accent: a stress or added emphasis given to a tone. In Rock accents are emphasized and reinforced by the drummer but YOU can do the same. This is one of the reasons why Bass Players and Drummers often work together, to create and reinforce accents.
alteration: raising or lowering a note by a half-step. Most often used on the 5th and 9th position notes but sometimes on higher numbered positions, too.
arpeggiate: to pluck or pick the notes of a fretted chord in succession from low to high.
arpeggio: striking the notes of a chord in quick succession.
assignments: assigning the use of each of your thumb and other four fingers to each of the strings with some overlap permissible. For example, you can assign T (thumb) to the E and A string, 1(index finger) to the A string and sometimes the E string, too, 2 (middle finger) to the D string and sometimes the A string, too, 3 (ring finger) to the G string and 4 (pinky) as a free striking finger. You might want to experiment with these assignments in order to find ones with which you feel you can work best.
augmented chord: 1st 3rd sharped 5th
'b' means 'flat' or one note or one half-step lower. # means ‘sharp' or one half-step higher.
Bass Clef: a symbol set at the head of the staff to fix the pitch or position of one note, and thus of the rest of the notes. The F clef. Fixes the position of the note, F, on the fourth line from the bottom or the second line from the top of the staff.
beat: a movement of the hand (or foot) in marking ("beating") time (clock time) (as would a Conductor or Blues Musician). The count.
beats: time counts.
bend and release: pluck or pick the note, bend the note up (pull or push the string sideways) then release, slowly or quickly, back to the original note.
bend: pluck or pick the note then immediately pull or push the string sideways with the fretting finger causing the frequency of the vibrating string to go higher. A half-step or even a whole-step in pitch is the usual bend but it could be as little as a quarter-step. You can make the bend slow or quick in differing musical circumstances. Learn to bend with all four fingers.
cadence: the repetitive rise and fall of sound. The repetitive emphasis of one sound among several.
character: essential features or peculiarities; the sum total of peculiar qualities which constitute individuality.
chord substitution: using one chord as a replacement for another; using a chord-based bass note sequence as a replacement for another.
chord: any group of three or more notes (pitches) sounded together at the same time or at about the same time. Chords are groups of three or more pitches. - Three notes, exactly, sounded together, 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.
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.
chromatic scale: all the twelve notes between octaves.
clef: symbols used to indicate the pitch of notes on the staff.
cliche: a commonplace musical phrase.
colloquial: pertaining to or used in common (musical) conversation; a colloquialism is a form of expression used in familiar (music) talk. - For example one musical colloquialism is use of the word, ‘fundamental,' which, colloquially, means the same as the more technical term, ‘simple tone' or ‘primary tone.' By technical, I mean very specifically defined. Technically, ‘fundamental' means the root of a chord, a tone which produces a series of harmonics, a generator (of harmonics) but everyone uses ‘fundamental' as a musical colloquialism when referring to the simple tone or primary tone which does, as the definition of ‘fundamental,' above, states, generate harmonics. So the terms, ‘simple tone' and ‘fundamental' intrude on each other's definition. To keep concepts very clear I've chosen to use the more specific term, ‘simple tone,' whenever there's a choice between the two. However, you will read the term, ‘fundamental,' often, especially in music magazines.
composition: the art of inventing music.
concord: consonance - those parts which harmonize well with each other. They sound good together.
connecting notes: (A) notes which may be in the scale being used but do not appear in the particular chord structures or chords being played or (B) notes which are not in the scale being used and, as such, do not appear to have any relation to the music structure. - However, in the sense that connecting notes are useful for bridging different chord-based bass note sequences or even keys, they always serve a relational function.
contrapuntal: counterpoint - point against point, that is, note against note. Adding one or more parts to a given part. The art of combining melodies.
diads: two note 'chords' which are not defined as chords; they are called diads and sometimes, double stops.
diminished chord: 1st flatted 3rd flatted 5th
discord: dissonance - inharmonious, discordant.
dominant seventh chord: 1st 3rd or flatted 3rd 5th flatted 7th
dotted notes: a dot after a note (or rest) prolongs its time value by half: i.e., a dotted half note is equal in duration to a half note plus a quarter note. A dotted quarter note is equal in time value to a quarter note plus an eighth note.
double stops: two note 'chords' which are not defined as chords; they are called diads and sometimes, double stops.
downbeat: the emphasized beat or beats in a repetitive sequence of beats. Beat = the count.
