In this lesson you'll learn how to spice up your bass using non-diatonic notes (AKA chromatic notes). But first… Tea!

Hello revolutionary music makers, we are Kate and Ray Harmony (AKA Revolution Harmony), and welcome to Hack Music Theory, the fast, easy and fun way to make music! If you’re new to theory, or if you just want a refresher, then read our free book "12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords". It’ll give you a super solid music theory foundation in just 30 minutes. The free download is below. Enjoy!

Is your bass line currently sounding something like this? (click play above) That’s heading in the right direction, but at the moment the bass is only playing each chord’s root note, which is boring. So here’s a hack to spice up your bass line with notes that are not in the key!

With this hack you’ll be taking your bass into dangerous territory: the notes outside your scale. We’re in D minor here, so by moving this C up to C♯, we’re going out of our key. We’re also gonna move this G up a semitone, and this G down a semitone. These three out-of-key notes should sound wrong, but they don’t. Why? Because they’re quick, and they’re not on the main beats.

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