Bass notes in guitar chords

Question

Hi! I'm curious why the bass notes in some guitar chords aren't the lowest. In the D Chord, the D note is the second lowest. I wonder what I'm missing.

Thank you

Answer 1

Hello! I agree with the answer that Jacobo V gave, however I wanted to chime in and relate the idea to guitar specifically.

Firstly, the standard "open" form of a D chord does indeed have a D note as the bass note; the open D string should be your lowest note. (The shorthand form of this chord would look like X-X-0-2-3-2; the E and A strings are not played, but the D is played open, which is lowest note in the chord.)

So it's possible you are playing the chord incorrectly, or not including the open D.

Secondly, the only chords that should be "inverted" (that is, have a bass note which is not the root note of the chord, in this case D) will be written as "slash" chords:

D/F# (Commonly played as X-X-4-2-3-2)

D/A (Commonly played as X-0-0-2-3-2)

etc

These are telling you that you are playing an "inverted" D chord, where the bass note will not be the root, D, but either F# or A instead.

So! If you see a chord name without a slash, it should indeed have its lowest note be the root note of the chord.

Finally, just in case this isn't 'clicking,' you used the term "bass note" where you more correctly meant "root note."

For example: "Hi! I'm curious why the root notes in some guitar chords aren't the lowest. In the D Chord, the D note is the second lowest"

Answer 2

Hey! Any triad (chord with three distinct notes) can be put into several different orientations called "inversions". They are as follows:

Root Position: the root of the chord is the lowest voice/bass note

First Inversion: the third of the chord is the lowest voice/bass note

Second Inversion: the fifth of the chord is the lowest voice/bass note

we could apply these concepts to a D chord as follows:

Root Position D Chord: this chord would be spelled D, F#, A and represented by the chord symbol D

First Inversion D Chord: this chord would be spelled F#, A, D and represented by the chord symbol D/F#

Second Inversion D Chord: this chord would be spelled A, D, F# and represented by the chord symbol D/A

I'm not a guitarist, but I imagine you could use this terminology to find chord fingerings that would give you your desired bass notes for any chord. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

All standard open chords, when played correctly, use the Root as the bass note. When a different note is used as the bass note, it is called an Inversion, and is specified with a slash: /

Using your example, if you play a D major chord and use the open A string as the bass note, that is called a D/A Chord.

You can use other notes in the triad for Inversions as well. In your case, you're using the 5th(A) as the bass note. Try this Inversion using the 3rd(F#) as the Bass:

D/F#

x

3

2

0

0

2

Tasty!