Last night my instructor showed me something new (to me), which I think would be called something like a walking bass line transition between chords... it is so easy, and so fun to play that I thought I would share it with all the beginners out there... it helps with chord changes, individual note fingerings, strumming and timing.
Basically, you are just playing the bass notes between the chords you are playing and continue strumming in whatever pattern you like... mix it up, strum a few different patterns, or throw in an alternating bass strumming (boom chucka :) ) pattern and it starts to sound very good. Instead of the strumming, you can also play an interesting fingerpicking pattern instead.
I have the below example going from G to C to F to C to G and repeating. The strumming pattern is D DUD D.
So, play the G note (6th string, 3rd fret) and then play A, B then C chord... then D, E then F Chord and back down...
Whoops... just noticed that the forum cuts off the picture size... here is a direct link to the picture:
I know that there may be a lot of people rolling their eyes for how easy this is (or mistakes I have made in describing or transcribing it)... but I like it.
Perhaps people can help expand on this for me and others that find it interesting and give us some other ideas to build on this...
My Fingerstyle Guitar Blog:
http://fsguitar.wordpress.com
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Ibanez Artwood AWS1000ECE-NT
Schecter S-1 30th Anniversary Edition
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They are a lot of fun, aren't they!
We did a series on these over the last two years:
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/connecting-the-dots-part-1/
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/connecting-the-dots-part-2/
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/connecting-the-dots-part-3/
https://www.guitarnoise.com/lesson/connecting-the-dots-part-4/
And a lot of our song lessons utilize the whole concept of walking bass lines. You'll find them anywhere from House of the Rising Sun to (Sitting On) The Dock of the Bay to Friend of the Devil to The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy), just to pick some of them off the top of my head.
Getting comfortable with walking bass lines is a quick and easy way for a beginner to sound a lot more experienced!
Very cool.
Peace
It just shows you how amazing a site that Guitar Noise is... I have tried a huge number of lessons and am still finding new and fun lessons every day. Every time I am interested in a new technique, you already have an article or series of articles about it. In case it hasn't been said enough lately, THANK YOU for such an amazing site and for keeping it free. You could easily charge for membership and it would still be worth it. It is great to see sites like this, and people like you and the other contributors that volunteer your time.
My Fingerstyle Guitar Blog:
http://fsguitar.wordpress.com
My Guitars
Ibanez Artwood AWS1000ECE-NT
Schecter S-1 30th Anniversary Edition
Ovation CS257
LaPatrie Etude
Washburn Rover RO10
Can anyone offer some help explaining some of the transitions that can be used? Some of them are kind of obvious, or just sound right (to me)... others I can't quite put my finger on. It seems like chords that are two or three notes apart seem to make sense... what about chords that are 1 or 4 apart?
Ie.
()=string/fret
G to C sounds right played G(6/3) to A(5/0) to B(5/2) to C(5/3)
C to F sounds right played C(5/3) to D(4/0) to E(4/2) to F(4/3)
How should I best go from G to D, G to A, etc...
Is there a chart/document/web site anyone can suggest?
Perhaps an example of a good chord transition (I know it is not *meant* to have walking bass line)... Hey Joe goes from C to G to D to A to EM. Since all those chord changes sound nice together... how would I use that basic chord progression in a walking bass line method?
I don't know if anyone can even start to explain this... or whether it is just something you "learn over time"/whatever sounds good. Perhaps someone can just help point me in a direction. I have been through the Connecting the Dots lessons, and it makes more sense... but something must not be clicking in my brain. I am almost embarrassed asking this now, as I am probably way off in left field in the general concept... Oh well... will hit "submit" anyway and see where it goes :)
My Fingerstyle Guitar Blog:
http://fsguitar.wordpress.com
My Guitars
Ibanez Artwood AWS1000ECE-NT
Schecter S-1 30th Anniversary Edition
Ovation CS257
LaPatrie Etude
Washburn Rover RO10
It's hard for me to explain this without going into too much detail, and I'm not big on length explanations, so let's go with what you already know: What sounds "good".
It seems you already have an ear for what sounds natural and normal musically. The ascending bass lines in your post from G>C and C>F have an important thing in common- the "leading" tone. The B and the E in both examples are 1/2 step below the "target" or "destination". This note naturally asks to be resolved to the target tone. I hope I'm making sense to you.
When writing bass lines for progressions, it's important to include these tones as they really drive the music from chord to chord. The rest of the notes in between are derived from the key center of the tune, but don't necessarily have to be directly from the key.
For example, if you listen to the bass line in Hey Joe, you'll hear that underneath the C chord the notes E, F, F#, are played, the next note in the bass line is G, which not so ironically happens at the same time that the chord changes to a G. Again, we find the F# 1/2 step below the target note.
I hope this is enough to get you going without confusing you too much. I think you're pretty much on track though- keep playing what sounds right to you and you'll be fine.
If you need more about exactly what notes to play through a particular chord, I would suggest learning a bit more about chord/scale relationships.
