Day 20.

Other occasionally used chords:

major 9th~~~1~~~2~~~3~~~5~~~~~~7~~~9

And you'll sometimes see chords like these:

7th flat l0th ( Notated 7-10 or 7 b10 )

~~~~~~~~1~~~~~~~3~~~5~~~~~~b7~~~~~~~b10

augmented 7th flat 9th ( Notated 7 -9 +5 or 7 b9 #5 )

~~~~~~~~1~~~~~~~3~~~#5~~~~~ b7~~~b9

6th 9th ( Notated 6 . 9 )

~~~~~~~~1~~~~~~~3~~~5~~~6~~~~~~~9

Try to figure out these: ~~~~~~~~ Pencil in the positions

minor 7th flat 9th (m7 (b9)) _____________________________

minor major 7th (m (maj 7) ) _____________________________

or (min (maj 7) )

minor 9th major 7th (m9 (maj 7) ) _________________________

minor sharp 5th (m (#5)) ________________________________

minor 6th 9th (m 6 . 9) __________________________________

As you can see sometimes chords can be notated in more than one way. This may seem confusing but most of the time it really isn't because once you get the hang of all this chord nomenclature, a glitch in the labeling won't matter very much to you at all. When you're playing alone, sometimes you just have to make an educated guess. When playing with other musicians the best choice to make is simply to ask the others what note or position they're using.

As you can see, there's no end to the chords that people can invent. The only test as to whether a chord or sequence of bass notes is valid or not is whether or not it's useful, that is, whether or not it sounds good in the context of the rest of the music structure around it.

As you can see, too, there are clear patterns to all this. Patterns of what positions (using the major scale as a reference point) to sharp or flat depending on the names that are given to the chords.

You don't have to actually memorize any of this. With time, it'll all become second nature.

Repeat the above exercises for each of the groups (I hope that you can see them as little games). It's been very important to have spent so much time on this.

One other thing that is useful to know and which might have popped up in your mind as a question when going over the above material is this: do all chords always have a 1st position in them? Well, no, not necessarily. Take the extended chords for example. They can be played by your guitar or keyboard player without the tonic note or the band can allow the tonic or root note to be played by another instrument like a saxophone or harmonica . . . Which is where you come in. You play the 1st position when others are leaving it out (or maybe don't play it - at your option. Leaving out the 1st position can be fun and lend an air of the unexpected to the music! Reggae bass players do this frequently).

Slash-chord notation

This leads to another idea about notation which you ought to know: the slash-chord notation. For example with the chord notation, G/B or C/E or any other chord / bass note notation the note after the slash is the bass note that the composer wants played on the bass when the notated chord is played, ie., when the G chord is played the bass player ought to play the B note or when the C chord is played the bass player ought to play the E note. Chord / bass note.

Definition: notation: a system of signs or symbols which tell the reader of the music what to do.

Chord Progressions

Definition: progression: the advance from one tone to another, or from one chord to another; the former is melodic progression, the latter is harmonic progression.

When a musician plays a number of chords in a sequence that sequence is called a (chord) progression.

Definition: chord: any group of three or more notes sounded together or at about the same time.

Three notes, exactly, sounded together or at about the same time, are triads (also, chords); triads are chords. But not all chords are triads. Triad means three. Many chords have four or five notes or positions in them.

Definition: chord-based bass note sequence: playing a number of bass notes (notes that would make up a chord) one after the other, not at the same time or not at about the same time. A series of bass notes following in order. Sequent: following; successive. Bass notes that would make up a chord if played at or about the same time but which are played on successive beats.

Definition: beats: time counts.

Chords are built by choosing a starting note and adding notes which are certain intervals apart from the starting note (remember intervals, or steps, from earlier days?). The note(s) which are added are usually in intervals of major and minor thirds (four half-steps and three half-steps) and two notes apart. For example, to form a C major chord, start with a C note. Then add a note which is two notes (four half-steps in this case) higher. Counting notes, C to D to E, and half steps, C to C# is one, C# to D is two, D to Eb is three and Eb to E is four. So we start with C, the tonic note, and add an E, which happens to be the 3rd position in the C major scale. Then we want to add (at least) a third note because a chord is at the very least a triad or a group of at least three notes, so we add a note which is two notes higher than the (new) starting note, E. E to F to G, three half-steps higher. Counting half-steps, E to F is one, F to F# is two and F# to G is three. We add a G note to the C and the E. The G note is the 5th position in the C major scale. Now we have a basic chord, the C major, comprised of the C, E and G notes. We've formed the chord by adding notes which are four and three half-steps higher than the preceding note. Major and minor thirds. This is called Harmony or Harmonizing and is the basis not only of forming chords but of a great deal of composing which revolves around combining melodies (counterpoint) and chords. For now I mention this only to illustrate the point that this is how we form basic chords.

