So you got your new bass and wish to learn everything out of it, I respect your urges! But to do that you need to have basic knowledge about notes, basic scale, and chords that follow along. Learning a chord is not that easy in a bass guitar as most of them are played via the inverted hand plucking method which is kinda unique from regular acoustics and the brim demands extra lunging of your fingers that might disappoint you. But don’t worry, let’s learn the chord theory and apply it to your play so that you can even create chords! Yes, well you can create chords accordingly and I will tell you how you could do that.
Let’s check on the basic chord theory first!
Table of Contents
Basic chord theory:
So far you must have known what a note is. A note is a beat/ a pluck/ a hiss/ a chuck that you ought to hear outta instrument that makes your ear keen to hear it. A note is just a simple unit of music that when played in synchronization with other notes creates a chord and eventually grants a symphony.
A scale is a predetermined series of notes that you play along with to make them sound more rhythmic and appreciably pleasing. Notes are meant to be played according to precise scaling and they are based on audibility and pitch that create a feel. A scale determines what sort of chords would follow upon it and helps you to get a hunch of how to play your choice of track.
And finally, chords mean a union of two or more notes played within a given scale range. Chords could be as simple as consecutive two-finger plays or even up to four-finger plays. You might get them played via inverting your hand or by a general turned-up holding position. When you play the notes with proper succession they are called harmonics and such a set of chords played with synchronization offers a melody.
Chords may sound like a bunch of pebbles in the same sac but they are much different in the feeling they evoke upon a keen set of ears. Chords could be grouped as octaves, majors, minors, major 7s, and minor 9s, major and minor 9s, major 13s and minor 13s, sus 2s, sus 4s, power chords, and many more.
More general ways of defining chords could be open chords, barre chords, transitional, and partial play chords.
Interesting innit?
General chords involve the triads which are just the 1-3-5 notes of a given scale. The 1st note is the one that often takes the credit for itself and is called the root note. For example, you play the C major chord where 1 is the root position taken by the C note and followed by E on 3 and G on 5th place. If you opt to make it a minor triad instead, try flattening the third one.
By flattening, I mean that you should take the position as a C, E flat, and G. The difference as you see is only changing the middle note. But in practice, only a single finger transition might make you change the whole finger positioning. More technically, this could be also defined as; Alternation of 1 semi-tone difference to the major chord giving off a minor.
Here, the term semitone means two frets off the latter position. Now, you have the basic thing of what chord alternations from a major to minor mean.
Now let’s look at intervals. An interval is a general term and pretty understandable and relatable as something in between. Let’s say you play the note C on your guitar (which is on the fifth fret and 3rd string, yes exactly over the black dot. You’re a genius man!). While you go for the do, re, mi, or let’s say the solfege with it, you switch to the 7th fret 3rd string which gives off an interval also called a major second. Regular solfege has unison, major 2nds, Major 3rds, perfect 4th and perfect 5ths, major 6s, major 7s, and Perfect octaves.
Further elaborating the intermediates, you will get minor 2nds, minor 3rds, minor 6th, and minor 7th s too. This whole setup means the differences that you play over while following the solfege along the scale.
A major 3rd means you escape off to 2nd string 5th fret, there’s a perfect 4th, as it does not have its minor because its route is blocked by the major 3rd. Again on the 2nd string 8th fret you again have the perfect 5th. The perfect 5th might be a little bit tricky as you see a place for its minor placement too and should have been better referred to as a major itself, But, the one in the minor placement is called the augmented 4th position which is not a legitimate minor position.
Again, the major 6th is in the 1st string 5th fret, the major 7th is in the 7th fret 1st string, and ends with a perfect octave on the 8th string which again lacks a major-minor transition and acts as a base for another octave to start with.
Another important thing to learn here is the octave differences and how they work. There are a total of 8 octaves which generally means that upon increasing the frequency ranges, the octaves go on increasing too. Referring to the earlier 5th fret 3rd string note, it has a frequency of 262 hertz and with respect to it, the end of octave i.e. the other “do” of the same octave-which is also the base note for another octave, would have a frequency value of 524 hertz.
A song might rely on varying octaves but the chord progressions are mostly based upon a general key/ root. As you might have tried searching your favorite song and its chords anywhere on the internet, there’s always a key of the song that setup the chords that’d follow. Under some circumstances, the songs might change their feelings and opt. for modulations too. A modulation is changing the entire mood/ key of the song. It affects the whole chorus play too and is normally avoided on songs except for some jazz masterpieces.
