Bass Guitar Lessons

	Bass Guitar Lessons

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Here are 5 Bass Lessons from Steve Schmidt. These lessons are a great for those just starting out and are a valuable resource for more advanced players.

Lessons in Bass Line Construction

Lesson #1 - Preliminaries
Lesson #2 - The Role of the Bass Line
Lesson #3 - Beyond the Root Note
Lesson #4 - Chords and Bass Lines
Lesson #5 - Major Scales, Keys, Chord Changes, and the Circle of Fifths

Lesson #1 - Preliminaries

This is the first in a series of lessons whose focus is on constructing bass lines. The main series of lessons presumes a small but nonzero amount of musical knowledge on the part of the listener; mostly some things about notes and time. It also presumes you know how to read TAB. This pre-lesson is designed to teach that knowledge to anyone who doesn't already have it.

If you know how to find a C# on your bass, know what a quarter note rest is, and can read TAB, then you can skip the rest of this and move on to Lesson 2. If not, or if the review will do you good, then read on!

A piece of music is composed of a series of notes. These notes are organized into sets of 12 notes called octaves, and each of these 12 notes has a name. If you sit down at a piano, you'll see that it has 88 keys, 52 white and 36 black, and that each of these keys produces a different note. The white keys all have one-letter names; the first one on the left (lowest note) is called A, the next one up is B, and so on. The seventh white key is called G, and the next white key, the eighth, is also called A; it begins the second octave. The ninth white key is B, the tenth C, and so on, until the 52nd and last white note, which is a C.

The black keys are named by their relation to the nearest two white keys, so each one has two names. First, they may be called "sharp", with the name of the white key below them: eg, the lowest black key is called A sharp, as it's immediately above A. There is no black key immediately above B; the second black note is C#, and so on up the keyboard. Second, black keys may also be called "flat", with the name of the white key above them: thus, the lowest black note can also be thought of as B flat, since it's immediately below the B. Similarly, the black key between D and E can be called either D sharp or E flat. For now, you can treat the two names as interchangable.

An octave runs from A to G#, 12 notes (7 white keys and 5 black keys) and then the names repeat for the next octave. Actually, the starting point doesn't matter: any 12
notes in a row (which will always contain 7 white keys and 5 black keys) are called an octave.

The strings of a bass are tuned to produce the 4 notes E, A, D, and G (from thickest string to thinnest). Thus, if you play an E on the piano, and the open E string on your
bass, you'll get the same note (if you choose the right octave on the piano, that is). Moving up one fret on the string produces the next highest note. That is, the open A
string produces an A note (hence the name). Fingered at the first fret, it produces an A sharp, or B flat. Second fret produces a B. Third fret produces C (since there is no black key above B), fourth fret C sharp, and fifth fret produces D, the same note as the open D-string. And so on up the fingerboard. With this knowledge, you should be able to find two or three versions of each note on your bass. For example, you can get an F at the 1st fret of the E string, at the 3rd fret of the D string, at the 8th fret of the A string, and at the 10th fret of the G string. (The 3rd-D note and the 8th-A note are in the same octave: the 1st-E note is one octave below and the 10th-G note is one octave above.) Make sure you can find any given note somewhere on your bass without too much effort, and that you know the names of the notes produced by playing a given string at a given fret, at least up to the 12th fret.

The next thing to mention is the way songs are arranged in time. Songs are divided into measures: a common song length is about 100 measures. Each measure is a certain number of beats long: in almost all modern music there are four beats to each measure, although other length measures are also used. Each note in the song has a given duration, and a note that lasts for four beats is called a whole note. A note that lasts for two beats is called a half note, and two half notes are the same length as one whole note. Similarly, there are quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes. (In England these notes have different names. I'll be sticking to American usage throughout this lesson series.) Each quarter note receives one beat, and the quarter note is the basic building block of time and of rhythm. Eight eighth notes make up a four-beat measure, as you can see, as do four quarter notes and 16 sixteenth notes. Measures can contain notes of different lengths, so that a quarter note, a half note,and two eighth notes also make up one measure.

Other time durations can be written by "dotting" a note: in standard notation, one literally writes a dot next to the note. Dotting a note makes it last half again as long as it normally would. Thus, a quarter note lasts as long as two 8th notes: a dotted quarter note is 50% longer, so it lasts as long as three eighth notes. Thus, two quarter notes have the same length as a dotted quarter note and an eighth note. Similarly, a dotted half note lasts for the same amount of time as three quarter notes: a dotted half note and a quarter note together make up one measure.

The last thing to know is that rests, or times when the bass is not playing, are named the same way: thus, a whole rest means that the bass does not play for one measure. A quarter rest means that the bass does not play for one beat, and there are eighth rests and dotted half rests and so on. One last note: in some jazz and classical music, a note other than the quarter note is given the one-beat length. Since almost all music is written with the quarter note getting one beat, I've assumed it is so throughout the lesson series. However, if you get into more difficult music, you may run into music where the half-note or the eighth-note is one "beat" long. My advice is not to worry about this until it comes up.

Reading Bass Tab
Bass tabulature, or TAB for short, is a simple method for writing bass music. There are several different versions of tabulature, but the following features are common to almost all of them.

Bass tab is written on four-line staves. In text interfaces these are usually written using dashed characters. Each space corresponds to one string on the bass: the lowest
space corresponds to the E string, the next lowest to the A string, the next to the D string, and the highest to the G string. A number on a given space represents a note played at the given fret on the corresponding string; thus, to indicate playing a G at the third fret on the E string, one would write:

G------------------------------------
D------------------------------------
A------------------------------------
E----3-------------------------------

Notes are played from the left of the staff to the right; thus, an ascending G major scale might be written:

G------------------------------------
D-------------------2--4--5----------
A----------2--3--5-------------------
E----3--5----------------------------

Or, using open strings, it might be written like this:

G-------------------------0----------
D----------------0--2--4-------------
A-------0--2--3----------------------
E----3-------------------------------

Chords can be written by writing two numbers in the same vertical bar. Thus one might write a simple A major chord as:

G-----9------------------------------
D-----11-----------------------------
A-----0------------------------------
E------------------------------------

which means to play an open note on the A string, to play a C# at the 11th fret on the D string, and an E at the 9th fret on the G string.

