SONGWRITING
OBJECTS IN SPACE : AN ALTERNATE BASELINE | Kevin MacDougall
Imagine yourself in a mostly darkened room .
In the center is a statue . There is one source of light in the room - a lamp , aimed at the statue from directly in front of it . As you explore this space , you see the front of the statue illuminated well , while the details of its back are cast in shadow .
Now let ’ s say you move the lamp in relation to the statue : behind it , above it , below it , to either side of it . Or maybe away , to the corner of the room , where indirect light leaves much of the statue in a gray haze . Perhaps you aim the lamp at the wall , so it doesn ’ t face the statue at all , obscuring most of it entirely .
You quickly notice something . It is as though , when you move the lamp , the statue ’ s features change somehow . What the statue appears to be differs with each movement of the light … But the statue never changed . The room never changed . The only thing that changed is how you chose to light an object in this particular space .
And now you have to decide where to leave the lamp .
You choose based on what you feel makes the most striking and captivating statement . And your decision will greatly influence what others see when they enter the room .
Chord voicings , inversions , and ( for the purposes of this month ’ s column ) alternate
bass notes are just like the lamplight in that room . They hold extraordinary power over what we perceive . They inform , just as the light placement would for that statue , everything about how we hear a chord . They tell us where to look and what to see . What glows with brilliance , and where the shadows are .
The chosen bass notes act as a baseline . The soil from which we experience a full-grown chord .
Fittingly , a single alternate bass note can recontextualize entire chords and reinvigorate entire progressions .
This is something bassists and keyboardists understand early on , while guitarists often lag behind in appreciating it . Gospel music is particularly attuned to being written and arranged with this in mind , always providing those extra textures . Always moving the lamp .
The lesson is that chords are not merely a backdrop to what we ’ re singing . They ’ re in a complex relationship with what we ’ re singing . And the more aware we are of that relationship , the more we can play to our intended aims , drawing out the textures and features we want to highlight .
A C chord sounds like a C chord . But a C / E sounds like a C chord rising up and trying to get somewhere . A C / G has a looming air of finality and resolve . These alternate bass notes carry with them a sense of not just the C chord , but what we mean by it , and where we ’ re going next . They can help direct us and telegraph our next move . They can even lead to greater surprise when we go somewhere else for our next change instead . Every chord change is always informing not just where we are , but all that came before it .
When it comes to chords with alternate bass notes , my advice is simple : Don ’ t just leave this for the bass player to figure out ! You can write music with this intent , and add greatly to your toolbox in the process .
For an exercise , I chose the most ordinary and basic progression I could think of . You can use your instrument of choice to play through the following examples .
For progression # 1 , we ’ ll start with something standard : G , D , Em , C
Progression # 2 feels like it ’ s ascending : G , D / A , Em / B , C
Progression # 3 feels like it ’ s descending : G , D / F #, Em , C / E
Progression # 4 could mirror a vocal or imply a strong countermelody to one : G / B , D / A , Em / B , C / G
Progression # 5 carries and lingers , making the progression feel smaller : G / D , D , Em , C / E