What are dyads?
Before you learn about full bass chords such as triads and 7th chords, I think it’s important for you to learn dyads.
A dyad is 2 notes played at the same time. You can call it a 2-note chord, a double stop, or a harmonic interval.
This is an example of a dyad that you can play on the bass:
Dyads are very common on the bass guitar because the bass neck is very wide, and we only have 4 strings to play chords, and we only have 4 fingers on the fret-hand available to us.
So, our options for harmony are very limited, relative to what you can do on a traditional 6-string guitar or a piano.
So, we incorporate dyads instead.
In this case, we incorporated the C major dyad to imply a C major chord.
Ready to learn how to play bass dyads?
That’s the simple definition of a dyad on the bass guitar.
In the next lesson, you’ll learn more about major dyads for bass.