Play these intervals and chords' notes on your bass of course.

Definition: harmony: a musical combination of tones or chords.

Definition: composition: the art of inventing music.

Definition: melody: a series of single sounds arranged according to certain rules.

Let's take the second position of a C major scale, the D note and form a chord. Starting with the D note we look for a second note which is two notes higher than the starting note. D to E to F which happens to be three half-steps higher than the D. This is the minor third of the D scale which will make the chord we're forming a minor chord. Going two notes higher, F to G to A, four half-steps, we add the third note to the now forming D minor chord, the A note. The A note is the fifth position of the D minor scale. We have created a D minor chord. D, F, A.

See if you can do two things:

1) write down vertically in two columns all of the positions of both a major and a minor scale from the first position up to the thirteenth position,

2) then take each scale position, from 1st to 7th, and use each note of each of the seven positions as the tonic note of a chord and by adding either four or three half-steps, an interval of two notes, to each note and succeeding note, build a basic three note chord. For example, we created a D minor chord, above; now take the 3rd position of the C (major) scale, the note E, and create a chord from it using the rules above. Those notes which are an 8th (octave), 9th, 11th and 13th higher only form the same chords as the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 6th positions but an octave higher so we don't have to create them over again. We won't consider the 10th and 12th positions due to the reasons cited earlier in this manual (day 15).

Doing the second step in the previous paragraph may seem a little tough. It's a bit abstract. But it's fairly easy because all you have to do is count notes and half-step intervals. You might try doing this for some other scale(s) besides the C scale(s) (major and minor). Try the A scales (minor and major) because the notes in the A minor scale are the same notes as in the C major scale but they're in different half-step relationships as far as positions of the scales are concerned.

Try one more scale of your own choice.

So why am I showing you this? Because I would like to show you where some very common Rock chord progressions come from and how they are labeled: I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi and vii(o) in Roman numerals, the capitalized numerals indicating major chords and the small numerals indicating minor chords and the little letter o indicating a diminished chord.

If you created the seven chords, say, using the C note as your note of choice, and the C major scale as your scale of choice you would have created these chords: C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major, A minor and B diminished. These chords would be labeled I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi and vii(o) or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7dim (or just 7). What scale positions are in a diminished chord? ___________________ The 7 chord would be a diminished chord if you started with a major scale and the 7 chord would be a major chord if you started with a minor scale. Another question: if you started with a minor scale, one of the chords you would create would be a diminished chord; which one? The 2 chord, the 3, the 4, the 5, or the 6 chord?

Playing these seven chords in sequence would be a chord progression. But not a very often used one.

Why not? Just because. Just kidding. So, why not? Because when you listen to Rock you'll hear that most songs are based on chord progressions which contain three or four or, sometimes, five chords . . . hardly ever seven. Maybe that won't be true in the future as Rock evolves . . . we'll see. That shouldn't prevent you from composing song(s) with more than three or four or five chords. There are also some songs with only two chords in the progression.

What are often used chord progressions? I, IV, V. And vi, V, IV. I, vi, IV, V (very often used). Also, ii, V, I. And I, iii, vi, ii, V. There are some other popular/contemporary ones, too. Abstractly, (try writing this out on your sheet of paper) using the C note as your starting note or tonic note of the C major scale or key of C, of what chords would these progressions be comprised ?

If you feel like it you could ask the same question referring to the A note, A minor scale, key of A minor.

Definition: key: a musical structure comprising notes which are said to be related in some ways. The key of a song can usually (but not always) be labeled by its basic root note, the keynote, the 1st note or 1st position in the scale. It is called the tonic.

Definition: tonic: the keynote of any scale, the first degree of any key.

Definition: key: a label for a system on which the notes of a scale are built up, each bearing a definite relation (of half-steps) to the lowest note or tonic.

So what do you do on your bass?

Play the three notes (chord-based bass note sequences) of each of the chords in the chord progressions above. Play the basic 1st, 3rd and 5th positions of each chord (in different orders each time you come back to each particular chord - just for variety). Maybe use a connecting note (passing tone) or two to get from one chord-based bass note sequence to the next but isolate and understand the three notes which make up the heart of each chord. As your ears get attuned to the sounds of the groups of the bass notes which are in each chord you'll learn to discern the differences in the sounds of different chords. As you become more and more familiar with discerning differences between chords in the music that you play and listen to you'll soon be able to hear the number of different chords in a song's progression. Then the chord types, major/minor, and their numbered positional relationships, I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi and vii. You'll become an afficionado!