Various fingering techniques can be noted in TAB as well. This is done by writing a single character after the note being fingered. The most common of these are:

h - hammer-on from previous note
p - pull off from previous note
\ - slide up to note
b - bend note
S - slap the note with the right-hand thumb (left hand if left-handed)
P - pop the note with the right hand (ditto)
t - tap the note with the right hand (ditto)
H - harmonic

Thus a funky bass line might be written like this:

G---------5P-7h-5p-------------------
D------------------------3b----------
A---0S\5-----------3S-5S----5S-5H---
E------------------------------------

A muted note (one that is not fingered cleanly and makes a percussive sound rather than a clear tone) is written by placing an x on a line instead of a number:

G------------5--7--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---5--x--x--------5--x--5-----------
E------------------------------------

Similarly, a rest is indicated by writing an r on a line (any line will do):

G------------5--7--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---5--r--r--------5--r--5-----------
E------------------------------------

When it is not obvious which left-hand (right-hand to lefties) finger should be used to to fret a particular note, this may be indicated by writing a number under the note, with 1=index finger, 2=middle finger, 3=ring finger, 4=pinkie finger, and rarely, 5-thumb:

G---------5--7--5--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---0--5-----------------------------
E------------------------------------
1 1 3

It is becoming popular to indicate time in TAB by writing over each note a letter indicating the time value of the note: s=sixteenth note, e=eighth note, q=quarter note, h=half note, w=whole note. It is possible to add dots to this system as is done with normal notes. In addition, vertical bars are usually used to indicate measure breaks. TAB noted this way might look like this:

w q s s e q h q. e e e s s e h
G-----|----5--7--5-------|-------------5--7--7-|----
D-----|------------------|-3--3--5--7----------|----
A---0-|-5-----------8--5-|---------------------|-5--
E-----|------------------|---------------------|----

End of Lesson #1. [Back to Top]

This lesson is copyright 1993 by Steve Schmidt. Permission to distribute this lesson without charge is granted, provided that it remain unaltered, including this notice. You may not charge money for the use of this lesson, and you may not alter the terms of this license.

Lesson #2 - The Role of the Bass Line

This is the second in a series of lessons whose focus is on constructing bass lines. The goal is to introduce players to the basic elements of music; to explain why the bass plays a particular note at a particular time and the effect that bass lines have on a piece of music. While most of the examples in the lessons will be drawn from rock music and blues (my particular genres), the basic principles being explained are applicable to any form of music featuring a bass line, whether played on an electric bass, acoustic bass, or other instrument. The lessons presume some minimal knowledge of music theory: mostly that one know the names of the notes (A, B, B-flat, etc), can find those notes on the bass, and have some notion of time (quarter-note, half-note, measure). Other concepts are introduced as needed, though not always in great detail, and if you have not studied music theory a good book on that subject might also be a good thing to read while learning to play bass. Examples will be given in TAB notation because of the ease of transmitting it over computer networks, although it is wise to learn to read standard music notation as well.

The first thing to understand in constructing your bass lines is the role that the instrument plays in the music. In almost all musical forms, the bass has two important functions to fulfill. First, the bass defines the chords being played and guides the movement of the music from one chord to another. This role is usually shared with a guitar or a piano. Second, the bass provides the rhythm of the music being played. This role is usually shared with the drums. Because it links the two functions of rhythm and harmony, the bass is often the instrument around which the rest of the music is organized. This lesson begins with a very brief discussion of chords, and then follows with a discussion of rhythm and how the bass defines it. Lesson 3 will take up the subject of chords in more detail.

All music is organized into chords. A chord is a set of three or more different notes being played simultaneously, with one of the notes being the root note of the chord and the other notes defining the type of chord being played. The job of the bass is to indicate which chord is being played at a given moment, and this is most easily achieved by playing the root note of the chord. For example, the song Dancing with Myself by Billy Idol is organized into 8-measure verses and choruses. In each of these 8-measure patterns, an E major chord is played in the first two measures, a A major chord is played in the 3rd and 4th measures, a B major chord is played in the 5th and 6th measures, and the A major chord again in the 7th and 8th measures. In each measure, the bass plays 8th notes on the root of the given chord:

(all notes 8th notes)

     E                                                  A
G-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
D-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
A-------------------------|------------------------|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|
E--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|------------------------|

Well I've been all around the world, and there's Every type of girl

                            B
G-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
D-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
A--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|-2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2-|-2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2-|
E-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|

But your Empty eyes seem to pass me by and leave me

   A
G-------------------------|------------------------|
D-------------------------|------------------------|
A--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|
E-------------------------|------------------------|

Dancing with myself... oh oh oh oh

This is a very simple bass line, but it fulfills both of its intended roles. First, it clearly indicates what chord is being played at any moment in the song, by playing only the
root note on each beat. There is a very large amount of music (dance music, heavy metal) in which most or all of the notes played by the bass are just the roots of the
chords being played by the band, and some very powerful bass lines can be written this way.

Secondly, this bass line gives a simple and clear rhythm to the song: an even rhythm of 8th notes. If you sing this bass line to yourself, you probably sing it as "dah dah
dah dah dah dah dah dah", with the same stress, or accent, on each beat. Other bass lines supply different rhythms using the root notes of the chords. For example, the bass line to the Police song Message in a Bottle also uses only root notes, but uses a very different rhythm. Over the verses, the bass line repeats this two-measure phrase:

        e    q e q. e e q   e q. e e
G----|----------------|---------------|
D----|----------------|---------------|
A--4-|--4--4--0--r--0-|-2--2--------4-|
E----|----------------|-------2---r---|

Just a castaway.... Island lost at sea, oh...

where the chords are C# minor, A major, B minor, and F# minor, and they change every half-measure. This rhythm stresses beats 1, 2, 2-and, and 4-and, by playing notes on those beats and holding notes, or resting, on the other beats. (Count each measure as 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and, providing 8 beats for the 8th notes to fall on. The accented beats are the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 8th of the 8th notes in the measure.) However, the chorus uses almost the same even 8th note beat as the Billy Idol song above does:

            e e e e e e e e   e e e q e e e
G--|------------------------|---------------------|
D--|------------------------|---------------------|
A--|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|-5--5--5--7--7--7--7-|
E--|------------------------|---------------------|

I'll send an SOS to the world....

where the chords are A major over the first bar, and D major and E major over the second bar. By varying the rhythm used over the two parts of the song (along with
variations by the drummer), the bassist adds considerable variety and style to the song, even though he hasn't played any notes except the root notes of the various chords.

Both of the above songs are organized aroud an 8th-note beat; that is to say, the smallest unit of rhythm is the 8th note. No 16th notes are used in the rhythm figures.
Most popular music nowadays is written to 8th-note beats, although dance music and funk music uses 16th-note beats, and jazz musicians write music in a number of
different beat patterns. To generate a rhythm, the bassist (and drummer) simply choose which beats to accent and which beats not to accent. In the Billy Idol song, all notes receive the same emphasis. In the Police song, however, some are emphasized, or accented, and others are not.

As a bass player, you have four tools at your disposal to provide emphasis, or the lack thereof, to a beat. They are:

1.Play the root note of the chord being played on a given beat. This is the strongest, most emphatic note you can play.

2.Play a note on the beat, but not the root note of the chord. This is still emphatic but not so much so as the root note.

3.Don't play a new note on the beat, but carry over the note you were playing on the previous beat. This de-emphasizes the beat, because the bass isn't adding a
new sound on it.

4.Rest: play no note at all. This is the most de-emphasizing thing you can do on a beat.

