Chords for Wanna Play Some Heavy Duty Blues Bass? - Part 1

[A] _ _ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [Gbm] _
When you're playing blues tunes in a band the job of the bass is pretty much as a timekeeper
And you're the one providing all the feeling of forward motion for the song
[F] It's like you're like the steam engine [A] on the front of the train
you're providing all the power and the forward motion and
like if you should just happen to stop playing in the middle of the song or
If you get off the beat for some reason then the whole tunes gonna derail [B] instantly the basic parts [E] are real [Gbm] simple
Like you want to keep them pretty simple and not try and fit too many notes in there because it kind of starts taking away
From the power of the [B] of the bass part when you [C] try and [Gbm] fit too much stuff in there
I mean you can add in like killer little fills and licks and stuff
But you cannot [A] let that [B] affect your basic part and from personal experience
I know if I've tried to go for some big fancy fill, and I don't make it back in [E] time
So mainly the bass player is providing all that
Forward momentum more than the guitars or piano more than the drummer
It's the bass part that's providing all that forward motion in a blues tune
For blues [A] bass parts there isn't a whole lot expected out of you note wise
It's more about getting that good feel and that sense of forward motion
So as long as [N] you got your picking hand
Articulation and tone together, then you could just play root notes.
You know _
[Bb] I _ _ _ _ _
Mean [N] you don't need a lot of notes
It's just all about that feel and I mean as long as you got the feel and you could just play root notes and nobody's Gonna complain
But mostly you want to stick to the root and the fifth of whatever chord you're on at the time
And those are the two main notes that you want to kind of revolve around _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ And then you can add in notes from there
and the first one you'd add in is the third of the scale and to make that triad and
The triad is the root the third and the fifth of a scale and those are the basic chord tones
So then it would become _ _ _
_ _ And _ _ _ _ I know a lot of blues bass players play pretty much just that and that's what they do and it works really great and
Then the next note you could add after that is the one on top of the third and that's the sixth
No the sixth of the scale
so it would be like
And [G] _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ just go up to that octave root on top
_ _ [Eb] _ [G] _ [Bb] _ [C] [Eb] So [C] _ [Bb] _ [G] [Eb] we got the root the third the fifth and the sixth and then the next note would be the flat seven
so it would be like _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _
[C] _ [Db] _ [C] _ [Bb] _ [G] _ [Bb] And
Then another way you can play it is to put your index finger on the root note and just go root
octave flat seven and fifth like
_ _ [Fm] _
[Bb] _ _ [Ab] _ [Fm] _ [Bb] And [Ab] _ [F] _
[Bb] that's a big one [C] too
Sometimes that works better
Depending on what everybody else is playing then for the [N] fingering positions for most blues tunes
You can just start with your major scale setup with your middle finger on the root note
[F] You _ _ can get at all those notes in one position.
Then if I wanted to get at
[G]
[E] The fifth and the sixth in the lower [Eb] octave I would just shift
so my pinky is on the root note like _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Okay, something like that a lot of times people will just refer to the chords as
the scale degree that the chord is built off of like the
chord built off the first note of the scale would be called the one chord and
the chord built off the fourth note of the scale would be the four chord and
the chord built off the fifth step of the scale would be the five chord and
What I'm talking about here is just one four five blues because we're just using the one chord the four chord in the five chord and
When you write them down you would usually write them in Roman numerals a big thing in blues bass is the walk up to the four
Chord, so it's like you would be playing the one chord
And then when you're gonna go to the four chord you'd walk up into it
_ _ _ [N] _ _
_ And that's a real common thing and for the walk up [Ab] you can either [E] go by just regular scale steps
Or you could put in the in-between notes and play
Chromatically that's called chromatic _ [Bb] and pretty much
you just fill in the notes that you have time for and land on the four on the downbeat and
Then the other way is to do the walk down and like the most familiar one is like at the end of the phrase
One of a go
[Ab] _ [G] _ [Gb] _ [F] _ _
[E] You end up on the five and that's just going you know from the [Bb] the root on the upper octave
Going down a whole step two [N] frets
And then playing the next three notes
_ _ _ _ [F] _
[Bb] And then you could play that also up here going
[Abm] _ [G] _
[Gb] _ [F] _ [E] _ [F] _ [G] That
Kind of thing the only thing you want to be careful of in the walk down is you
Basically never play a major seventh going down you can play the major seventh going up
[Ab] _ [A] [Bb] But you never want to play it coming back [A] down
[Ab] You always just want to skip that [Bb] major seventh and just play the flat seven coming down
[Ab] _ [G] _ [F] _ [Eb] _ [Gm] _
[A] You
It's always gonna sound weird so it's something that I always avoid
[B] _ _ _ _ _ [Gbm] _ _ _