Get Better at Bass with Triads (3 Easy Tools)

We go from a single minor triad to opening up the entire neck and improving our groove in just 10 minutes!
From just three notes you can access so much cool information that is essential to our jobs as bass players. This lesson should give you a ton more confidence and get you to a place of having so much more fun with the instrument, all from one little three note chord!
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[@harrywood702]

Super group idea. Hiromi Uehara, Guthrie Govan, Janek Gwizdala, and Gavin Harrison. Four musicians, I think, would complement each other well.

[@marylewis3311]

This will keep me playing around for days 🙏❤️🙏

[@janekgwizdala]

Yes!! That's awesome. It's an awesome thing to add to your practice routine, even for just a few minutes a day.

[@nick.valente_bass]

This is the best KZbin channel for learning and getting better at music and playing the bass. Thank you Janek!

[@bradami1234]

If these books are anything like the pentatonic book.. its a no brainer to purchase.

[@janekgwizdala]

I'm always amazed at the popularity of the Chord books. When you think about chords not being the primary focus of most bass players, you could perhaps assume that it would be a very niche thing to want to look further into. But the amount of great feedback I get about Chordal Harmony Vol 1, and literally just the first exercise in the book, is crazy. I've always maintained that the chordal side of my practice routine has been a huge part of the foundation of my bass playing, and I can't wait to make a few more video lessons highlighting some of those exercises.

[@bradami1234]

@@janekgwizdala its a honor to learn from you.. thank you sir.. as one who played when i was young and picked up the bass after 30 years now at 46 . It is all brand new again and the excitement keeps me interested and young lol..

[@artofwar1776]

Being mostly a 4 string player, I’m really digging that your new “go to” bass is a beautiful 4 string that sounds amazing. Sorry I missed you last night man. I wish I could have made it to your gig in LA. Thank you for this video.

[@tabonejohann]

My favourite teacher !The first copy opened a great path . I highly recommend it to anyone . Those diminished add more spice to the sound . I try it !

[@deanhaughey6128]

I've got a friend called Sam who is a really good bass player I'm self taught and a guitarist I can play basic bass I wouldn't say I was good I really enjoy watching and listening too a great bass player I know it's not easy too play as good as the really good players I found this really interesting even though I didn't understand the music theory found it therapeutic too be honest thanks

[@TheBombshelterBassSpace-gj9tw]

Love this! Thank for the inspiration!

[@Stratgem]

Thanks!

[@hswalkerstudio]

❤ Gotta get me one of them there books. (In my Idaho accent.)

[@wallace_nelson]

Very Cool!! I've been waiting on this video all day. Thanks for sharing...

[@SimonBrisbane]

This is the way

[@jlo2667]

Ya man! This is gonna keep me busy. Good little nugget of a lesson to practice for a while. I'm seeing so many possibilities, running it through changes, etc... Thanks for sharing Janek

[@cristianslapbass]

thank you Janek great info!

[@R_o_m_u]

Great material ! Thank you !

[@darrylmoore127]

Come Together , example of using triad. Play bass with Multiple Sclerosis, to make fretting easier detune D G C F Capo 2 nd frett E A D G

[@diegopacheco-bloch8791]

Love those books!👍

[@peadookie]

Ha, I know this is a standard recording format and bass for you, but I just realized this time that the GoPro effect makes it look like your playing a 47” scale length 😂

[@garryyoung8945]

That's very nice. Thank you

[@williamdeming853]

Very cool exercise.

[@markfoster_mkfbass]

Comment # 2: I really enjoy the intro and outro music of all of your videos. And...would love to hear you play more fretless bass; I still re-listen to your practice video in which you play it from a few years back...Cheers👋🏽

[@soulfred]

Go!

[@joshritchie6033]

I'm confused with the in-between chord when changing key. It's the 5th chord of the next key? I don't get how that chord is the fifth of the next key?

[@janekgwizdala]

The first question you have to ask yourself is: "Do I hear that it is the sound of a V chord? and that it resolves to a 1 chord?" Let me know if you hear that, and then we can continue this thread, and peel back the layers for you.

[@billyjay1]

First Comment!! Always ready for the best videos

[@markfoster_mkfbass]

I LOVE that you are shipping your books from home. I'm not a fan of the monopoly known as Amazon...and I'll spare you a rant about it.😉Keep doing what you are doing, and thank you!

[@uncjaey9219]

He did mention Amazon 😢🤣🤣..

[@paulhayes8714]

I feel really dumb asking this but I am totally confused when you keep referring to your "linking" chord that you are calling the V (1st inversion) of the next key. So going from C to F, the V of F is C (major, of course) but you are using an E diminished. Likewise, you are calling A diminished the V of the next key, Bb, etc. What also confuses me is saying E diminished is in the family of C7 but it has a Csharp. I am inferring from that that E diminished is interchangeable with C7, etc. I again apologize if it's a dumb question but why are you consistently referring to this transition chord the V of the next key?