The most important part of writing a bass line is deciding which beats to emphasize and which beats not to emphasize. In particular, deciding where to use rests to de-emphasize a beat is essential to constructing good, solid, supporting bass lines. Sting, the bass player for the Police, is an excellent bass player to listen to if you want to hear the creative use of rests in bass lines. You can see the rests used in the song Message in a Bottle above: by placing a rest on the 4th beat of each measure, he makes the use of the root note on the 4-and beat even more emphatic than it would ordinarily be. Sting is a master of very simple, very elegant bass lines that add a lot to the music he's playing, and every beginning bass player should listen to a lot of his music to hear how he does it.

Which notes should you emphasize and which should you not? This is a question which can only be answered by you as the artist, and the drummer, who is your partner in determining the rhythm of the song. There are some general guidelines that you can use to help you select your rhythms, however. The most important is that you should usually play the root note on the first beat of each measure. Since this note defines the start of the measure, and since most chord changes occur on this beat, it is important to determine the overall rhythm of the song by placing a strong emphasis here. Almost all bass lines you'll ever see place the root note on the first beat of each chord, and on the first beat of each measure even if the chord has not changed. In doing so they set a general pattern for the music. Other beats in the rhythm of the song can either highlight this pattern, or contrast with it, depending on the amount of tension you want to have in the rhythm of your song. A second guideline is that you should stick to one basic rhythm pattern for a fairly long period of time (8-16 measures at least) in order for the rhythm to be heard, and felt, by the listener. If you change rhythm every two measures, then the audience won't have time to detect the patterns you're playing, and won't be able to feel the patterns in the music, or the changes in those patterns which are what makes music interesting.

There are a number of basic rhythms that are common to many types of music. One of the most common rhythms in jazz is the quarter-note rhythm. Like the 8th-note rhythm, all the beats are even, but the notes played are quarter notes, and the first beat of each measure is emphasized by playing the root of the given chord under it, while other notes are usually not the root notes. An example:

(all notes are quarter notes)

       C major                    D minor      G7

G-----------2-|--5--2-------|-------3--2-|-0----------|
D-----5--3----|--------5--2-|-0--3-------|----0--3--2-|
A--3----------|-------------|------------|------------|
E-------------|-------------|------------|------------|

Note how the root of the chord is played on the first beat of each measure; although for the two measures of C chord, a different C is played. Note also that none of the notes on other beats are the roots. By playing the root on the first beat, the bassist strengthens that beat just enough to provide a recognizable rhythm, and also defines the chord changes.

Another beat that's common to many forms of music, including country and western music, polka music, and klezmer music, is the following beat. Like the jazz beat above, it's a quarter-note beat, but instead of playing notes on all four beats, it rests on beats 2 and 4 to de-emphasize those beats and strengthen the 1 and 3 beats.
(Quarter-note beats are counted 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4). It might go like this:

(all notes are quarter notes)

       C major                    F major                 C major

G-------------|-------------|------------|-------5--r-|----
D-----r--5--r-|-----r--5--r-|-3--r-------|-3--r-------|----
A--3----------|--3----------|-------3--r-|------------|--3-
E-------------|-------------|------------|------------|----

where again, the root is played on beat 1, a different note is played on beat 3, and no note is played on beats 2 and 4. If you sing this to yourself, you'll probably sing it
"dum (rest) dum (rest) dum (rest) dum (rest)", highlighting the difference between the accented beats and the rest beats. Note how different this rhythm is from the following one:

      C major        F major      C major

   h h   h h   h h   h h   h
G-------|------|------|------|----
D-----5-|----5-|-3----|-3----|----
A--3----|-3----|----3-|----3-|-3-
E-------|------|------|------|----

which is exactly the same except that there are no rests: each note is a half note rather than the quarter notes above. This beat is dull and monotonous compared to the one above, which has a distinct up-down-up-down feel which is added by the rests. Let this serve as an example of how powerful rests can be in creating rhythmic bass lines.

A variation on this beat that's used in a lot of pop music is the following one. It's actually an 8th note beat, and instead of emphasizing beats 1 and 3, it emphasizes beats 1 and 2-and. For simplicity, I'll show it here with all root notes:

       C major             F major          G major

   q. q. q   q. q. q   q. q. q   q. q. q
G----------|---------|---------|---------|
D----------|---------|-3--3--r-|-3--5--r-|
A--3--3--r-|-3--3--r-|---------|---------|
E----------|---------|---------|---------|

Beats 1 and 2-and are emphasized by the root, beat 3 is slightly de-emphazised by carrying over the note from the 2-and beat, and beat 4 is strongly de-emphasized by
resting on that beat. Lesson 2 will feature a song using this beat prominently to give you more of a feel for it.

There are hundreds or thousands of beats out there for you to listen to: rock beats, jazz beats, swing beats, shuffle beats, rap beats, reggae beats, calypso beats, and many more. Rhythm is a very difficult thing to talk about abstractly: it's something you have to experience and feel before you'll be able to play it. The best solution is to put on your headphones and listen to music. Hear the bassist and drummer, and hear the rhythm they're playing. The interaction of the bassist and the drummer to create rhythm is probably the most single important element of popular music (at least most bass players seem to think so!) and it's the single most important skill for a bass player to have. (Or, as Jeff Berlin is fond of saying, "You will never be hired to tap.") To develop rhythm, you have to listen to other people who have it, and also to a few who don't. It comes with experience, and there is no way to teach it in a purely academic way.

The last comment about rhythm to make is that sticking strictly and rigorously to a single rhythm, with no variations, is boring. Good rhythm sections find a way to maintain a basic rhythm while occasionally providing slightly different accents, or extra notes to highlight a particular half-measure. This is where the partnership between a bassist and drummer is most important: as one player departs from the basic rhythm to add accents and fills, the other player must play solid and steady so that the first player can come back to the basic rhythm. Listen to your favorite bands and hear when the drummer departs from the basic rhythm and when the bass player does, and hear how they come back together again to provide a steady and familiar yet not boring pattern. When a bassist and drummer have played together long enough to know each other's styles and habits, they can play complicated and difficult patterns together without losing track of the basic rhythm they're playing (and, more important, without the listeners losing track). This is why it's important to find yourself a live drummer and play with him/her regularly: you need to develop these give-and-take skills, to keep a rhythm going with a partner, varying it in time and in accent without losing the basic thread of the song. You can't do this with a metronome or a drum machine, for the obvious reasons. It's what makes the rhythm section the heart and soul of any good band.

Lesson 3 will talk about playing notes other than the root notes; which ones to play, where to play them, and what their effect is.

End of Lesson #2. [Back to Top]

This lesson is copyright 1993 by Steve Schmidt. Permission to distribute this lesson without charge is granted, provided that it remain unaltered, including this notice. You may not charge money for the use of this lesson, and you may not alter the terms of this license.

Lesson #3 - Beyond the Root Note

In the previous lesson we discussed the two main functions of the bass in music: defining the chords and providing rhythm. In this lesson, we're going to talk about using non-root notes to provide a motion from one chord to the next, which gives a song a sense of direction, and about some ways to make the bass line a little more interesting than a sequence of roots.