Chords you need to know:
Well as mentioned earlier there are tons of chord variances that you may come across and every one of them gives a different feel and mood to the track. They are followed by similar notations likewise. Let’s know for now that chords are just the set of notations that can be categorized as per fingers involved and the notation In the series that follows. let’s jump into the varieties of chords in existence:
Octaves:
Octaves are the notes with the same notations, where one has double the frequency of its peer. For example, if you hit the 1st octave “do” alongside the “do” at the end, it’s called an octave. It’s a basic two-finger progression which is a basic yet important chord type. Normally an octave involves a double fingerpicking to come into play.
Majors:
Majors are basic, yet the most important chord types that are reckoned as “happy chords”. Normally a major chord requires a triad formation where the three fingers each serve to provide a peculiar notation which eventually leads to chord formation. Normally, the majors are 1-3-5 formations of a given scale.
Let’s take an example of a C major chord. A C-scale has notations such as:
The C major chord has a C note as a root note and the E and G notes are at their exact 3rd and 5th positions. So a C-E-G gives a major chord. It seems pretty basic but you might need a lot of concentration during learning all the different scales and chords to build a basic command over your unit.
Minors:
Minors are another form of the major chords which are known as “sad chords”. Normally a minor chord requires a triad formation where the placement is exactly a 1-3-5 as in a minor but the medial 3 is a flat 3. This means it would be a semitone (two frets below) below the 3 prior and is called a flat 3rd.
Let’s consider a C minor chord here. The C minor has C- flat E -G triad notations to it. This might seem as an easier transition but the variations might surprise you.
Major 7s:
A major 7th is basically a major triad of 1-3-5s plus a seventh (five and a half steps) above the root. It is a 4 finger play that involves a major triad plus a 7th notation.
For example, if you take a major C chord with a C-E-G triad, then add a B notation to it which forms a major 7th. The placement is in general a C-E-G-B.
Major 9s:
A major 9th is a fifth finger extension to the 4 finger placement. It’s basically the 1st –or the root note, the major 3rd, the perfect 5th, the major 7th, and the major 9th. The major 9th in a C major gives a C-E-G-B-D placement but a five-finger extension is not possible to play through. That’s the reason one of the notes is omitted from these. The one that is technically avoided is the 5th or the “G”. With all these finger placements the chord might sound muddy, that’s why it’s better to avoid the G, which is good for hearing and also for your fingers.
Major 13s:
A major 13s is another finger extension to your major 9th, meaning; you’ve got the root note – C, the Major 3rd – E, the Perfect 5th –G, the Major 7th –B, Major 9th –D, and the Major 13th – A.
The positions seem impossible at first as it requires 6 finger positions and you might have to omit twos but there you could use the barre to avoid doing that, and a clutch could help in playing 3-4 notations via single finger placement.
Sus 2
A sus or more elaborately a suspension chord is which forms without the regular 1-2-5- major pattern anad has the medial 3 replaced by either a major second or a perfect 4th i.e. a 1-2-5 pattern or a 1-4-5 pattern. So a suspension chord is commonly a triad too.
So the sus 2 is a 1-2-5 pattern which with respect to a C note could be given as a C-D-G. Sus 2s are quite pleasing to hear too. Try one yourself!
Sus 4:
A sus 4 is what we told earlier; instead of the regular triad of 1-3-5, it’s also a medial modification to a 1-4-5 placement, also given as C-F-G. This is made via modifying the medial E-3rd with an F-4th and sounds really good too.
This is commonly a triad too.
Power chords:
Power chords are like the general octaves too, with which I mean that both are just plain diads. As opposed to octaves, the power chords only prefer the root and the major 5th. For example, if you choose the C power chord, you’d press the root C and the G note alongside.
If you prefer any extensions to it, it could be some other notes on the same scale, but they’re generally preferred in some definitive music genres like; Metal, rock, and in blues.
Diminished chords:
In general, diminished chords are a slight modification to the minor chords. This means that for a general C chord, the notations are C-E flat-G in a C minor whereas a diminished has a C-E flat-G flat type progression to it. Only, in theory, it may seem similar but diminished chords are quite rare in usage.
This is also a triad play.
