Writing Original Basslines?

[Dregin]

Hey can you guys give me some tips for writing original basslines? Like i've tried to before but i wonder if it's any good or if i repeat to much, what are some do's and dont's of writing original basslines?

By the way if it matters i've been playing for about 8 months.

[DocBop]

If I do then it will be original for me not you.

The key is sing lines first till you get something you think works. Singing makes it easy to edit your lines. Then transcribe what your sang. You will be more creative if you don't use your bass. Using your bass your ideas will be based on familiar fingering patterns. Singing then playing will help develop your ear and brain-ear-fretboard connection.

[BullHorn]

That actually sounds like a really good advice, i'm going to try this next time my band comes up with a new song.

Hijacked!

[mutedeity]

Along with DocBop's advice I will also say that when it comes to writing any original material the key is to write as much as you can and persevere. Don't be too precious about everything you write either.

I think a lot of the time people start out trying to write the perfect bassline or the perfect song and worry too much about it sounding "right". Being good at writing original material is a matter of getting to know yourself musically, finding your voice and being able to adapt it.

[Spikeh]

Originally Posted by DocBop

If I do then it will be original for me not you.

The key is sing lines first till you get something you think works. Singing makes it easy to edit your lines. Then transcribe what your sang. You will be more creative if you don't use your bass. Using your bass your ideas will be based on familiar fingering patterns. Singing then playing will help develop your ear and brain-ear-fretboard connection.

Brilliant advice. I do this without thinking about it really... as Doc said, you can change and edit it as you want if you're singing... the only thing I've found with this approach is that I regularly change the bassline again when I get on to a bass! :P

However, I do tend to lean towards basslines that I've played / heard before with modifications. I wrote the bassline for a song years ago that has a combination of the chorus of Jimmy Hendrix - Fire and the middle section to Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication... but they're just standard chromatics and arpeggios, respectively... in a different key! I don't think that's cheating... just inspiring! :P

[Bob the bassist]

Originally Posted by mutedeity

. . . Being good at writing original material is a matter of getting to know yourself musically, finding your voice and being able to adapt it.

. . . and also being able to cast off the dreck you've written, and keep the good bits, which is a matter of practise, practise, practise; and being objective and honest with yourself. . . like a photographer who shoots 100 frames just for the one 'keeper' that's good enough to use.

If I had a nickel for every hackneyed, derivitive bit of dribble I wrote in my younger days. . .

[Hansel]

Sing it in the shower.

Sounds better

[mutedeity]

Originally Posted by Bob the bassist

. . . and also being able to cast off the dreck you've written, and keep the good bits, which is a matter of practise, practise, practise; and being objective and honest with yourself. . . like a photographer who shoots 100 frames just for the one 'keeper' that's good enough to use.

If I had a nickel for every hackneyed, derivitive bit of dribble I wrote in my younger days. . .

Well, yes and no. This in a way goes to what I was saying about being too precious. I think being able to "cast off the dreck" is something that comes with experience. You don't get to be able to make those choices at first. That's what I mean about finding your voice. You have to write the derivative material before you realise what the difference between being derivative and being original is. so the more you write the more experience you have and the better you are at making those decisions.

I honestly believe that everything has an effective context too. It's knowing where something is effective and where it just doesn't work that being musically mature is all about.

[Bob the bassist]

Yeah, I see what you're getting at, but experience also comes from casting off the dreck; it's a two way street kinda thing. I guess what I'm saying is meant to encourage an early start to that kind of self-criticism, and to express to relatively new bassists like the OP that it's ok to junk something when it just don't work. . . I've met quite a few more experienced players who seem to have a blind spot in this particular part of the spectrum and waste scads of time and effort on something that's just fundamentally. . . flawed.

[mutedeity]

I think you are telling me that the chicken came before the egg. I don't know how you can cast off something that doesn't work unless you have enough experience to know that it doesn't work. It's a paradox. You are saying that to get the experience to know that something doesn't work you have to have the experience to know it doesn't work before you have the experience to know whether it works or not.

To me this is what I am saying about being precious. If you are being critical of what you are doing to the point that you throw everything away because you think it's "fundamentally flawed" you are never going to evolve and understand your modus operandi.

Who cares if you write some derivative material in the process. It's part of the process. Once upon a time people were given apprenticeships with "masters". They would learn to do things exactly their way. It was only when they showed that they were able to do things the master's way that they were graduated and allowed to try to do things their own way.

