If you look at the previous examples, you will notice that when the A chord symbol appears above the music, the bass is playing an A note and when the D chord symbol appears, the bass is playing a D note. The name note of the chord is called the root note (as in the root of a tree) and all other notes of the chord are built on top of that note. The root note of a chord will always sound good when played as a bass note because it makes it clear to the other musicians what the chord is and gives them a solid foundation for the notes they play over that bass note. If you are ever unsure what notes to play for a particular chord progression, you can’t go wrong if you play the root notes of each of the chords.