The bass lines in the last lesson used predominantly root notes to define chords. When the chord changed, the bass line leapt from one root to the next, like so:

(all notes are 8th notes)

       E           A            E           A            E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A--------------0--0--0--0-|-------------0--0--0--0-|----
E--0--0--0--0-------------|-0--0--0--0-------------|-0--

The movement from one chord to the next is rather abrupt. By making the movement from one root to the next in a couple of steps, rather than in one large leap, the bass line can provide a sense of movement and anticipation to the music that isn't present in the simple examples earlier. You can also play something other than the root note for a change... The simplest way to do this is to add a single note, on the beat before each change, which is in between the two roots, usually just below the higher one. For example, we might play this:

(all notes are 8th notes)

       E           A            E           A            E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A--------------0--0--0----|-------------0--0--0----|----
E--0--0--0--4-----------4-|-0--0--0--4-----------4-|-0--

In this figure, we play the note G# (a half-step below the A) as a transition between the E and the A. Such a note is called a leading tone, or passing tone. It gives a sense of movement to the bass line which isn't present in the first line. In addition, playing a non-root note on the 2-and beat, and the 4-and beat, reduces the emphasis on that note slightly, providing a contrast with the new root note coming in on the 3 and 1 beats following.

You can play a single passing tone, or, if the chord changes are farther apart, you can play more than one. For example, consider this bass line:

(all notes are 8th notes)

    E                          A                       E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A-------------------------|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|----
E--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|------------------------|-0--

Here, there are 8 beats between chord changes, and we can use more than one of those beats to move from the E to the A. We might alter the last three notes of each measure as follows:

(all notes are 8th notes)

        E                        A E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A-------------------------|-0--0--0--0--0----------|----
E--0--0--0--0--0--2--3--4-|----------------4--3--2-|-0--

Here we use a sequence of three leading tones to move us from the E to the A. In this particular case, we've used three notes each a half-step apart to make the transition. There are other possibilities. In between the E and the A are 4 notes and you can use any or all of them in making the change. We'll take up the choice between the possible sequences in a later lesson; but it would be possible to use any of them in an appropriate piece of music.

The following bass line, from the theme song to the movie Stand By Me (I can't remember who the original artist was, unfortunately), demonstrates a bass line that moves between 4 chords, using passing tones to get from one to the next. It also uses the dotted-quarter note rhythm, emphasizing the 1 and 2-and beats with root notes, that we saw in lesson 1.

                        D major                   B minor

   e e   q. q. e e   q. q. e e   q. q. e e   q. q. e e
G-------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
D-------|-0--0-------|-0--0--0----|------------|------------|
A--0--4-|-------0--4-|----------4-|-2--2--r--0-|-2--2--2--0-|
E-------|------------|------------|------------|------------|

Oh I    won't be a- fraid, no I won't shed a tear, just as

   G major      A major     D major

   q. q. e e   q. q. e e   q. q. e e   q. q.
G-------------|------------|------------|-------
D-------------|------------|-0--0-------|-0--0--
A-----------2-|-0--0--0--4-|-------0--4-|-------
E--3--3--3----|------------|------------|-------

long as you stand, stand by me.

This line is one of the simplest and yet most powerful bass lines in popular music. It has a lot of features worth noting. First, it uses the same rhythm in each measure: two dotted quarter notes on the roots, followed by two eighth notes, or a note and a rest. (Note that the vocal line is singing essentially the same rhythm.) Second, the dotted quarters are always roots, which emphasizes those beats more strongly than the eighth notes, which are not roots, but are leading notes, leading towards the root of the next measure: A to C# to D for the D major chords, D to C# to B for the B minor chords, B to A to G for the G major, and G to B to A for A major. See that, while the leading tone is usually between the two root notes, it doesn't have to be: for the G major to A major transition, with only G# as a possible in-between note, the author chose instead to go up to the B, then back down to the A. This is still called a leading tone, although it's not quite the same as the others, because it fulfills the same function: it warns of an upcoming chord change, and gives a pointer in the direction that the chord is going to move.

A third thing to note is that the leading notes are played each measure, regardless of whether the chord is changing or not. So in measure 6, we play A-C#-D to move from the A chord to the D chord; and in measure 7 we play A-C#-D again even though we're staying on the D chord. The sequence still points to the root of the chord, so why not play it again? By doing this, we make the bass line a little more interesting, and we give it more of a sense of movement than it would have if we just played D all the time. Playing leading sequences is one way to add movement and emphasis to a song that isn't changing chords at all. For example, here's the bass line from the Doors song LA Woman:

(All notes are 8th notes)

A major

G-------------------------|------------------------|
D-------------------------|------------------------|
A--0--0--0--0--0----------|-0--0--0--0--0----------|
E-----------------0--3--4-|----------------0--3--4-|

repeat ad infinitum :)

This song stays on the same A major chord for 50-60 measures in places, but the leading sequences in the bass lines give it a sense of motion that would not be present if
the bassist just played 8th-note A all the time. Although the Doors had no bass player (Ray Manzarek, the keyboard player, used a second keyboard to play the bass parts) for their last few albums a studio bassist was used, and I believe that this line was played on a bass, rather than on keyboards.

Another thing that can be done to add interest to a bass line is to play two different versions of the root note. This idea is the mainstay of funk bass lines. For example, if you were playing a D major chord, you could play the following line:

(Slap all notes on the A string with the right-hand thumb: pop all notes on the G string).

D major

   e e s s s e s s s s s e
G--------7-----------7--------------7-|
D-------------------------------------| Repeat as needed
A--5--5-----r--5--5-----r--5--5--5----|
E-------------------------------------|

This line has a lot of things to note about it also. First, all the notes are root notes, but the line uses a low one and a high one to provide variety. Second, this line uses a 16th note rhythm: look at the 16th rests in the line. They follow the popped high note, which increases the impact of the pop. Also, the fifth through ninth notes don't start on an even 8th note. 16th note rhythms are counted "1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-3-e-and-a-4-e-and-a"; the first four notes start on numbers and ands, but the next five start on "e"s and "a"s. This gives the line a much more syncopated, funky feeling. It also makes it harder to play correctly: you'll probably have a hard time reading this rhythm if you haven't played it before. Work it out very slowly, counting aloud, until you have it down, then gradually work up the tempo. Larry Graham, of Sly and the Family Stone, and later his own band Graham Central Station, was one of the first bassists to play 16th note rhythms, and was also one of the first to slap and pop. If you're into 16th note rhythms, you can get a lot of inspiration from his lines.

You can also combine the ideas of playing different roots and playing leading tones into one bass line. The following line is from the song Purple Haze, by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with Noel Redding on bass. (At least, this is how I play it in my band. I think the recorded version is a little different.)