[Bob the bassist]

I am expressing myself poorly. The point I'm trying to make is that one will write lots of dreck in the process, and you're right: who cares? We all do (write dreck, that is), but some seem unable to discard the unworkable; or, don't even seem aware of the fact that things can be discarded, and try to cobble together a bunch of detritus without much thought. The sooner one starts exercising one's critical thinking, the more quickly one's critical faculties will come into sharper focus. It's not really 'chicken and the egg', but more a parallel evolution where one's critical faculties and experience feed off of, or back into, the other. I certainly don't advocate throwing everything away, since a passage or riff that is crap in one composition may work very well in another. Besides, we all have some 'experience' in terms of listening to music since birth (or before, in some cases), but some may not apply that experience to their own compositions, perhaps they're just 'too close' to the piece, or sheer stubborn egotism. I'm just encouraging critical thinking, is all.

[EADG mx]

Hear it in your head

figure out how to play it

play it.


and stop thinking so much.

[tZer]

Pay attention to what's in the focal point at the time and make sure you are supporting it well without overpowering it. Unless you're writing a new version of "School Daze" the chances are the bass is not the spotlight instrument. Don't force it where it doesn't belong.

Take little opportunities to make little, but well placed statements and don't be afraid to repeat them. If your line is not super-busy all the time, the little moves you make will get noticed more.

Less is more most of the time. If you feel like you are trying to pour more and more notes in, stop - take a break - go listen to some Motown and come back when your sanity returns.

For me, the best bass lines are the ones that have great "signature" statements in them. Motown lines are filled with examples of great, memorable licks that take what would be an otherwise ordinary line and makes it exceptional. Stevie Wonder songs are a great place to find examples.

Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" has that really killer "signature" just after the vocal line, "Just gimme a kiss..."

Also - listen to the song's main melody. The bass can be, and is a very melodic instrument and can either follow the melody or create counter melody as a nice way to develop a good, functional and memorable bass part.

[DudeistMonk]

Hey can you guys give me some tips for writing original basslines? Like i've tried to before but i wonder if it's any good or if i repeat to much, what are some do's and dont's of writing original basslines?

By the way if it matters i've been playing for about 8 months.

I'm new to this compared to a lot of the guys round here but these are some things that helped me...

1) Play with a drummer or drum loops, this helps you feel the groove and keeps your line sounding structured in time. I find when I write to a drum loop I write bass lines, when I write without them my lines tend to get "guitary" less rhythmic and more melodic. Although once you have been playing with drummers its easier to write a line that sounds like a bass line without the loops.

2)Don't worry about repetition, many awesome really groovy lines repeat, just throw a fill in here and there and it will keep it interesting. I find that most things I'm writing repeat and that a lot of the really groovy rhythmic stuff out there is repeating and riffy.

When it gets boring add a fill, a rhythmic variation, a new end to the line, a leading tone before it repeats again and it will stay interesting. Also when you are working with one chord stuff tends to be more repetitive, try adding a progression and it will start making it sound more dynamic and you can start walking the line if thats what your going for.

3)Learn a little theory, when I start a line I start on the root for beat one and decide if I'm going to go up or down from there, how big and interval I want to use for my second note or what scale/chord I want to work in, and then the rest is just what sounds right. This is probably a short sighted method but it works for now.

4) I recommend the pentatonic scale as a great starting place, its hard to play something that sounds bad, and once you get something going you can start pulling in outside notes from either the major or minor or blues or out of your backside.

5) Its hard to explain but one of the things I find is that any notes can sound right with the right rhythm. If you are playing notes that fit each other in theory but don't when you play them or just sound boring when you play them, alter the rhythm, or in the inverse if you are playing a rhythm you love but the notes aren't coming together then alter the notes.

6) Record yourself, this is a huge help in judging your bass lines and dissecting them. It great to be able to go back in time 4 months to something you wouldn't remember and rewrite it or critique and improve upon it. It also just feels good to hear yourself on your ipod.

[staindbass]

almost all catchy basslines have a 'space' or 'rest' in them. everyone is suggesting what to play, ill tell you what not to play. leave a spot where the snare is alone, and increase the groove by playing less. listen to"another one bites the dust, good times, check out the spaces.if u make a bassline from learning scales, you will sound like everyone else. hey, on 'good times', what scale is that? johnny a

[Phalex]

Keep it simple. I always try for "tasty" rather than "flashy". Don't neglect rests in favor of notes. Sometimes not playing is good playing.

[Dregin]

You guys confused me a little lol but i think i got it, i didn't start off by learning with tabs or anything i just started playing tabs last month i started playing bass the middle of my senior year of high school and it was for my music class and my teacher taught me music theory and it was cool because i could pass the class doing something i loved.

