Why learn about music harmony?

And what does any of this mean anyway?!

In Greek mythology, Harmonia was the immortal goddess of harmony and agreement. In music, when pitches ‘agree’ with each other, they are said to be in harmony.

Pitches can relate to each other in various ways. Groups of pitches played at the same time are known as ‘chords’. When chords are played in succession, they form chord progressions. If individual pitches are played in succession, they form scales and melodies. Harmony is underpinned by musical theory that defines how these relationships work to produce music that sounds agreeable or harmonious to our ears.

There is a consistent pattern to the way in which pitches relate to each other. Regardless of the style of music, harmonious patterns tend to be repeated, whilst discordant pitches tend to be avoided.

As you learn about the theory of music, these harmonic patterns will become clearer and allow you to understand and predict which musical patterns will work well together. You’ll find it easier to learn songs, compose bass lines and improvise over chord progressions. Developing an understanding of harmony may feel like a steep mountain to climb, but the underlying principles are actually simple.

As you study, you'll come to realize that certain pitch relationships create a strong sense of harmony. With this understanding comes power! As a bass player, you will be able to control harmony through your choice of notes and how they relate to the overall harmonic structure of the music you’re playing.

The sequence of chords that make up a song is known as a chord progression. The word 'progression' literally means the process of developing or moving gradually towards a more advanced state. As a bass player, one of your responsibilities is to select notes - the bass line - to support a chord progression.

In music theory, the root note is the pitch that establishes the tonality of a chord. For example, the root note of the C# major chord is 'C'. As a bass player, you need to be particularly sensitive to the root movement of the chord progression. Sometimes you will need to reinforce the root and other times you will need to create tension or interest by playing other chord pitches. As you gain a better understanding of music theory and harmony, your ability to create bass lines and improvise over chord progressions will improve by leaps and bounds.

If you’d like to learn about harmony, members at Scott’s Bass Lessons have access to a course called Functional Theory that will teach you everything you need to know about harmony for the bass guitar.

To become a member, just go to the course page and click on the ‘free trial’ button. This course alone is worth the price of a year’s membership, but you will also find a HUGE number of other courses and content, as well as gain access to our community where you can ask questions of other members and our pro bass coaching team.