This blog builds on my previous one about the simple C-Am-F/Dm-G progression.

In addition to playing and moving around the chords, we are going to be adding ‘transiting’ or ‘filler’ bass notes with our extreme left hand fingers.

Your little left small finger (pinky) is always holding one bass while you play the chord with the other left-hand fingers, so it’s time to make it even busier by moving it around a bit more, with the purpose of ‘connecting’ the cords with acceptable sounds within the scale you are playing.

As you watch the above video, you will observe that you can hop over from one chord to another using a few extra bass notes, as long as they sound right.

If you are playing the chords in the key of C, then these notes fall within the scale of C. Of course if your are playing the chords in a different key, then these bass notes will correspondingly change (Eg., by transposing them to find out what these are, if necessary).

Done properly and keeping in timing, this makes the change of chords sound more interesting , rather than just switching from one chord to the other.

But you should try to add these basses only intermittently and ‘in good taste’ in the duration of the song (you learn this through hearing how they are applied in songs or by other musicians, or through practice and self-observation).

You shouldn’t apply these basses liberally right throughout the song, just for the sake of doing it… (oh well, maybe initially, if you’ve just discovered this technique and are quite excited about using it!)

Thank you.