Originally Posted By: Bass Thumper

I appologize. I thought "essential notes" is a common concept in music, my bad.

I think what "essential notes" means is those notes that are required in the chord for the chord to maintain its fullness or most of it's fullness. If you ommit non-essential notes, the chord won't completley collapse or be non-recognizable. Think required, fundamental, or necessary.

See the 4th paragraph at this site.

http://www.hakwright.co.uk/music/quick_crd_ref.html


That chart tells you everything you need to know.

What it doesn't tell you and no chart will tell you is what to play. As a guitarist I leave out a lot of notes. What you have to think about is what notes are the entire band going to or are playing. For instance in a C7 to a Cm7 chord progression your horn section might only play the 3rd b7th to the the b3rd and b7th. The bass may play the 1 and 5 while the piano plays the entire chords.

Look carefully at the chard and most chord essentials (I never heard of that terminology either) and you will see that the 1-3 and the chord extensions (7,9,11,or 13) are labeled as essentials. Other chord essentials according to the chart are #5, sus2, sus 4, etc. What the chart doesn't include are added extensions like C7#13, or Cm7#11.

Don't forget as a bassist you can play any note in the chord and use passing notes to go either the another chord note or a different chord note. If it sounds good it is good.

I hope this helps and good luck.

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