Anatomy of a bassline?

[Hawaii Islander]

What is the anatomy of a good pop/rock bassline?

What is it's structure?

How does it's structure affect it's function within the context of a song.

What's the difference between pop/rock basslines and blues, jazz, funk basslines etc.

Are there written examples of answers to these questions (word and music notation) along with played examples to these questions.

Are there specific lesson books, DVD's, videos, etc, if so, where would one find them (stores, online sites , etc.)

I asked this question in someone elses thread, but it was probably missed by many readers of that thread. ryco and fountain boy gave a couple of good leads to online sites that answer some of the questions. To them, I say thanks!

If anyone else has any helpful info regarding the questions above or links to helpful resources, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[JimmyM]

Your questions remind me of something I once heard Leonard Bernstein say..."There are only two types of music...good and bad." There are as many answers to your questions as there are musicians in the world. The only constant is that a good bassline makes a good song even stronger, and that's pretty much the anatomy of a bassline

[Hawaii Islander]

Originally Posted by JimmyM

Your questions remind me of something I once heard Leonard Bernstein say..."There are only two types of music...good and bad." There are as many answers to your questions as there are musicians in the world. The only constant is that a good bassline makes a good song even stronger, and that's pretty much the anatomy of a bassline

So, what you are telling me is, it doesn't matter what I play for a bassline so long as it sounds good in the context of the song. I can understand how that principle might work, but its a little too free-form for me.

There is no order in the universe we call music? There has to be some form of structure and function to composing music. They said as much in my music class this past semester.

I don't expect people who reply to this thread to draw it out in detail for me, but links to resources that do would be helpful.

[cowsgomoo]

bass generally has to do two things in a piece of music: indicate the basic harmony and indicate the basic rhythm

I say 'generally' because people have made interesting bass lines by abandoning either or both requirements, but as a start, your bass line should probably be focused on doing both these things...

by doing these things, you act as glue between the drums and the guitars/keyboards/whatever

in terms of these principles, there's absolutely no difference between rock/pop and jazz or any other style of music... the bass does the same job, it's just that style dictates how you do it...

for example, in AC/DC style rock, the bass works perfectly well by spending most of the time playing eighth note roots... a bog-standard 'walking' jazz bass line would outline the harmony by playing chord tones on strong beats and connect up the chord changes by scalar & chromatic movement... the styles are vastly different but the bass performs the same job..

this why we always stress the value of a good ear and a solid music education... because the same principles apply to all styles

so, to answer your question, "How does it's structure affect it's function within the context of a song?"... its structure completely affects its function because a bass line's entire job is to function correctly... it's like asking how the structure of a table affects its function... if it's correctly built, it functions properly

'function', 'anatomy' and 'structure' are three words that you can use interchangeably here... either you or your teacher are making things unnecessarily complicated.. your first two questions seem to be asking the same thing

we can go on to talk about ways of constructing basslines within specific styles if you need, but that's the overview

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Hawaii Islander

So, what you are telling me is, it doesn't matter what I play for a bassline so long as it sounds good in the context of the song. I can understand how that principle might work, but its a little too free-form for me.

There is no order in the universe we call music? There has to be some form of structure and function to composing music. They said as much in my music class this past semester.

I don't expect people who reply to this thread to draw it out in detail for me, but links to resources that do would be helpful.

There can be as little order or as much as you want. The best thing to do is to learn general music theory and learn how it applies to your favorite songs. It's not something that's as cut and dried as you're attempting to make it. What makes a bassline work great in one song and horrible in another is all dependent on the player's sensibilities. And the only way to know the difference is to know and understand music theory. To play pop music you don't need a ton of theory. Most of it is based on the pentatonic scale and the blues scale (pentatonic starting on the 6th degree of the major scale). Google those up first, and then listen to your favorite blues basslines and hear how they're applied in different ways. That's a good way to start out.

[Kobaia]

i was once told by Danny Morris, bo diddley's bassist. that the 3 most important aspects of music are Rhythm, Rhythm, and Rhythm. I've heard victor wooten say, never give up the groove for the right note. again dealing with rhythm.

[Hawaii Islander]

Thanks for your responses everyone!

JimmyM,

Anatomy of a bassline refers to its constituent parts.

Structure refers to how those parts are interconnected to form the entire bassline of the song.

Function refers to how the individual parts of the bassline interact with the rhythm, melody and harmony of the song to make solid, good working bassline in any given song.

I just wanted to clarify the three terms and let people know that they are not interchangeable in this context.