Bm-C#7 to Bm7? Questions.

[Blunt]

Chord tones can never do you wrong. They are the bass of it all. A nice arpeggio can lift a line as can a inversion.

 

[oli@bass]

With the given progression

Bm - C#7 - Bm7

I'd try to play more rythmic and stay on the B as pedal note. Thus you'd play the root, seventh, root, which can sound very cool. Naturally, all depending on style.

 

[Depth_Charge]

There are tons of things you can do, depending on the style of the tune.

It really depends on the style of music you're playing.

+1
I agree. We need more info.

It's hard to know without context.

Naturally, all depending on style.

OK, I get the message

The reference song is "Bubbly" by Colbie Callait. I'm not good at defining genre's but I'd say it's a folky ballady thing. It never really moves off the progression except on the bridge, and the song pretty much exists to sell the singer IMHO.

The recorded bass line is pretty good and I can play it relatively well but I feel it's a little repetitive for playing live, so I was looking for some other options to play over it in some parts, and I was deliberately vague to get more options and discussion rather than people zone in on what is happening in the context of one song.

Plus, if I can learn some theory along the way, that's all good. I think I learned some today. Maybe

 

[mutedeity]

OK, I get the message

The reference song is "Bubbly" by Colbie Callait. I'm not good at defining genre's but I'd say it's a folky ballady thing. It never really moves off the progression except on the bridge, and the song pretty much exists to sell the singer IMHO.

The recorded bass line is pretty good and I can play it relatively well but I feel it's a little repetitive for playing live, so I was looking for some other options to play over it in some parts, and I was deliberately vague to get more options and discussion rather than people zone in on what is happening in the context of one song.

Plus, if I can learn some theory along the way, that's all good. I think I learned some today. Maybe

Actually, in terms of a scale based melody the two chords contain all the information you need to form a seven tone scale, and the fact that it has a dominant implies where the tonal centre is quite strongly.

If you were to base your melody on F# harmonic minor you would be on the right track in most cases.

 

[Mushroo]

I think if the people who are saying "it's an unresolved secondary dominant of F# harmonic minor" re-read the original post, it's pretty clear the chord is C#minor7 and the song is in A

 

[projectMalamute]

The guitars are progressing as above. I presume the chords are:

B minor, C sharp seventh and b minor seventh.

I think if the people who are saying "it's an unresolved secondary dominant of F# harmonic minor" re-read the original post, it's pretty clear the chord is C#minor7 and the song is in A

You might want to re-read that post yourself.

iv - V7 - iv in F sharp minor.

 

[Mushroo]

Yeah, but keep reading...

Third, the song progresses A, C#m, D, A on the verse and chorus and C#m, D, E, Bm-C#m7, Bm7. How do I derive the scale this is from?

And if you STILL think it's in F# Minor, give this a listen

 

[projectMalamute]

Yeah, but keep reading...



And if you STILL think it's in F# Minor, give this a listen

So it modulates to the relative major.

The progression he asked about is not in A.

 

[Festus]

Hang on! I know what you need to do! you need to play just root notes with the following pedals on: Octaver into a fuzz into an Envelope filter then into a dirty great big ampeg!

It's funny how the simplest bass lines can be effected into something that the 'right' notes just can't do.

Put that in yer pipe and smoke it!

 

[Mushroo]

You might want to re-read that post yourself.

iv - V7 - iv in F sharp minor.

Oh right on I just figured out why we're confused. Technically we're both right

The original poster typed "C#7" which of course would suggest F# minor (you're right); however, I assumed it was a typo, and my advice was based on the chord being C#min7 (or C#m7, as the OP writes it) and the song's in the key of A Major, based on the entire song's progression the OP gave in the body of the original post (I'm right too).

To Depth Charge, I think you can learn 3 valuable lessons from this thread:
1) You have to be really precise when talking about theory, because small differences in nomenclature (C#7 vs C#min7 for example) can have a big difference not only in sound, but also in what sort of progression they imply.
2) As bass players, sometimes we have to play in situations where we're not 100% sure about a particular chord or progression. This is why so many people are saying things like "play the root" or "keep it simple"--these are great strategies!
3) When we didn't know which song it was and we couldn't hear it, we came up with all kinds of different explanations of what was going on! Always trust your ears

 

[TonyP-]

For me, the spontaneous reaction would be to do D-C#-B (3rd-root-root) or B-C#-D to get a nice little run.

That does not sound bad.

B-C#-D (D being the minor 3rd)
You could turn it around with a little minor run in B centering it around the minor 3rd (d) and resolve back on the B or F# (5th).

 

[Ten Four One]

OK, I get the message

The reference song is "Bubbly" by Colbie Callait. I'm not good at defining genre's but I'd say it's a folky ballady thing. It never really moves off the progression except on the bridge, and the song pretty much exists to sell the singer IMHO.

The recorded bass line is pretty good and I can play it relatively well but I feel it's a little repetitive for playing live, so I was looking for some other options to play over it in some parts, and I was deliberately vague to get more options and discussion rather than people zone in on what is happening in the context of one song.

Plus, if I can learn some theory along the way, that's all good. I think I learned some today. Maybe

I've faced a similar situation in the past. For that folksy kind of stuff, if the chord progressions are slow enough, you can wander quite a bit of the root and practice your voice leading. What note in the first chord leads well into the second chord and so on.

 

[DocBop]

Correction I was referring to post #13.

To previous post I think the terms that you both are looking for are Resolving or Non-Resolving dominants. How you handle a dominant chord is determined by if it is resolving (moving in CoF) or isolated dominant(s) like Blues or a common chord sub is to replace minor 7 chord with dominant of same root (Ami7 replace with A7). From a theory POV this gets into the topic of secondary dominants.

In a solo situation when dominants are resolving you can typically take a lot of liberties with it. When dominants aren't resolving then need to play it safer and common scale of choice would be the Lydian b7 scale.

 

[Mushroo]

Guys, I hate to say it because I LOVE debating theory (and am partially responsible for getting the ball rolling back in #9), but should we maybe move this conversation about dominants to another thread? Because the song in question ("Bubbly" by Colbie Callait) doesn't actually have any dominant 7th chords in it AFAIK (we established way back in post #2 that C#7 was a typo), I think we're in serious danger of hopelessly confusing the OP...

edit: here we go: http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=435979

 

[Depth_Charge]

I will try to be more precise next time.