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Tonic

#23
icarus88 said:
Many famous musicians claim they don't know music theory.
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I've posted before that there are 4 ways to understand a musical concept:
  1. how it sounds
  2. how it's executed
  3. what it's commonly called
  4. how its notated
The cliche master player who "doesn't know theory" is usually well versed in the first 2, sometimes 3, and somewhat ignorant of 4.
 
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#28
icarus88 said:
...
Sorry for the constant stupid questions
...
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Just to be clear, there are no stupid questions. You might see some stupid answers, such as "why do you even want to learn this stuff?", but there are no stupid questions...

icarus88 said:
After learning all the scales, I will also learn the Phrygian and Egyptian scales.
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So then you will need to know and recognise 'me/maw', 'la/law', 'fah/fe', 'te/taw', 'soh/se' and 'me/maw'...
 
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#30
Aloe said:
tonic works better with some gin. use it after you play, not before.
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These two together will put you in the right place…

IMG_4741.jpeg
IMG_4742.jpeg


:)
 
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#31
Nightsprinter said:
Now I remember why I dropped out of music class in college. I understand the very important nature of music theory, but it seems like no matter how old I get, I just can't comprehend it and will forever be a "by ear" player. I feel like I've tried everything :(
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College music programs require at least a basic knowledge of theory as a foundation. I'm sure if you started with the basics, it would make sense to you. Maybe start here: www.musictheory.net
 
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#32
MonetBass said:
College music programs require at least a basic knowledge of theory as a foundation. I'm sure if you started with the basics, it would make sense to you. Maybe start here: www.musictheory.net
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musictheory.net also has a fretboard note identification tool, which might be helpful for those struggling to figure out what note is where on the fretboard: Fretboard Note Identification. It is guitar-focused, but the high E string has the same notes as the low E (two octaves up), and if you play a 5-string bass you'll have a B string (lower, but still the same note names).
 
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#33
icarus88 said:
Hello, I just started playing bass guitar, I'm studying with music theory. But as far as I looked for on the internet, I couldn't understand how the tonic works. Now, do I need to play the root note in this bass line, or the tonic notes written above, or both? Or are these chords? Thanks
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The tonic is the note which the key gets its name from.
in Cmaj, C is the tonic...in C minor it is as well...:-)
 
#34
icarus88 said:
Hello, I just started playing bass guitar, I'm studying with music theory. But as far as I looked for on the internet, I couldn't understand how the tonic works. Now, do I need to play the root note in this bass line, or the tonic notes written above, or both? Or are these chords? Thanks
Click to expand...
Root and Tonic are related but not the same. The Tonic is the note that the Key of the song is written in. So that's the sound that the entire song is built around.

As part of that song we have many different cords. A "C" chord is made up of the the notes "C-E-G". That's a major chord Chords are presumed to be "major chords" unless there is a modifier with them. A "C-minor chord" has a far different sound than a C major chord and it consists of the notes "C-Eb-G" and is notated as "Cm". Cm=C-minor. There are all kinds of "C" chords - C, Cm, C7, Cmaj7, Csus4, Cdim, C9, C11, C9b5, etc. All of these C chords have taken the C major chord and modified it by changing or adding one or more notes. So they are all C chords but all sound different than the C major chord. The one thing they have in common is they all are C chords. The note "C" is the "root" note of all those chords. They are all built around the note C.

Same thing with all the D chords, E chords, F chords, etc. In the Key of "C" you will have an F-chord, and a G-chord that will often be played in the song. In the key of C, the "Tonic" is the C-note. The F is the "root note" of the F chord and the G is the "root note" of the G chord but the Tonic remains the same. So each chord has a root note and the Tonic could be looked at as the "root note/chord of the key". The roots change with the chords. The Tonic only changes when the key is changed.

To make it clearer, or perhaps muddy the waters, these chords are often charted as "I", "IV", "V" (1-4-5). The I is tonic, the IV is the fourth note of that scale (subdominant), and the V is the 5th note (dominant) of that scale. This is handy to know because it tells you the structure of the song and you can move it to any key you want. Most blues songs use that progression of a version of that progression. In the Key of C, the I-IV-V progression is C-F-G. If the singer can't sing the song in that key he or she may ask you to do it in the key of A. In the Key of A, the I-IV-V is A-D-E. So if the singer needed it to be "transposed" to the key of E, what would the chords be (presuming all are major chords)? (E-A-B)

So if you know how to play the song in the key of C, and you need to play it in A, you can continue to use the same patterns that you play on your bass in C, but move them to the new tonic, starting on A. Learn it in the most common key and move your patterns around on your fretboard as needed to play it in the new key. That I-IV-V structure in C still remains the I-IV-V structure in A. Once you understand that, transposing becomes a fairly simple thing to do. All you're doing is moving the Tonic around to play the same patterns in a different key.
 
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#35
icarus88 said:
Hello, I just started playing bass guitar, I'm studying with music theory. But as far as I looked for on the internet, I couldn't understand how the tonic works. Now, do I need to play the root note in this bass line, or the tonic notes written above, or both? Or are these chords? Thanks
Click to expand...
Sorry, didn't see that you had attached a chart to your question. In the future, when you want people to see something, please select "Full Size" instead of "Thumbnail" after you've uploaded the picture. Nobody can't read a chart off a thumbnail or even get an idea of what it represents, so "full-size" please. The program on TB will display it so it fits in the page space allowed so you can see it, and will also allow you to click on it to make it the full size that you uploaded.

Back to your chart. The point of that chart is that you don't have to use the root note of the chord that is being played. You can play a chord tone, which is one of the notes of that chord. for instance in your example, the chord A is the second chord played but the note that is written for you to play is the C#. The C# is "the third" of the A-chord and that's the note that determines if it's a major or minor chord. In the Key of A, C# defines that chord as an A major chord. So it's one of the sounds in the A chord. As long as you use one of the notes that spell out the chord, this will sound fine. We basically spell out chords note by note playing bass as opposed to playing them all at once like a guitar does. As long as you use those notes of the chord (known as chord-tones), it will sound fine when the rest of the band is playing the chord.

This technique is really common with walking bass lines. It offers you a lot more choices of what you can play and how it sounds. Very often in walking bass lines, we move to the closest chord tone to what our current fingering is for the next chord. It's easier to finger and it fits. You really need to learn your chord structures though.

If you understand the notes that make up the different types of chords (major, minor, Maj7, Minor7, dim7, sus4, 9th, etc., that opens up lots of different notes you can play when you see that chord, instead of just being stuck playing the root of the chord. Lots of times the root "needs" to be played, but not always. And if you ever think about learning Jazz songs, you'll need to have a good understanding of not only this concept but also the actual notation structure of the different versions of the chords.
 
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