Chapter 8 Roots, 5ths, and Octaves

Take a few moments to pat yourself on the back at this point. You’ve come a long way, and you’re starting to sound like a real bass player! If you haven’t already done so, you should try to get together with some other musicians and jam a bit. Guitarist, drummer, keyboardist—just about anyone will do. It’ll help you in more ways than you know, including pointing out the areas where you need the most work.

Technique Review

While we’re on the subject of areas where you may need work, let’s take a quick moment and review what we’ve covered thus far. Think of this as a “no technique left behind” checklist. Hopefully, you’ll be able to check each one off and say, “Done! What’s next?” If, however, you find that you’re not doing one of these habitually, go back to the chapter where it’s covered and review the material until it becomes engrained.

Left Hand (Fret Hand)

Keep the thumb placed at (or near) the middle of the neck.
Support the fretting fingers when possible.
Keep open strings from ringing out (e.g., stop the open D string when you play the open A string).
Roll your finger when moving to the same fret on an adjacent string.

Right Hand (Plucking Hand)

Keep the first finger joint (closest to the tip) straight when plucking.
Pluck across the string and slightly downward (into the body of the bass).
When playing the low E string, plant the thumb on the pickup.
When playing the A or D string, plant the thumb on the E string.
When playing the G string, plant the thumb on the E or A string (to stop it from ringing out, if necessary).
When moving from one string to an adjacent lower-pitched string, use the rake technique.
Alternate the first and second plucking fingers when playing eighth notes.

OK, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, and you’ve done your homework and are up to speed, we’re ready to move ahead!

Interval Shapes

An interval is simply the musical distance between two notes (we’ve been playing all kinds of melodic intervals throughout the book). A melodic interval is one in which the notes are played in tandem (consecutively), whereas a harmonic interval is one in which the notes are played simultaneously. It’s kind of like counting up the musical alphabet. For example, if we want to know the interval between the notes C and E, we simply count up from C:

C (1)–D (2)–E (3)

So, C to E is a 3rd because there are three note names involved. Now, there’s a little more to it than that, and that’s really only half the story, but we don’t need to know everything just yet.

The intervals that we’re interested in right now are 5ths and octaves, so let’s talk about those.

The Root

As you recall, the note from which a chord gets its name is the root. (The note from which a scale gets its name is called the tonic, although it’s sometimes called the root, as well.) Therefore, when we talk about intervals of chords, we’re measuring them from the root. For example, if we have a C chord, then C is the root.

The 5th

When we talk about the 5th of a chord, we’re simply talking about the note that is five note names above the root. We learned earlier that from C to E is a 3rd because there were three note names involved: C, D, and E. Another way to say this is that E is the 3rd of a C chord. So, can you guess what the 5th of a C chord would be? If you said “G,” you’re absolutely correct.

C (1)–D (2)–E (3)–F (4)–G (5)

So why are we talking about this? Well, it just so happens that the 5th of a chord is a very strong note, one that we can use when creating our bass lines. On the bass fretboard, a 5th looks like this on adjacent strings (R = root, 5 = 5th):

Interval of a 5th—Adjacent Strings

And on non-adjacent strings, it looks like this:

Interval of a 5th—Non-Adjacent Strings

These are moveable shapes, meaning they can be slid anywhere up or down the neck. Of course, these can be played in open position, as well. A 5th based off the E string would look like this:

The Octave

An octave is simply two notes of the same name, with one note either higher or lower in pitch. It’s easiest to see on a piano keyboard because the same order of keys repeats over and over throughout the range of the instrument. If you play middle C and then play the C to the left of that, you’re playing one octave lower. Here’s what a moveable shape of an octave looks like on the bass (R = root, O = octave):

Interval of an Octave—Spanning Three Strings

And another possibility, though less common, spans all four strings.

Interval of an Octave—Spanning Four Strings

And an octave shape based off the open A string would look like this:

We often make use of these shapes (5ths and octaves) when creating bass lines. In fact, many of the bass lines thus far in the book have done this.

Fretboard Note Chart

Speaking of creating bass lines, let’s take a look back at the idea of creating a bass line from a chart. Armed with your new knowledge of roots, 5ths, and octaves, you’re on your way to improvising usable bass lines. Before we can make use of these moveable interval shapes, however, we need to learn the names of the notes further up the neck. I don’t expect you to learn all of these right away; they’re presented here as a reference that you can use when you see a chord symbol. It’s best to start with just the E string and A string. After that, you can use the octave shape (two strings over and two frets up) to learn the D and G strings.

Notes on the Fretboard—E and A Strings

Realize that many of these notes can be played in several places. For example, the C note at fret 8 of string 4 is the same note as the one you already learned at fret 3, string 3. And the D note at fret 5, string 3 is the same note as the open D string, etc.

Two Names for One Note?

You no doubt noticed in the diagram above that some frets had two note names assigned to them. These sharp/flat notes are equivalent to the black keys on the piano. The white keys on the piano spell a C major scale, which, if you remember, contains no sharps or flats. The black key notes in-between can be viewed in one of two ways: as higher than a white key (sharp) or lower than a white key (flat).

Whether a note is called a “sharp” or a “flat” depends on a few things, the most prevalent being what key you’re in. If you’re playing in the key of D major, which is a sharp key, then the note between F and G would be called F; if you’re playing in the key of Db, which is a flat key, then that same note would be called Gb. By the way, the word for one note having two names is enharmonic. In other words, F and Gb are said to be “enharmonic.”

Don’t worry too much about these sharp and flat notes at this point—we won’t make much use of them. But it’s good to be exposed to this concept, as you’ll no doubt encounter it in your studies before too long.

Common Rhythmic Patterns

Now that you know the names of the notes on the low strings (or at least can reference them), we can begin to use our roots, 5ths, and octaves to create simple bass lines from chord charts. Let’s take this basic root–5th–octave shape and use it to generate some bass lines that employ common rhythmic patterns:

Root–5th–Octave Shape

Pattern 1

Let’s start with a simple pattern that uses quarter notes and half notes. We’ll make use of only root notes here, simply moving them along the E and A strings to match the root of each chord. Regarding the fret hand, you can use whichever fingering feels best for now. Notice the staccato marks on beat 1!

Example 40

Pattern 2

This is a nice pattern with a nice bounce. We’ll use the root and 5th for this one, with all the roots located on the fourth or third strings.

Example 41

Pattern 3

This is a powerful rhythm that uses short bursts of eighth notes. Remember to alternate your plucking fingers. We’ll be using the root/octave approach here, including both the 4/2 string shape and the 3/1 shape.

Example 42

Pattern 4

This pattern combines dotted quarter notes, eighth notes, and regular quarter notes. We’ll be using the same root–5th–octave pattern for each chord and simply moving it down the neck.

Example 43

Pattern 5

This pattern consists of nothing but quarter notes and is great for a “walking” bass style. We’ll use a root–octave–5th–root pattern here. Remember to rake the strings!

Example 44