What chord was he playing? It could have been a
dominant 7th chord in Major (A C# E G) which is
common in blues and such. That is based on the
mixolydian mode, which would be a major scale with a
flattened 7th.

That is my best guess at this late hour of the
night..

I'm pretty sure he is playing an A

Gumby

Yeah, that threw me off as well when someone first
told me to play the seventh. As Adam said, in most
cases they are refering to the dominant 7th. In
the key of A this would be the note G. for the key
of D it would be C, and in E it would be D.

I gave those three examples because if the section
follows the i-iv-v chord pattern then A(i)-D(iv)-
E(v) would be the chords you would be using.

This is typical. for listening refference listen
to 'Taxman'(Beatles), Start!(Jam), A real good one
if you have it somewhere is 'Short Fuse' by Roy
Buchanan. This is the reverse of what you
described. That pattern is root-octave-seventh-
fifth.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the help gentlemen

Gumby

Guitarist's mistake.

A Major's 7th is G#. If the guitarist meant to ask you to play a flattened 7th, that's his mistake. I don't think a bassist should be taken to task for playing the 7th when asked to play the 7th.

Thanks David, that is what I thought. Really just a difference in the terminology from him to me.

Gumby

You're polite. It IS a difference in terminology: yours is correct & his is, well, incomplete.

Thanks David, it's is just as well I know him well and have played in bands with him for along time or I may have taken him to task!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gumby

said that I should play the same notes as him ...

He said just play, the root, the fifth and the seventh.

We were playing in A so I played A, E & G#.
We stopped and he said I should play A, E & G??

I said to him is that not the minor 7th?

Can someone please clarify.
.............................
There are five qualities of seventh chords :

major 7th - (1 - 3 - 5 - 7)
dominant 7th - (1 - 3 - 5 - b7)
minor 7th - (1 - b3 - 5 - b7)
half diminished -(1 - b3 - b5 - b7)
diminished 7th -(1 - b3 - b5 -bb7)
.............................

If you were to look in a guitar chord
book something like "THE BEST OF THE BEATLES".
Typically, they will show A7 as the 'chord'
designation.
What really should be shown is A dom7.
In other words the 2 choices would be:

A dom7 vs. A maj7.
However, ... since the MAJOR SEVENTH chord
is less often used, the A7 is used as the
DEFAULT!
So, the more popular 7th note would be the
minor 7th or flattened 7th. "G" in this case.

Thank you Wayne, either way it seems I perhaps know more about theory than I thought. Even if I don't know how to explain it properly.

Gumby

Even if I don't know how to explain it properly.
..............................

Story of my life.

flat 7

............................................

maj 7

If you give a listen to the above 2
variations, I think it helps somewhat
to explain the inexplicable nonsense
I fumigated you with.