Reference · module 7
Bass clef and richer chords
Everything this module explains, on one page.
The bass clef
Read low notes on the bass staff.
- Low notes are written on a second staff, marked with the bass clef. Pianists read it with the left hand, and cellos, bass guitars and tubas read almost nothing else.
- In the bass clef the lines from the bottom are G, B, D, F and A. The fourth line is F — the bass clef is also called the F clef, and its two dots sit either side of that line.
- The spaces from the bottom are A, C, E and G. Middle C, the note between the two staves, sits on one ledger line above the bass staff.
The mistake you are about to make
bass bottom line = E, as in treble
bass bottom line = G
After the treble staff the same positions feel like the same notes. The bass staff is shifted: its bottom line is G, two letters above what treble has there.
Seventh chords
Build dominant and major seventh chords and hear the difference.
- Add one more third on top of a triad and you get a seventh chord: four notes, from the root up to the seventh. G B D plus F makes G7.
- The dominant seventh is a major triad with a minor seventh, 10 semitones above the root. Built on step V, like G7 in C major, it pulls hard toward the tonic chord.
- A major seventh chord takes the major seventh instead, 11 semitones up: C E G B, written Cmaj7. It sounds soft and dreamy, and jazz leans on it constantly.
The mistake you are about to make
C7 = C E G B
C7 = C E G B♭
The seventh letter from C is B, so C7 seems to add B. A plain 7 means the minor seventh, B♭; the chord with B is Cmaj7.
Inversions
Recognise a chord when its notes are stacked from a different bottom note.
- A chord keeps its name when its notes are rearranged. C E G with C at the bottom is root position; the same three notes can also be stacked from E or from G.
- With the third at the bottom, E G C, the chord is in first inversion. With the fifth at the bottom, G C E, it is in second inversion. Still C major, voiced differently.
- Inversions let chords move smoothly: pianists pick the version whose notes lie closest to the previous chord, so the hand barely moves and the harmony sounds connected.
The mistake you are about to make
E G C = E minor
E G C = C major, first inversion
The lowest note is E, so the chord looks like it belongs to E. Restack the notes in thirds and C comes out as the root.