[randomaire]

I'm trying to figure out if I have this right, if not someone please correct me.

Pertaining to fingerpicking:

Say I'm playing a G chord 230003... do you just use the 5th and 6th string for the thumb bass line, or can you also use the fourth string? Or is this just preference.

Say I'm playing a D chord XX0232... this one only uses the fourth string as a bass line.. right?

Say I'm playing a E chord 022100... like the G chord do you use the 4th, 5th and 6th string as a bass line (or a preference thing again).. and also would you normally play this with the 3rd,2nd,1st string tones or is this chord set more of like a filler.

Maybe most of this is preference, just want to make sure I'm thinking properly here and not learning something the wrong way.

[Fretsource]

Yes - it's all preference. It's up to YOU.

Originally Posted by randomaire

and also would you normally play this with the 3rd,2nd,1st string tones or is this chord set more of like a filler.

Sorry - I can't understand that question - filler? What do you mean?

[danthelion]

Unless you are copying a song exactly it is generally personal preference. Generally you can use 6, 5, & 4 as the bass on G, the same with E, as for D you can sometimes use the open 5th string or if you can manage it you can play the F# note fret 2 on 6.

Basically you can use any bass note you want that appears in the chord & sounds good. There are few rules, it comes down to what you like & what sounds good. Sometimes in more advanced stuff adding a bass note outside of the chord tones also works. Just experiment, your ear will tell you.

Dan

[danthelion]

I see Fretsource beat me (Joke!)

[Fretsource]

Originally Posted by danthelion

I see Fretsource beat me (Joke!)

Yep - I sneaked in with my short answer while you were typing a long one

[randomaire]

Maybe filler isn't the right word... The best way I could explain is it say you're playing a progression of chords like 4 of each for example and then you chord a chord such as E just once or twice to give it a lil lift in tone or something, not really a main chord but sort of like adding a note, but just adding a chord for a little extra.

Thank you for explaining that though, I was wondering if maybe there was some set standard or what not to playing those bass lines.

[Justapicker]

One "standard" bass line uses just the root and the fifth of the chord for the bass. For a G maj chord in 1st position you'd play the G on the 6th string and the D on the open 4th. Ist position C maj you'd alternate between the root on the fifth string and the fifth (G) on the sixth string, etc, etc. depending on the chord.

In the case of While My Guitar Gently Weeps the bass walks down from A to F. Under the Aminor chord you play A-G-F# then an Fmaj chord with F in the bass. You find a similar walk down in songs like Dear Prudence and Can't Find My Way Home.

For really cool bass lines listen to some Bach!

[randomaire]

Ahh cool ok, heard differing opinions on that and was glad you guys could give me some clarification on that subject, and you picked a couple of my favorite songs by the way. Good on you.

Bach eh? Read something about that on another post. Might have to check some of that out, haven't listened to that since wooh ummm 7th 8th grade. wow.

[Justapicker]

Bach sounds great on guitar! Here a video of Julian Bream playing a Bach fugue
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcGyvCiwFLs
Notice how the bass line is a counter melody (counter point)to the main melody. It really doesn't get much better than this! There are some killer shots of his picking hand technique.

[krissovo]

Bach invented rock did he not?

For a cool bass line play bouree as it is such a great melody, sounds good whatever you do to it. Distort it add a drum track and really rock, a lot of very good rock bands / guitarists do some form of cover Tull, Tenacious D and Yngwie do cool covers