How Music Works 4 - Bass - Part 3

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The coolness of bass scales!
A downward stepping major scale in J.S. Bach's "Air on the G String".

Chromatic scale in the bass generates more sophisticated and ambiguous chords.
Purcell, in "Dido and Aneas", uses a descending "Ground Bass" to generate a suicidal mood. The same technique was used 300 years later by Stevie Wonder in "They won't go when I go".

Inversions (using 3rd or 5th in the bass instead of the tonic) markedly change the character of a chord.