Learn to Pick Maybelle Carter’s Classic Bass-Note Technique
Since each note of a diatonic major scale belongs to more than one chord within a key, each note can serve as a bass note for several different chords in that key. Take a look at B, the third note of the G scale: it’s the root of a Bm chord, but it’s also the third of a G chord, and the fifth of an Em chord. Looking at bass notes this way gives you some flexibility to begin working melodic lines into the otherwise-basic chord progressions in the Carter Family repertoire.
Ex. 7a shows a G–D–G–C progression in 3/4 time with root bass notes. This root-bass approach provides a sensible and reliable way to play the progression, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should stop there.
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Compare Ex. 7a to the ascending bass line in Ex. 7b. Here, we’re playing an A bass note (the fifth) under the D chord and a B bass note (the third) for the second G chord.
Excerpted from Carter-Style Guitar Basics: Creating Basic Bass Melodies
David Surette
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