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Chords on a bass
- Thread starter bass theory
- Start date
This is why I come to the forum.....to share my wisdom and knowledge. (stares off to the horizon at a 32 degree angle)Dude, I'm stealing this and am going to use it as soon as I can
They would have paid you with or without chords. Quite possibly you lost a bonus doing such tomfoolery.
JeezyMcNuggles
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- Feb 23, 2018
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You've never played a power chord? Add the octave. If the root is on the e string, only play the fifth and octave.
JeezyMcNuggles
Inactive
- Feb 23, 2018
- 14,723
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- I suck, but nobody really notices
I play chords all the time. There is nothing but bass in this track. Well, and a looped drum beat.
I'm tuning in fifths now, and that really opens up a lot of good chord voicings. Like your standard triad gets voiced root-fifth-tenth instead of root-third-fifth, your seventh chord is root-seventh-tenth instead of root-third-seventh, and so on. The open voicings just sound a lot better below middle C.
Strummed chords on bass sound fine if right intervals are used. But I don’t give a rat’s ass to chords played on bass with a few exceptions (eg, Squire’s chord play in Gates of Delirium).
RE: Chords on a bass
I have on occasions used tonic- 5th intervals, but it’s pretty rare when I do when playing in an ensemble setting. That certainly doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.
Have you listen to some of the 6 string bassists out there? They are doing incredible art playing chords.
Lots of people have said similar: soloists can get away with it, or bands that maybe have been together a long time. When I play a sub gig or show up to audition for a group, I keep it simple. Never failed me yet.
But that kind of experimentation should be encouraged as you get more comfortable playing with a group, or for your solo work.
And it helped you figure out the basics of walking. 135 is the money walk, just like the first fifth frets are the money frets.
But that kind of experimentation should be encouraged as you get more comfortable playing with a group, or for your solo work.
And it helped you figure out the basics of walking. 135 is the money walk, just like the first fifth frets are the money frets.
A few things. The root and 5th that you are referring to, and how full that sounds, are what are known as "power chords". They are most commonly used by guitarists when playing with distortion because playing a full 6-note barre chord with distortion can just be too busy, crowded, and a bit of a distorted blur in the music. So these power chords are both easier to play and to hear. A good example is "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. That guitar riff is primarily power chords.
So the root and the 5th get the idea of a chord across even though lacking the third, there is no major or minor definition to it because they're not playing the 3rd and the 3rd is what gives it that chord its major or minor sound. You'll typically see a D power chord written on a chart as "D5" It's presumed a major chord, but if the bass decides to play a minor third in the pattern it can still sound good and can change the overall feeling of the chord. If you go playing power chords around guitar players though, it won't be long before you start getting the stink eye and, if you persist, told to stop.
Due to the register of the notes being played and the difficulty of hearing the chords clearly, you'll usually see bass chords used as part of bass solos or as accents at very specific places in a song where there's a lot of open space for the bass to do something such as play a chord where a bass chord can be clearly heard.
Another thing about chords, you need to have a really good cab to give them enough definition to actually hear all three notes of a complete chord. My DNS-210 and 410 cabs by DNA (I'm a DNA Endorsing Artist) do that really well. A cab with a muddy bottom end, won't do the trick. Also to avoid the muddy sound in bass chords, they are often played around or above the 12th fret. It's much easier to discern the difference in the notes when they're played up in a higher register. It's actually easier for the human ear to hear the difference between notes in those registers than in chords played down by the nut of the neck.
There's also a couple of different types of chords. There are open chords and closed chords. Open chords are usually played on a bass with one of the notes on the E string and the other two notes on the D and G string. Open chords have a bit of airiness or open space to the sound of the chord because some of the chord notes are more than an octave above the root. Closed chords are played with the notes closely together, typically on three adjacent strings and usually all notes are within an octave of the root. Closed chords sound more compact with less "space" because the notes are all closer together. They have what I would call a fuller sound to them.
So you can play the same chords with a different character to their sound by just going from a closed to an open version of the same chord and vice versa. You should play around with open and closed chords a bit on your recordings to get a feel for how they can change the character of the song.
So the root and the 5th get the idea of a chord across even though lacking the third, there is no major or minor definition to it because they're not playing the 3rd and the 3rd is what gives it that chord its major or minor sound. You'll typically see a D power chord written on a chart as "D5" It's presumed a major chord, but if the bass decides to play a minor third in the pattern it can still sound good and can change the overall feeling of the chord. If you go playing power chords around guitar players though, it won't be long before you start getting the stink eye and, if you persist, told to stop.
Due to the register of the notes being played and the difficulty of hearing the chords clearly, you'll usually see bass chords used as part of bass solos or as accents at very specific places in a song where there's a lot of open space for the bass to do something such as play a chord where a bass chord can be clearly heard.
Another thing about chords, you need to have a really good cab to give them enough definition to actually hear all three notes of a complete chord. My DNS-210 and 410 cabs by DNA (I'm a DNA Endorsing Artist) do that really well. A cab with a muddy bottom end, won't do the trick. Also to avoid the muddy sound in bass chords, they are often played around or above the 12th fret. It's much easier to discern the difference in the notes when they're played up in a higher register. It's actually easier for the human ear to hear the difference between notes in those registers than in chords played down by the nut of the neck.
There's also a couple of different types of chords. There are open chords and closed chords. Open chords are usually played on a bass with one of the notes on the E string and the other two notes on the D and G string. Open chords have a bit of airiness or open space to the sound of the chord because some of the chord notes are more than an octave above the root. Closed chords are played with the notes closely together, typically on three adjacent strings and usually all notes are within an octave of the root. Closed chords sound more compact with less "space" because the notes are all closer together. They have what I would call a fuller sound to them.
So you can play the same chords with a different character to their sound by just going from a closed to an open version of the same chord and vice versa. You should play around with open and closed chords a bit on your recordings to get a feel for how they can change the character of the song.
I play octaves and fifths regularly on bass, always have, and it fills things in when done appropriately.
It's also a really heavy sound in a rock song when done right.
Lots of chords are very challenging to play musically on bass in a way that sits well in a mix.
Depends on your style of music, of course.
Solo bass material has a ton of chords, often.
It's also a really heavy sound in a rock song when done right.
Lots of chords are very challenging to play musically on bass in a way that sits well in a mix.
Depends on your style of music, of course.
Solo bass material has a ton of chords, often.
I've always used chords. At least since I learned how. Gives the bass a nice emphasis on those portions, and can thicken up the sound. Of course, they don't work everywhere, but I see no reason NOT to play chords on a bass. I've actually recently been thinking I need to actively start learning more theory to incorporate this idea.
I use double stops and chords all the time.
i like to play chords on bass for the appropriate music. many types of music seem to do better without chords, though - motown and death metal would rarely to never be the appropriate music, imo...