[@janekgwizdala]

Not a dumb question at all. C is the V of F, correct. But it's not C Major, it's C7. In this case, with the C# in the voicing, it's C7 flat 9 in the first inversion. This combination of notes, when played alone with no context, sounds like/is a diminished chord because it's built on intervals of minor thirds. It's just two ways of describing the same thing. 1) a diminished chord or 2) a V7b9 chord in it's first inversion. In the context of this exercise they achieve the same thing which is a perfect cadence to the new key. What's a 1,000,000 x's more important though, is that you hear these things. Far better to hear them than get hung up on what they are. If you're thinking about it, your performance will be way less fluent. You don't need to know what they are to play them, just the same way you didn't need to know what a noun or a verb was when you were an infant to be able to learn to speak your native language. Approach all of this stuff from an infant's perspective with your ears, and you'll learn 50 x's faster. Constantly question why something is called what it is, and you'll still be figuring it out years from now. That's not to say learning what something is called is wrong, but it literally only helps you talk about music and not actually play it.

[@StephenBall7171]

This also lost me and took a few readings of the explanation and writing out the chord notes on paper to grasp. (Don’t have a bass at hand.) As a beginner at theory and without a great ear I might stumble across this by playing & hearing, but am far more likely to retain and reuse it knowing what it is. In the video, Janek seemed to skip a step of the explanation, assuming an understanding which he just made clear in the comment.

[@janekgwizdala]

@@StephenBall7171 I promise you that I will never skip a step in a video like this, and that if you ever feel that way it's probably a good idea just to ask the question "what am I not hearing right now?". It's almost always the right question to ask, and when you stop thinking about theory and work harder on your ear, you will have to ask it less and less. In this video I went from a closed triad: The root, the minor third, and the fifth all in a basic root position voicing. I explained that, and also played it several times. I then went to a spread triad, explaining that you take the closed triad and put the third up an octave giving you Root, fifth third/tenth for your voicing. Then I explained that there are inversions of triads based on the minor third and the fifth. When we get to what I was calling the "linking" or "connecting" chord for modulating between keys, I start to encourage you to listen to how it simply wants to go where it wants to go. To stop thinking about what it's called and WHY it goes there, and to simply trust your musical instincts that it just does. In every single one of my videos until I'm no longer breathing, I will always hammer home the need to stop listening with your eyes, and put ears and music far before theory, regardless of whether you have an instrument in your hand or not. In fact, it's even better if you don't. Then you have nothing to get in the way of concentrating on your ear. No one told you the rules of your native language before you started speaking it. In fact, you were incredibly advanced in your ability to communicate long before you learnt what a noun was. Stop treating music any differently. Approach it like an infant and you will learn 50x's faster.

[@StephenBall7171]

@@janekgwizdala Thank you for your help. I will dig in and get this under my fingers and in my ears!

[@tanneroracheski6499]

Im confused by the diminished chord you play. I understand that for example E dim is C7 without the root, but you play E, G, C# and say its kind of diminished. Whats the reason behind the C#. Is it just a chromatic tone going into the fifth of F minor? Or is it the 7th of Edim7 in F harmonic minor?

[@janekgwizdala]

I will absolutely tell you answer if you can’t get it, but first I want you to try figuring out the function of the C#/Db by thinking about what tension that note is in the context of C7. It is a chromatic note heading to the 5th of F minor. It is not a 7th in any context of E. Have a think about the degrees of any scale in E. C# can only ever be some kind of 6th. So with the sound of C7 whether in the root position or the first inversion like this example, what tension is C#?

[@tanneroracheski6499]

@@janekgwizdala Oh I think I see, we're treating the E diminished like the V, so the the C# is functioning as the b9 of the C7 chord.

[@MrStealy68]

This I'll need to watch a few times. Bit advanced for me but I can see why I need to keep practicing my triads and playing them in all keys. ❤

[@paulhayes8714]

I just posted almost the same question a minute ago before I saw this comment thread. So I understand that you are using it as a V but I guess my question is why are you calling it a V? Maybe I'm being too technical. BTW, don't get me wrong, I just discovered your videos and I think you are a great teacher and I will continue to watch.

[@janekgwizdala]

@@paulhayes8714 I'm calling it a V chord because it functions as one even though it might not look like one when it's in the 1st inversion like this. Technically it's a V b9 in first inversion, but the motion and feeling of a perfect cadence is still at the core of it.

[@cameronlesley2428]

Come together bass line