Alternative to root fifth bassline

[Wings]

A root fifth baseline works very well with many Traditional, Country, and Bluegrass songs, but it can get boring and monotonous if you play 35 songs in a row using it. Anybody have some alternatives?

 

[Groove Doctor]

Pedal notes can work well at the end of sections.
eg. Play G for two bars, then back to C.
C/G | G | C
(in the song Act Naturally).


Walking between chord changes - using scale notes or Chromatic. Cmaj - Fmaj
eg. C C D E | F
C D | Eb E | F


Flipping sequence 1515 5151 for Cmaj - G7. Works better in faster songs.
eg. C G | C G | D G | D G |


Briefly Doubling other instruments - unison or harmony to the melody line, or guitar riff, etc. Usually a few notes or a bar long at most.

Add approach notes, semitones leading to a 1 or 5.
eg. C_ F# G
as in Rawhide

 

[CallMeAl]

I find:

Pentatonic riffs,
rhythmic variation,
walking blues (1 3 5 6 b7), and
chromatic walk ups (6 b7 7 1)

Go a long way

 

[CaseyVancouver]

Throw some thirds in, 7th to the root, 6 5 1, 6 3 1.
Melodic descending/ascending lines.

Hey wait a second there’s a pattern here!
The alternatives are endless. Just don’t do 1 5 1 all the time.

 

[Malcolm35]

Any of the chord tones, i.e. R-3-5-7-9-11-13 will be safe. Pick what you need.
Then there are the scale notes, R-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Pentatonic and chromatic come to mind.

Start slow with adding the correct 3 and 7. If minor use b3 and b7. The R-3-5-7 for example then throw in the 8. R-5-8-5 is an old standby. I like the 6, i.e. R-3-5-6. The 3 and 6 love each other.

Pick two new ones and try them out. Then pick two more.... Don't try too much at one time.

Happy trails.

 

[Groove Doctor]

Try writing some simple bass patterns that really groove. If one works, keep using it for that particular song. Maybe just certain sections like each verse or chorus only.

eg. C C D# E | C C D# E |
Or
D A | B C# | D A | B C# |

Try light and shade....
Play it up the octave softly after the solos, during the third verse, before the last chorus.


Add ghost notes on 2 & 4. Much harder than it seems.


Talk with the band about adding stops.
eg. James Taylor’s band added a stop after he sings ‘Stop’ just before each chorus of How Sweet It Is. (different from the original recording). Make the songs your own.

 

[Wings]

You guys are the best! You’ve given me a lot to think about and work with. I can’t thank you enough.

 

[Dana R Gregory]

You could try playing octave notes and also add a few step notes when changing chords. This works very well in church where many times I play roots only. Some songs require a root/fifth bass line so you just have to live with it.

 

[selowitch]

One of the charms of a five-string bass is you can change octaves (i.e., the eight-note range of notes) easily even in the middle of a phrase!

 

[crankypants]

Walk.

 

[juancaminos]

I Love peddling in certain spots. You can reverse the root 5 sometimes or you can mix in a five from somewhere else on the neck (or the root for that matter). Also try walking to the root after the five or walking to the five after the root. Add an octave, root/octave/root/five, etc.

 

[Aldo Sanchez]

Latin styles such as Cumbia can come in handy. Try; Root Third Fith.

4/4: | R X 3 5|

 

[buldog5151bass]

Even with root/5, walk ups and down to chord changes add a lot, and keep you thinking.

 

[Rib 13]

on bass, i love lifting honky-tonk piano licks into bass lines....honky-tonk piano utilizes a lot of rolls from black key to white key as a type of bend emulation....for example, in a major chord I might play root followed by a b3-maj3 "roll" of consecutive 16th notes as a 'substitute' for root-5, especially works if going from the "vi" chord as a root/5 to the "I" chord, in which that same note that was the 5th in the "vi" chord is now the 3rd of the "I" chord as a root/maj3 .....an example of this can be heard in REMs "Driver 8" on the first two chords of the middle8 section (vi to I), although Mike Mills' "rolls" are whole step, not half step, probably due to convenience of using the open D string to hammer (cued below) but notice that note is the same: the 5th of the vi but the Maj3 of the I...

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Play in a direction: When you walk, take it all the way up the neck, then all the way down.

 

[mambo4]

A common tendency is to think of the root at the "floor", and other scale/chord tones above.
Deliberately play with the root as your "ceiling" instead of your floor for awhile.
Find the lowest chord tones available for each root.

 

[Oneirogenic]

Change how think about your lines. Are you doing a simple outline of the harmony with obvious chord tones or are you pushing the harmony in a direction? When I when started thinking about the harmonic motion and melodic contour of my lines I came up with way more interesting and very musical ideas. I had to make 4 sets worth of bluegrass standards not bore me to death and this is how I did it. Word of advice: don't go to far off the beaten path of your style of music when it comes to note choices otherwise your band members might not like it.

 

[dreamadream99]

You’re right. Root-Five basslines are boring. But that’s how 2-beat Country Western basslines are played. Oh sure, you can walk the occasional measure before a chord change or swing chorus, but walk too much and you’ll be accused of being a jazz poser, and thrown out.

 

[Malcolm35]

Ditto ^. Dirt simple solution. Chord tones for accompaniment bass. Scale notes for melodic bass lines. You don't need a whole bunch of things beyond R-5 pick a couple of new patterns and add them to your "style".

Follow the chords using.....
R--5--
R-5-8-5
R-3-5-7
R-3-5-6
R-5-6-7
That's enough for now.

 

[Wings]

There really is a wealth of knowledge here. I appreciate all of you sharing your experience.