Posted by One of our main tasks as bass players is to outline the harmony. In practice this means, that a listener should get a general idea of what the chords are to a tune, by listening to the bass guitarist. Being successful in this endeavor requires us bass player to at least have a basic sense of how chords work. After completing this lesson you will have a basic understanding of how chords are constructed and you will able to find all the notes that are in a chord on the neck of your bass.
To make this lesson more practical and applicable to your own bass playing, I created this short chord sequence on which we will apply these concepts.
But first: What are chords?
When you play at least three notes at the same time, you get something called a chord. These are not combinations of random notes. All of these chords can be explained using certain formulas. Let’s take a look at our chord sequence again.
Minor chords
The first chord of the sequence in Figure 1 has the name “Emi”. This is short for E minor. Other ways of writing this include EMI, Emin, Em or E-. As you probably know or can guess, one of the notes in this chord is an E. This note is called the root note of the chord and is the most important note in this chord. As a bass player you would play this note 99 percent of the time on the first downbeat of the first measure.
So what exactly does “minor” say? Good question! This tells us what the other notes are in the chord. Remember: When we combine at least three notes and play those notes at the same time, we have a chord. So what are the other notes in this E minor chord? Take a look at these shapes:
The red circles show you what the root note of every shape is. So, going up from your root note by three frets, you will find the second note in the minor chord. Going back one fret and down one string, you will find the third note that is in the chord. For your E minor this would mean:
Play the root note (E) on your open E-string, go up three frets until you are on the third fret of your E-string which is a G, go back one fret and down one string. You are now on your A-string’s, second fret which is a B-note.
So the notes in your E-minor chord are: E, G and B!
As soon as we know that a chord is minor, we know this minor shape is going to work over that minor chord! This means you can use this shape and play these notes separately to create a bass line over every minor chord, and it will sound great. All you have to do is start the shape on the right note. So if it’s a G minor chord, start the shape on a G, when it’s a D minor, start the shape on a D, etc.
Major chords
Going back to the chord sequence in Figure 1, we see that out next chord is a C chord. So how do I know if it’s major or minor? Good question!
When there is no extra information written next to the chord-letter like “MI” with our previous chord, the chord is always a major chord. This means that you can use a major shape on this chord. If you look at Figure 2, you see the second shape is a major shape. Starting on C (third fret of the A-string):
Go down one string and down one fret to get to the 2nd fret on your D string (E), then move up three frets and you get to the 5th fret on your D string (G).
Now you know the notes in you C major chord are C, E and G!
As soon as we know that a chord is major, we know this major shape is going to work over that major chord! This means you can use this shape and play these notes separately to create a bass line over every major chord, and it will sound great. All you have to do is start the shape on the right note.
Diminished chords
There is one other basic chord type which you won’t encounter as regularly as these other chords, but is still important to know. These are called diminished chords. You can see one in the seventh bar (F#) of our sequence in Figure 1. A diminished chord can be written down in a few ways as well: F#mib5, F#dim of even F#o.
Notice that the shape for a diminished chord in Figure 2 looks like the minor shape a lot. That’s because the distance between the first two notes are the same in both shapes. We’ll discuss the theory behind that later in this article when we get to chord formulas.
So starting on the F# (second fret of your E-string):
Go up three frets to the fifth fret of the E-string (A), then go back two frets and down one string to the third fret on your A string (C).
You now know your F# diminished chord contains a F#, A and C!
As soon as we notice that a chord is diminished, we know this diminished shape is going to work over that diminished chord! This means you can use this shape and play these notes separately to create a bass line over every diminished chord, and it will sound great. All you have to do is start the shape on the right note.
Chords and their relation to the scale
We now know three different chord shapes and how to apply them. Good! But how are these chords constructed?
| Chord type | Chord fomula | Chord | Notes in chord |
| Major | 1-3-5 | C | C-E-G |
| Minor | 1-b3-5 | CMI | C-Eb-G |
| Diminished | 1-b3-b5 | CMIb5 | C-Eb-Gb |
All of these chords are created using very simple formulas. The formula for a basic major triad (three-note-chord) is: 1-3-5. These numbers represent their relation to the major scale. If you would have a major scale in C, the seven notes in the scale are:
C-D-E-F-G-A-B
If you take the 1st, 3rd and 5th note from this scale, you get your basic C major chord. Which consists of C, E and G.
The basic formula for a minor chord is 1-b3-5.
What does the “b” stand for? The b represents a flat. Whenever you see this flat, it means you have to lower the note by half a step. In this case you lower the E to become an Eb.
So if the formula for a minor chord is 1-b3-5, the notes in C minor are going to be C-Eb-G. The formula for a diminished chord is 1-b3-b5. In other words, this chord also requires you to lower the 5th, meaning the notes in a C diminished chord are going to be C-Eb-Gb.
What are sharps and flats?
Here you see a four bar sequence with a D chord, a Db chord (pronounced as D flat) a D# (pronounced as D sharp) and again a D chord. While the b (flat) lowers the note by half a step, the # (sharp) raises the note by half a step. With this knowledge we know:
- D is found on the 5th fret of the A string
- Db means we have to lower D by half a step, so we go down from the 5th fret (D) to the 4th fret (Db)
- D# means we have to raise D by half a step, so we go up from the 5th fret (D) to the 6th fret (D#)
Practicing chord shapes
How can I apply these chord shape? The best way to practice applying these chord shapes is by doing it. Just play the corresponding shape on every chord. Going back to the chord sequence we used throughout this lesson that will look like this:
The numbers underneath the notes are the same as we discussed earlier when talking about the chord formulas. So the first note you are playing is the root note, the second note is the third and the last note is the fifth of the chord.
Whenever you play a new song it’s always a good idea to figure out which of these shapes work over every chord you are playing. This will give you new ideas and inspiration for creating your bass parts.
When you are comfortable with applying these chord shapes and rearranging the notes to create your bass lines, your next step in creating better bass lines would be to apply your modes. You can find an article about applying modes by clicking on this link. This article is the first part of a series. You can find part 2 by clicking here.
I hope you found this article helpful! Let me know in the comments what your thoughts are and if you have any questions or suggestions.