I am going to show you a five chord R&B Neo Soul progression which I kind of discovered by accident, mainly the last chord which seemed to be a finger misplacement but turned out sounding nicer than I expected.
I am going to start of by showing you the basic chords first which were played using the left hand.
The chords I am playing here are Bbmin9th, Emaj9th, Gbmaj9th, Ab min7th b5, D dmi7 (an inversion by simply sliding the pinky from F# down to F)
The fourth chord was supposed to be Abmin7th or 9th but accidentally flattening the 5th made is sound a little sadder but more soulful.
Next, I am playing exactly the same chords however I am playing the bass with my left hand as an inverted NOT the standard bass / root position. It makes the sounds sound even deeper.
Same chords but different sound !!!!
Bbmin7th / Eb – bass note (actually an 11th)
Emaj7th / Gb – bass note (9th)
Gmaj7th / Ab – bass note (9th)
Abmin7th b6 / Bb – bass note (I tend to use my ear to find good slash bass notes)
D dim7 / Bb – Same bass note
I am using the damper / sustain pedal which I am playing which is why the notes are disappearing quickly even though you can still hear the sound. I like to record live but will try to record as MIDI next time to hold the notes in position for longer.
As always, nice and smooth. Those added bass notes really do make a difference to the over all sound.
Would you replace that base note with a “real” bass sound or just play the bass like this?
Thanks man. If this was a live performance I would definitely have the bass player playing those slash notes and I would play the normal chords. It would sound very similar.
We did a recording the other day, and the bassist accidentally played an incorrect note, but for a while we all though that I played the wrong chord. However when the Engineer isolated each instrument to search for the error we notice then that I did in fact play the correct chord but the bassist played an incorrect note for that section.
It’s weird how much the bass key can influence the whole sound of a production.
Nice chords there, I need to get back to the drawing board with the keyboard.
Are the “slash” bass notes always a note within the chords??
Normally yes, I find the best bass slash notes are around the 9th and 11th keys but best to experiment too.
I see the bass really does make a different to the overall sound here.