And thus you will have come to understand chord progressions.

Definition: progression: a sequence of a number of related chords in a key. How are they related? By harmonic structure. That is, each of the chords has concordant notes in it that are common to some of the other chords in the progression - a non-theoretical explanation if I've ever heard one. But simple.

Definition: concord: consonance - those parts which harmonize well with each other.

This is why you can play a C note in an F chord.

In the near future you can play extended and altered chords (chord-based bass note sequences), too. Why stop with three note chords. Go on to four note chords. Maybe slip in a few five note chords mixed up with those chords of ‘lesser stature'.

I'm using the terms ‘chords' and ‘chord-based bass note sequences' interchangably here although they are literally different terms. What are the difference(s) between these two terms?

Although they may be the same notes, the notes in chords are played at or about the same time while the notes in chord-based bass note sequences are played on successive beats.

Summary Of Harmonic Chord Construction Using Thirds

Key: C major

~~Notes of~~~~~~~~Name of
~~Harmonized~Positions~Chord~~~~ Notes~~~~ Positions Beyond the 5th
~~Chord~~~~~~~~~Created
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(The 9th, 11th and 13th are octaves
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~of the 2nd, 4th and 6th)

I ~~C E G~~~ 1, 3, 5~~ Cmaj~~~~B D F A~~~maj7, 9th, 11th, 13th

ii~~ D F A~~~ 1, b3, 5~~Dmin~~~ C E G B~~~min7, 9th, 11, 13th

iii~~ E G B~~~1, b3, 5~~Emin~~~ D F A C~~~min7, b9th, 11th, b13th

IV~~F A C~~~ 1, 3, 5~~ Fmaj~~~~E G B D~~~maj7, 9th, #11th, 13th

V~~G B D~~~ 1, 3, 5~~ Gmaj~~~~F A C E~~~min7, 9th, 11th, 13th

vi~~A C E~~~~1, b3, 5~ Amin~~~~G B D F~~~min7, 9th, 11th, b13th

vii~~B D F~~~ 1, b3, b5~ Bdim~~~~A C E G~~~min7, b9th, 11th, b13th

Also here's a chart for harmony chord constructions in a minor key, the key of A minor, the relative minor key of C major; all the notes are the same in both C major and A minor but because we choose a different starting note (tonic note) the half-step relationships are different.

Definition: relative minor key: this technical relationship is established when the tonic of the major key lies three half-steps above the tonic of the minor key; the minor key is then the relative minor of the major key. Or, in reverse, when the tonic of the minor key lies three half-steps below the tonic of the major key then the major key is the relative major to the minor key. In western music and harmony these ‘relative keys' encompass the same notes which are in different half-step relationships.

What does this mean to you as a Rock Bass Player? Often you can play notes in either key when everyone else is playing in one or the other. This gives you a little more flexibility which may on occasion enhance your creativity, pleasure and fun! It's also a term that you'll hear from time to time and now you'll know what it means and understand a little more about how our music is constructed. It also might give you ideas for new fretting patterns.

Key: A minor or A natural minor

~~Notes of~~~~~~~~Name of
~~Harmonized~Positions~Chord~~~Notes~~~~~~Positions Beyond the 5th
~~Chord~~~~~~~~~Created
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(The 9th, 11th and 13th are octaves
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~of the 2nd, 4th and 6th)

i~~ A C E~~~1, b3, 5~~Amin~~~ G B D F~~~~min7th, 9th, 11th, b13th

ii~~B D F~~~1, b3, b5~ Bdim~~~ A C E G~~~~min7th, b9th, 11th, b13th

III~ C E G~~~1, 3, 5~~~Cmaj~~~B D F A~~~~maj7th, 9th, 11th, 13th

iv~~D F A~~~1, b3, 5~~Dmin~~~C E G B~~~~min7th, 9th, 11th, 13th

v~~E G B~~~1, b3, 5~~ Emin~~~D F A C~~~~min7th, b9th, 11th, b13th

VI~ F A C~~~ 1, 3, 5~~~Fmaj~~~E G B D~~~~maj7th, 9th, #11th, 13th

VII~G B D~~~1, 3, 5~~~Gmaj~~~F A C E~~~~min7th, 9th, 11th, 13th

After studying these two charts and playing the positions as chord-based-bass-note-sequences you'll have a good knowledge of both major and minor harmony chord constructions. I don't know if you've noticed this or not but if you look downwards from each note listed in each row you'll see a column that lists the notes of the scale whose chord constructions you're studying. These two charts are good reference charts for you to have. They're especially useful when composing for the bass as well as creating lead sheets (charts of staves with melodies and chords and sometimes bass notes). Saves mental machinations.

Definition: stave: the lines upon which notes are written.

The 5th is always a ‘perfect' 5th. It is always 7 half-steps above the tonic regardless of whether you're in a major or minor key.

As a (low) inversion the 5th is 5 half-steps below the tonic.

The scale positions and their inversions add up to 12 half-steps. Check out the 4th. And the 3rd.

Arpeggiation

Now would be the time to read, understand and begin to introduce the idea of arpeggiating into your repertoire of skills.

Definition: arpeggio: striking the notes of a chord in quick succession.

See the first definition in the 'Fingering Techniques' section in the Appendix. Really. Go read it now.

End of day 20.