Let's talk a little about what you could do with those modes. Modes are great for lead solos, but, IMO a waste of time for what we spend 95% of our time doing -- accompanying the melody providing harmony and rhythm for the song. We can do this much better by playing chord tones, aka, playing notes of the
active chords. Why?
Little side trip into harmony. For the melody line, let's call that the treble clef; and the harmony line, and let's call that the bass clef; to harmonize and sound good together those two lines should share some of the same notes. How many notes? One per measure will get harmonization, two per measure would be better and three to four are really not necessary, it's like gravy, if you like gravy pour it on. How many like notes you use is left up to you; it's your bass line. Course you have to know what notes make up a chord. So let's start there. You'll want to bookmark this;
http://www.smithfowler.org/music/Chord_Formulas.htm
Let's start with how to create a bass line from the notes of the active chord. After that we will get into something else.
To do this I would first have to know the chords being used in the song. To do that I rely upon fake chord sheet music, aka chord charts. And before getting into all this, are you using fake chord sheet music now? If so read on, if not say so and we will help with how to play using a chord chart. Remember our little side trip into harmony. If we play the notes of the active chord good things are going to happen. Think of it this way; the song writer has inserted chords where needed to harmonize the melody, if we play notes of that chord we too harmonize the melody -- and sound good. Find the chords and play notes of the chord. I'm sure you have heard this, that's what the old guys were getting at when they said to play the notes of the chord.
Bass Patterns based upon the Major Scale box.
Major Scale Box.
G|---2---|-------|---3---|---4---| 1st string
D|---6---|-------|---7---|---8---|
A|---3---|---4---|-------|---5---|
E|-------|---R---|-------|---2---|4th string
Cmaj7 chord coming up in the song. Find a C note on your 3rd or 4th string and put the box's "R" over that note; then play the spelling for the maj7 chord. That spelling is listed below and is R-3-5-7. So if you play some of those notes under a Cmaj7 chord you will harmonize with what is happening in the song. That's it, not a step for a stepper. Find the active chord and play notes of that chord.
Basic Chord spellings
- Major Triad = R-3-5
- Minor Triad = R-b3-5
- Diminished Chord = R-b3-b5
7th Chord spellings
- Maj7 = R-3-5-7
- Minor 7 = R-b3-5-b7
- Dominant 7 = R-3-5-b7
- ½ diminished = R-b3-b5-b7
- Full diminished = R-b3-b5-bb7
See a chord and play it's chord tones. As every key will have three major, three minor and one diminished chord it's a good idea to get your major, minor and diminished bass line chord tones into muscle memory so when you see a chord your fingers just know what will work. Now the song may only give you enough room for the root, or root five - adapt and get as many chord tones into your bass line as needed. Root on 1 and a steady groove from the other chord tones plus something to call attention to the chord change is what we do.
Generic Notes - for your bass line. I assume your time signature is 4/4 or one quarter note per beat.
- The root, five and eight (R-5-8-5) are generic and fit most any chord. Remember the diminished has a flatted 5. So a bass line of R-5-8-5 is going to be the first bass line I recommend you get into muscle memory. Play the chord tones of the Cmaj7, now the Gmaj7, then the Dmaj7. Yep you are going to have to learn where the C, D and G notes are on your bottom two strings. After you can do that around the circle of 5ths then take on another generic bass line - dare I say riff.........
- The 3 is generic to all major chords. So R-3-5-3 will fit under any major chord.
- The b3 is generic to all minor chords. And R-b3-5-8 will fit under any minor chord. Why the 8? Well the 8 is just another root in the next octave.
- The 7 is generic to all maj7 chords. Yep, R-3-5-7 fits nicely.
- The b7 is generic to all dominant seventh and minor seventh chords. G7 = R-3-5-b7 or Gm7 = R-b3-5-b7.
- The 6 is neutral and adds color, help yourself to 6's. Love the sound of R-3-5-6 with a major chord.
- The 2 and 4 make good passing notes. Don't linger on them or stop on them, keep them passing.
- In making your bass line help yourself to those notes, just use them correctly.
- Roots, fives, eights and the correct 3 & 7 will play a lot of bass.
OK that's enough. This should get you started playing from chord charts and knowing why you are playing the notes you played. This may take you a week or so to get it under your fingers - take the time. Baby steps, a little today more tomorrow.
See what you can do with this:
http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtdFPE.asp?ppn=MN0092997&ref=google It's OK to dumb down the chords, i.e. that Em7(b5) Em7 is good enough for right now. The Dm/F on slash chords we play the slash or F and the treble clef guys get the Dm. Just roots at first; main thing is see what you can do composing your own bass lines.