Dominant chords
Dominant chords, in general, are the modifications of major 7th chords, where the 7th is fattened/ or let’s say played a fret below to major 7th position/ or a semitone below. These chords also involve a four-finger play.
Let’s check for the C major example. Here we know that the major 7th involves a B note to the C-E-G triad. If you play a flat B instead, It becomes a Dominant chord.
Tips on learning them:
Learn the notes, scale, and general chords, about chord construction, and keep exercising.
Okay So learning any instrument is both easy and hard based on the way you perceive them. In general, if you are just a beginner and you see a guitar, you’d pick it up and either bang or pluck the strings. Seeing it actually make a sound would actually encourage you. It’s the same with most of the percussive units and also with the strings. But you might find it hard to learn a woodwind instrument instead of as they make a weird displeasing sound or may not even make a sound and your blow might be wasted.
But, a bass guitar is more interesting as compared to other instruments where you get to see yourself being upgraded in overall aspects if you could do it just right! For that, you need to learn the notes, the scales, and the chords and advancements, all in a disciplined and stepwise manner.
So they are:
- Learning the notes and trying to play each of them. Get a hang of the easiest and the most popular notes first.
- Learn other notes and progress on learning the basic theory. Know the scales and the progressions on them
- Learn the chord family and the chord plays and progressions, their variances, and applicability
- Keep practicing and exercising.
- Bingo!
- Try advancements as far as you can!
Transposing and the ideas beneath:
SO you wish to sing a popular song and require the chord played in it. You might have hard times either in singing the song on a high scale or it could be the problem with the chords used in it are too tricky to play. So, you might opt to change them a bit so that you don’t lose the melody of the song.
There’s exactly where you might rely on your resort i.e. transposing it to a different scale with easier chords to play. To effectively understand and apply these new chord voicings, learning to read guitar fretboard charts and chord diagrams is crucial. Transposing is a general term that literally means changing the scale.
For example, you see a song being played in the G scale where the most popular play of 1-4-5 chord play in that scale involves G, C, and D chords. You might think of evading the D chord and would rather wish to change it. Or you might like to change it to another scale.
Most of the songs prefer this scale and if you wish to learn them all, try transposing them to your favorite scale.
Here are some common scales and respective progressions for your knowledge.
So playing the song on a C scale would require progressions like C-F-G.
Similarly, it would be a D-G-A progression for a D scale, E-A-B for the E scale, and G-C-D for a G scale.
Our Final Thoughts:
At the end of the day, it’s all about your interests in any unit you own. Remember that, the key to perfecting any instrument is always via discipline and dedication to learning it. It would definitely take time to learn the chords but you will succeed for sure.
If you manage to learn all the chords, try modifying the pre-existing tracks and create your own bass line. If you get past practicing the chords, try writing your own bass line and chord progressions.
Keep vibing!
FAQs:
Why is learning Bass guitar so hard?
Bass guitars might seem hard to learn at first but are considered much easier than regular acoustics. Learning a bass could actually seem harder as chord plays and progressions are played via inverted plucking as opposed to chuck mode in guitars. But bass strings are much easier to play and safer for your hands as compared to acoustics and you could learn all the basics in a couple of months.
What are majors and minors in a bass guitar?
Of course, any of the popular string instruments like the bass, including upright bass, the guitar, the mandolins, ukuleles, and likewise have chords in them. Chords are in general, the triads that impart feel and melody to the track.
Majors are the regular 1-3-5 positioning of notes as a triad, and minors are 1-flat 3rd -5 positioning of notes. Majors impart a happy feel whereas minors impart sad feelings to the song/track.
Is a regular guitar harder than a bass?
Why yes! A regular guitar has 6 strings whereas a bass has only 4 strings. A regular guitar has fingerpickings, chucks, extensions, transitions, and more octaves and chord possibilities too.
Hand positioning is a technical thing and whilst barring and all that, playing an acoustic has much strain on your wrists and your fingertips. A bass instead only asks your fingers to stretch enough and work on your ambidexterity.
Why is bass guitar longer than regular guitar?
Bass guitars have longer necks than typical acoustics. The necks range from 30 inches to 34 inches and are always like that.
The reason is, that one with a shorter neck and shortened strings gives off a high pitch and higher frequency. Bass isn’t required to give off high-pitched sound but rather a lower frequency sound. To compensate for that, the strings need to be thicker and the necks should be longer too.