theory question

I fear I haven't understood the question; you say "C major key" but I think you mean "C major tonality," if that were the case....

If I understood correctly, from low to high, you have at:

measure 1: C C E G

measure 2: C C E G

(C major 5 and C major are the same chord)

measure 3: B C E G (here I take the liberty of pointing out that it should be a Cmaj7; if it were truly Cmaj7, the "B" would be flat

If I understood correctly, what is the bass doing? G, C, B ... so here I am lost on the question. Not to mention the "tonic" discussion which is obscure to me...

Anyway, the harmonic progression would be I46 | I | I24 of C major....if by tonic you meant the fixed C in the bass, perhaps you were hypothesizing a tonic harmony pedal?

This regardless of the orchestration; if instead you wanted to find a hypothetical part for the bass (instrument), then you can have it do many things such as:

- Case 1: C | C | C

- Case 2: A | Ab | G

etc.

It depends on the context

A bit of a doubtful question, @Zazzi you can take advantage of the possibility to attach images... maybe we can become more precise

I assume that the C7 is with the flat 7th, as is intended in pop music (rock, etc.). The bass playing the seventh reinforced by the chords is not a nice effect, unless it follows an F major chord with A in the bass (which therefore plays the third). The criterion, simply, is that the sevenths are heard very much: either the bass plays them, or the guitar plays them. Then, as far as the bass line is concerned, the seventh note (minor, so in this case Bb) must always descend, regardless of the genre being played. Otherwise, the effect is bad.

Anyway, of course, if the harmony is the series of chords you indicated, the tonic is always C and the bass can also remain there. Provided that I have understood what you mean.

Hello, and thank you very much (really) for the attempt to clear up my ideas.

Let's set aside the specificity of that example for a moment.

-I have followed your excellent basic tutorials (let's consider this).

At this point, the question asked in general terms would be:

- there is a guitar playing chords and we discover that those chords are in the key of (for example) C Major

- Now let's take only one chord (to make things simpler), let's take CM7

Question: If the guitar plays a CM7, and underneath it the bass plays B: In this case, is the bass emphasizing the seventh?

If the bass had to, instead, strictly adhere to having to play the "tonic," should it have played C?

-Now let's bring the question back to a chord progression:

Imagine a guitar playing chords C7, CM, Csus6

and underneath the bass playing: B, C, F.

I pose the same question as before: In this case, what role does the bass play? If it had only to follow the 'tonic,' should it have played the note C C C?

Thank you in advance.

zazzi wrote:

Hi, and thank you so much (really) for the attempt to clear up my ideas.

Let's set aside the specificity of that example for a moment.

-I have followed your excellent basic tutorials (let's consider this).

At this point, the question asked in general terms would be:

- there is a guitar playing chords and we discover that those chords are in the key of (for example) C Major

- Now let's take only one chord (to make things simpler), let's take CM7

Question: If the guitar plays a CM7, and underneath it the bass plays B: In this case, is the bass emphasizing the seventh?

THE 7th (if you follow a certain compositional style, for example Baroque, in which harmonic successions presuppose—unless it were your choice but a conscious one, knowing that you are going against rules "established" ex post as such, but not identified as such in the Baroque era, because they spoke of performance and compositional practices—the resolution of notes like the 7th and the diminished 5th via descending movement "is mandatory")

If the bass had to, instead, strictly adhere to the duty of playing the "tonic," should it have played C?

Yes, but remember that one must distinguish between the term "tonic" and the term "root": the tonic is simultaneously the root and the tonic if you are on the I degree of a specific key; it is instead the root (even if you are nonetheless facing a I degree of a scale or key different from the home key) when the I degree in question is part of a key (harmony) different from the home key (in practice, from the key that you can ascertain either from the accidentals in the key signature or from the accidentals present in the score, which in the latter case is more difficult because it is not always easy to distinguish temporary ones from those that determine a specific key))

-Now let's return the question to a sequence of chords:

Imagine a guitar playing chords C7, CM, Csus6

and underneath the bass playing: B, C, F.

I pose the same question as before: In this case, what role does the bass play? If it had only to follow the 'tonic,' should it have played the note C C C?

