Note playing - thought process

[Andrew Hargrove]

It could be just to get you thinking more across the strings than up and down the neck.
As a pianist you probably have more note concepts than us who learned notes as bassists.

 

[Groove Doctor]

How do you think about the notes you play during a groove (enhancing a Chord)
Do you think of them in terms of modes, numbers, actual individual notes

Several different thought processes
- numbers/ function/ scale degree.
- names
- sound esp tension-release
- inversions eg 1st, 2nd, etc.
- box patterns eg. 235689 in C is DEGACD
- chords/ modes/scales
eg. Dm6 implies a Dorian mode,
- pool / collection of notes when not fitting with a standard mode etc.
- arc of a bass line esp walking bass.

Soloing it varies a lot… but when I’m in the zone I play what I hear in my head.

 

[porkynuggets]

I am a bass player that started as a keyboardist and for the longest I have been playing bass always thinking about “piano notes” when I play bass.
I recently started taking some bass lessons and my teacher is having me learn to remember / memorize the notes as numbers, he calls them by their note function etc.
Let me see if I can ask this the way I am thinking of it: How do you think about the notes you play during a groove (enhancing a Chord) and or when soloing / improvising? Do you think of them in terms of modes, numbers, actual individual notes ??

Not much thinking going on here

But usually think about root, and the sound of the interval from the root. If I have to verbalize, the intervals are described as numbers. Root, third, fifth, seventh, etc

But when I'm playing I just think of what sound I want to hear and the hands comply