Chords - An Introduction

Being a solo instrumentalist, it makes financial sense to take care of as many of the parts as possible myself on my compositions. Over the years, I’ve learnt how to play keyboards and learnt how to programme a number of drum machines but although I’ve owned 3 guitars (two electric’s and one acoustic), my heart has never really been in that particular instrument and so, when I require a guitar solo on one of my pieces, I hire an axeman to come in to do the necessary parts which usually includes a rhythm track. There are, however, occasions when I don’t require a guitar solo so I use my bass in place of the rhythm guitar to ‘flesh out the sound’ a bit. Just bear in mind a few things before you embark on chordal playing. Guitarists and keyboard players have got much more experience than us guys when it comes to playing chords so listen to any advice that they’re willing to offer you. Another thing is that two guys playing chords together in a band can sound awful if things aren’t arranged properly. You will probably find it’s better for the guitarist and/or keyboard player to be playing single notes when you’re doing your chordal thing which, by the way, is known as comping (short for accompanying).

Right Hand Techniques

There are various right hand techniques that can be utilised when executing chords on the bass. Plectrum players will need to adjust their technique only slightly from striking one string at a time to striking 4 strings at once. For finger style players (like myself) the techniques are varied and some would argue, more challenging. One technique involves a down-stroke of the thumb on the bass string of the chord (usually the E or A string) while simultaneously plucking the higher strings. Carlo favours this technique and I’m sure, if you ask him nicely, he’ll be only too happy to give you a demonstration. Being a fully paid up member of Bass Hooligans Inc., I favour the far less subtle approach of ‘thwacking’ the strings with the back of my fingers, allowing the fingernails of the middle, ring and little fingers to rake over the strings for a much more percussive attack similar to the technique that Stanley Clarke uses. There is also the technique of strumming the strings with the thumb but this technique isn’t so widely used – many players feel there’s no place for it in today’s music. There is another technique – Tapping – but I’m going to talk about this approach next month as it involves both left hand and right hand hitting the fretboard at the same time and I don’t want to get into the ‘holding the strings down on the fretboard’ bit just yet.

Position of the left-hand fingers

How many of you have been in this situation? You’re in the rehearsing studio with the band and you’re having a short smoke break when the guitarist says ”let me show you how to play chords on your bass”. He then proceeds to take up the classic barre chord position somewhere down towards the nut and then strums the strings and creates a noise that can only be described as sonic mud. This is definitely NOT the way to play chords on the bass. Guitars and Basses may look similar but they’re very different beasts and the approach must vary between the two instruments. The best way to approach bass chords is to play them higher up the neck – anywhere around the 12th fret area is ideal from a sound and clarity aspect. Too far down the neck and the sound is muddy, too high and the chord doesn’t sustain anywhere near long enough to be of any use. My personal preference is from the 9th fret to the 17th fret but this can vary from bass to bass and from tune to tune.
As mentioned in my Alternatives column, I have a Cort Artisan Bass that is tuned E through C and it’s this bass that I favour for playing chords – the sound is a little inferior to that of my Warwick Streamer but the high C string enables me to play chords that are much closer in sound to a guitar chord than a conventionally stringed four string will give you. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use a conventionally stringed four string bass – on the contrary – the sound you’ll get is much darker and is ideal for a wide number of musical styles. The ‘jangly’ kind of chords I go for compliment my music – it’s just a personal preference and it’s very definitely not to everyone’s taste – many bass players opting for the chordal approach prefer their sound to be far from that of a guitar –its an identity thing - Colin ‘bomber’ Hodgkinson is probably the best chordal bass player in the entire universe and beyond and he just plays a conventionally tuned fender bass for his dazzling and mind blowing exploits. I saw Colin performing with his band Back Door at the Marquee club in 1976 and to see a master chordal player at work was one of the true highlights of my life!!!!!
Next month we’ll continue our study of chordal playing.

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Part 2

Note – This column takes it for granted that you are a right-handed player.

As I promised last month, before we get into the ‘fingers of the left hand holding down the strings’ bit, I would just like to run over the technique of tapping chords. The huge benefit of tapping a chord using both hands is that you’re not restricted in any way. You can hit the low notes of the chord with your left hand down near the nut while simultaneously hitting the high notes with your right hand high up the neck The other benefit is that you’re also not restricted to a chord of four notes or less – you can hit up to 8 strings (if your bass has that many strings) and the really great thing about this technique is that you can hit the root note in a number of different places at the same time. One of the drawbacks of playing chords using just the left hand only to hold down the notes is that the more notes you add, the weaker the definition of the root becomes and in some cases it’s extremely difficult to make out exactly what the chord is – not so with a tapped chord – you could hit the root and its octave with two fingers of your left hand and hit the root two octaves and three octaves higher (along with a couple of other notes) with your right hand. Personally I don’t incorporate this technique in my compositions but in a band situation live on stage it looks and sounds fantastic and I probably would employ it if I were still a gigging muso.
Listen to the first bars of School Days and you’ll hear Stan thwacking each chord once as he descends down the neck. There are times, however, when the music requires you to ‘hang around’ a bit on each chord before moving to the next one – it’s times like this that you can really get creative – if the conditions allow you to - especially in the recording studio. Have a listen to the track Bass To Bass by yours truly and you’ll hear something a little different. What I did here was to play chords all the way through the piece and panned them to one side of the stereo panorama. I then went back to the beginning and played all the chords again an octave higher but this time, instead of ‘one chord one thwack’, I thwacked each chord and immediately bought my fingertips back over the chord. I then panned this to the other side of the stereo panorama and the effect sounds quite good. There are tons of different ways to express yourself using chords – remember that music is for creative people so get creative and come up with your own style as a chordal player!

