Originally Posted by MarioD
Steve, you have gotten some good information in this thread. IMHO the most important was what is the key signature and what is the chord progression. Why? Because sometimes the bass note, regardless what instrument plays it (bass guitar, tuba, piano, etc) determines the chord's name. Sometimes the same bass note does not determine the chord's name; go back to the C6, Am7, C/A , posts. What names the chord is usually the combination of the key signature and what comes prior to and after the chord regardless of the bass note. This has been mentioned before.

For an examples Google/Bing "Ambiguous chords in music" and you will get answers to your questions. Here is one example:

https://www.beyondmusictheory.org/harmonic-ambiguity/

I give you credit for throwing your yourself into this deep music theory topic. Now I say this in all due respect Steve but what is missing is the music theory foundation. Getting it piecemeal like this helps but IMHO getting a music theory book will build the foundation much faster. YMMV
Yes, I/we have gotten good info here and thanks for the weblink. I had already found that webpage and am reading it. I do have a music theory book but there is no "Ambiguous Chord" entry in the index, it's probably covered deep under another topic. Music theory is a vast subject and my goal is not to master it all, just fill in some gaps I'm curious about. Hopefully others will also have their gaps filled. And I'm curious about the Joni/Jaco musical relationship as stated earlier.

Getting it piecemeal can be useful as we can ask very specific questions. Plus, how can we attract and retain young, intelligent muscians to be ambassadors for this forum and BiaB unless we have smart, interesting and useful discussions here?

Btw, you never gave a reference for your “IF there is only a guitar then any chord is an ambiguous chord because there is no bass.” statement.
Did you read that at a website?

https://soundcloud.com/user-646279677
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