drama: a series of deeply interesting (important) events; vivid, striking, often with an element of unexpectedness. This is incredibly important. You would do well to deepen your understanding of musical elements which create drama.
duration: the length of a sound (in clock time).
dynamics: relating to the various degrees of loudness in musical sounds. Changing loudness.
eighth note: a note equal to one half the duration of a quarter note.
embellishment: act of adorning; decoration. From French, meaning beautiful. To embellish: to make beautiful with ornaments. Extra decorative notes.
extension: a note that adds more harmonic dimension to an existing chord. Constructed by adding on a major or minor third beyond the existing chord's notes. For example, take 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. The 7th is a 3rd (four half-steps) beyond the 5th. The 9th is a minor 3rd (three half-steps) beyond the 7th. The 11th is a minor 3rd (three half-steps) beyond the 9th. The 13th is a 3rd (four half-steps) beyond the 11th.
flat: the sign, 'b,' means 'flat' or one note or half-step lower.
foundation: base of a building; groundwork or basis. Regarding a note or a pitch, which are complex sounds, the base or basis of the sound. The simple tone.
frequency: the number per second of vibrations or waves or cycles of any periodic phenomenon, one which occurs at regular intervals. The number of times that a vibration or wave occurs each second. Simple sounds which consist of one primary vibration.
fret board: the top of the neck of the bass over which the strings lie.
fret: one of the thin metal bars embedded in the face of the neck of your bass. When you place a finger on a string just behind a fret and depress the string until it touches the fret it shortens the length of the vibrating section of the string (assuming that you've plucked or picked it) and makes the note sound higher.
good ‘tone': sound that finds approval among musicians playing in a genre and fans who accept or set the standards for what ‘sounds good' in that genre at that time.
half note: a note equal to one half the time value of a whole note.
hammer-on: forcefully fret the first (lower) note with one fretting finger then a higher note on the same string with a second fretting finger without plucking or picking with fingers on the opposite hand. Pluck or pick the first note or don't pluck or pick it.
harmonic minor: 1 ~~ 2 ~~~ b3 ~~ 4 ~~ 5 ~~ b6 ~~ 7 ~~~ 8
harmonics or overtones: partial tones or overtones which accompany a simple
tone. In physics, for example, one might look at the fluctuations
along a sine wave's path, little waves on the larger wave, like
bursts of foam or breaks on an ocean wave. They're produced in
conjunction with or at the same time as the simple or primary
tone, the only one that you think you're picking or plucking.
They're produced at lower volumes than the simple or primary tone.
That's why you can't hear them at first, until your ears become
more refined through experience.
harmonize: to make concordant, to sound well together as defined
by our ears and in the fifteen hundred year old tradition of western
music (which your ears have become through a lifetime of exposure).
harmony: a musical combination of tones and/or chords. - The doctrine (theory) of chords and their progression. - Harmony is 'concord' as contrasted with 'discord.' Harmony is also the concord which follows a discord.
idiomatic expression: an expression, characteristic of a language, in this case the language of music, not logically or grammatically explicable.
impression: an idea or emotion left in the mind by an experience. A vague, uncertain memory.
interval: the distance between notes in a scale.
intonation: the pitching of musical notes. When we check to hear that the note played at the twelfth fret sounds like the note of the same string played ‘open' or not fretted (the open string) we are checking the intonation of that string and, mechanically speaking, the proportion of its lengths: from the twelfth fret to the bridge, the adjustable string support at the bottom of the bass, compared to its total length, bridge to nut, the grooved string support at the top of the neck near the tuners. If you half the length of a vibrating string you make it sound an octave higher. There are physical ratios of string lengths for all the other notes, too.
inversion: a change of position in respect to intervals (numbers of half-steps), as arises from playing upper notes lower or lower notes higher. Better reread this one slowly and multiple times. Mull it over.
key signature: the chromatic sign or signs (sharps or flats) placed on the staff at the beginning of a piece after the time signature. Tells you the key in which the piece is to be played.
