Creating my own music

[KingRazor]

Alright, I apologize first off for asking these kinds of questions all the time.

I've developed a pretty decent foundation as a bassist. As long as I know the chord progression of a song I can play along (and, to a certain degree, I can guess the chords if I know the key). I can stay in rhythm, I am able to catch my mistakes right away and I can usually recover from them pretty quick (obviously there's always room for improvement). I know some theory, some scales, some arpeggios. I know where the notes are on the fretboard.

But right now I'm still just playing songs or playing patterns or playing root notes. So far, I haven't been making up any of what I play. I'm either playing the basslines written by others or I'm just playing root notes. I just can't figure out how to get past that.

I feel like I'm learning a language and I know all the words, I know how a sentence is structured and I know a few sentences written by people. The problem is, I don't know how put the words together to form my own "sentences" (bass lines). I don't know which words work together or why.

None of the patterns I know really sound musical. They sound like patterns. When I learn bass lines they don't seem to be patterns, in fact they almost seem random. But they work, they sound good. How do I come up with these kinds of lines without using those patterns?

I want to be able to pick up a bass and without being told a key or anything to play in just come up with a bass line on the spot. I want to be able to create my own music. I'd rather have that ability and no chops at all than be the most technically proficient bassist on Earth with no ability to improvise.

I'm starting to listen to a larger variety of music to hopefully gain some inspiration. When I play scales and arpeggios now I sing them as I play to try to help cement the intervals in my mind. But I want to know what else I can do.

[Kbone_ATL]

You might try downloading or finding some really basic drum beats at a certain tempo, and find some of those really generic guitar riffs to practice on. You can usually find them in a certain root note, tempo and changes. You can practice along with those and be able to put your basslines in where/when you want. I find myself doing that a lot with blues riff's in A or E and just jam on them with the beat.

[Righteous Thunderer]

I have the same problem, and unfortunately didn't get to do more than a month's worth of lessons before I ran out of time due to work scheduling. It's pretty frustrating.

[KingRazor]

Originally Posted by Kbone_ATL

You might try downloading or finding some really basic drum beats at a certain tempo, and find some of those really generic guitar riffs to practice on. You can usually find them in a certain root note, tempo and changes. You can practice along with those and be able to put your basslines in where/when you want. I find myself doing that a lot with blues riff's in A or E and just jam on them with the beat.

The problem is coming up with the bass lines in the first place...

[DrVenkman]

So I'm far (really, REALLY far) from being an expert on this, but a few things I do:

- just listen to the song and try to sing or hum some kind of bass line. I'd love to be able to play what I hear in my head live, but for now I'll settle for getting a line in my head and then writing it down to play later.
- pick up the bass and try out some "likely suspects"; in other words, try some notes that typically work. So chord tones, particularly the root, third and fifth, and particularly try the tones that give a particular chord it's "flavor" (so minor thirds, diminished fifths, dominant sevenths, etc.). Use octaves - even if all you're doing is playing roots, moving up or down an octave can give a line a sense of movement and some interest. Maybe passing tones on the weak beats to get from one chord tone to the next.
- learn some bass cliches and use them. I'm still working on this, but for example going from a I to a V chord in a progression you can walk up over a measure (so from a C to a G chord, walk up C-D-E-F-G - assuming this is 4/4 time walks up from the C and hits the root of the G on the first beat of the next measure). I guess this falls into patterns, though, so maybe not that helpful here.
- plagarize. There are certain chord progressions that get used lots. Learn a line from one song that uses the progression, then try it (or portions of it) in other songs that use the same progression.
- just play around on the bass. Play some notes without thinking about it too much and see if you stumble across anything that sounds good (you may need to record this, or run the risk of "that sounded great! Wait, what did I play?")
- play a line you already know in a different position on the neck. Sometimes this triggers different ideas for me.

Like I said I'm far from an expert, but these things have helped me.

[StuartV]

Get Ed Friedland's book "Building Walking Bass Lines".

Then subscribe to SmartMusic.com and use Aebersold charts to practice with.

[mambo4]

It sounds like you know enough to "reverse engineer" the bass lines you learn.
1:Pick a bass line you learned that you like, but seems "random" to you
2: write down the chords of the song
3: for each phrase in the bass line, look at each note in terms of how it relates to:
- the chord: is it the root? 3rd? 5th? 7th? some other "wierd" note?
- the rhythm: is it the 1? is it a down beat (1&3) or back beat (2&4)? is it a syncopated 8th or 16th note?
-the note before and after it: is is a leap or a step? is it leading form or to a chord tone?
-the whole phrase; is it the start of end or some in-between note of the phrase? Play the phrase up to and stopping on that note, and play it form that note to the end...get a feel for why that particular note was used in that particular spot.

As you continue to break down the ideas that your favorite players use this way, their motifs will become colors in your own creative pallete...

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by KingRazor

...... But right now I'm still just playing songs or playing patterns or playing root notes. So far, I haven't been making up any of what I play. I'm either playing the bass lines written by others or I'm just playing root notes. I just can't figure out how to get past that.

I feel like I'm learning a language and I know all the words, I know how a sentence is structured and I know a few sentences written by people. The problem is, I don't know how put the words together to form my own "sentences" (bass lines). I don't know which words work together or why.

None of the patterns I know really sound musical. They sound like patterns. When I learn bass lines they don't seem to be patterns, in fact they almost seem random. But they work, they sound good. How do I come up with these kinds of lines without using those patterns?

I want to be able to pick up a bass and without being told a key or anything to play in just come up with a bass line on the spot. I want to be able to create my own music. I'd rather have that ability and no chops at all than be the most technically proficient bassist on Earth with no ability to improvise.

I'm starting to listen to a larger variety of music to hopefully gain some inspiration. When I play scales and arpeggios now I sing them as I play to try to help cement the intervals in my mind. But I want to know what else I can do.

IMO - time for a tutor. Sit knee to knee and tell him/her what you just told us. I think what is missing is the phrasing of the bass line. Talking about phrasing on a forum is a stretch, time for a tutor. I'm re-reading Bass Guitar for Dummies and in the groove section the same generic bass line will be shown say four times. Each with the same notes but different timing and phrasing. The timing and phrasing gives each bass line a different sound. To understand that I had to listen to the CD that came with the book. That's how a tutor can help. You have the tools, technique is missing and we learn technique from sitting knee to knee with another bassist. Of course IMHO.

Good luck.