The Basic Elements of Music

This lesson series also includes:

1. Lesson Series 1 - Foreword
2. The Basic Elements of Music
3. From Theory to the Groove I
   
4. Chord Theory I
5. From Theory to the Groove II

The elements of music can be broken down into rhythm, harmony, and melody. These categories can be divided to several sub-categories. In this lesson we go briefly through these concepts and take our first look at bass guitar technique.

Rhythm

As a general category, rhythm tells us about the time and rhythm-based qualities of the music. Rhythm can be divided into beat, measure, tempo and rhythm.

Beat - "The pulse of the music"
Beat refers to the underlying pulse of the music. Most music has a steady beat to it. When you listen to a song, you usually feel like tapping your finger or foot to the beat. One of your biggest responsibilities as a bass player is to maintain this pulse of the music.

Measure
Measure refers to how the pulse of the music is divided and counted. Most commonly the measure is 4/4, which means that the music is divided into repeated groups of 4 beats counted 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4. It’s possible to count in 3, 5, 12, or any other number of beats. Your basslines will help define the measure of the music. Defining where beat 1 occurs helps people to feel the meter. Usually this is done with the drummer.

Tempo of the music
Tempo refers to how fast or slow the beat of the music is. The drummer and the bass player are most commonly responsible for maintaining the tempo.

Rythm
Rhythm is mostly about when the musical events happen. For rythm instruments the rests are almost as important as the actual notes you play. The more skillfull you become the more "magic" you can deliver with those tiny gaps between the notes.

A big part of bass playing revolves around rhythm, and it should be a major part of your practising. The more fluent you are with different rhythms and combinations of rhythms, the more you can concentrate on expressing yourself through harmonies and melodies.

Harmony
Harmony refers to how the notes are combined with one another. Groups of notes can be played at the same time or notes can be played one after another.

Chords
Chords are groups of notes played together at the same time. For example, a C major chord contains the notes C, E, and G. When playing the notes C, E, and G at the same time, a C major chord is produced. You might see chords named Fmaj7, Am7 or Gsus4. The latter part describes the type and the qualities of the chord.

As a bass player you need to have an understanding what notes chords contain (the chord tones). Bass players dont usually play the chords, but they outline the chord progressions by playing the tones the chords contain. Playing the chord tones one after another is called playing an arpeggio. Playing and practicing arpeggios on bass will be a major part of learning and understanding chords. Knowing this will help you interact with the chords of a song and the chords other musicians are playing.

Chord Progressions
A chord progression is a series of different chords played one after another. Defining the chord progression is one of the bassist’s main responsibilities. This is why a bassist must really learn chords and chord tones.

Scales
In music, a scale is a group of notes played in ascending and descending order. Scale is different from an arpeggio because it is not based on only the notes of a chord. Scales are named with their starting note, or root note, followed by the type of scale it is. You may see scale names like E major, A minor, F major pentatonic and D dorian.

Scales complement chords. Some study materials advice you to play a certain scale over a certain chord. Even if you are playing a melody out of the notes of a scale, a good melody will still outline the underlying chord progression.

Key
Usually all the notes and chords in a song have something in common. When studied closely the notes might belong to the same scale (for example C major scale). This means that C key is the scale that a piece of music revolves around. Usually this is a major or a minor scale. That doesn’t mean you can only play the notes of that particular key, but the notes of the key provide a kind of musical guideline for the piece of music.

Melody
A melody (also called tune, voice, or line) is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity (Wikipedia). Technically we could call a melody a coherent series of notes. Usually when we are talking about melodies, we are talking about the singable part of music. An instrumental solo, a guitar solo for instance, is another kind of melody.

Traditionally, bass players don’t play the main melodies of songs. Of course, that doesn’t mean they can’t or shouldn’t. Bassists are doing it more and more and it is an area where bass players should develop their skills.

Bass guitar technique I - The right way to hold a bass guitar

The left hand should be able to grip the guitar neck firmly. Place each of the four fingers in consecutive frets on the fretboard (semitone difference between the notes). To provide support for the fingers the thumb should be on the rounded side of the neck, on the opposite side of the second finger. When playing notes with your ring finger or pinkie, the supporting thumb can be moved slightly towards them for better support.

Adjust the strap to find a comfortable feel to play your bass. The most natural way for the arms to be positioned is bent 90 degrees from the elbow. Tighter angles makes your muscles work harder and you become easily tired. Greater angles can result in loss of control. The right hand thumb can rest on the pick-up and moved up to lower E string or even up to A string for more control, when moving up the strings.

HOMEWORK: Pick three of your favourite songs and think about why you like them – is it because the rythm, melody, sound or something else perhaps?
HOMEWORK for the advanced: Practise shifting the left hand balance (i.e moving the supporting thumb of your left hand) between 1st finger and pinkie.

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