It’s All About The Bass

How many bass runs on guitar do you know?

Seriously, one-two maybe, depending on the key of the song and whatever two chords we’re trying to connect.

We’ve all been there …

We may know this really neat way of moving between C and G however the song you are currently playing needs a bass run between Am and D7.

Don’t you just hate it when you can hear a cool bass part in your head but your fingers refuse to co-operate?

I’m sure you’ve heard this advice a million times, just keep practicing … “guitar is the one thing that will get better if you keep on pickin’ it”.

Whilst there may be an element of truth in that saying it would certainly be less frustrating if we didn’t have to spend the next thirty years reinventing the musical wheel.

Maybe you have even found yourself wondering if there was a secret formula for creating great sounding bass runs between chords?

News flash: Bass Runs On Guitar Can Be Easy!

Depending on your level of experience on guitar and the variety of styles of music you play you may already know how to play some bass runs.

Many guitarists know about alternating bass but only a handful understand how to connect chords with bass runs.

Sure they may know a few runs that their guitar playing friends have shown them but they really don’t know why or how these runs work.

It’s time to stop all this smoke and mirrors stuff and finally unravel the mysteries of bass runs.

The great news is it’s easy once you understand the basic underlying musical principals all top guitar players use.

Review time:

Alternating bass consists of alternating between the first and fifth note of a chord e.g., if we were playing a “C” chord we would alternate between note C (note 1 of the chord) and the note G (note 5 of the chord).

Here is a quick reference chart for you to check your alternating bass notes – assuming you are playing your chord shapes in the open position.

A, Am, Am7, A7, A9 = strings 5 and 6

B, Bm, Bm7, B7, B9 = 5 and 6

C, Cm, Cm7, C7, C9 = 5 and 6

D, Dm, Dm7, D7, D9 = 4 and 5

E, Em, Em7, E7, E9 = 6 and 5

F, Fm, Fm7, F7, F9 = 4 and 5 (5 string version)

F, Fm, Fm7, F7, F9 = 6 and 5 (bar chord version)

G, Gm, Gm7, G7, G9 = 6 and 4

Alternating bass

Here is how that works in a bar of 4/4 time

bass (note 1) strum / bass (note 5) strum /

So a bar in 4/4 time would be written this way: //// but could be played this way: bass / bass /

Once you have set up your alternating bass pattern you will want to try some bass runs, here is how you work out what notes to play.

The first step is to know the names of the notes of the scale/key you are playing in.

Here are a few in the most popular “guitar friendly” keys for you to study.

C = C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

G = G – A – B – C – D – E – F# – G

D = D – E – F# – G – A – B – C# – D

A = A – B – C# – D – E – F# – G# – A

E = E – F# – G# – A – B – C# – D# – E

Decending bass runs on Guitar: D chord to A

Let’s say you were playing a song in the key of “D” and wanted to create a bass run to connect a “D” chord to an “A” chord.

Step 1: select the key

D = D – E – F# – G – A – B – C# – D

Step 2: identify your starting chord (D) indicated [ ]

D – E – F# – G – A – B – C# – [D]

Step 3: locate your destination chord (A) indicated { }

D – E – F# – G – {A} – B – C# – [D]

Step 4: work out how many notes you will need … in this case we are playing in 4/4 time so we will require four notes in our bass run.

Step 5: check if you have enough notes by measuring the distance between your starting note and your destination note.

{A} – B – C# – [D]

In this instance we only have three notes, so the trick is to play the first note twice so our bass run would become

[D] – D – C# – B | {A} / b / | etc

On the guitar our new bass run would look like this:

——————-

——————-

——————-

–0—0————

———-4—2—-

——————-

Ascending bass runs on Guitar: D chord to A

Likewise, we could create an ascending bass guitar run moving upwards through the scale from the D note up to the A.

Again using the D major scale the bass notes would be D, E, F#, G.

Because we’re in 4/4 time and we have exactly 4 bass notes until we arrive at our target note A each note will receive one beat.

This is how that would look.

——————-

——————-

——————–

–0—————-

——————–

——0—2—3—

Tetrachord Lines

Another idea for creating bass lines is to use tetrachord lines.

Tetrachord lines create particularly strong bass parts especially in songs that follow Cycle progressions.

A classic example would be the chord progression from the jazz standard Autumn Leaves written by Joseph Kosma.

Let’s take a look at the first 4 bars of Autumn Leaves in the key of G.

Am7 /// | D7 /// | GMaj7 /// | C Maj7 ///

The first step is to have a look at the chord progression to see if all these chords belong to the same key.

Yes, all these chords can be found in the key of G.

Am7 is chord 2 in the key of G

D7 is chord 5

GMaj7 is the first chord

CMaj7 is chord 4 in the key of G

Therefore this chord progression could be identified as a 2-5-1-4 progression in G Major.

How to create a descending tetrachord line

Essentially a tetrachord line is a series of four notes moving in a particular direction either ascending or descending.

In this case, it is going to be a descending bass line derived from the G major scale – the key that all these chords come from.

Since the Am7 chord is the second chord in the G major scale we will begin our bass line on the second note of the G major scale, note A.

Now it’s simply a matter of playing four notes from the G Major scale in a descending sequence starting on the note A.

The notes are: A, G, F#, E

That’s the first four notes of our descending tetrachord line.

Next, we move on to the D7 chord.

Again we’re going to play four notes in a descending order remaining in the key of G

Therefore we start on note D and play four notes in descending order.

The notes are: D,C,B, A

We next arrive at the G Major 7th chord and we continue the concept of playing four notes in descending order this time beginning on the note G

The notes are: G, F#, E, D

Moving on to the C Major seventh chord and the same process of notes descending in the key of G Major starting with the note C

Here’s how that would look: C, B, A, G

Ascending tetrachord bass runs on guitar

Similarly, it is possible to craft strong ascending bass runs using tetrachords.

When using tetrachords for chords derived from major scales the formula is tone, semi-tone, semi-tone.

For instance, using the same Autumn leaves chord progression here is how the ascending tetrachord line would be structured.

Am7: A-B-C-C#

D7: D -E-F-F#

GMaj7: G-A-A#-B

CMaj7: C-D-D#-E

Using this process you will be able to create strong, professional-sounding bass runs on your guitar.

And that’s just the beginning …

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