Melody

[Rudiment]

Greetings all. I recently started playing the bass after deciding to switch from the drums and I had a question. What's the best formula to achieve melody while playing the bass? I've got the basic root note movement down during chord changes which of course can sound boring. Not trying to get advanced right away but I'm just curious what would need to be done to accent each of those root notes? Thank you for any input.

[Eli M.]

How much theory do you know?

A good "formula" is to listen to a lot of music and learn a lot of theory. The listening will give you an idea of what you like and what sounds good and the theory knowledge will help you figure out why you like it, what it's called and how to recreate it.

What I think you're asking is, how do you create more interesting basslines.

First of all, you're already a drummer so you know about rhythm, which is half of melody. But in terms of notes, you should know about inversions, leading tones, non-chord tones, interaction between the key you're in and the chord you're playing, chord substitutions, etc.

[Rudiment]

Thank you Eli. You're exactly right...I'm looking to create more interesting basslines and was assuming melody was the key. I consider paul McCartney the best in what I'm trying to achieve.

Anyway, I know very little theory but have studied some. I also learned the 12 bar blues progression some time ago and can still play it fairly well. That's what made me think of a "formula" of sorts because in the progression that I play, the following note pattern is the same after every root and sounds right. I'm sure it's more than just that though and that's why I'm here...to get helpful advice from you guys.

Regardless, I will look up those things you mentioned. Thank you.

[Correlli]

I like this site. has few tools to help create and analyze melodies.

http://www.musipedia.org