice on guitar but it's never a necessity when you have 6 strings.

 

[TheSlug]

Once again, there are numerous ways to play that Fm chord on the guitar.

Here are just a few of them from Guitar Pro.
View attachment 1073956 View attachment 1073957 View attachment 1073958

So what you are saying is that it is best to do when the guitar player plays root, 3rd, 5th and in that order? Because all of the different ways of playing an Fm that is in your example, they all consisted of F, Ab, C, and only that. Maybe not in that order, but... I'm just asking, not trying to cavil. I'm asking because I honestly don't know.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Sure - but often the bass playing a non-triad chord won't work well, especially if sustained.