Sherlocking the Octaves, and How to Play Any Note With Any Chord
8vas and sideways 8s (Infinity symbol)
8vas
Octaves are called 8vas because they are, in a sense, the 8th Note of the scale. If you don't know what an octave is, or what a chord scale is, you might first want to glance at a previous article I recently wrote on playing triads on the bass guitar, as here I'm going to write about how to find octaves (mathematically) on a bass guitar fretboard, and how you can play any note with any chord (scales be accursed).
First, how to find octaves on the bass guitar fretboard (note that I'm talking about a standard four-string bass here, in standard (E,A,D,G) tuning):
The mathematical formula for finding the same note one octave above the one you are playing is one or more of these (depending on whether the formula makes sense/is possible based on where your starting note is on the fretboard):
Go up 1 string (5 notes) and then up seven frets (5+7=12)
Go up 2 strings (10 notes) and then up two frets (10+2=12)
Go up 3 strings (15 notes) and then down three frets (15-3=12)
Stay on the same string (0 notes); go up 12 frets on it (0+12=12)
What is meant by “up” in the formulas above is up in pitch. Beginners often assume that going up the neck is toward the head, but that's the opposite of correct. They also often think of as a higher string as being the one closer to their eyes, but again, it's the opposite. Remember: Up, in this context, means higher in pitch, in other words the skinnier string or strings further away from your eyes and towards the pickups and bridge where your plucking hand probably is.Here's an example: You're playing a G on the E string, fret 3. To reach the G one octave higher, you can either go up 1 string (to the A string) and up seven frets from there to fret 10 OR go up 2 strings (to the D string) and from there up two frets to fret 5 OR go up three strings (to the G string) and from there down three frets, in other words to the open string (no fretting necessary) OR stay on the same string (E) but go up 12 frets to fret 15.
Here is a visual portrayal of that eyeball-glazing, mazelike prose:
Complete Freedom to Play Any Note with Any Chord (Extreme Chromaticism)
I've just been talking writing about playing certain notes with certain chords, and now I say you can chuck all that and play any note with any chord? Is this some sort of atonal fever dream arising from an interview with a deranged maniac or an anarchist (but, I repeat myself)?
The answer is yes; and no. Here's why:
You can play what are called chromatic notes to lead from one “correct” note to another if you do so quickly (“just passing through”). It's done all the time (not literally, of course). The ear accepts the “trespassing” of the sour note[s] because it or they fade away so quickly.
If you have a very quick ear, you can play any note you want and, if it sounds “off” (sour), just move to the next note up or down instantaneously and you're bound to be “golden” (the sour notes are directly adjacent to “good” notes, a fact which can lead to many hours of pleasant introspection and interesting application to other fields of study, as well as possibly to speculation on all sorts of matters and/or philosophical theorizing); YMMV.
The “exception that proves the rule is not 100% applicable” is the major blues scale, which contains three consecutive/chromatic notes (e.g. B,C, and C# in the A Major scale) and thus, to make up for this anomaly contains two pairs of consecutive notes which are extra-scale/dissonant (in A Major, these are D & D# and G & G#).How about an extreme example of this “just-passing-through” chromaticism that usually sounds just fine to us (at least, we aren't bothered by the not-belonging-to-the-scaleness of the notes being rapidly played): sliding up or down from one note to another. We've heard this done on many occasions by keyboard players, guitarists, and bassists (and others). Just think of it: as the player is sliding from one note to another, he's not just playing a few bad or sour notes (such as an A# while an A major chord is being played), but an infinite number of other pitches, each for an infinitesimally small period of time, which, if any of them were played for a long duration, would sound sourer than a pickled lemon when played against any chord, as they don’t belong anywhere — they are neither chick nor child. But, when played quickly (these millions of pitches are only sounding for a fraction of a millisecond each, so their sourness doesn't pucker up our ear muscles), they don’t grate on our sensibilities. It's similar to if we ingested a solitary molecule of a literal pickled lemon — we wouldn't even notice its sourness or that we had imbibed anything at all.
Caveat emptor: In the case of a glissando (“slide”) on a keyboard, there are only a maximum of eighty-odd (or even) notes, and they are all “legitmate” (recognized/named) notes (albeit possibly dissonant).Just as there are an infinite number of colors between the G and B (Green and Blue) of Roy G. Biv (the colors of the rainbow), there are an infinite number of unnamed notes between the notes G and B (or any other two cardinal colors or standard notes).
So: Can you play any note against any chord? Yes. How? Very carefully — you'd better make it quick if it’s a dissonant note.