      E #9                        G7          A7

   e e e. s e e e. s   e e e. s e s e s e
G-------------------------|---------------------------|
D--------2--2--------2--2-|-------5--5----------------|
A-------------------------|-------------------5--6--7-|
E--0--0--------0--0-------|-3--3--------5--5----------|

Note the use of the octaves on the E and G roots. This matches the drummer's pattern: where the bass is playing the lower note, the drummer is playing the bass drum and where the bass is playing the higher note, the drummer is playing his snare. For the A7 chord, the bass doesn't play the octave note: instead, it plays D-D#-E leading back to the low E for the next measure. (The drummer plays a drum fill while this is happening, so there's no need to keep playing the octave: he won't be matching it anyway.)

To conclude this lesson, I'll give you one more bass line. It combines all the ideas we've talked about so far: using roots to define the chord, using rests to de-emphasize
particular notes, switching from one rhythm to another when changing from verse to chorus, and using leading tones to add movement when the chord isn't changing. This is the bass line from the Police song Roxanne, and again Sting is the bassist. Observe how the root note is played, but never on the first beat of the measure: in the verse, the bass is resting, while in the chorus either the previous root is tied over, or a leading tone is played on the first note. In the verses, the bass is a little bit behind the chord changes: in the chorus it's a little bit ahead. It makes for a very interesting line, and demonstrates that there's no such thing as a hard and fast rule (at least not for Sting).

Verse:

   G min       F maj         Eb maj       D maj        C min

   e e q h   e e q h   e e q h   e e q h   e e q h
G-------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
D--r--5--5--r-|-r--3--3--r-|-r--1--1--r-|-r--0--0--r-|-r----------|
A-------------|------------|------------|------------|----3--3--r-|
E-------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|

Roxanne.. You don't have to put on the red light. Walk the street for

   F maj             G min

   e e q q e e   w   w
G-------------------|---|-----|
D-------------------|---|-----|
A-------------------|---|-r---| repeats
E--r--1--1--r--3--3-|-3-|-----|
\_/
money... You don't care if it's wrong, or if it's right.

Chorus:

   Bb maj                                                F major

   q   e e e e e e e e e   e e e e e q e   e e e e
G-------|------------------------|---------------------|------------
D-------|------------------------|----------------1--3-|-3--3--3--3-
A--3--1-|-1--1--1--1--0--1--1--1-|-0--1--1--1--1-----\___/----------
E-----\___/----------------------|---------------------|------------

Roxanne........ Roxanne....

                                      G minor

   e e e e   e e e e e q e   e e e e e e e e
G-------------|---------------------|------------------------|
D--2--3--3--3-|-2--3--3--3--3-------|------------------------|
A-------------|----------------3----|------------------------|
E-------------|-------------------3-|-3--3--3--3--2--3--3--3-|
\_/
Roxanne..

   e e e e e q e
G----------------------|----
D----------------------|----
A-----------------3--1-|-1-- repeats
E--2--3--3--3--3-----\___/--

Lesson 4 will talk about chords in more detail. We'll talk about a few different types of chords, and about using chords in constructing your bass lines.

End of Lesson #3. [Back to Top]

This lesson is copyright 1993 by Steve Schmidt. Permission to distribute this lesson without charge is granted, provided that it remain unaltered, including this notice. You may not charge money for the use of this lesson, and you may not alter the terms of this license.

Lesson #4 - Chords and Bass Lines

In Lesson 2, we talked about using the root note of a chord to define the chord, and in Lesson 3 we talked about using leading tones to move from one chord root to the next. In this lesson, we'll talk about playing notes from the chords other than the root notes, and about using them to construct bass figures that you can play over several different chords.

To repeat the definition from Lesson 2, a chord is any group of three or more notes being played simultaneously. The simplest ones are groups of exactly three notes: more complex ones are built by adding extra notes to one of the basic ones. There are four three-note chords, but only two of them are used in most forms of music, major chords and minor chords. (The other two, augmented and diminished chords, are used mostly in jazz and classical music. I won't mention them again in this lesson, although they'll reappear in a later lesson.)

A major chord consists of three notes; the root note, a note which is two whole steps above the root (called the third), and another note which is one and one-half steps above the third (called the fifth). It may seem odd to call the notes third and fifth instead of second and third; but there's a reason for it, which I'll explain in the next lesson. To give an example, the three note C, E, and G make up a C major chord. E, the third, is two whole steps above the root note, C: and G, the fifth, is 1.5 steps above the E. If you wanted to play these notes on your bass, you might finger them like this:

G------------
D------2--5--
A---3--------
E------------

and you'd get a C major chord. In fact, the pattern:

-----(N-1)--(N+2)--
--N----------------

2    1      4

on any two consecutive strings will produce a major chord, and this is a fingering that you can use over and over again in your bass lines. (The numbers below the staff indicate fingerings: use your middle finger to play the root, your index finger for the third, and your pinkie for the fifth. Then you can reach all three notes without moving your left hand.)

A minor chord is similar to a major chord, but the intervals are reversed: that is, the third is 1.5 steps above the root, and the fifth is two steps above the third. Thus, the notes C-Eb-G make up a C minor chord. Note that the root and the fifth are the same: only the third differs, and that's what makes the two chords sound different when played on a guitar. You can play a C minor chord like this:

G------------
D---------5--
A---3--6-----
E------------

and in general the pattern:

------------(N+2)--
--N--(N+3)-----------

1    4       3

produces the notes of a minor chord, and you can play all three without moving your left hand.

In the past lessons we've used the root note of a chord to define it, but now we have three notes of the chord that we can use to define it. We can play just the root, as we've been doing, and that is sufficient; or we can play two or three of them, if we like. Here's a bass line that does the latter: it's the line from Twist and Shout, which has been played by a lot of bands including the Beatles. It also happens to be the bass line for La Bamba by Ritchie Valens, by a strange twist of fate. Think of it as whichever one you like.

      C major   F major     G major    F major

   q e e e e e e   e q. e e e e e
G--------------2--5----|---------------------|
D-----2--5--3--------5-|-5--r--0--3--3--2--0-| repeat
A--3------------------\_/--------------------|
E----------------------|---------------------|

Cmon and shake it up baby (shake it up baby)
Twist and Shout (twist and shout)

You can see the outline of the C major chord in the first half-measure, just as we wrote it above. You can also see the outline of the F major chord in the second half of the first measure: it's the same pattern played one string higher. For the G, we hit only one note, the root, and hold it: then we play the root of the F chord, followed by a leading sequence back down to the C major chord, where the phrase repeats.

You can also play two of the notes of the chord, rather than all three. The bass line that is at the heart of almost all country music does that: it plays the root and fifth on alternating beats.

