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The Secret Life of Notes

by Jeremy Cohen

If you really want to know how to use your knowledge of theory to help you play, you should learn the meaning of every note.

For instance, take the note C for example. It is the note that all theory and harmony textbooks begin with. It is the root of the first scale that most people learn regardless of what instrument they're playing.

So what is this note, C? What does it mean?

If we were to take one specific instance of the note we could start with the note which is sometimes called C3. It has a frequency of approximately 130.8 hertz. This note is one octave below middle C. In music written for the bass, it is notated one ledger line above the staff.

  

On the bass, we can play this note on the 5th fret of the G string, the 10th fret of the D string, the 15th fret of the A string and the 20th fret of the E string.

We could use any of our four left hand fingers to fret this note on any of the four strings.

So there are a few choices available.

The choice of string or finger is dependent on what kind of tone we would like our note to have and what other notes we plan on playing immediately before and after this note.

Obviously you are going to need to know the position of every note on the neck of your bass so you will be able to continue this process with other notes.

Now that we are able to play the note C, in any position, we need to know why we might want to play the note. This is where we get into the meaning of the note.

Let's talk about the note's harmonic meaning first.

C can be:

1. The root of a C chord. This C chord could be:
1. C Major
2. C Minor
3. Cº (Diminished)
4. C+ (Augmented)
5. C6
6. C7
7. Cm7
8. CMaj7
9. Cº7
10. Cø7
11. C9
12. Cm9
13. CMaj9
14. C7b9
15. C7#9
16. C+7
17. C6/9
18. Csus4
19. C13
20. etc., etc., etc.

You know all of these chords, right?

C can also be:

2. The flatted ninth of a B7b9 chord
3. The second of a Bbsus2 chord
4. The ninth of a Bb9 chord (or a Bb add9 chord)
5. The third of an Ab major chord
6. The third of an A minor chord or an Aº, Aº7or an Aø7 chord
7. The suspended 4th of a Gsus4 chord
8. The flatted fifth of an F#º chord, an F#º7 or an F#ø7
9. The fifth of an F chord (major or minor)
10. The sixth of an Eb chord (or the thirteenth of an Eb13 chord)
11. The diminished seventh of an Ebº7 chordd
12. The flatted seventh of a D7 or Dm7 chord
13. The seventh of a DbMaj7 chord
14. C could also be a note in a scale. We could have a:
1. C major scale
2. C natural minor scale
3. C melodic minor scale
4. C harmonic minor scale
5. C Dorian scale
6. C Phrygian scale
7. C Lydian scale
8. C Mixolydian scale
9. C Aeolian scale (another name for the natural minor)
10. C Locrian scale
11. C Blues scale
12. C pentatonic major scale
13. C pentatonic minor scale
14. C whole tone scale
15. C diminished scale (half step/whole step)
16. C diminished scale (whole step/half step)
17. C altered scale (also known as C super locrian and C whole tone diminished)
18. etc., etc., etc.


15. Our C could be in a different scale as well. It could be:
1. The second in a Bb scale
2. The third in an Ab scale
3. The fourth in a G scale
4. The fifth in an F scale
5. The sixth in an Eb scale
6. The seventh in a Db scale.


16. Obviously we could start listing all the scales above starting on various notes and determine what part of the scale the C would be.

Now the process becomes simple. We merely repeat the process for the other eleven notes in the chromatic scale.

We can assume that while you are working on learning the meaning of the notes, you will also be listening to music. The next time you hear someone play a C, your job is to determine, not merely to hear what note they are playing, and that they are indeed playing the C, but you will be trying to determine the meaning of that particular C.

When you can do this with every note, the universe will open up and reveal its secrets to you.

Have fun!