Ending On A Bass Note

First let me show you a cool concept that has to do with bass notes.

Remember how we found the root notes of the open chords, when we were working on the root/chord strumming? For example our A minor chord has the root bass note on the open A string. Now the concept is to play your open position scale pattern and end on this note.

You could use a smaller part of it, but for simplicity's sake, let's use the whole pattern. Then once we get to the open A string, we hit that and follow it with the full chord.

Let's try another one. How about the D minor chord that of course has the root bass note on the open D string.

Instructor Anders Mouridsen
Tutorial:
Scales And Chords
Styles:
Any Style
Difficulty:
Ending On A Bass Note song notation

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Questions & Answers

3 months ago
Are you playing the same scale for Am and Dm? I mean, you are playing the same notes only changing up which base note you end on, it seems.
Mike Olekshy 3 months ago

Hello - thanks so much for the question! Yes, Anders is playing the A minor scale with both the Am and Dm chords.

8 months ago
Why ending on a minor chord and not the major?
Mike Olekshy 7 months ago

Hello, and thanks for your question! The chords in this lesson are A minor and D minor. We are also using their respective scale notes from the A minor and D minor scales. This is a musical choice. Of course, we could have chosen A major, and descended down the A major scale and finished with the root note (A) and strummed the A major chord. But in this lesson, Anders has chosen to use Minor Chords.