can a bass player make up a melody from the way a singer sings a lyric??

[mexjoakas]

In the band, whenever we are composing a new song, the lead guitar makes the melody for a song from the way how the singer sings the lyrics any of us in the band made, he kinda makes the guitar "sing" the same thing...

my questions for TB are:

Can a bass player do this? and, what can i do to help out?

And this is something i really want to know, because each time they do this, drumer, rithmn guitar and me are just fooling around picking our nose out or eating some chips and we cant jam something just because those two cant hear themselves, and this can go on for 1 hour or more...

[Drazon]

Yes. Though, to really make it "sing" and totally go along with the lyrics, you'll need to be at the same, or close, pitch.

Which is what our basses can't do, we aren't made to.

What really helps with that "singing" along with the lyrics is the fact that the guitar can slice through the ensemble of noise, coming from the rhythm guitarist, drummer, and well... you.

Find a way to find that ability to slice through all that noise, whether it be just turning up your volume, or popping those notes on the G string, or even moving above the 12th fret and playing the melody (once you figure it out) up there.

Hope this helped.

[Implosion]

Yes you can do it. You just need to practice it. I bet if you handed your bass to your guitar player he would be able to find the melodyline. It's just a skill that he has practiced, nothing more.

[Mark Wilson]

Of course you can.

My suggestion, sing as much as you can, and play as many melodies as much as you can.

[mexjoakas]

cool, thanks for the help in this, ill try to add this to my practice routine...

[tom once dead]

When I was writing the bass lines for my sisters songs (www.myspace.com/storminateacupband if your interested *) I tryed to not "follow" the melody note for note, but make it similar, its hard to explain you need to hear the songs with the bas done do understand what I mean.


* the tracks are just vocal and acoustic guitars, at sometime I will go down and do the tracks (it will cost about $300).