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. - 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.
leading tone: the seventh degree of the major and harmonic minor scale. Principal, chief; guiding, directing.
major chord: 1st 3rd 5th
measure: a group of tones or accents included between any two primary or heavy accents or beats. A measure is sometimes called a bar. A bar is everything between two sequential short vertical lines crossing the five parallel lines (the staff) on which notes are written.
melodic minor: 1 ~~ 2 ~~~ b3 ~~ 4 ~~ 5 ~~ 6 ~~ b7 ~~~ 8
melody: a series of single sounds arranged according to certain rules.
minor chord: 1st flatted 3rd 5th
modes: other scales.
movement: tempo.
muffled string(s): create a percussive sound by damping the string(s) with the palm of the plucking or picking hand (laying the palm onto the string(s)) and pluck or pick the string(s) without depressing them. Can also damp or muffle with the fretting finger(s).
musical genre: musical kind, type, group, class. For example: some musical genres are: Rock, Jazz, Country, Classical, Funk, R & B, Hip Hop, Reggae, Dub, Drums & Bass, Bluegrass, etc. . . .
natural minor scale: 1 ~~ 2 ~~~ b3 ~~ 4 ~~ 5 ~~ b6 ~~ b7 ~~~ 8
natural: neither sharp nor flat. That state to which a note reverts after it has individually been designated in the body of the piece as sharp or flat. For example, a note which has been played natural (neither sharp nor flat) up to that moment in the piece, and is then designated sharp or flat (# or b), reverts back to its ‘natural' state the next time a ‘natural' sign is displayed with that note. This is different from notes played sharp or flat for the entire piece as designated by the key signature in the beginning of the piece. Also, notes which are designated to be played sharp or flat by the key signature can conversely be designated as ‘natural' for a time.
ornament: anything that adds grace or beauty.
overtones or harmonics: partial tones which accompany a simple tone; in physics, for example, one might look at the fluctuations along a sine wave's path, little waves on the larger wave, like bursts of foam or breaks on an ocean wave.
palm muting: partially mute or damp the string(s) with the palm of the plucking hand just above the bridge as you pluck or pick the note.
passage: a portion of a piece of music.
passing tones: another term for ‘connecting notes' - (A) notes which may be in the scale being used but do not appear in the particular chord structures or chords being played or (B) notes which are not in the scale being used and, as such, do not appear to have any relation to the music structure. - However, in the sense that passing tones are useful for bridging different chord-based bass note sequences or even keys, they always serve a relational function.
pattern: something to be copied. A group of relationships between select notes (of a scale in this case) of which the group can be copied or repeated.
patterned string striking: vibrating the strings by alternating each of your thumb and four other fingers in repetitive plucking patterns. If you become adept at flat picking you can do this with a pick, too.
pentatonic scale: Penta meaning five. Tonic meaning tones. Five tones or notes. A five note scale. - There are many pentatonic scales possible but the ones most often used in Rock are the major pentatonic and the minor pentatonic. - The major pentatonic is comprised of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th positions of the major scale. - The minor pentatonic is comprised of the 1st, b3rd, 4th, 5th and b7th positions (of the major scale, since we are using the major scale as a basic reference point and defining the minor (pentatonic) scale in terms of the major).
phrasing: the relationship between the durations of notes and the spaces or rests between them. Phrasing can be understood as your choices of durations and placements of notes within the rhythms.
piece: a single article; an artistic composition.
pitch: the highness or lowness of a sound. Pitch is comprised of multiple frequencies such as tone(s) and overtones. The sensation of pitch is created by multiple frequencies, all in a steady, repetitious time relationship (milliseconds) which stimulate a tiny membrane in our ears. Our brain interprets the signals from the nerves from that membrane as a single pitch. So the perception of pitch is comprised of multiple time related perceptions the sum total of which gets a single label, a note. The frequencies and variations that are acceptable ('correct') to us as components of any pitch have been unconsciously learned by us since we were children if we were born into this culture. Some variation in the acceptable frequencies still enables our brains to interpret a sound as a certain pitch. Some variation but not too much otherwise we won't give a sound acceptance or validation. Pitch is also the tuning of an instrument.
pitches: sounds that instruments and voices produce and are complex and consist of multiple frequencies although only one of those frequencies, the simple tone, is primary or foundational (to that pitch) while the rest are overtones or harmonics. Foundational means basis or basic or base.
plucking: now here's a string vibrating technique that has many possibilities. Flick the string with a finger tip moving upwards more or less parallel to the surface of the fret board and you've plucked it. How about plucking it with a down stroke? Puzzling? Well, yes. Maybe strictly speaking, that isn't a pluck. But since I'm talking about the use of your fingers to strike the strings then a down stroke can loosely come under the heading of plucking. Just flick the tip of a finger downwards over a string in a reversal of the motion of an upwards pluck. The first part of the finger tip to strike the string is the fingernail, then very quickly the fleshy part of the finger tip follows. This reverse pluck or flick needs a lot of practice especially if you're going to use it in combination with the pluck or picking. - It almost goes without saying that you can also use your thumb to pluck in both ways.
popping: hooking a plucking finger slightly underneath a string, pulling it sharply upwards almost perpendicular to the fret board and releasing it to bounce it back against the fret board. Slapping and popping techniques are often used together in an alternating fashion.
position: a unique placement in a structure or sequence. A place occupied (by a note in a scale). The positions in a scale are numbered consecutively 1 through 8. 1st position, 2nd position, 3rd position, etc . . .
positional fingering: a pattern of notes which can be moved as a group anywhere on the neck without changing its geometric pattern.
positional: placed or set in place or set in a place.
pre-bend and release: bend the string up then pluck or pick the note and then release, slowly or quickly, back to the original note.
pre-bend: bend the string up then pluck or pick the note. Also called ‘Ghost Bend'.
presence: a characteristic of sound which places it in the foreground of perception.
pro: anyone who can make money playing music.
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.
progression: the advance from one tone to another, or from one chord to another; the former is melodic progression, the latter is harmonic progression.
pull-off: fretting both notes to be played with separate fingers on the same string, pluck or pick the first (higher) note and without plucking or picking again, pull the higher finger off to sound the second (lower) note.
quality: degree of goodness or worth.
quarter note: a note equal to one quarter of the duration of a whole note. In many common meters, 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, the quarter note is the unit of the measure.
rake: drag the pick across the strings in a single motion. On bass, you could also use your thumb. If you're fretting notes of chords simultaneously on different strings when you do this it would be called, 'arpeggiate.'
regulate: to control; to adjust by rule or custom in the interests of order or discipline. Sounds like something to rebel against but in music, it's not. Maybe Rock musicians substitute one type of order for another? One more to their liking?
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.
resolve: to bring a note back into the sound / feel of another note or group of notes.
resolving: bringing the note(s) back into the sound/feel, the harmony, that you want at the end of the expression of a chord or a series of chords. Usually, 'concord' as contrasted with 'discord.' It's defined as the concord which follows a discord.
rest: an interval of silence between two notes.
rhythm: cadence. - the repetitive rise and fall of sound. The repetitive emphasis of one sound among several.
rhythm: Greek for ‘flow.' In literature, rhythm refers to the pattern of sound established in either prose or verse through pauses and stressed and unstressed syllables. In music it's the measured or accented movement of similar tone-groups; that is, the effect produced by the regulated and systematic grouping of tones both in their accentuation and in their succession as equal or unequal in time value. A rhythm is, therefore, a tone-group serving as a pattern for succeeding identical groups. Your bass tones are part of that group. - Rhythm is the measured and regulated tempo of groups of tones, ‘tone-groups,' whose individual components are accentuated or not according to some scheme of equal and unequal durations (time values).
rock minor: the ‘melodic minor' is the same as the ‘Rock Minor', the minor scale used in much Rock music.
root: the lowest note of a chord which is in the fundamental position (non inverted), for example, a C major chord, C, E, G, the root is the C note.
scale: a sequence of notes arranged in order of pitch. - Our western culture's standard of how we choose (from all the millions of possible pitches that there are) the specific pitches or notes that we then use to construct all the rest of our music structure.
sequence: a regular succession of related chords.
sharp: the sign # means 'sharp' or one note or half-step higher.
signature identity: signature: to sign: proof, outward evidence; to indicate, convey or communicate; identity: state of being the same; who or what a person is. Indication of who or what a person is, therefore as a musical term, an indication of what an instrument or voice is or what a person sounds like and will sound like most of the time.
simple tone: a sound which consists of one thing or element; not complex or compound; a single frequency often unrecognizable as a note or a pitch since a pitch is made up of multiple frequencies. An example of a single frequency is a sine wave as measured by and displayed on an oscilloscope.
simulator: in modern music, to make something sound similar to another thing. An amp simulator gives you the ability to make your music sound like you're playing through a totally different amplifier.
sixteenth note: a note with one half the time value of an eighth note.
slapping: smacking a string down against the fret usually with the side of your striking thumb as you play all or just some notes. Very percussive and usually rhythmic or repetitive. Often used in conjunction with ‘popping' in an alternating fashion.
slide: pluck or pick the string and then slide the fretting finger up or down to a second note which may be as little as a half-step away or as far away as an octave or even more. The second note can be plucked or picked or not.
slur: a curved line under or over two or more notes, signifying that they are to be played ‘legato' or in a smooth and connected manner with no break between the notes. They needn't be of like pitch and there can be more than two notes.
solo: alone. A composition or a passage for a single performer with or without an accompaniment.
staccato: detached, distinct, the notes are separated from each other by rests.
staff: the five lines, with the spaces between them, upon which the notes are written.
stave: the lines upon which notes are written.
strum: to strike all of the notes in one stroke, one motion. On a bass or guitar in a single downwards or single upwards motion. If plucking, as on a bass or classical guitar, to pluck all of the notes using separate fingers simultaneously.
style: manners of performing an action, in music the action would be the playing of an instrument or vocalizing.
suspended chord: 1st 4th 5th
syncopation: a shifting of the rhythmic accent (the emphasized beat) to the unaccented part of the measure and sustaining the note into the accented part. In Rock bass, playing the note on the upbeat rather than the downbeat. This causes the beat to sound 'quicker' and adds a little extra excitement !
system: anything formed of parts placed together to make a regular and connected whole working as if one machine (e.g. a system of pulleys, the solar system): the body functioning as one whole: a set of organs that together perform a particular function (e.g. digestive system): the universe. A customary plan, method of procedure. Systematic: pertaining to, or consisting of, system: formed or done according to system. The main systems in music are harmony and rhythm.
tapping: hammer (tap) the frets with any fingers and combinations of fingers on either or both hands without plucking or picking the strings. If you use picks you can tap with the edge of your pick.
tempo: rate of speed; movement. Time, or measure.
texture: an impression resulting from hearing the combining or interrelating of the parts of a whole. An impression is an idea or emotion left in the mind by an experience. So ‘texture' is a ‘soft' word in music. It has no hard and fast meaning.
tie: a curved line joining two notes of like pitch that are to be sounded as one note equal to their united time value.
time signature: the figures or numbers which are placed on the staff at the beginning of a piece which indicate the measure. 3/4 means three quarter notes per measure. 4/4 means four quarter notes per measure. 9/8 means nine eighth notes per measure.
time value: the length or duration of time (clock time) that a given note is held.
time: the division of the measure into equal fractional parts of a whole note, thus regulating the accents and rhythmic flow of music.
tone: there is a distinction between a tone and ‘tone.' A tone is, technically speaking, a musical sound of definite pitch. A note. It can be a simple sound (simple tone) or a complex sound consisting of a simple tone and overtones. - ‘Tone' is a musical colloquialism. The use of the word, ‘tone,' in the phrase, ‘Quest for Tone,' is less technical, musically speaking, more of a musical cliche, an idiomatic expression which loosely means: character, the sum total of all the peculiar qualities of a musical sound which constitutes its individuality and desirability (my inclusion). - The common meaning of ‘tone' also includes another characteristic of sound, timbre, the quality of tone or sound. - In the Rock musician's eternal 'Quest for Tone' it also means (loosely) the bass or treble sound, the texture or scratchiness or smoothness and roundness of the note, the 'punchy-ness', etc., . . . all of the aural/sonic characteristics which make up the 'sound' of a note.
tone group: a group of tones.
tonic: the keynote of any scale, the first degree of any key.
touch: distinctive handling of a musical instrument, skill or nicety in this; sense of feeling or contact; act of touching: any impression conveyed by contact.
transpose: to change to another key.
triads: three notes, exactly, sounded together, 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.
trill: rapidly alternate between two fretted notes by hammering-on and pulling-off. Pluck or pick the first (lower) note, hammer-on then pull-off and either pluck or pick the first note again or just keep hammering-on and pulling off without plucking or picking the string again.
tuning: to be in harmony.
upbeat: the unemphasized beat or beats in a repetitive sequence of beats. The half-beats between the beats that you count 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. ie.: 1, ^, 2, ^, 3, ^, 4, ^.
variation: a transformation of a melody by melodic, harmonic, contrapuntal and/or rhythmic changes
vibration: a swinging, backwards and forwards, an oscillation, varying between certain limits.
vibrato: rapidly bend the string a number of times after plucking or picking it once.
volume: I use the word, 'volume', to mean loudness.
wave: a state of vibration (a tone) propagated through a system of particles (the air or water: the medium); an undulating surge traveling on the surface of the sea; to move up and down in time.
whole note: a note (tone) which in common (4/4) time, is held for four beats(duration).
~142 definitions