It also helps to listen to different types of music. Don't just listen to rock. listen to some jazz, funk, latin. You'll start learning how to impart a different texture to songs. I sometimes use the mixtures of Latin and walking bass lines in sections of songs or in fills, but wouldn't be able to if all I knew was eigth-notes on the root. Remember, the bass adds the texture, the "feel", the mood, to the music. Explore.
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Can't come up with basslines
- Thread starter Nicolas Moreno
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I have the opposite problem. I can come up with a tricky/catchy bassline no problem, but coming up with the rest of a song is very difficult for me.
Have you tried to "write" or jam collectively on ideas? That's how my band approaches writing 'our' songs. BL/songwriter comes in with an idea-- usually he has the words and basic form of a song down. He might have something in mind as far as parts for the other musicians, but in general we just make up parts and play along until we all like what we're hearing. That's the song written.
You can't produce what you don't know. I would recommend listening and studying music of the closest thing to your material and see what other bassists are doing. I'm sure you might find some grist there.
Rythmically and melodically you want to complement the melody (counterpoint!), and harmonically outline the chord changes and avoid parallel fifths (half joking here, for the theory nerds, but seriously).
For rock, lay into the back beat, i.e. lock with the drum part, emphasizing roots and fifths on the dominant beats, which frees you to play any kind of passing notes/runs/fills in between.
For my money, learning and practicing arpeggios (major, minor, augmented, diminished, half diminished, with major/dom 7ths, all inversions) is critical. Scales are important of course, but don't sleep on arpeggios as fundamental building blocks for bass lines.
For rock, lay into the back beat, i.e. lock with the drum part, emphasizing roots and fifths on the dominant beats, which frees you to play any kind of passing notes/runs/fills in between.
For my money, learning and practicing arpeggios (major, minor, augmented, diminished, half diminished, with major/dom 7ths, all inversions) is critical. Scales are important of course, but don't sleep on arpeggios as fundamental building blocks for bass lines.
Nothing much to add but sometimes there's nothing wrong with root notes. Don't overplay merely for the sake of wanting to avoid root notes. Serve the song!
Enhancing the harmony means playing lots of thirds and sevenths, because they are what make a chord major or minor.
If you just want the bass to be a melodic source aginst droning guitars, then some up with one or two simple melodic riffs, say one for verses and another for choruses or bridges.
You build riffs one of two ways, out of chord tones or out of scale fragments.
Chord tones I mentioned in my previous reply, so I'll talk about scale fragments. All of these are in the key of C so I don't have to mess around with too many sharps and flats
Just play these and listen to how they feel to you. Try messing around with different rhythms...i.e. play some notes as quarters, some as eighths, triplets, etc. to break up the sound of just walking down a scale in quarter notes. Try taking apart the longer ones and playing only parts of them or spread them out across multiple bars. Compare the feel of E D C to Eb D C
You might have heard this one in hymns...often called a "church ending" outlining the chord change of F to C
F E D C
This one is stolen from a song in the movie "The Wizard Of Oz", it fits over a C chord or over a chord change from C to G
E F G E C D E C
This one can fit over a C chord or over the chord change of C to G or even over the chord change of C to F. Try playing it starting on different chord tones...how does each one feel over a C chord, a G chord, an F chord, an A minor chord?
C B A G F E D G then try
G F E D C B A G or
E D C B A G F C etc.
This one you'll hear all over soul music from the 1960s, played in a syncopated rhythm try breaking it up and repeating parts...how does it feel over a C chord or a G chord
C E F F# G then try
C E C E C E F F# G or
C E C F C F# G or
F F# G F F# G C E F F# G etc.
Another one stolen from the same song in "The Wizard Of Oz"...this one actually includes all seven notes of the major scale in order but in the original song it's busted up rhythmically so it doesn't sound like a descending scale
A G F E D C B B (up an octave) A G F E D C
Anyway, that should give you some ideas how you can use scale fragments to make your line sound more like a melody.
Start with a root note. Play other notes near it, a fret down, two frets up, the same frets a string higher.
Oh, one other trick...use a scale as a way to disguise an arpeggio!
C major arpeggio is just C E G
Now play a C scale but break it up rhythmically like this...
C (1/4) rest D(1/16) E (1/4) rest F(1/16) G (1/4) rest B(1/16) C (1/4)
C major arpeggio is just C E G
Now play a C scale but break it up rhythmically like this...
C (1/4) rest D(1/16) E (1/4) rest F(1/16) G (1/4) rest B(1/16) C (1/4)
Seeing as you've written the parts for everyone else, why not have one of them write the bass part, to add a fresh perspective?
Furthermore, you could always consider playing the guitar, and singing instead - if that's where your talent really is.
