FREE Easy R&B Chord Tutorials – Part 6

Soulful sounding bass notes

Here is a very useful trick to make your bass compliment your chords. Normally if you play a chord e.g. C maj7 the bass would normally be a the root. this is perfectly okay but you can make the chord sound much deeper if you play the 9th key as the bass, so this would look like the below.

D (bass) C, E, G, B – now listen to this chord and notice much character this 9th bass note gives it.

Note that for minor chords this only works if you use the 11th as the bass note, not the 9th. So for C min7 it would be as below

F (bass) C, E,b, G, Bb – and listen again for the change in vibe.

The simple rule is a per below

• Major chord – Play the 9th key in at least an octave below
• Minor chord – Play the 11th key in at least an octave below

Check out the below chord progression, first without the bass note and then including the bass notes – Gmin7, Amin7, Fmaj7, Fmin7

The Bass notes are Gmin7/C, Amin7/D, Fmaj7/G, and Fmin7/Bb. Have a practice on other chord combinations