Tips for writing funky bass lines

[v1paul]

I'm quite new to bass playing and I would like to come up with some of my own bass lines. What tips do you have for coming up with a funky bass line.

[matthiasss]

Octaves&ghost notes you gotta feel the bassline out.

[Vynns]

I find that rests are very important in funk. Funk is a much more rhythmic- than melodic oriented style, and just playing staccato and putting some rests in there can funk it up. Check out some funk bassists.

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHE6hZU72A4

[Mike151]

Subscribed.

[troyus]

It is all about the rhythm, you can make a funky as hell bassline with 2 or 3 notes. Listen to motown, james brown, earth wind and fire, etc.

[lhoward]

Originally Posted by troyus

It is all about the rhythm, you can make a funky as hell bassline with 2 or 3 notes. Listen to motown, james brown, earth wind and fire, etc.

How about one note - Larry Graham, Sly and the Family Stone, "Everyday People".
A few more notes - "Thank You"

Lloyd Howard

[kenlacam]

don't bathe for a few days and write a line. I promise, it will be funky as hell.

[Jazzdogg]

IME, the funkiest bass lines are bone simple (to accommodate collaboration), which leaves room for a bassist to embellish without losing the groove, and often surprises the ear with unexpected rhythmic and/or harmonic twists.

The funkiest bass parts I've heard are memorable, at least in part, because the bassist grooves like a mutha even when playing simply.

[phat daddy]

Every funk phrase has to start with and come back to the 1. Listen to the Ohio Players, anything Larry Graham, anything Bootsy, all the James Brown bassists (of which one was Bootsy); it all takes off and lands on the 1.

+1 to rests being essential. Sixteenth-note and eighth-note passages with well placed scale and/or chord tones with rests in just the right places can usually define a hella-funky bassline.


Also, once you start to incorporate slap (it's inevitable if you dig into the funk) don't get too stuck on the thumb. I love to slap but I've found that working up dotted-eight/sixteenth patterns fingerstyle with proper ghost notes (muted with the left hand) can be a lot chunkier and groovier than an over-manipulated slap line, and doesn't as often get flattened in the mix.

[jefkritz]

play on the one. this is really important

syncopate everything else (as long as it sounds good).

i find that while a funky line might use other 'color' or passing tones, they mostly use the root, fifth, and dominant seventh.

[rodl2005]

GAPS!!!! Leave 'em all over the place. "its not what U play- it's what U DON'T play" is true especially 4 funk.

CAN do the 'Play the one'... thang, but U CAN also leave it out as LArry Graham did alot. he'd often play on the "and's" As in 1 AND 2 AND etc...
Timing & gaps!!!! Leave holes everywhere, U'll gradually grab it by the short & curly's

[barbarbass]

Emote rests.

[Anonymatt]

Listen to a lot of music that you think is funky and walk around humming basslines you think are funky all day long. At first, the rhythmic ideas will show up in your playing. After a little while, the nature of the melodic improvising in your humming will emerge in your bass playing. This is what's going on with me. I'm doing interval training now to heighten my ability to play by ear. I think the trick is unblocking the brain-bass connection.

[bass_snake]

This DVD can help.

http://vixmerch.ssl-central.com/stor...-workshop.aspx

Fred

[JohnnyPustular]

+ 1 to everything so far!

The funk lives in the spaces. Count out the bass part on James Brown's "I Feel Good". Note how much is missing. For an advanced lesson, listen the the guitar in the same song. This is 'laying out' at its very finest. My guitard can shred like Buckethead, but can't lay out like Jimmy Nolan.

Oh yeah-- check out the bass lines on AWB's Pick Up the Pieces and Lakeside's Fantastic Voyage. To the land of funk!

[rodl2005]

Fantaastic Voyage--- AHHHH what a beauty,, Haven't heard that in yrs!!!!!!! GR8 Bassline!!!

[Deacon_Blues]

You have to feel it to be able to play it. It's pretty difficult to give any direct guidelines that are universal to all funk. Anyway...

Play on beat one. Guess this is the most allround funk rule there is, as I cannot directly think of an example where it is not applied.

As mentioned, rests are important. However a good exception is "Stratus" by Billy Cobham. I guess the drums, and the repetitiveness of the bassline are what makes that song funky.

[JimK]

I guess I'm alone on this-
Not playing on the "1"...but leaving NO DOUBT where it is can be Funky.

Example of a 2-bar rhythm (in 1/8th note phrasing)-
l---&-&--l-----&4&l

1st bar-
"& of 2" and "& of 3" are played

2nd bar-
"& of 3", "4" and "& of 4" are played

Few/little actual notes are strategically played with the "right" drum beat/part.
Just food for thought.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Deacon_Blues

As mentioned, rests are important. However a good exception is "Stratus" by Billy Cobham. I guess the drums, and the repetitiveness of the bassline are what makes that song funky.

The bass in that tune is playing/keeping "the time" while everything else can go off.
Can be seen & heard on the new Jeff Beck DVD (Live At Ronnie Scott's)

[tbone409]

if you can read standard notation i highly reccomend these two books

Standing in the Shadows of Motown
http://www.bassbooks.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=44

The finger funk workbook
http://www.bassbooks.com/shopping/shopexd.asp?id=245