From breynold@usc.edu Tue Dec 07 09:58:17 2004
Subject:Re: Playing bass lines - chords or single notes?

On organ, bass is played single note or bass pedals. Even with bass pedals, the classic jazz organist plays chords on the lower manual, either in a higher, non-muddy, octave, or using a lower octave but with drawbar registrqtions that are far less bass heavy.

Even on piano (and depending on your skill level, age, and size or your fingers), a jazz teacher will soon get you to play single notes on the 1,3 of a measure and left hand chords on the 2,4 of the measure, usually with a higher (2nd) inversion of the chord.

so, C major is

Beat 1----C bass note
Beat 2---inverted C chord (Notes are G, C, E)

This sounds good on a piano, but even this sounds muddy on an organ.

(Although that lowest note plays pedal tones option on the xk-3 might enable this to sound OK on an organ, but that's a whole other topic).

Barry


>
> Hello group:
>
> I have a question on playing bass. My piano teacher wants me to play
> chords (triads) with my left hand. Of course when I get my lessons
> from him it's on his piano, and the bass sounds OK. However at
> home I
> only have a clone keyboard (BX-3). When I play bass chords with my
> left hand it always sounds muddy compared to just playing single(root)
> notes. I've tried various combinations of drawbars to try to get a
> good bass chord sound, but I've not come up with anything that sounds
> reasonable.
>
> When playing on a B-3 or clone, is it common for musicians to play
> chords or just single notes? From memory, if I recall correctly, most
> B-3 players seem to just play single notes for the bass. I could of
> course be totally wrong here.
>
> So, what do you folks do when playing bass on your B-3 or clone?
> Chords or single notes? Thanks in advance for any help.
>
> John
>
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