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Creating bass lines for originals

Another thing I've done is drawn from influences. If a song reminds me of a certain band then I think "how would *insert favourite bassist here* do it". I won't deliberately steal a line but I'll approach it with the type of feel that someone I admire has. I can probably only think of two examples where I've done this but the end result was different to my usual feel and it wasn't totally copycat because I wasn't out to actually impersonate or steal their tone, just thinking in a different headspace.
 
If I have trouble writing a bass line, I learn the guitar parts :) That gives me a more intimate feel for the chords, and hopefully lets me get in the guitarists head a little. Then I find it much easier to fall into the groove. My number 1 rule... NEVER force it... If you have to try and make something fit, or wrestle too hard to fit it in, it isn't the right thing to play.
 

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