(all notes are quarter notes)

     C major                                 F major     C major

G-------------|-------------|------------|-------5--r-|----
D-----r--5--r-|-----r--5--r-|-3--r-------|-3--r-------|----
A--3----------|--3----------|-------3--r-|------------|--3-
E-------------|-------------|------------|------------|----

It alternates root-fifth-root-fifth-root-fifth. Doesn't actually do much else, but it does serve to outline the chord being played at all times. Because of its simplicity and power, it's one of the most heavily used ideas for bass lines in all of popular music; besides country music, bluegrass music, some folk music, and occasional bits of rock and jazz use it as well. It does, however, get boring after a while: you might like to use some leading notes to jazz it up a little bit. One bass line that does so is the one from the song Wipeout by the Beach Boys. It goes like this:

(all notes are 8th notes)

E major

G----------|------------------------|------------------------|
D-----0--1-|-2--2--2--0--------0--1-|-2--2--2--0--------0--1-|
A--2-------|-------------2--2-------|-------------2--2-------|
E----------|------------------------|------------------------|

                                                    A major

G-------------------------|-------------------0--1-|-2--2--2--0--------0--1-|
D--2--2--2--0--------0--1-|-2--2--2--0-----2-------|-------------2--2-------|
A--------------2--2-------|-------------2----------|------------------------|
E-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|

                            E major

G--2--2--2--0-------------|------------------------|-------------------2--3-|
D--------------2-----0--1-|-2--2--2--0--------0--1-|-2--2--2--0-----4-------|
A-----------------2-------|-------------2--2-------|-------------2----------|
E-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|

B major                    A major                  E major

G--4--4--4--2--------0--1-|-2--2--2--0-------------|------------------------|
D--------------4--2-------|-------------2-----0--1-|-2--2--2--0--------0--1-|
A-------------------------|----------------2-------|-------------2--2-------|
E-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|

B major

G-------------------------|
D--2-----------------0--1-|
A-----2--2--2--2--2-------| repeat
E-------------------------|

This line plays the root three times, a leading note down to the fifth played twice, and then a two-note leading sequence back to the root. It's playing exactly the same figure under each chord: (root-root-root-lead-fifth-fifth- lead-lead) are always played, in that order. The leading tones make it much more driving that it would be if only roots and fifths were played: try it and see.

It's very common to do as this bass line does; play the same pattern under each chord, changing the pattern up and down the fingerboard to keep the root in the right place, but otherwise not varying the line at all. When the bass line has this form, the pattern is often called a bass figure (or bass pattern, or bass riff) and a lot of rock music relies heavily on such figures. This figure is a pretty simple one: we'll run into some more simple ones later in this lesson and into some more complex ones in later lessons.

In addition to the simple three-note chords, there are a number of four-note chords, and also five-, six-, and seven-note chords as well. Of this vast array of chords, only a few four-note chords are widely used outside of jazz, and I'm only going to talk about those chords. They're made by adding one more note onto a basic three note chord. The most commonly used four-note chord is made by starting with a major chord and adding the note 1.5 steps above the fifth. For example, starting with a C major chord, whose fifth is G, you would add the note Bb, which is three half-steps above G. The following chord (which is made of the notes C-E-G-Bb) is called a seventh chord, or a dominant chord, and the new note is called the seventh note. You can play C7 like this:

G-----------3--
D-----2--5-----
A--3-----------
E--------------

and in general you can add the 7th note to the major scale pattern I gave earlier, like this:

--------------------N--
-----(N-1)--(N+2)------
--N--------------------

2    1      4      2

and get the four notes of any 7th chord you like. Seventh chords are easily the most commonly used four-note chord. You can also make a minor seventh chord, by starting with a minor chord instead of a major chord. For example, the C minor 7 chord is made of the notes C, Eb, G, and Bb, and you can play one like this:

G-----------3--
D--------5-----
A--3--6--------
E--------------

(I'll let you work out the general pattern for this one). The minor 7th chord isn't used much in rock music (although see Gallows Pole, by Led Zeppelin, for an interesting example of it) but it is very common in jazz music.

Another note you can add to a major chord is the note that is one whole step above the fifth of the chord. This note is called the 6th note, and a chord that contains it is called a 6th chord. For example, a C6 chord is made up of the notes C, E, and G, plus the new note A (one step above G). This chord is fingered as follows:

G-----------2--
D-----2--5-----
A--3-----------
E--------------

and it's the second most common four-note chord, after the 7th chord. The single most widely used bass line in recorded music is based on it: if you have ever listened to any kind of blues music, you've heard this line somewhere. The most widely know song that uses it is probably Johnny B. Goode by Chuck Berry, but there are literally thousands of songs, in all keys, all styles and all tempos, that use it. It looks like this:

(all notes are quarter notes)

C major 6

G-----------2-|-5--2-------|----------2-|-5--2-------|
D-----2--5----|-------5--2-|----2--5----|-------5--2-|
A--3----------|------------|-3----------|------------|
E-------------|------------|------------|------------|

F major 6                    C major 6

G-------------|------------|----------2-|-5--2-------|
D-----------0-|-3--0-------|----2--5----|-------5--2-|
A-----0--3----|-------3--0-|-3----------|------------|
E--1----------|------------|------------|------------|

G major 6                     C major 6

G-------------|------------|----------2-|-5--2-------|
D-----------2-|-5--2-------|----2--5----|-------5--2-|
A-----2--5----|-------5--2-|-3----------|------------|
E--3----------|------------|------------|------------|

It's based on a very simple figure: start on the root, run up the C6 chord to the high root, then run back down again. The figure is played under three different chords: C, F, and G, and it lasts twelve bars. The general pattern is known as the twelve-bar blues, and it's probably the most widely used song form in popular music. Note, for example, that Wipeout (transcribed above) is on the same pattern, using the chords E, A, and B instead. (It uses a different figure, but the same pattern of chords, and the same method of repeating one figure under each chord.)

One last point on chords in bass lines. In all of the above examples, the first note played in each chord is the root note. Thus, we're still using the root note to define each chord: the other notes of the chord are just helping to flesh it out once we've already stated the main outline. Most music never does anything else, but occasionally (most commonly in jazz) a note other than the root will be the first (or only) note played under a given chord. Borrowing some terms from classical music, we say that a chord is in "root position" if the root is played first. We say that it's in "first inversion" if the third is used to define the chord change, and in "second inversion" if the fifth is the first note played. Second inversion is rarely used: first inversion is usually used when playing a two-chord sequence twice in a row. Thus, instead of playing:

      F      Bb     F     Bb

G-------------|------------|
D--------3--3-|-------3--3-|
A--1--1-------|-1--1-------|
E-------------|------------|

you might instead play:

        F     Bb     F     Bb

G-------------|------------|
D--------3--3-|-------7--7-|
A--1--1-------|-5--5-------|
E-------------|------------|

playing the chords in first inversion in the second measure, just to add variety to the line.

For more complex chords used in jazz, you can usually play just about any chord note you like out of them, although it's still a good idea to start with the root note for the sake of identifying the chord. However, for some chords, the root note doesn't sound very good under the chord; usually this happens when another note in the chord is very dissonant with the root. Common chords than do this include Cb5 (C flat 5) and Cb9 (C flat 9) (or any other root note of course). In such cases you usually do best to try first inversion, ie playing the third of the chord on the first beat, and then moving off to either the root, or to the dissonant note, as the case may be. I'll talk more about playing under strange chords when I talk about scales in a later lesson.

