"Notes From A Bass Guru (Vol.12, Aug.10, #2)"

Some Common Chord Patterns

Pictured below are some common chord patterns you should definitely know. There are many more kinds of chords than this, but these are the most common kinds. The diagrams are written in just one root, but you can use these patterns with any root note you want, the chord will be correct.

Notice in the major chord diagram, there are two notes with arrows pointing at them together, one note (the octave) is not colored all the way it, it is a different option. You can play either note or both and you will still be playing variations of major chords.

Minor:




Dominant 7th:



Dominant 9th:




Inverse Major, another option to playing a major chord:



11th:



13th:




You are strongly encouraged to learn and practice all of these until you know at least these chords inside and out. As I said before, they are all common. You can use these to write chord progressions and chord based walking basslines. See my article on walking basslines to see how this is done, and use these given chords to write your own walking lines! Also, you will need these to work on a very good drill I am going to give you in my next article.

Study these hard!,
Mark McAnaney, Solo Bassist