bass lines and solos

peaveyuser · #1 10-27-2006, 02:37 PM

I'm having trouble with writing a bass solo or any other bass line as a matter of fact. It's not that my fingers can't do the job it's just coming up with something. Right now i'm doing the godfather theme, i got the correct song right it's just the fact that at the end i want to come up with a solo. I wanted to do this one because i saw a video of slash playing it on guitar and then thinking that it would sound good on bass. Here's his video he does about a 10 second riff before he does the actual song though http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4FLSldTmQQ
Now i don't want to do an exact solo like he does at the end of the actual song i just want to come up with something that will sound good, any ideas telling me how to write something good.?

iplaybassguitar · #2 10-27-2006, 08:34 PM

thats a really hard question to answer...any way you could un-broaden that one?

peaveyuser · #3 10-27-2006, 10:02 PM

What do you mean, the question souds pretty clear. All i want to know is if anybody has any tips that helps them come up with something like that.

thebassace111 · #4 10-27-2006, 11:52 PM

Use blues scales etc, make sure your on the beat and don't get into habbits such as going from 1st to third finger(I do that a lot in solos).

Alec W. Conway · #5 10-28-2006, 09:49 AM

For composition, I'll use the words of wisdom of the bassist from Gorguts :

"There is no recipe, it comes from the heart."

tZer · #6 10-28-2006, 10:12 AM

Listen and learn melodies. That means listen to and learn:
vocal parts
piano leads
sax, trumpet, and yes... guitar licks

Typically you will find the MELODY is played by these and other "lead" instruments. If you start learning their parts, you will start seeing how they go about taking the melody of a song and turning it into a solo.

Practice your scales, arpeggios and when you approach a lead, think in lyrical phrases. You don't speak like this, do you?

"Hey I run cars street road fast and mushy! The yesterday park game took monkey feathers wildly."

Your musical phrases should not come out like that either. Start slowly and build on melodic ideas. Take one and two note lines and slowly evolve them into more. Always think in terms of the bigger picture instead of the lick of the moment.

peaveyuser · #7 10-28-2006, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tZer

Listen and learn melodies. That means listen to and learn:
vocal parts
piano leads
sax, trumpet, and yes... guitar licks

Typically you will find the MELODY is played by these and other "lead" instruments. If you start learning their parts, you will start seeing how they go about taking the melody of a song and turning it into a solo.

Practice your scales, arpeggios and when you approach a lead, think in lyrical phrases. You don't speak like this, do you?

"Hey I run cars street road fast and mushy! The yesterday park game took monkey feathers wildly."

Your musical phrases should not come out like that either. Start slowly and build on melodic ideas. Take one and two note lines and slowly evolve them into more. Always think in terms of the bigger picture instead of the lick of the moment.

Any reccomendations on some guitar melodies that i should start with?

tZer · #8 10-28-2006, 01:27 PM

Pick any that are "signature lines" - But guitar was just one of many "melody instruments" noted.

Pick any Jazz Standard - "Take the A Train", "Satin Doll", "A Night in Tunisia", "Blue Bossa" - any of em... and learn the melodies. You will find, depending on who recoreded what, the melody instrument changes.

Some rock songs with signature melodies include:
ugh... "Freebird",
Any Jimi Hendrix - like "All Along the Watchtower" (I know, it's Dylan...)
David Gilmour's solos are all very melodic - try the solo from "Another Brick in the Wall"

With some of the easier melodies, what you should find after you learn how to play them, is that you can pretty easily see where you can take them that is new and different while staying true to the idea.

Also pick up on the vocal melodies. The singer usually establishes the melodic motive in most pop/rock songs. Learn what Robert Plant or Paul Rogers or Ian Gillan are doing melodically. All of those dudes use their voices very much like another lead instrument...