Let’s move on to two other common chord types.

Minor Chords

The meat & potatoes groove intervals for minor chords (m, m7, m9, etc.) are the 1 (root), 5th and b7th. As before, the 5th and b7th would typically be from the octave below the root.

Here’s an example of what should also be a familiar sound. I’ve injected a number of variations that reinforce the minor tonality, but the basic building blocks are the root, 5th and b7th.

Audio Example 1

Here’s an example of a minor groove vamp in a different musical setting.

Audio Example 2

 

Similar to the meat & potatoes groove intervals for major chords, don’t feel burdened to use each of the notes in equal proportions: it’s often most effective to build bass grooves primarily using the root, with intermittent use of the 5th and b7th.

For phrasing purposes, I usually play the root and b7th on the same string. See Figure 1.

FIGURE 1

 

Dominant Chords

The meat & potatoes groove intervals for dominant chords are the 1 (root), 5th and b7th. As before, the 5th and b7th would typically be from the octave below the root.

Some of you might be thinking, “Root, 5th and b7th? Those are the same groove intervals we identified for minor chords - can that be correct?”

A quick analysis will reveal that the root, 5th and b7th are common to both minor 7 and dominant 7 chords. The only difference between the two is that a m7 chord has a b3rd, while a dominant 7 chord has a major 3rd, right? So it’s in the embellishments that the bass line can nicely include the 3rd degree as appropriate.

Here’s an example of those meat & potatoes groove intervals over a dominant 7 chord.

Audio Example 3

 

Phrasing can be enhanced by playing them in the same form as for the minor 7 chord.

FIGURE 2

 

Memorize the meat & potatoes groove intervals for the 3 chord types we’ve covered. We’ll be using them very soon.