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Bass Chords?

I'll throw in my two-cents on bass chords too. :)

Do not use them often, and when you do, 5ths, 4ths, and thirds seem to be the best.

For example, playing a low open B and a low F# would sound terrible, so play that at least up an octave. Minor thirds can really make a song sound good, major thirds are pretty common too. When playing 4ths, play down a 4th. For example: C# on the G-string, and G# on the D-string sounds good (movable pattern.)

I'm done rambling. :hyper:
 
Chords, triads and double stops do not sound good on the lower registers because the fundimental frequencies of the notes are too close together and instead of the ear hearing a nice "chorusing" effect for those tiny tuning inconsistencies, the ear hears it as "mud". YIK! Unpleasant!

Octaves are good at any note as they fill up the notes, and 3rds and 5ths also work well. You can get away with more complex chords up the neck.

But on the B and E strings near the nut, keep it simple.

Use your ear. You'll soon discover what sounds good or not.
 
here are some lessons

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check out the ones entitled "Chord Study ..."

Also check out the lessons on bassically.net that you can get from that page.

If they work for you, I think I can find that guy whose name starts with "D"

mike Dimin
 
Chords are nice on the bass, just mainly in the upper regimen (D and G strings, sometimes A if the note on this string is the bottom of a chord). Flea uses a very nice sounding , yet simple chord progression on Don't Forget Me. Stanley Clarke busts out some chords on School Days. Les Claypool plays some chords on a few songs. Even the semi-hated Mark Hoppus uses chords on Carousel. Also, when I say chords, its mainly "half" chords, like power chords...three+notes of a chord sounds really muddy most of the time on bass.
 
I sometimes do a little root-third-octave thing sometimes. I like to do a rhythm thing where I slap the root, and then strum the others with the top of my fingers using my nails. Maybe if I can record a sample, I might post it later, but here is the tab for it...

G|------14------14
D|------11------11
A|---12---12-12---
E|-----------------

I think I pretty much saw something *like* this in a Les Claypool interview and pretty much snagged it.

Also, if you're having someone play over top of your chords, don't forget the ever quality absent root-fifth-octave

G|---14--14--12----
D|---14--14--12--12
A|---12--12--10--12
E|----------------10

or something of that nature. These are pretty generic and are pretty much "We need the bass to make as much noise to fill out sound here..." type of things I have picked up.


Then I also using a guitar-like finger style on a bass and vocal arrangment of "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John, but I take a lot of liberties with that one :p