BASS CHORDING (PART I)--Minor 7th Chords

by Rod Goelz

 

Introduction

This is the first installment of BASS CHORDING, a series of lessons that will focus on chords on the bass.  WHY CHORDS (I can hear the cynical cries)?  After all, the popular idea among bassists is that chords aren't played on bass, single note lines are.   And if we've learned nothing from Danny Partridge (of the Partridge Family), we've learned THAT THE BASS IS NOT STRUMMED. . . IT IS PLUCKED.

All this aside, the complete bassist has a basic understanding of chords, forms and progressions, and can do more than just play lines and satisfy traditional "BASS" roles. From Jaco we've learned not to limit our understanding by only focusing on the BASS. . . instead learn the bass lines, chord changes and melody to any song.

This lesson will focus on the Minor 7th chord. . . theory, the bass grips. . . application.

 

Part One--The Theory

Chords are a byproduct of scales.  Chords tones are made up of the 1st (or ROOT), 3rd, 5th, and 7th notes of the scale they represent. For this lesson, we're interested in the G Minor 7th chord, which is comprised of the Root,3rd,5th and 7th notes of the G Natural Minor Scale (see diagram below). Scales are built of major and minor second intervals (whole steps and half steps), chords are built of major and minor third intervals... it's as simple as that.

Part Two--Visualizing Gmin7

Now that we've covered (and hopefully understand) the theory behind chord construction, let's take a look at where those notes lie on the fingerboard. The chord map below represents all the Gmin7 possibilities. . .  more than we'll cover in this lesson, for sure!! Use this map as a future reference.

From the map above, I've extracted the most common fingerings (as seen in the next two diagrams) of the Gmin7 chord. Practice these different inversions first in the key of G Minor, then in C Minor Scale (and eventually in all keys).  Play these chords using you THUMB, INDEX & MIDDLE FINGERS.

Part Three--Putting It All Together

The following two bar example makes use Minor 7th chord forms on bass, using both the C and G Minor 7th chord forms and their inversions.

 

Part Four--Suggested Listening

Still need some "chord" convincing.   Check out Jeff Berlin's rendition of "Dixie."

 

Copyright 2001, Rodney M. Goelz