As some know, I decided recently to jump into a 6 string… and while B2B and Yousician I’m pretty well on the same position as I was with the 4 string, I wanted to start learning Chords…
I found a small video of a Brazillian dude(no speaking, just chords)
And I was trying… but… my fingers don’t move to those positions… I get muted strings… fretting… missed frets, etc.
Any suggestions on how to improve playing chords?
Do you know JustinGuitar?
I found his method of teaching very adorable (and good).
EDIT it’s guitar, of course. But I guess that it should be very helpful nonetheless…
It’s the best site for learning 6 string guitar.
However he is talking about chords on a (differently tuned) 6 string bass 
Yeah, I just realized that
Still his method for learning chords is great and might be adapted?
Yeah! Especially his Chord Perfect exercise, just with different shapes.
Yeah… bass.
I was trying a bit more “for dummies”… as my focus is to work on B2B mostly. I’m still in M6L4… so far with the exception of Billie Jean and a couple of fast workouts… managed to do everything.
I saved JustinGuitar, will look at it later… translating shapes was not in my plans at the moment.
To start, just learn Power Chords on bass. The shape is very easy and they are useful.
You can also easily throw in the octave on the third string if you want.
Thanks! Will do!
Personally I would advise putting the 6 string away. Tbh 4 string is plenty. Almost every song you’d ever want to learn is played on a 4 string. You can play chords on a 4 string as well. If you haven’t finished the course yet I think trying to learn on a 6 string is going to make it more difficult than it needs to be.
I have been playing a bit with guitar looking at a few teachers on youtube.
Some of them talk about using just the lower strings (treble) or middle strings to form partial chords to sit in a band more easily.
As I have a Bass VI, I have been trying out chords and while some do work, especially with a capo, I find that just fingering the B and e works well.
I am sure this would translate to 6 string bass if that is what you are trying to do.
As an example I looked at Marty Schwartz’ Norwegian Wood lesson, here he is using a D, Dm, G & Em with a partial C in the riff.
The main part of the verse is the single picked riff with a bit of a strum on the D. The Chorus is Dm, G & Em all of which can be played on the high strings as partial chords and still keep the sound of the chord.
Also with the Bass VI I find that making chords towards the middle of the neck works well also but this means learning new shapes (for me). I was working in Pictures of you for example.
So, in summary, er, get a Bass VI?
This sounds like a cliché, and, of course it is, but it is also true: it takes a lot of time and a lot of practice. Chord playing on bass is hard; unless you have some experience from 6-string guitar, your fingers are not cooperating to fold into these pretzel shapes… at first.
Remember, you typically can get away with three notes to define a chord: root, third and seventh. And, if you don’t care about chords with sevenths, you only need two.
A very convenient shape is to play the root with the index finger and the third (tenth) three strings up with the middle or ring finger. You can cover all major and dominant chords with playing the root and the major tenth three strings and one fret up, while you get all minor chords with playing the root and the minor tenth at the same fret position (hope this makes sense!?). On a four-string bass, you only can do this by using the E and G strings, but on a 6-string you have more options by also using the A and C strings.
Three-finger chord shapes is where it gets interesting and there are several ways to finger them, resulting in different “voicings” (open or closed voicings; typically meaning where the notes are close together or farther apart). The root-tenth from above is an open voicing.
It’s worthwhile digging into this, but requires patience and practice.
This^^^ 1000%
Learn to play bass properly first. Then branch out. Biting off too much can literally be too much.
I know what you mean… and I do go back sometimes with the 4… especially in things like Billie Jean. I am comfortable with the 4 after almost 1y of SBL, Yousician and occasional lessons. I want to later evolve into higher chords… I love the voices and have this thirst for learning new things… maybe an undiagnosed ADHD
At this moment I am only trying to learn shapes for chords… not actually playing… working on musculature and flexibility. I am playing on a BTB806MS.
I have played around trying to learn guitar when I was young… but it was never my thing… always leaned into Rhythm more than Guitar.
On the practice… and patience… I know. Because of SBL, I already went a bit into chord building(IMHO a bit too early in the course) … but for sure… the sounds that you can pull out of the higher strings are incredible.
And yes, what you said makes total sense… my problem at the moment is finger flexibility, especially in those 3/4 fingers.
Fun days ahead! Wife and kids going on holidays, so I need to get busy as I can’t take time off yet.
Honestly for me, beyond chordal drones and power chords I am perfectly fine with bass being monophonic and going to guitar and keys as more capable chordal instruments as IMO they sound about 50 times better than bass for these things.
To me a bass is like a monosynth. There is nothing better at doing what it does well, but recognizing its limitations is also a good plan. Simply put, complex chord work on bass, unless arpeggiated, sounds muddy AF to me.
Simple chords (power chords, the 10th trick @joergkutter mentioned, etc) and drones can sound great though.
Except if you’re Les Claypool, of course!
Better fight your ADHD with some healthy dose of OCD and start modding basses. And if you enjoy SM, you could post your progress here
I don’t know if I have… my wife says I have certain behaviours that match(it’s her job)…
Modding is not my thing… I do have a Behringer at home… 18 year old… that needs a fully new electrical work and. Luthier said it would cost me about 300€ in material + labour to make it playable again… hence why I purchased the Sterling. Maybe one day…
No, Les is awesome, but other instruments still do chords better than bass.
Yes, it doesn’t make any sense when it’s muddy… but, that shouldn’t be a problem on a 6-string. And, agreed, arpeggiating the chord can be a good “solution” also.
Just for shiggles (no Les Claypool here): here is a very difficult piece I am working on, but it nicely shows how chords can make a great “bridge section” between driving parts (please forgive the sloppy playing):
Nicely played… quick derail here… compression glove? I’ve only managed to find ones without the finger tips… at least decent.
That sounds very nice Joerg. But in this case you largely kept the polyphonic parts of the chords simple and clean - I think the usefulness declines rapidly with bass the more strings of polyphony you have going at once.
6-strings can pull off clean triads on the high three. I still think guitar has a much nicer chordal timbre on its lower 3 than bass has on its top 3 though, even with a 6. With bass I would stick with 2-note polyphony as that sounds nice.