The Importance Of Chord Tones

Chord tones are notes that are the prime indicators of what kind of chord you are playing, for example; if you are playing a root, Major third and a perfect fifth then you are playing a Major triad, this is a three note chord. When you play these notes in sequence, then they are known as Arpeggios.

The chord tones (root, 3rd, 5th) are therefore very important and help you outline the chords throughout the chord progression you are playing through. This is a surefire way to play melodically.

Basic Bass Line Pattern

Using the rhythm of 1 & 2, &, 3, 4 we can go around the basic chord progression of C Major, A minor, D minor and G Major. These chords are simple triads using only Root, 3rd and 5th’s throughout.

Using The Fifth

After getting that pattern under your fingers, you can start introducing the 5th of each chord; for C that’s G, for A that’s E, for D that’s A and for G that’s D. We move to the 5th of each chord on beat 3 in each bar as shown below.

Working Below The Root Note

The fifth of a chord can be played above the root as mentioned earlier, or you can play it below the root as it is found directly below the root. Try the progression again by mixing up the pitch of the fifth, sometimes below and sometimes above.

Good Voice Leading

If we adjust between upper and lower fifths that are closer to the root of the next chord, then this results in less large gaps between pitches. This is what we call voice leading, certain note choices lead us smoothly to the next note we want to get to. In the example below, the fifth has been moved to beat 4.

Adding The Upper Octave

We add interest by playing a root-5th-octave pattern in various ways, by adding the octave to the root & fifth pattern we end up with a cool sounding sequence.

Here’s an example of how you play around with this concept just over one chord, in this case we are looking at C Major.

Use the backing track below to play along with these concepts.

Extra Progressions

Bb – Bb – Eb – F

Gm – Gm – Cm – Dm

F – C – Dm – Bb

Am – Dm – G – C 

F – B – E – E

Homework

Play through the chord progressions above using variations of roots and fifths, you’ll be amazed at how many bass lines you can create just using these chord tones!