Occasionally, a composer will specify a particular note for the bass when writing a chord. Such chords might be referred to as "C major with an A in the bass" which is exactly what you think - the guitar/piano plays the C major chord but the bassist ignores that and plays the A. Chords like that are usually written "C/A", where the letter before the slash indicates the chord and the letter after the slash indicates the bass note. It's usually done to give the impression that a different chord is being played. In this example, the C major chord consists of the notes C E G ; but when the A is added in the bass, you get the four notes A C E G which is an A minor 7th chord. However, if the chord was written Amin7, then the guitar and piano would probably play the A note as well, and if the composer doesn't want that to happen for some reason, he can write "C/A" and get the desired effect. This format can also be used to force inversions: for example, you might see the chord "G/B" which means G major with B in the bass. This just means that the composer wants the G chord in first inversion: you should almost always respect the composer's wishes in such cases.

I'll end this lesson with one more (short) example of using several notes from a chord to create a bass line. This line is based on a one-measure pattern, and that pattern repeats, no changes, for about 5 minutes under the solos in the middle of the song. The measure contains two chords, A minor and E7, and each note in the line comes from one of those two chords. The song is Light My Fire by the Doors, and this time I have to apologize for using a line that was played on keyboards instead of on bass... it's too good a line to pass up! Most bands that play this song play the line on bass anyway, so we can forgive Mr. Manzarek some chutzpah in this case.

      A minor   E7

   q e e q e e
G-------------------|
D--------2-----0--2-| repeat, and repeat again!
A--0--3-----2-------|
E-------------------|

That's all there is to it, and this one measure is played for most of the song. The first three notes are A, C, and E, the A minor chord, and the last three notes are B, D, and E, which are the fifth, 7th, and root, respectively, of the E7 chord.

In the next lesson I'll talk about scales, and I'll talk about what a key is, and how the key that a song is in determines which chords are used in that song.

End of Lesson #4. [Back to Top]

This lesson is copyright 1993 by Steve Schmidt. Permission to distribute this lesson without charge is granted, provided that it remain unaltered, including this notice. You may not charge money for the use of this lesson, and you may not alter the terms of this license.

Lesson #5 - Major Scales, Keys, Chord Changes, and the Circle of Fifths

In the last lesson, we talked about creating bass lines based on the chords of the song being played. In this lesson, we'll talk about scales, which determine which chords are used in a song and in what sequence, and we'll work through major scales and give some examples of common songs built on major scales and some common chord
changes. We'll also introduce the Circle of Fifths, which is something most bass players have heard of and all of them should know perfectly. Knowing the common chord patterns will make it much easier to learn songs off records, because it lets you make accurate guesses about where the bass line is likely to go, and it will also help you in writing songs if you are interested in doing that.

The first thing to observe is that although there are 12 different notes in music (A, B flat, C, D flat, and so on up to A flat), most songs don't use all of those notes: in fact, most don't use any more than 7 of them. Which notes are used in a given song is determined by the key of the song, and the choice of a key gives the composer (or bass player) a guide to choosing the chords and notes he wants to use in writing the song (or the bass line). And, if you know what key a song is in, then it will help you figure out the bass line to that song, because it gives you a good guide as to what notes might be used in the song's bass line and which notes will not be used.

The notes that are associated with a given key are called a scale. For example, we might want to write a song in the key of C major, and if we did that we'd use the notes from the C major scale. That scale is: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C; all the white keys on the piano and none of the black keys. You can play that scale at a piano or on your bass: on the bass, the notes are:

G-----------------2--4--5--
D--------2--3--5-----------
A--3--5--------------------
E--------------------------

If you play this scale, you'll notice that it has a very comfortable, familiar sound to it; that's because major scales are the most widely used scales in music. There's nothing magical about C as the choice of a starting note: you can create a major scale starting on any note you like, and there will be a major key associated with that scale. The thing that defines a major scale is that it contains 7 notes, and they are all a whole step apart except for the 3rd and 4th note which are a half-step apart. (There is also a half-step between the 7th note and the next octave of the 1st note.) Thus, you can create the D major scale by starting on D and going up by whole steps, except after the 3rd (and 7th) note. Thus, the D major scale would be: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D. Note the half-step between F# and G, and between C# and D. You can play this scale on your bass like this:

G-----------------4--6--7--
D--------4--5--7-----------
A--5--7--------------------
E--------------------------

Notice that this pattern is exactly the same as the C major scale above, except that it's two frets higher. In fact, this same general pattern will form a major scale starting on any string, at any fret. For example, the F major scale looks like this:

G--------------------------
D-----------------0--2--3--
A--------0--1--3-----------
E--1--3--------------------

which is the same fingering pattern, starting at the 1st fret of the E string. A song written using these 7 notes would be said to be in the key of F major You can keep going up the fingerboard if you like, starting again on the new new F: if you do this you'll repeat the 1st note as the 8th note, the 2nd note as the 9th note, and so on. In F major, the result would look like this:

G-----------------------------2--3--5--7--9--10
D-----------------0--2--3--5-------------------
A--------0--1--3-------------------------------
E--1--3----------------------------------------

and you can see that the 2nd note and the 9th note are both G, and 3rd note and the 10th note are both A, etc. Sometimes G will be called the 2nd or the 9th, depending on the circumstances.

Once you've chosen a key for the song, you can then start choosing the chords to use in the song. Because you now only have 7 notes to choose from, the number of chords you can form is reduced. For example, suppose you are writing in the key of C major, and you want to form a chord with C as the root note. You can't use C minor, because that requires an E-flat, which is not a note of the C major scale. However, you can form the C major chord, by using the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes of the scale: C, E, and G. (This is why the three notes of the C major chord are called 1st, 3rd, and 5th: they are the 1st, 3rd and 5th note of the C major scale). If you wanted to form a chord with D as the root note, you can't form D major (it requires a F-sharp) but you can form D minor using D, F, and A, the 2nd, 4th, and 6th notes of the scale. So, if you are writing in the key of C major, you will end up using the chord D minor rather than D major. If you wanted to form a four-note chord with G as the root, you would use the G, B, D, and F (the 5th, 7th, 9th, and 11th notes) and you would get a G7 chord.

The main purpose of choosing a key is to guide you in selecting the chords to use in your song. Consider, for example, the song You Shook Me All Night Long by AC-DC. It's in the key of G major and goes like this:

Verse: (repeat as needed)

    G         C     G C G      D           G      D G D
G-----------|------------------|------------|----------------
D-----------|------------------|------------|----------------
A---------3-|-3--3-----3-----5-|-5--5--r----|-------5-----5--
E---3--r----|-------3-----3----|----------3-|-3--3-----3-----

She was a fast machine, she kept her motor clean, she was the best damn
woman that I've ever seen.

Chorus: (repeat as needed)

   G            C Bm D                C Bm
G-------------|---------|------------|----------
D-------------|---------|------------|----------
A-----0--2--3-|-3--2--5-|-5--0--2--3-|-3--2-----
E--3----------|---------|------------|-------3--

You Shook me All Night Long You really shook me yeah,

The bass plays mostly root notes. Between the verse and chorus the bass line makes two changes: first, it plays only roots in the verse, but starts playing some passing notes between roots in the chorus; and second, the verse contains rests between long notes, but in the chorus there are no rests and the notes are connected to one another.

