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Guide Tones by Joshua Barnhart
Guide Tones by Joshua Barnhart… Welcome back it’s been a while. This time we’re going to jump into ‘Guide Tones’. “What are guide tones?” you ask. Well guide tones are notes out side of the root that define the chord being played. It has more to do with 7th chords, as this is typically a jazz concept. Guide tones are the 2 notes in the chord that are what tells you the type and quality of the chord ie. Major, Minor, Dominant, ect.
So for any chord we have the root, we have the fifth, we have a third, and a seventh. The fifth is a support tone for the root. It doesn’t do much to help define the chord unless it’s a diminished or augmented chord. So for today we’re going to drop the 5th from the chord. The root is what labels the chord. If it’s a Cmaj7 then C is the root. As bass players we get that concept. But simply playing a C and one of the other note in the chord won’t tell you what type of chord it is. So the root sets up the name for the chord and the guide tones name it. These 3 note chords are called ‘Shell Voicings’. They give you the most information about the chord with the least amount of notes.
Lets take a look at some of these shell voicings. These are all in root position:
The guide tones are the 3rd and 7th of each chord. Properly voice-leading shows that almost all of the tones are step wise. Sometimes you have to change the order of the 3rd or 7th to get it to do that.
This concept works well when you’re trying to arrange for horns, voice, or what ever the instrument may be. If you have a limited amount of instruments and have to cover a lot of ground shell voicings are the way to go. Also building these guide tone lines are a great foundation for writing a melody that smoothly moves in and out of each chord. And if you’re playing with a group of musicians you can make it interesting by using one of the guide tones lines as your bass line.
Guide tones are also the reason that tri-tone inversions work. So take for instance this G7 chord in the example. It’s a G B and F. lets drop the root and concentrate on the B and F. The G tells us that B is the third. Now with out the G we have no reference. All we have is a tri-tone between B and F. we also have the same interval between F and B. Now if we make D the root. The D tells us the F is the third. Now it’s a D dominant chord. It doesn’t matter which note is in the root. The power of the dominant chord is in the tri-tone, and how it resolves. Either way the B moves up to C and the F down to E.
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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