Music theory for bassists might seem daunting but it’s actually a lot of fun. It can also make you a better bassist by giving you more musical structures to work with.
Start with learning the names of all the notes on the fretboard. This shouldn’t take more than a day or two.
Root Notes
A root note is the first chord tone of a given chord. It’s also the string that a bassist will typically strum. Root notes are the basis for many of the more complex patterns that bassists use when they play with other musicians. They are also the foundation for understanding music theory and playing bass guitar more efficiently.
A good way to find a root note is to study any chord diagrams that exist for a given song or genre. A chord’s title should usually appear on the diagram. If you look at the letter that is in the chord title, you will know which string is the root note. This technique works on all fretboards. Just remember that each octave higher that the string’s original pitch is one fret higher than the next.
The root note is important because it will determine the pitch of your bass line when the chord changes. This is because it is the lowest note in a chord. If you strum the root of every chord, it will make your bass lines sound clean and precise. It will also help you understand music theory better because it’s easy to see what chord progressions are used in a song.
When a bassist is transitioning from one chord to another, it’s typical to play the root of the new chord. This is because a bassist’s role is to lay down a solid foundation for the rest of the band. Therefore, it’s the most important part of the chord.
Bassists will often strum the root and fifth of a chord together to make their sound fuller. This is a common pattern that bassists from all genres of music use. It will make your songs sound more full and professional, as well as give you a unique bass sound that is distinct from other musicians. This method of playing roots and fifths is a great way to develop consistent fingering patterns and learn the fretboard. It will also help you understand scales and how they relate to each other. So if you want to be the best bassist in your genre of music, you should practice these patterns on a regular basis.
Triads
The triad is the basic building block of a chord. It consists of the three most important notes in any scale: the root, the third and the fifth. These three notes can be repeated in different ways, which creates a variety of chord qualities.
Triads are essential for bassists because they provide a simple method of playing chords on the bass guitar. However, many bassists struggle with how to apply these simple chord voicings to their music. This is because a bass is much lower in volume than a guitar, which makes it difficult to play multiple notes at once. This can result in a muddy sound when trying to play complex chords on the bass.
To play a major triad, simply play the root, 3rd and 5th notes of any major scale. You can repeat this pattern for any note of the musical alphabet. This is a good practice exercise to do while you are learning the major scales and their intervals.
It is also a good idea to become familiar with the triads of each key that you are learning. This will allow you to easily identify the chords from the lead sheet symbols. Usually, the chord symbol is followed by the name of the scale it comes from. For example, the C minor triad is written as
These are a little less common, but you may encounter them from time to time. Diminished triads are built using the root, a minor third and a diminished fifth. The augmented triads are built on the root, a major third and an augmented fifth. The best way to learn these is to practice them on your bass and listen to the resulting sounds.
When you are practicing the triads, make sure to repeat them several times in succession over two octaves. This will help you develop your ability to recognize triads by their chord quality and also to understand how the notes of a triad are related to one another.
Intervals
Intervals are the smallest practical building blocks of our tonal system and the key to understanding all scales, chords, melodies, arpeggios and other forms of musical composition. They are also the foundation of all harmony. Understanding intervals is crucial to understanding music theory and bass guitar playing, because all bass lines are built up of intervals. There is a lot of music theory jargon out there, but ultimately an interval is just the gap between two notes and different intervals have different sounds.
There are seven intervals within an octave and it is essential to be fluent with all of them in every key, as bass lines are constructed from these intervals. Each interval has a name based on its size in semitones and the number of scale degrees between the two notes. For example: A major third is a distance of 2 tones and is commonly used in major chords. A minor sixth is a distance of 3 tones and can be found in some minor scales. A perfect fifth is a distance of 4 tones and is used in many chords. A seventh is a distance of 5 tones and is common in 7th chords, although some chords may not use this interval at all.
Each interval has a corresponding bass note and is played on the same string, so it is important to practice all of these bass notes as well. In addition, there is often more than one practical way to play an interval, depending on whether it is playable on a single string, adjacent strings or non-adjacent strings.
It is also useful to learn all interval names in their ascending order, as this can make it easier to build up a chord progression on the bass. For example, the C maj7 chord is built from the root and three of the five intervals above it (ie: E – G – B).
It is also worth familiarising yourself with the enharmonic equivalents of each interval as this can be very helpful. For example, C to F is a Major Third and also a Perfect Fourth (C to E) but the latter interval has an enharmonic equivalent of C to Fb (Dim Fifth). This can be very handy when learning chords and scales on the bass as it is common to encounter the same intervals with different notes (this is called Diatonic Equivalence). The next lesson will look at the basics of Chord Construction.
Scales
Scales are a way of categorizing particular sounds found in music, and they help to organize what you and others hear while listening. Bass players need to know how to use scales to establish the root notes of chords and to add melodic interest to basslines, licks, riffs, and melodies. Many bass guitarists learn scales as ‘patterns’ or’shapes’, rather than learning individual notes of each scale. The scale patterns shown in the bass guitar fretboard diagrams on this page are movable and can be positioned over any tonic note of the scale (the tonic notes are represented by green circles). Once you’ve memorized the shape of a particular pattern, you’ll be able to play the same scale with any root note on the neck.
Musical intervals are the building blocks of music, and bassists need to be familiar with the construction of major scales and minor scales in order to thrive as bass players. A key part of this is understanding the concept of ‘tones’ in a scale, and how the number of tones in a scale determines whether it is major or minor. Once you’re comfortable with the basic structure of major and minor scales, it’s time to start looking at triads and other interval formations.
A triad is a group of three notes that are built from the same root note. Triads can be used to build basslines, licks, and melodies, and they are often combined with other intervals to create interesting sounding bass lines.
Bassists need to understand the basics of intervals, triads, and scales in order to be able to develop their own riffs and basslines. But, there is more to music theory than this, and it’s important that bassists understand the nuances of each area in order to grow as musicians.