Left hand finger shapes (Figure 1 - attached)

Now we get to the bit where you can try out a few ideas to see if chords are for you. I thought that we’d better restrict ourselves to a couple of major chord shapes, a couple of minor chord shapes and the 5th chord shape for this first month. Although you see only five pix, there’s plenty to be getting on with here. Remember that these examples aren’t the only ways to finger majors and minors. As long as you have a modicum of musical understanding (read: knowing your major and minor scales) you can finger these chords in any number of ways. In example 1 you’re fingering the root, fourth and fifth. In examples 2 to 4 you’re fingering the root, third and fifth. Example 5 is regarded as an illegitimate chord – it’s called a fifth chord because it comprises of root, octave and fifth. It is, however, more versatile (and easier to play - which doesn’t sit well with the purists amongst us) because of it’s ambiguity. The fifth chord can be played over major and minor chord sequences and because it comprises of root and octave, it’s very uncluttered and just as full as any other chord you wish to play.
Next month we’ll carry on with our study of chords.

Part 3

Note – This column takes it for granted that you are a right-handed player.

Can you believe it? I wrote this months article and then after I had completed it I promptly deleted it by accident. I suppose that’s what happens when you’re trying to do twenty things at once. So here goes, attempt number two.
Hope you enjoyed playing with the Major and Minor chord shapes I gave you last month.
Now that we’ve got started, I thought I’d tell you about an ‘illegitimate chord’ that many of us have used at one time or other. In the world of guitars there exists the most commonly used chord – the barre chord. Now, for those of you that don’t know much about our smaller six stringed cousin, I’ll tell you about the barre chord.
There’s a chord you’ll find in all the guitar chord books called E Major. One of the ways to finger the E Major chord is to hold down the B on the A string, the E on the D string and the G# on the G string and then strum all six strings. Doing this, you’ll strike E (root), B (the 5th), E (octave), G# (the 3rd), B (the octave 5th), E (2nd octave). What all guitarists do is transpose this chord shape by placing their index finger across all of the strings while retaining the same finger shape thus they can effortlessly play E Maj, F Maj, F# Maj, G Maj and so forth all the way up the neck. I once saw a guitarist playing barre chords for the entire evening – he probably only started playing that week! I’ve never seen a barre chord shown in any self respecting guitar chord book. In the bass world we have our own equivalent of the barre chord – it’s called the 5th chord. The fifth chord consists of the root, the octave and the 5th – I’ve also never seen this chord shown in any bass chord book but it’s so versatile you can use it to cover the entire range of all the Major AND Minor chords as the fifth remains the same in both categories – try it for yourself. Ask your guitarist or keyboard player to play something in a major scale and play the chord sequence using fifths – it sounds GREAT! Now try the same thing over a minor melody and you’ll get a similar result. Now that we’ve had a bit of fun, it’s time to get back to the serious stuff. This month we’re going to cover the Major 7th chord. There are six examples here – more finger position possibilities than any other chord I know of. Have fun and I’ll see you here next month to wrap up our introduction to chordal playing.

Part 4

This month we’ll wrap up with the introduction to chords with three examples of the fingering for the minor 7th chord and three examples of the 7th chord.

This column has been aimed at introducing you to the concept of playing chords.

Hopefully, some of you will have taken to them and will go on to explore this avenue much deeper and should you wish to go further, please feel free to come and talk to me and I can provide you with information regarding many other chord fingerings including the Major seventh sharp eleven, seventh sus four, seventh flat nine, seventh sharp nine, seventh flat five, seventh sharp five, minor seventh flat five, sixth, minor sixth, ninth, minor ninth, eleventh and diminished.

I got started on chords with some major (no pun intended) help from a book called Chord Bassics by the phenomenal Jonas Hellborg and the chord examples shown in the last few columns can be found in this book. Anyone wishing for a copy of this book should contact
The Bass Centre or Music Sales Limited
78 Newman Street,
London W1P 3LA
ENGLAND.