Mel Bay Study Group Beginning to Use the 2nd Book in the Curriculum "The Ultimate Folk Guitar Song Collection" Bass Runs Ultimate Folk
Checkpoints:
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 |
|||||||||||||
|
|
Ultimate Folk Guitar Song Collection It's time to add an additional resource to our curriculum in order to assimilate and integrate the skills covered so far, and make them usable in our playing. If you don't have the book shown above, order it from this link. The supplier ships world-wide, and you will have it in a few days.
USING BASS RUNS IN CHORD ACCOMPANIMENTS After learning how to play songs with a strummed chord accompaniment, it is time to add another dimension to the accompaniment by using Bass Runs. Because the guitar has such a wide range of notes available, we can do two things at once: play upper notes of the chord on the top 3 or 4 strings while we play individual notes on the lower strings that create melodies used to "connect" the chords.
There are a few things that need to be understood in order for this subject to make sense to you. First, you need the basic understanding of chords as mentioned above, which you should be getting from the Mel Bay Method, as well as other resources such as www.musictheory.net, (make sure you go there and take the lessons on intervals, scales, etc.. They are clear as a bell.)
The basic idea is that each chord is made up of a few notes, usually 3 notes. One of these is very important: the ROOT note. The root of a chord is the note that has the same letter name as the chord. So, the root of a C chord is the note C, the root of an F chord is the note F, etc. Every song you play is in a particular key, and that means that the notes of a particular scale are used to create the song. A scale, like a chord, is a collection of certain notes, but whereas a chord is a group of notes played at the same time, a scale is a series of notes played one at a time; a string of notes. Where the notes come from is the subject of major scale construction, covered in Mel Bay and needing further study at www.musictheory.net.
Essentially, a scale is like a baseball team, each note is a player with a particular job. The "team" for the key of C is simply C D E F G A B C The team for the key of G is G A B C D E F# G If our song is in the key of C, when we use a bass runwe will use notes from that scale to CONNECT THE ROOTS OF TWO CHORDS. This is essentially what a bass run is, using notes of the scale to connect the roots of two chords. This takes place on the measure before the chord change, and the strumming pattern is interrupted for a few beats to allow for this.
So, a bass run in the key of C might look like this, going from a C chord to an F chord: C F / / / / | / C D E | F / / / |
If the song is in the key of G, the notes A,B,C would be used to connect a G chord to a D chord. The trick is to arrange the rhythm so that we end up on the root of the new chord on beat number 1. We must begin the run on the beat that will allow us to do that. In the example above, we have two connecting notes between the two roots. So, we play the first root on beat 2, then the two connecting notes, D and E, on beats 3 and 4. So, we land on the root of the F chord on beat 1 of the next measure. Bass Runs: Key of C, 4/4 time Uncle Joe, p. 9 We begin with p.9, "Uncle Joe" using bass runs and alternate basses in the key of C. Hear a midi file of the song... Fast Melody Fast Melody Slow Accompaniment Fast Accompaniment Slow
Notes: In addition to learning the accompaniments to the songs in this book, you should also be strengthening your sight reading and general musical comprehension skills by playing the MELODY of the song as well. By learning to read music, you are gaining that wonderful skill of being able to teach yourself a song you have never heard, simply by playing the notes, and hearing the melody for yourself. So, you can be independent as your guitar playing life proceeds, you don't need to hear a melody in order to learn a song.
|
||||||||||||
