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Bass Lesson 05 - Root Root 7th 5th

Note - the bass lines in lessons 1-11 can all be played with E Blues Backing Track No Bass which you can download from the Bass Guitar Lessons home page or here: mp3 wma

Bass Line 05 - Root Root 7th 5th

05 Bass Line Root Root 7th 5th mp3 wma
Drums and bass only. Approx 1 minute, 1.4mb.

In this lesson we are going to add the 7th degree of the scale to our root, 5th and octave that we played in Bass Lesson 04 - Root 5th Root 5th. We are playing the flat 7th or b7th in this bass line. The b7th is also called the dominant 7th.

Now we are playing the Root, 5th and b7th in our bass line you are moving beyond just playing exercises. There is nothing wrong about sitting on the root note or just using the root to 5th style of bass lines but when we start adding the 7th, even though we are only using 3 notes, it opens up quite a few options and note choices.

The tab for bass line root root 7th 5th for each chord played on Bass Line 04 is played as follows;

Bass line over the E chord:
G|--------------------------
D|--------------------------
A|--------7--7--5--5--------
E|--0--0--------------7--7--
Chords
|---E-----------------------

Bass line over the A chord:
G|--------------------------
D|--------7--7--5--5--------
A|--------------------7--7--
E|--5--5--------------------
Chords
|---A-----------------------

Bass line over the B chord:
G|--------------------------
D|--------9--9--7--7--------
A|--------------------9--9--
E|--7--7--------------------
Chords
|---B-----------------------

If you aren't sure which chord is being played when, the progression is the standard blues progression that we used in Bass Lesson 01 - Blues Bass in E which is:

The turnaround in bar 12 for the above bass line is played as follows:
G|--------------------------------------------------
D|--------------------------------------------------
A|--------------[(7) = tied; let previous 7 play]-----
E|--0--5--6--7--(7)--7--7--7----------------------
Chords
|---B-----------------------------------------------

Bass Lesson 06 - Root 5th 7th Root