The Bass 411

Alright, so you wanna control what those beefy low notes do under your chord? Cool, cool. The bass note gets described by two totally different ways to think about it (because apparently one wasn't confusing enough).

The Shape Thingy

This tells the fake left hand of your player dude to hit certain notes based on whatever chord you're blowin' through, like:

• Root — just the root note, but like, way down there. Two whole octaves under. Sexy & deep.
• Root + 5th — root note plus the dominant fifth chillin' right above it. Fancy, amirite.
• Root + Octave — the root note & the exact same note but higher. It's like a musical echo, but less annoying.

The Rhythm Situation

This is where you pick if those bass notes play once, or if they're gonna groove with the beat clock like they actually have a job. Peep the options:

• Hold — the shape notes just stay there, vibin' for as long as the chord is vibin'.
• Whole — bass notes drop every downbeat. One per measure. Chill & steady.
• Half — bass notes fire twice a measure (if the math works out, no promises).
• Quarter — bass notes poppin' every quarter note. Things are gettin' busy now.
• Eighth — base notes every eighth note. ZOMG slow down, my guy.