Getting Your Groove On With Only Root And Fifth
In this lesson I show how you can limit yourself to practising with only the root and 5th of each chord while still coming up with an interesting bass line.
Roots and Fifths
The last few lessons on this subject have explored ways you can spice up your playing by adding ghost notes, approach notes and other types of variation. Today, we are going to ignore all of this and strip back to basic roots and fifths. It is always worth trying to make the most out of a limited pallet before trying any other approaches to add interest to your line, as it is important to get the groove and the chord tones first. The root and the fifth work perfectly for stripping down a part as they are two fundamental chord tones that you can rely on in almost any situation. In a major key, you can use a root and a fifth over any chord except the 7th as this has a flattened 5th. Let’s start with a root and a fifth in the key of C:
We are going to apply the pattern above to the following I vi IV V chord sequence:
If we play roots and fifths over this progression then we already have a solid bassline, although it could sound a little bland. Just because we are limited to two chord tones doesn’t mean we have to only play two notes. We can use different octaves of each note to give us a broader pallet and expand our note options.
Don’t forget that the tones you are using will occur below the root as well as above. Here are all the available roots and fifths in our sequence:
Once you know what notes you have available to you and where they are, you can start coming up with your own basslines. Here are three to get you started:
Super! Making a lot out of a little. Improvising was a a bit scary to me until a great guitar player, Emily Remler said (in a video) that 70-80 percent of improvising is patterns players work for themselves and use over and over. Well, make that 100% on my part and I can improvise. The root, 5th and the octave are great to work with. If I ever do improvise, it will be to add a third to start with. But that will be later, I have hours to practice to do before then. Thanks for another great track (simple = great to me :-)
Mark,
Just wanted to send a note of appreciation for your teaching style. I have gained the most “musical value” out of watching and learning from you. Keep it going please!
Excellent lesson. Many balads or romantic music use the pattern .
Excellent Lesson, Mark. As always, thanks a bunch. The world is full of your better Bassists (students) because of your gracious and expert help. I’m waiting for the Bass Reading Course to be released – I want it!
Another great lesson, Mark! As a 68yr old beginner, i find these lessons so good, and so helpful. I have learnt so much from your lessons, and will continue to do so. Great job,Mark!!!
Thnk u for ths lessons im blsd
I’ve got more out of the few lessons I’ve watched you teach than anywhere else. I like how you break everything down into manageable parts. You make music fun and easy to understand.
Thanks again and again and again and again!!!
Thanks for your help it worked and I can now start the course.
Tony Dawes
Excellent lesson, after watching them and comparing them to others that I’ve seen, I decided to subscribe. Your teaching style is simple and to the point. No wasted time talking about your kids or what sweatpants you’re wearing. Just straightforward information about the music without any distractions going on in the background.
Great job Mark
Thank you Mark. Very useful lesson. Great teacher!
Thank you. Just what I need
Mark…extremely helpful and enjoyable! Awesome job with teaching!
Hi! Where can I find the backing track for this lesson?
I can’t find the backing too. However, I did find a good model on YouTube. It’s a bit fast if you are just learning so you’ll need to get some basic practice in first. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1Zu7fF_g4Y
You make it so easy 🙂 keep up the GREAT JOB 👍
thank u for ur commitment