Q: Sometimes that big full sounds good with solo piano, but it can be too much with a full band. As a general guideline, is it better to use less notes in the bass and put the bulk of the h
 armony h
 igher up?
A: the bass should only be 1 note at a time. the way the notes work is, the lower you go, the less notes you can play. this is a very clearly defined thing, there is something called "lower interval limits" and i think if you look it up you will find very clearly when to stop using which intervals as you go lower. actually, don't look it up, just experiment for yourself. 1 note is the lowest -- for example, the lower interval limit is, let's say, the B at the very bottom of a grand piano. that's the lowest you can really go and have the note still sound like a note (i'm sure people will argue that the limit is actually lower, but i don't really care, beyond that low B it really turns to mud). actually screw it let's say C because it's easier for this example. so let's say low C on the 88key piano is the lowest limit for single note (this also happens to be right at the bottom of the range of the 5 string bass guitar) ok so that's the lower limit for 1 note. next thing to look at is a perfect fifth. the lower interval limit for a perfect 5th is exactly 1 octave above that -- which in this case means C and G, in the second octave of a grand piano -- so the second lowest C and the second lowest G. This would be about as low as you can put perfect 5ths and still have them sound coherent (again, people will argue that you can go lower, but for the sake of this example i'm keeping it at C). Next look at 4ths -- this piggybacks on the 5th -- the same G, and the next C. that is the lowest your 4ths are going to work. I should mention, in heavy rock bands with distorted guitars, all those heavy metal riffs are usually written with "power chords" which is root-5th-root, hugging the lower limit, and the bass is an octave down, also hugging the lower limit for single note. standard tuning puts both instruments at E, and many bands downtune and B is just about as low as they usually go, before it starts becoming unintelligible. this is another simple way to observe the lower-limit phenomenon in common practice among distorted guitar metal bands, etc. So piggybacking on what we have so far (did i mention we are just climbing up the harmonic series) the next note on top of that C would be E. so for major thirds, that would be the lower limit for 3rds. counting Cs up from the bottom of the grand piano, that would be the 3rd C and the E above it. that should be about as low as major 3rds will work. continuing on, the next note in the harmonic series is G, so the minor third right there (E-G) in that octave should be the lowest that minor thirds will be happy. again, the lower limits are actually perhaps a few notes lower than all the ones i'm mentioning, i'm just putting it a little higher and keeping it in C for the sake of the explanation. that is basically how it works. tigher clusters gradually work better as you go up, bass only works with single notes, a little higher and 5ths work but not 3rds, and then the 3rds become clear a little higher, etc etc. i hope this makes sense. imagine your pen gets thicker as the notes get lower. so you have to write bigger and make the linest further apart. where as up higher, it's like writing with a smaller pen, you can do much more complicated smaller designs and still see it. i just realized i have probably explained this entire thing on this questions page at least a couple of times before