Lesson 3 - Chords and Bass
Lines
In
Lesson 1, we talked about using the root note of a chord to define the chord,
and in Lesson 2 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 1, 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 diminshed 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.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar