Running with the Bass: Part Two

The Seventh

There are two types of 7th notes in a scale: the regular (or Major) 7th and the flatted 7th. A lot of guitar players seem to think that a 7th chord is a 7th chord and they are all the same. Oh, not true all you slingers of thin stringed instruments. There are three commonly use 7th chords. These are the dominant 7th, the Major 7th, and the Minor 7th. These can be hiding in all kinds of chord charts because they can be written different ways. Lets take a look at some of the different chord chart notations for the 7th chords based around the C chord:

It is important to know which 7th chord is being played so as to play the correct seventh note. The chart below shows the location of the 7th for each scale. If you are not sure which type of seventh is being played, you are best off to avoid playing the 7th note altogether. Better to sound simple than wrong. A flatted 7th over a Major 7th chord is going to sound really nasty.

Relation between the 7ths and the root on the fretboard.

A really nice trick over a 7th chord is to play a trill (two notes oscillating between one another) between the 7th note and the octave, jumping back to the root or the 5th of the scale after the trill.

Moving Between Chords

Everything we have discussed so far has been about playing scales over one standing chord. Now this would be perfect if all songs contained only one chord. But, you know those guitar players; they love to put two, three, even FOUR chords in a song. (Now, before all the guitar players email me to gripe, I play guitar too and I was only kidding!) Sliding between chords in a song gracefully is the true sign of a good bass player. True pros will do this effortlessly as if guided by the force. In reality however, this takes a lot of practice and dedication. But, isn't that what being a pro bass player is all about.

There are three major techniques to moving between chords. These three types - the walk down, the walk up, and the pivot point technique - are good things to have in your skills arsenal. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is a great place to get started.

When moving from one chord to another, it is important to examine the two chords in the pattern and the relationship between them. In many forms of music from blues to classical, the 1-4-5 pattern is very common. This is a perfect situation to use the walk down/up technique. In the key of D, the three main chords in a 1-4-5 pattern are D-G-A. In this example, we are playing over the D chord and then will have to move to the A chord or the 5th of the scale. We will be playing the D scale on the A string using the 5th fret for the root. The walk down will contain the following notes D - C - B - A or the Root - flatted 7th - 6th - 5th (see chart below). The C and B notes should be played before the chord changes so the you end up on the A in time for the chord change.

Walking down from D to A.

 

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