Following the Bass
Bass lines are strongly associated with chord progressions. In popular music and mainstream jazz, root-position chords (at least on downbeats) are by far the most common, so figuring out the bass scale degrees translates fairly directly into the identification of chords. Even within classical music, the relationships between bass and chords are fairly constrained, with root-position chords remaining common—along with a fair number of first-inversion chords, particularly over certain scale degrees, and a small number of very constrained second-inversion chords and third-inversion seventh chords.
We encourage you to revisit two earlier sections of this textbook to review listening to bass lines:
- In the chapter on Attention, we worked on “tuning in” to bass lines.
- In the chapter on Transcription, we worked on internalizing common bass lines so that we could recognize them when they occur.
Once you have a bass line figured out, it’s worth knowing what chord is most likely to accompany each bass scale degree. These are not rules, but rather “most-likely” defaults. They give us something to listen for. Because popular music and mainstream jazz often feature root-position triads and seventh chords, the table below focuses on norms for classical music.
| Bass Scale Degree | Likely Chords in a Major Key | Likely Chords in a Minor Key |
|---|---|---|
| 1/do | ||
| 2/re | or or | or |
| 3/mi or me | or | |
| 4/fa | or or | or or |
| 5/sol | or | or |
| 6/la or le | or | or |
| 7/ti | or | or |