What is the best technique to improvise a bass line?

[goldlion88]

Hello,

My main question is what is a good technique for improvising bass lines? For example, if a song has a chord progression of C,G,D,Em, would I want to focus my notes on one chord or should I alter my note selections based on when the chord changes? Also, what is a good scale to use when improvising? I am relatively new to the bass.

Thank You

[Basshoofd]

Learn theory! By understanding chords and chord changes you can figure out what sounds good over anything. It will take a lot of time and effort to perfect it but basic theory will give you basic note choices to start with. As you expand your knowledge you'll expand your musical vocabulary. There's no scale that's especially good for improvising. Learn about chords, chord changes, arpegios, modes etc.

[PDGood]

In general, you want your notes to move with the chords.
The most common scale is the Pentatonic, also known as the blues scale. In the key of G that would be:
G Bb C D F G

[Kirkowitz]

Originally Posted by Basshoofd

Learn theory! By understanding chords and chord changes you can figure out what sounds good over anything. It will take a lot of time and effort to perfect it but basic theory will give you basic note choices to start with. As you expand your knowledge you'll expand your musical vocabulary. There's no scale that's especially good for improvising. Learn about chords, chord changes, arpegios, modes etc.

+1

[Kirkowitz]

Originally Posted by PDGood

In general, you want your notes to move with the chords.
The most common scale is the Pentatonic, also known as the blues scale. In the key of G that would be:
G Bb C D F G

I believe that's a minor pentatonic scale you've got there.

The notes for major pentatonic in G are:

G A B D F

To the OP- One of the best things I've learned is how chords are constructed. I'm still learning (even in my old age), but it really gives you a solid base for improvising bass lines.

[JTE]

"Pentatonic" only means there are five notes. The most common versions in pop music of the 20th century and since are the minor pentatonic (1, b3 4, 5, b7) and the major pentatonic (1 2 3 5 6). But it all starts with the diatonic major scale.

How to improvise a line? Huge question that ain't gonna get answered in a single thread. Learn music theory (in a LOGICAL and focused order, there's a thread here called "Music 101 Checklist" or something like that- find it and read the post Mambo-4 put in that thread). You'll want everything to be able to create basslines for progressions.

And just because a G pentatonic minor scale might work with the progression in the example, and the G pentatonic major might work, it's a LOT more useful to know what notes are in each chord, see how they work together, and have a lot more tools than one scale.


BTW, typically the "blues scale" is a pentatonic minor with the b5 added- so in G it would be G Bb C Dd D and F.


John

[MalcolmAmos]

Originally Posted by goldlion88

Hello, My main question is what is a good technique for improvising bass lines? For example, if a song has a chord progression of C,G,D,Em, would I want to focus my notes on one chord or should I alter my note selections based on when the chord changes? Also, what is a good scale to use when improvising? I am relatively new to the bass. Thank You

JTE said..."it's a LOT more useful to know what notes are in each chord, see how they work together, and have a lot more tools than one scale".

You can not go too far wrong if you focus on the chords as they come up. Your chord progression of C, G, D, Em if you follow the chords in the song as they come up it really does not matter what key or scale that particular chord progression is from. In other words even if the chord progression is not a normal chord progression - even it it goes out of scale/key, if everybody followed it out - together - everyone would sound good - together. Course it helps if everyone eventually comes back in scale/key. Sometime you have to assume the person that came up with this chord progression knew what they were doing. Good luck with that... LOL

So while the song is using the C chord you play chord tones (notes) of the C chord. The notes we normally concentrate on are the 1-3-5-7 intervals of the chord's scale. As we are talking about a C major chord the 1-3-5 intervals (C-E-G) are what we should concern ourselves with, i.e. we do not have a C7 or Cmaj7 so we only concern ourselves with the chord tones of the C chord, which are the 1-3-5 intervals of the C scale Perhaps R-3-5-3 would work in a 4/4 time song. If we had that C7 chord our chord tones could be 1-3-5-b7 and if we had a Cmaj7 our chord tones could be 1-3-5-7. Remember chords are made from scale notes. http://www.smithfowler.org/music/Chord_Formulas.htm

When the music moves to the G chord we now consider using the 1-3-5 interval of the G chord 1-3-5 (G-B-D). Same thing for the rest of your progression. That Em chord will have a b3, i.e. R-b3-5-b3 or perhaps R-b3-5-8. It's really your call your the one improvising the bass line. Yes - get your generic chord tone bass lines into muscle memory so when you see a Bm7b5 chord you know what bass line goes with that (R-b3-b5-b7). Don't worry with anything beyond the sevenths. Up to the sevenths is really all we need.

Now how much of the chord tone (notes) do we put into our bass line? The ones that we think will help us build a groove. That may be roots only, i.e. R-R-R-R and change roots when the chord changes. Or we may play R-5-R-5, or R-3-5-3, or R-3-5-8 and if we had two measures of the same chord we might use R-3-5-6-8-7-6-5. Really any chord note or any note within that chord's parent scale can be used in our bass line. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU5XxjSp2QE

How to build bass lines, and what notes to use in those bass lines is a study in itself and will keep you busy for years to come.

Yes we also play scales in our bass lines, however, if you had to ask this question do yourself a favor and play chord tones right now - scale bass lines can come later, much later. Right now roots and R-5 will let you play a bunch of bass.

Good luck.

[slybass3000]

Originally Posted by Basshoofd

Learn theory! By understanding chords and chord changes you can figure out what sounds good over anything. It will take a lot of time and effort to perfect it but basic theory will give you basic note choices to start with. As you expand your knowledge you'll expand your musical vocabulary. There's no scale that's especially good for improvising. Learn about chords, chord changes, arpegios, modes etc.

+2

Knowing harmony will help you understand chord functions, extensions,modes and what notes to use to connect them and what notes from outside the key that are good and why.

[jelpo]

After you get some theory down, my technique for improvising is to listen to what's going on around me and then play what I feel. Start off slow, but go with what you're feeling. Get some play along tracks to practice with. If your hands don't move as fast as your mind/heart, pause the track, and take a second to slowly figure out how to play what you're feeling or hearing in your mind.

Something else you can do is to hum or sing a bass line out loud, then figure it out on the bass. Essentially that's what you are doing when you improvise, except that it needs to be instantaneous from your heart/mind (what you're feeling inside) to your hands.