What Do Those Words Mean?
In the music world you will see all of these words and more a countless amount of times. If you don’t know what they mean you will never be more than a beginner bassist. So, make sure you learn all these words and feel free to print this page out and study these words. Your future as a bassist depends on learning everything about the bass so start learnin’!
-Arpeggios- a group of notes which are played one after the other, either going up or going down. The notes all belong to one chord. Learn More...
-Blues- a music genre based on the use of the blues chord progression and the blues notes. Learn More...
-Chords- a set of three or more different notes from a specific key that sound simultaneously. Learn More...
-Frets- a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. Learn More...
-Funk- an American musical style that originated in the mid to late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, soul jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Learn More...
-Hammer on- a stringed instrument playing technique performed (especially on guitar) by sharply bringing a fretting-hand finger down on the fingerboard behind a fret, causing a note to sound. Learn More...
-Harmony- the use of different pitches simultaneously, and chords, actual or implied, in music. Learn More...
-Intervals- describes the relationship between the pitches of two notes. Learn More...
-Keys- the term key is used in many different and sometimes contradictory ways. A common use is to speak of music as being "in" a certain key, such as in the key of C or in the key of F-sharp. Learn More...
-Metal- a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in England and the United States. Learn More...
-Metronomes- any device that produces a regulated aural, visual or tactile pulse to establish a steady tempo in the performance of music. Learn More...
-Melodies- a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity. Learn More...
-Modes- Learn More...
-Notes- the term note has two primary meanings: 1) a sign used in musical notation to represent the relative duration and pitch of a sound; and 2) a pitched sound itself. Learn More...
-Octave- is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. Learn More...
-Pick-Ups- device acts as a transducer that captures mechanical vibrations (usually from suitably equipped stringed instruments such as the electric guitar, electric bass guitar or electric violin) and converts them to an electrical signal, which can be amplified and recorded. Learn More...
-Pitch- represents the perceived fundamental frequency of a sound. Learn More...
-Pull Off- a stringed instrument technique performed by plucking a string by "pulling" the string off the fingerboard with one of the fingers being used to fret the note. Learn More...
-Pentatonic- a musical scale with five pitches per octave in contrast to an heptatonic (seven note) scale such as the major scale. Learn More...
-Reggae- a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. Learn More...
-Rhythms- the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events. Learn More...
-Rock- a loosely defined genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the mid 1950s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rhythm and blues, country music and other influences. Learn More...
-Root Notes- the root of a chord is the note or pitch upon which that chord is perceived or labelled as being built or hierarchically centered upon. Learn More...
-Scales- the sounding length of the strings. Learn More...
-Slap Bass- the term slapping is often used to refer to two different playing techniques used on the double bass and on the (electric) bass guitar. Learn More...
-Tabs- a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. Learn More...
-Tapping- a playing technique generally associated with the electric guitar, although the technique may be performed on almost any stringed instrument. There are two main methods of tapping: one-handed or 'ordinary' tapping, and two-handed tapping. Learn More...
-Tetrachords- a series of four tones filling in the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion. Learn More...
-Tuners- a device used by musicians to detect and display the pitch of notes played on musical instruments. Learn More...
-Walking Style Bass- a style of bass accompaniment or line, common in jazz, which creates a feeling of regular quarter note movement, akin to the regular alteration of feet while walking. Learn More...
