I have a question

i heard some popular bassists while playing one note patterns they talk in Chords like

"it moves to an E minor" and they just play an E

then to F Major...and just play an F

Why do some bassists talk in chords while playing one note most of the times?

do they see all the instruments together for example what the guitar does as well?

why do they care to say what chord it is when they play one note

 

Because our bass lines are usually constructed with chord tones. We have to know all the notes in every chord, instead of just a chord shape.
Of coarse it depends on what genre the bassist is working in. You can bet that a jazz bassist plays more than just root notes. lol

 

It's like this one time in a grocery store I heard the cleaner person talk about how he was currently cleaning the canned food aisle. Like why does he care about what they are selling on that aisle? The floors are the exact same whether it is the canned food aisle or the candy aisle. Just do your job and shut the fuck up about things that are none of your business.

 

When they mention the chord they are talking about the root note, 3rd & 5th. So the root note for C maj is C and for C min it's also C, but the difference is in the chord tones, so with C maj you can play the notes C, E, G, and with C min you have C, Eb, G. You can also use other scale tones as passing notes, but the flavor will come from the Key and its associated scale.

Also if you play a 3rd or 5th bass note over a major or minor chord you will force a chord inversion, and the guitarist or keyboard player will hate you for taking control

 

Last edited: Dec 21, 2019

Yes and vice versa.

Ideally everyone in the band should know what everyone else is doing and of course everyone should know exactly what the song is doing.

Here's just one tiny example (a contrived simple example) of why it makes a difference.

Imagine you are the guitarist in the band.
The song is passing through a chord e.g., CMaj7, so in its simplest form that chord is C-E-G-B
As the guitarist, are you trying to figure out what shape to play for a CMaj7 chord?
or are you doing something that may be better for the band like this...

Think... "The bass player will probably play the C root note, so I don't need to play it.
I can just play the rest of the chord, i.e., the E-G-B"

So, now you're exploring E minor triads as your simpler, less cluttered, contribution to the CMaj7 chord.

If the band members are not mutually aware and collaborating - they need to raise their game.

 

That's why it's useful to keep a notebook for arranging purposes. As a one man setup it's easier to do, but I always chart my chords and scales, and I think about how to use them over multiple instruments. It's like the ingredients of a cooking recipe, you have to know how they interact with each other. Even when collaborating, one or two people should lead the process, maybe the songwriters and/or the producer/arranger?

 

Last edited: Dec 21, 2019

It's so that the bassist can support the actual harmonic structure of the song, and to know what chord changes he/she needs to be aware of to be able to improvise in-between those changes (chromatically & diatonically etc..). Usually, the 'head' in a straight ahead jazz chart, (for good example), is played without improv or personal statements, but the solo sections are where (the bassist, etc...) has more room and time to embellish and add personal statements. Everyone needs to be on the same page with the cycle of chord changes for a tune - regardless of genre, and the bass usually functions as the anchor (as I'm sure we are all aware).

 

Because no bassplayer improvises/walkin'-bass/ostinato in E minor when the song is in E major.
It's not rocket surgery.

 

hmm

When playing E7 so this is major
He could play E minor notes or E dim and
make them resolve nice to the next chord A maj or min

then it will sound like bluesy

he too can play
b9 #9 b3 #11 B5 #5 b13 notes
he should know them because sometimes he has to play these or it sound wrong
if he knows how to play jazz that would be obligated

it's no rocket science

but much more fun
when you know how to play over these chords

learn first to play inside
then outside

then on a beach

study also the melodies and how they fit in the chords

anyway It's All About The Bass and Rhythm

 

A bit OT, but my brother-in-law is a professional bassist and I've some funny stories (to tell, not funny at the moment lol) of when I ask him for advice

 

Why does he play the bass when he could just use samples instead

 

Just fire up Band in a Box (BIAB) and smoke a leftover roach!

 

if they talk chords, they talk too much...

 

there's styles of music... bebop jazz, boogie, certain rock/prog instrumentalists for example... that the bass supports by spelling out the chord movement/progression by literally playing off the notes each chord has as well as chromatic movement between those notes. Also knowing what chord is being played points to its associated scales as well

 

Last edited: Dec 21, 2019

I'd tell him but... I don't wanna break my beloved sis marriage

 

Last edited: Dec 22, 2019

Yes they see/hear/take in account what the other instruments are playing.
They think that way, so when they play more than one note, they automatically know which notes are usable, for let's say a bass arpeggio, or what ever is needed.

 

Without the bass player this song falls to pieces multiple times

 

Because a bass player has the power to change a chord easily (..and I - as a keyboard player - am pissed about that!!)

Imagine me playing a simple A minor triad (thinking, we'll do some Art of noise style stuff..) and then that "it's all about the bass" guy comes in and drops an F on the bass ..well now we are playing an Fmaj7, duh.. I think you can think of many other examples.

Here are some from beato:

 

Lol I've done this exactly some days ago, and the keyboard player effectively went mad . He was playing C7 D A B, and I decided to play A G F (that's where he said that was too much lol) B.

I recognize that this F on A was twisting hard but it was a fast progression so it added a jazzy tention to it before resolving to the B.

 

Last edited: Dec 22, 2019

Bad baad boy you're Oly....