I don't have anyone to practice with but i'm trying to find a way to link up with some buddies of mine we live in different parts of town but thats beside the point. I find myself playing around on bass after i practice and i'll play a couple of notes and fool around with what i think sounds good and add stuff and drop some things out and the reason i started this thread is because i felt i came up with an interesting line but at the same time i fear it isn't good or sounds right because i'm still relatively new at bass(8 months experience).

[DudeistMonk]

I don't have anyone to practice with but i'm trying to find a way to link up with some buddies of mine we live in different parts of town but thats beside the point. I find myself playing around on bass after i practice and i'll play a couple of notes and fool around with what i think sounds good and add stuff and drop some things out and the reason i started this thread is because i felt i came up with an interesting line but at the same time i fear it isn't good or sounds right because i'm still relatively new at bass(8 months experience).

One of the big hurdles in music, at least for me, was recognizing that what I was playing and I thought was good actually was...Think about it...When you listen to a record you either think it sucks or its great, why should your playing be any different? If it sounds good to you then it probably is...You do know more about music that the average Joe on the street, and I bet you listen to a lot of it.

In my previous post I mentioned recording yourself...This is some of the best advice I can give for your situation, record your line, leave it alone for a week and then play it back in itunes or whatever, if you want to turn it off and never listen to it again then write something new, if you find yourself grinning, wanting to tap your foot and hear it again then you know you've succeeded.

Its also remarkably easy to come up with something that sounds decent...We tend to think everything we do should take hours or else it must be crap, but some of the best lines I've come up with where spur of the moment instant bass lines that took no longer to conceive then they do to play.

I used to try to trick people into judging my bass lines, I would ask a friend if they ever heard "this song" and what they of it. In reality they couldn't have heard "this song" cause I wrote the line 5 minutes before hand, but I couldn't trust them to give me an honest answer if I told them I wrote it. I did that a few times (usually getting the same answer "yeah I've never heard that before, I guess its good") until I realized that I knew more about what sounded good then any of my friends anyway. I would sit in my basement playing for years thinking I couldn't write my own lines until recently when I started playing with people. I get complemented by musicians I play with now and everyone wants to jam with me again, this whole time I thought I could only play along to CDs and sheet music until a few weeks ago when I grew some balls, got out and played, and started excepting the fact that I'm a musician. The sooner you do the same the better you will wind up being, I've learned more in the past 2 months playing with others then in the 3 years of playing before that.

[megadan]

Listen to the drums, then sing the rhythm in your head. Then try and play it on your bass.

Also remember that many of the best melodies are based on interesting rhythm , not notes!

[Dregin]

Originally Posted by DudeistMonk

One of the big hurdles in music, at least for me, was recognizing that what I was playing and I thought was good actually was...Think about it...When you listen to a record you either think it sucks or its great, why should your playing be any different? If it sounds good to you then it probably is...You do know more about music that the average Joe on the street, and I bet you listen to a lot of it.

In my previous post I mentioned recording yourself...This is some of the best advice I can give for your situation, record your line, leave it alone for a week and then play it back in itunes or whatever, if you want to turn it off and never listen to it again then write something new, if you find yourself grinning, wanting to tap your foot and hear it again then you know you've succeeded.

Its also remarkably easy to come up with something that sounds decent...We tend to think everything we do should take hours or else it must be crap, but some of the best lines I've come up with where spur of the moment instant bass lines that took no longer to conceive then they do to play.

I used to try to trick people into judging my bass lines, I would ask a friend if they ever heard "this song" and what they of it. In reality they couldn't have heard "this song" cause I wrote the line 5 minutes before hand, but I couldn't trust them to give me an honest answer if I told them I wrote it. I did that a few times (usually getting the same answer "yeah I've never heard that before, I guess its good") until I realized that I knew more about what sounded good then any of my friends anyway. I would sit in my basement playing for years thinking I couldn't write my own lines until recently when I started playing with people. I get complemented by musicians I play with now and everyone wants to jam with me again, this whole time I thought I could only play along to CDs and sheet music until a few weeks ago when I grew some balls, got out and played, and started excepting the fact that I'm a musician. The sooner you do the same the better you will wind up being, I've learned more in the past 2 months playing with others then in the 3 years of playing before that.

Exactly, when i play around on bass i think it sounds horrible but in the back of my mind i'm thinking this sounds good i might be on to something and i listen to a ton of music so any of the bass lines i might create are probably drawn from what i've heard over the years of listening to music and what i've learned from studying music theory and that mel bay book i have.

I just recently got into playing tabs and stopped playing along with that dvd i got and the first song i tried was guerilla radio and i did fine with that since it's simple then i tried another one bites the dust and i can't get the timing right but i'm working on it....I think I really just need to take your advice and play my way and just be confident and try to learn as much as i can from other bassists and musicians.