Bass line lesson

This lesson demonstrates the use of bass notes OTHER than root notes when playing chords. The usual "root note", or tonic, can be replaced by other notes, usually the 3 or 5 of the chord

In this first example, I use normal chords, with the root note as bass note (in BLUE). You can hear that the chords sound good together and make sense, but it is a rather bland sounding rendition of the progression. Read from left to right...

Blue arrow indicates open string root note. Don't play X strings.

G	G	C	A7	D	B7
Em	G	C	D7	G

Listen to it

Below are the same chords as above, but now I've used notes other than the root on some of the chords. You can now hear a bass line melody ( BLUE notes) which tends to lead the ear to the next chord, making this rendition much more interesting and musical. Notice the Em still uses uses an E bass note, but an octave higher. That's so that it fits into the bass line melody.

G	G/B	C	A7/C#	D	B7/D#
Em	G/B	C	D7/F#	G

Listen to it

graphics & sound files© 2001 Kirk Lorange