Swing Bass Piano Using An Alternate Low Note

Good morning. This is Duane. Today I’d like to talk about the alternating swing bass – a variety of swing bass piano. Last time we talked about the swing bass and we said it’s called the swing bass because you’re left hand is swinging between a low note and the chord. For example, if the chord’s C, you’d hit a C with your little finger, a low C. Then you’d swing up with your left hand and play the C chord, preferably an inversion. I’m playing second inversion of the C chord there, but either inversion is fine. Even if you prefer the root, that’s okay, too. The thing that gives us this name is the swing between the low note and the chord, whatever inversion you play the chord in.

Now today instead of playing just the root … In other words, if we have a C chord we can go like this, until change to the F chord. Then we’d do that. Then we change to the G chord, we do that and so on. Now this time, though, we’re going to use an alternating low note. In other words, we won’t always hit C. Sometimes we’ll hit another chord note out of the C chord. The C chord’s made up of three notes: C, E, and G. We won’t always hit a low C. Sometimes we’ll hit a low E, then the C chord or a low G, and then the C chord. You’ve probably heard this before where you play the root and the fifth alternating like this. Fifth, root, fifth, fifth, root, fifth, root, fifth.

If you played the F chord you’d hit a low F and then the F chord. Then you’d hit another note out of the F chord, preferably a C, because the C is the fifth of the F chord. Fifth sounds best. You can use the third, and sometimes that’s appropriate, but not as much as the fifth. If it was a G chord you’d hit a low G, then the G chord. Then you’d alternate with a D because that’s another member of the G chord.

Let me go through those three chords – C, F, and G – and just watch my left hand, and I’ll do it slowly. C, nothing but the C chord there, but the low note is alternating between the root and the fifth. Now we’re going to go to the F chord. F, F, a little low C but the chord’s still F. Now G, hitting a low G, then we’re alternating it with the D below because that’s the fifth of the G chord.

Now sometimes you can use the third, however. I’ll come back to C, C, G, C, E. That’s particularly effective if you’re going to move to the F chord, because E is adjacent to F, isn’t it? You’d go like this: C, G, C, E, now the F chord, G, back to C. That’s your alternating bass. You don’t always use the root, but sometimes use the fifth or the third.

I apologize for my voice. It’s kind of breaking up today, so sorry about that. That’s all I want to cover today – the alternating bass style. Then tomorrow we’ll take up a variation of that alternating bass where you can do this sort of thing, and create a counter-melody like that; that’s tomorrow. Tune in tomorrow, same time, same station, when we’ll cover that. If you enjoy these little piano tips, come on over to playpiano.com and sign up for them while my voice is still functioning. Thanks. Bye, see you tomorrow. Bye bye for now.

If  you like the idea of a swing bass, you might be interested in my course in Ragtime For Beginners at www.PlayPiano.com/Ragtime

If you enjoyed this little piano tips, come on over to PlayPiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips. I think you’ll enjoy them so we’ll see you there.

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaKSZjW0qRc&feature=youtu.be

_________________________________________________