However, the main thing to notice about this song at the moment is the choice of chords. The song is on the G major scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. In TAB it looks like this:

G--------------------------
D-----------------2--4--5--
A-----0--2--3--5-----------
E--3-----------------------

and notice that all of the notes of the bass line, even the passing notes in the chorus, come from this scale. The chords used are G major (G,B,D), C major (C, E, G), D
major (D, F#, A) and B minor (E, G, B), and all of those notes come from the G major scale as well. In fact, in the whole song, both guitar parts, bass line, and vocal line
together, you won't find any notes that are not part of the G major scale.

In general, once you've chosen a key, you've chosen whether to have major or minor chords for each of the notes in the scale, and what kind of 7th to use if you use one. I'll work out the chords for the G major scale, but you should notice that you'll always get the same types of chords for any major scale you might pick:

G major scale: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, [ G, A, B, C, D, E ]

Root Note   Notes    Chord    7th    7th chord
G           G,B,D    G major   F#     G maj7
A           A,C,E    A minor   G      A min7
B           B,D,F#   B minor   A      B min7
C           C,E,G    C major   B      C maj7
D           D,F#,A   D major   C      D7
E           E,G,B    E minor   D      E min7
F#          F#,A,C   F# dim    E      E half-dim7

In general, in a major key the chords formed using the 1st, 4th, and 5th scale note are major, the ones formed on the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th notes are minor, and the one on the 7th note is diminished. You can refer to the chord simply by the number of the scale note that is the root note: so we say that in the key of G major, D major is the fifth chord. Usually it's written out using Roman numerals, so that we say that in the key of G, G major is the I chord, A minor is the II chord, C major is the IV chord, etc.

Now that we know what root notes to use to form chords, and what type of chords (major, minor, 7th) to use, we've pretty much decided which chords can be used and which can't be. The next question is, in what order should we use these chords? The answer is, you can use them in pretty much any order you want, except that the song should begin and end on the I chord. However, there are some very common patterns that are used. One of them we've already run into in Wipeout and the 12-bar blues: it is the pattern

I IV I V I

where the first I chord gets 4 measures and each of the other chords gets two measures. There are a number of other common patterns. For example, there is:

I IV I V I

which is the basic pattern from I Saw Her Standing There, by the Beatles. It is in the key of E, and uses the chords E, A and B7.

E                          A           E
Well she looked at me, and I, I could see
                                             B7
That before too long, I'd fall in love with her...
     E                      A
Yeah I'll never dance with another, oooh
        E       B7       E
Since I saw her standing there.

A twist on this pattern is to present the V and IV chords in the other order. For example, there is

I V IV I

which is the basic pattern of the chorus of Fortunate Son, by Creedence Clearwater Revival It's in G major so it uses G, D, and C as chords.

G            D            C                    G
It ain't me, It ain't me, I ain't no Senator's son, no.
G            D            C                    G
It ain't me, It ain't me, I ain't no Fortunate Son.

You can also throw in some common minor chords. A very very common pattern in jazz music is

I II V7 I

where the II chord is minor. However, since most jazz songs don't have words, it's hard to provide an example. You'll have to trust me that if you listen to jazz you'll hear it a lot.

You can also use the sequence:

I VI IV V I

where the VI chord is minor. This pattern is the basis of the song Lollipop with each chord getting one measure. In the key of F major it'd go like this:

F         Dm        B flat     C7
Lollipop, lollipop, oh lollie, lollipop (repeat ad nausem)

Try playing these chords on a piano or guitar and you'll see that they sound quite natural played in that order. However, if you play the D minor chord as major instead (using the F# instead of F) you'll find it a little jarring, because the F# is not a note of the F major scale.

You can also use II instead of IV, if you want to get a second minor chord into the sequence:

I VI II V I

One song that does that is the following popular folk song, Today, which is in D major and uses D, B minor, E minor, and A7 chords:

    D                  Bm           Em           A7
Today, while the blossoms still cling to the vine
D                  Bm           Em             A7
I'll taste your strawberries, I'll drink your sweet wine
D         Bm            Em       A7
A million tommorows will all pass away
D        Bm           Em         A7        D
Ere I forget all the joy that is mine, today.

Folk music in particular tends to use very common chord changes and repeat them over and over, and if you want to develop your ability to recognize the common changes, it's not a bad idea to listen to some folk music because you will hear them very clearly there.

There is one last piece of information about chord patterns that every bass player ought to know. It summarizes all the information about how chords move from one to the next in a simple way. It's called the Circle of Fifths, and it's created by writing out the 12 notes in this order: each note is followed by the 5th note of its major scale. Thus, if we start with C, we follow it with G (the 5th note of the C major scale). We follow the G with D, which is the 5th note of the G major scale, and D is followed by A, and so on around the octave until we get to F, which is followed by C, and we're back to where we started. The complete Circle of Fifths looks like this:
                              C
         F      G
   Bb/A#           D
Eb/D#               A
   Ab/G#          E
      Db/C#     B
           Gb/F#

There are two basic rules for chord changes. The first is that short movements along the circle sound more natural than long ones. For example, the chord change C major to G major is very natural, whereas the change C major to E minor is more awkward. The second rule is that clockwise moves (forward) make the song seem to be developing forwards, whereas counter-clockwise moves (backward) make the song be resolving. The chord changes we gave above are these:

E A E B E (I Saw Her Standing There). This one involves only single step movements. Starting on E, we go back, forwards, forwards, back.

G D C G (Fortunate Son). This one starts by going forward one step, then jumps back two steps, then resolves by going forward one step.

D Bm Em A7 (Today). This one begins with a three-step jump forward, but then resolves back one step at a time.

F Dm Bb C7 (Lollipop) This one begins with a three-step jump forward, then comes _four_ steps back, then two steps forward and resolves with a gentle single step back.

Almost all chord movements in all songs involves jumps of 4 steps or less along the Circle, and most of them only 1 or 2 steps. The Circle of Fifths is an invaluable guide
to picking up bass lines off a record. The general steps you can follow are these:

1.Listen to the first note and the last chord of the song. This root note of this chord will almost invariably be key of the song. Thus, if the first chord is A major, then the song is very probably in the key of A major.

2.Listen to the song and try to figure out the sequence of chord changes. If you can hear each chord, great: but if you need to guess, guess short steps on the Circle of Fifths before you guess longer ones. eg, if the song opens on A major, it's very likely that the next chord is either D major or E major, and it's very unlikely to be F minor or D flat major.

3.Once you know the sequence of chords of the song, then start trying to find the individual notes of the bass line from the chords that are being played, and from the likely passing notes between those chords.

End of Lesson #5. [Back to Top]

This lesson is copyright 1993 by Steve Schmidt. Permission to distribute this lesson without charge is granted, provided that it remain unaltered, including this notice. You may not charge money for the use of this lesson, and you may not alter the terms of this license.