Chords are groups of notes played simultaneously. They are organized into chord quality intervals such as thirds and fifths for easy comprehension.
Moveable bass chord shapes enable you to play scales using any root note on the neck of the instrument without altering their look or feel, no matter which root note is chosen as a starting point.
Scales
Scale patterns like those below can help you develop chord playing without placing undue strain on your fingers. They’re also an effective way to practice intervals – the distances between notes in a scale; one whole step consists of two frets; half steps represent only one fret each.
Intervals allow bass players to voice a chord without overshadowing its high-pitched guitar counterpart and to make adjustments without altering its original voicing of notes. They provide bassists a way to improvise melodies without altering chord voicing itself.
Triads and 7ths are two basic kinds of chords; both consist of three notes each. 7ths add the eighth note from any scale into the mix – they also can include sus chords with only 2 or 4 notes being played instead of 3. These sus chords, written as Csus2 or Csus4, typically follow chord formulae 1-3-5 for easy playback.
Chords
Chords are groups of three or more notes played together. Bassists provide the foundational notes that help define their sound. Triads, the most basic chord, consist of root note, major third note and perfect fifth notes that produce a cheerful sound; other types include seventh chords containing consecutive minor (three semitones) or major intervals that often create a somber tone, such as sevenths (four semitones).
Bassists employ movable chord shapes that can be moved along the fretboard to play various root notes of chords. For instance, playing a major 7th chord could involve taking your learned triad pattern and moving it from A String 12th Fret (E note) down to D String 9th Fret (9 note) using pointer finger, thus playing an F note chord. Utilizing these power chords as power chords provides great practice shifting interval patterns while playing bass lines.
Fingerings
At least in rock/pop/folk/funk music, bassists don’t typically utilize chords (although this might differ in other genres). Instead, guitar players typically handle these chords; nonetheless it would benefit you to become acquainted with all major chord shapes on your fretboard, so that later you may use them effectively.
One way to avoid overwhelming a guitarist when playing chords is using intervals instead. Intervals consist of the root note plus an octave above it, giving us all of the information necessary for playing chords without overpowering high-pitched guitar players.
A major chord’s most frequent interval is stacked fifths, consisting of its root note and its octave above it. This adds tension to the chord for more interesting soundscapes; you could even try replacing one note for another to form sus4 chords that feature unresolved tones that many musicians appreciate.
Grids
Utilizing chords in your bass playing can add depth and speed up your performance, but to understand this method properly you will need some knowledge of music theory.
At first, it is essential to recognize that every scale and chord has an identifiable pattern on the fretboard that repeats itself. For instance, a major scale beginning on C looks and sounds similarly to one beginning on D (called key of D).
Second, you need to learn to recognize intervals. An interval refers to the space between two notes on a fretboard. As soon as you are familiar with these patterns, finding and playing individual notes will become much simpler.
Chord grids (sometimes referred to as chord diagrams) provide an easy way of visualizing fretboard patterns. They show which strings are played as well as the frets pressed during each note played on each string. You can access chord grids under Tablature, Chord Grids and Tuning menu.