Setting aside the fact that when you write (in theory) you can do as you wish; if it is your intention to adhere to precise styles of composition, taking as an example the chords performed by the guitar:

- after the C7 (where indeed the B, which if not specified could be a B natural and not a Bb, but by writing only C7 you imply this chord (quadrad), C_E_G_Bb), it goes to CM, so the Bb does not resolve by descending to A, but rises to C.

- Csus6 should be a "suspended" chord (deceptive cadence or suspended cadence, which is constituted on the VI degree of the scale, usually with the V_VI succession), explained better, do you use I, IV and VI degrees? (C_F_A?)

In any case "normally" a C7 (C_E_G_Bb) has the Bb resolving to A; at this point you have several paths to choose from, it depends on what you want to do.

zazzi wrote:

Question: If the guitar plays a Cmaj7, and underneath it the bass plays B: In this case, is the bass emphasizing the seventh?

Rather than "emphasizing," it is "performing"... clearly the instrumental color will be different from the guitar ...

zazzi wrote:

If the bass had to, instead, strictly adhere to the duty of playing the "tonic," should it have played C?

C would be the tonic of the C major scale and the root of the C7 chord (which should have Bb and not B)... what do you mean? I imagine the root of the chord.

> Let's imagine a guitar playing C7, Cmaj, Csus6 chords

> and underneath the bass playing: B, C, F.

> I ask the same question as before: In this case, what role does the bass play? If it had to

> only follow the 'tonic', should it have played

> the note C C C?

This applies to the previous discussion; fundamental [root] and tonic are two different things. Certainly, the bass can also hold the C for all 3 chords; technically this is called a harmonic pedal... but the bass can play any note of the chord, so even G G A...

Question, in your opinion, what notes is the Csus6 chord composed of?

Ok, I think I am able to rephrase the question more correctly now (after which I will answer yours).

Let's assume that a guitar plays some chords.

At this point, to find the tonic of that (chord progression?) one must take the root of each chord and see which scale it corresponds to?

Answers: the Cmaj7 (and the succession of chords I wrote) are completely random, without a precise purpose; I only used them to make an example (which at this point we can no longer consider, in light of the last question)

@Frank: I think C-G-F with C as the root.

Thank you for your patience.

Clearly Zazzi, I'm asking a few questions to understand better.

For the chords you can take a look at this link

http://www.jazzitalia.net/articoli/accordisigle.asp

When you find 'sus' in a chord notation, it means that the third of the chord has given way to another characteristic note. In this specific case, the sixth since it appears in the notation... so there must be an A

Basically from what I have understood, you want to trace a key based on some chords; the tonic is the first degree of a scale... so you are looking for the scale. The bass alone does not tell you the key, it is necessary to analyze its harmonization. In your first example, C7 could represent the first chord of F major (or minor) in a modulation

Example: C E F in the bass

You could be in C major or A minor ...how can you tell?

A-/C E7 F....A minor
C C7/E F....C major (...and why not F major?)

There you have it, the bass alone tells us nothing

Marzapane wrote:

(C major 5 and C major are the same chord)

C5 "improperly" (in my opinion) is used to indicate C5#, a notation that seems clearer to me.

Anyway, c5 is classified:

http://www.jazzitalia.net/articoli/accordisigle.asp

Frank wrote:

C5 "improperly" (in my opinion) is used to indicate C5#, a notation that seems clearer to me.

Anyway, c5 is classified:

http://www.jazzitalia.net/articoli/accordisigle.asp

...I was thinking of the fifth and that's it, a bit like in classical harmony one writes I35 .. precisely C5, instead the altered fifth of the chord was intended. Ok.

CromaDiBrera wrote:

The bass playing the seventh reinforced by the chords is not a nice effect

You are right, re-reading the first post it would be for the bass and the guitar. I took for granted that if it's the bass playing it... it takes away from the guitar

Piccinesco wrote:

In any case "normally" a C7 (C_E_G_Bb) has the Bb that resolves to A,

Or C7 goes to an F4sus79 and the Bb is not resolved