How do you figure an accented passing note in the bass?

1. What is an accented passing note?
2. How do you identify a passing note?

What is an accented passing note?

If a passing note occurs with the second chord (instead of in the middle of the two chords), it is called an accented passing note. A neighboring tone (NT) is approached by step and then returns by step to the original note.

How do you identify a passing note?

For example, playing C, E, G or B over a CMaj7 chord will sound very harmonically strong. So a passing note can be thought of as any other note(s) that you play on your way to a chord tone. They can be inside the scale (say the note 'D' in the above example) or outside the scale (say the note D♭ in the above example).