Trying to find base notes of this chords - help please

Hello,

I did not play few weeks and started again… this pause helped me a lot (I dont know why and how), but I am able to swap chords now while doing fingerstyle without stopping.
I am building this fingerstyle training on “Save_Tonight_Eagle_Eye_Cherry” with chords recommended by Justin (check chord progression bellow on picture). Can you please tell me which string is “base” for all chords? Because when I am swapping from Fmaj7 to C it seems to me that base note is same and chords sounds same in fingerstyle to me…
My fingerstyle pattern is - D G B E B G and I am able to change thumb on E A D strings, but I dont know which string is right for each chords. Fmaj7 and C is biggest struggle to me, because it looks like mess to me. :smiley: When I change chords by this fingerstyle they are same to me. I hope I explained it well and somebody can help me. Please. :slight_smile:

The chord diagrams you have posted show F Major 7 with C Bass. For plain old F Major 7 mute the 5th string and the bass note will be fret 3 on the 4th string which is the F note

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Hi Michal,

first of all, glad you’re back on the guitar! :smiley:

Basically, the Fmaj7 you show here is actually a so called “slash” chord, as it has the C in the bass note and not the root of the chord, which would be F, so in the pic it is Fmaj7/C. Instead of playing the C on the A-String you could simply go for the F on the D-string as the bass-note so you have a little more variety in the bass-line. I.e. Finger the Fmaj7 as follows:

e: open
b: 1
g: 2
D: 3
A: x(muted)
E: x(muted)

Hope this helps. :slight_smile:

Edit: James @Socio was faster than I was, but basically our hints go in the same direction.

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@Lisa_S @Socio
I am risking am gonna look like dumb guy, but is it gonna look like this? Green is base note. Its played by “Pima” (Pimami). Each chord is for 2 bars and following chord starts new bar with new base note. Am I right? I know you dont have it easy with me. :smiley:

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No worries, there is nothing like stupid questions or making you look like a dumb guy. We all need a little advice from time to time. :smiley:

The chord boxes look fine, and yes, I would also go for thumb/pima on the bass notes in green. As I’m not too familiar with how it’s played exactly, i.e. how many bars it stays on the chord, but starting with the bass note on every chord change or new bar is a quite common approach. It’s up to you and the golden rule “if it sounds good, it is good!” :smiley:

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Thanks for your time, this is really gonna help me with practice, because I was not “that much in mood” for training, because I wasnt sure about it. :slight_smile:

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FWIW, I play a lot of fingerstyle, and the posts show the correct bass note for the chord.

Keep in mind, that if you play a chord two bars, while other chords are one bar, one often changes the bass note played to another note in the chord, on the second bar, to mix it up, and that often sounds better than playing the same bass note again. E.G., when I play Em (in the open position) two bars, the first bar I’ll play an E with my thumb (the open 6th string) then play a B with my thumb on the 5th string (which your finger is fretting on the 2nd fret), for the second bar. Try it out, and use it when it sounds good, as it often does.

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I think that’s called alternating bass.

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That sounds really good and I think its higher level of fingerstyle learning, I am gonna try it so I can see if I am able to “change” so much correctly. :slight_smile: