LearnGospelMusic.com Community
Gospel Instruments => Bass Guitar => Topic started by: uriahsmusic on February 11, 2005, 04:30:16 PM
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More theory!
You may have wondered at some point where these weird bass parts on new recordings come from. What are these people doing? Well basically they are breaking the rules from old school music. It used to be If I play an A chord..you play an A note on the bass…maybe move around a little and it turns out pretty good!
Those days are over in contemporary music! If the chord is A the bass player tries to create a different feel by playing just about any note in the scale or out of the scale! So what does this mean? It means it’s probably not an A anymore. That’s ok…but for discussions sake in terms of theory…it’s basically out of the window….
Now things are much jazzier and interesting. Basses no longer just serve to hold down the bottom. Also it makes it much more difficult to follow keyboardists who look at you like you did something crazy.
So what’s the bottom line? Learn your major and minor scales up and down the neck and be prepared to play a note that is outside of the name of the chord that is being played.
..Many keyboardists are layering chords and it will be harder to figure out which note serves best but with a little work and patience it can sound very nice.
Here is an example:
If the keyboard or guitar plays an Ab chord….you play C to D to E!
Or experiment playing a 4th or 5th with a chord!
They play a Ab …you play a Db or Eb
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:D I am a keyboard player soon to turn Bass player. I know all about those fancy, layered chords I thank God that I know what Bass can be run with each and every one of them because it can get a little tricky.
Once I learn the notes on the bass I can begin to play some slow and medium tempo songs. What are some methods you use to remember where the notes are on each string?
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...I mostly think in figures instead of theory cuz most keyboardists cant tell you what they are doing anyway!
I have certain major and minor patterns that I think sound great and i stick to them.
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something i learned is that chromatic stuff can be pretty hot to like if u were in Ab major and doing a 251 you could do
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---------7-6-5------------------
same thing for a 736