Being the songwriter is not a bad problem to have.
Anyway, regarding Shoegaze / post punk, if you want to focus on playing the bass on the recordings / live, you could do a lot worse than to learn a bunch of bass parts from particularly the first couple of albums by Ride, and also Slowdive. They should definitely inspire you in the right direction.
Bass lines are just melodies that emphasize the basic motion of the chord changes (usually roots).
Work on writing melodies.
If you can't hear any melodies, learn other people's music you like and figure out why it works. The Beatles became great writers, in part, because they started out by learning a ton of cover tunes - of all kinds.
Work on writing melodies.
If you can't hear any melodies, learn other people's music you like and figure out why it works. The Beatles became great writers, in part, because they started out by learning a ton of cover tunes - of all kinds.
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The third alone makes a chord major or minor
The seventh makes a chord "stable" or "unstable"
Listen to the song, and play what you feel. It will tell you what it needs. Don't make the mistake of trying to put theory ahead of the music. Theory is for afterwards to analyze what's there, what went down.
I promise you, whether it was JS Bach or Burt Bacharach or Prince, none of them approached composing or playing and said, 'gee, a myxolodian scale down into a flat ninth chord NEEDS to go right here.'
I promise you, whether it was JS Bach or Burt Bacharach or Prince, none of them approached composing or playing and said, 'gee, a myxolodian scale down into a flat ninth chord NEEDS to go right here.'
Oh my good, PLEASE tell me those notes!
In all seriousness, though: If you already have the guitars and the drums, the bass part should be in there already. Don't over complicate things! Sometimes playing just root notes is fine. Start there and use the drums for orientation rhythm wise. Throw in an octave for emphasis, a five for variation, and when you feel comfortable, start noodling around and see if anything cool comes up.
As a previous commenter suggested check out Dan Hawkins especially his videos on the modes for bass.His tutorials are succinct and his manner is very cool.
Within a genre, many, many songs use similar basslines. Listen to old school country - do they have drastically different bass lines? Listen to classic rock - while there is a great deal of variety in bass lines in general, there are many, many songs that use similar stuff. There are reasons for this.
First, they work. Because they worked once, they continued to get copied or mimicked by future players.
Second, there just aren't a ton of options available for single note lines - that sound good.
I'm not saying it isn't possible to create new types of lines - it's just that the old ones work - not broke so don't fix it.
Since you can create stuff for other parts, you have the ear to do it for bass as well. My advice is this:
1. Listen to as much music that is similar to the style you're working in. But also listen to many other styles - new bass line styles tend to come out of blending two genres (playing a reggae bass line under a c/w song for example. (I've never done this, but I bet someone has.
Take one song, get a feel for what the guy does and then start trying to mimic that line line. Then try to create a slightly different line. If you are really lost, start by playing just root notes. You just wrote a bass line. Then start adding to that maybe doing root/fifths. Then try to build on that line for that same song. Keep at it for a while - you'll probably find that you can create several passable basslines for any given song. Pick another song and repeat. (I tend to write my own bass lines in this manner for nearly every song I play.) Whenever its applicable, I try to make the bassline something one would want to hum. If it doesn't apply to do that, then basic Root-V variations and arpeggios are likely good starting points.
2. Do get some basic theory under your belt"
- Learn and understand your major, minor and pentatonic scales (being able to name the notes is beneficial.)
- Learn and understand your arpeggios.
- Learn and understand the circle of fifths
- Learn some of the basic common chord progressions (I IV V, II V I, or what ever is applicable to the style of music you're working in. (If you don't know what ("I IV V" means then learn that too.)
3. Marry your theory with your listening. See if you can understand why the notes being played sound good.
It really does just take some time to immerse yourself into this but once things click for you, it will become second nature.
As a bassist, I write bass lines and then collaborate with musicians that are more skilled than I am on their respective instruments. That way, I am not constrained by anything but my own imagination.
Timing is much more important than notes. Rests and syncopation are what makes things “catchy”.
Listen a lot to Motown. That'll convince you you can use pretty much any note in a bassline, if you just know when to use it. Therein (the when) lies the rub. OK, maybe Motown is a bit advanced for someone starting out.
Before I began playing bass, I sang in church choirs (the bass part). I think that experience helped me formulate bass guitar parts in some cases. Bass is a foundation, a harmony, and often a second melody line if done well.
Before I began playing bass, I sang in church choirs (the bass part). I think that experience helped me formulate bass guitar parts in some cases. Bass is a foundation, a harmony, and often a second melody line if done well.
Absolutely - the wrong note at the right time is better than the right note........at the wrong time. At least I tell myself that sometimes.
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Would you play gigs with a band that doesn't have a great PA?
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