Help with interesting bass lines

[Axtman]

A friend is a singer/songwriter guitar player. His style is folksy. He wants me to play on his 2nd CD. I already played on his 1st CD.

My friend is an good guitar player. He has consistent rhythm but tends to strum the same pattern on each song. He also plays pretty simple CAGED cowboy chords.

So my question is how do I created interesting bass lines? Of course my main job is to outline the root of the chord but that gets a bit dull just playing roots all the time.

Your ideas are welcome.

 

[Malcolm35]

So my question is how do I created interesting bass lines? Of course my main job is to outline the root of the chord but that gets a bit dull just playing roots all the time. Your ideas are welcome.

Hang on. Twenty plus years of playing rhythm guitar and 4 string bass no one told me about the AABA song format and the chord progression to the song I got rhythm. The chord progression to I got rhythm will introduce you to some "advanced chord changes" that will get you going and give you something beside the old I-IV-V7-I.

AABA in Nashville numbers to keep it simple
A section
|1 6| 2 5|3 6|2 5|
|5 1| 4 m4|1 6|2 5|
Repeat for the second A
B section
|3 |3 |6 |6 |
|2 |2 |5 |5 |
Now repeat A section again for your last A section..

This is not cast in stone, use as much as needed. Do a R-5 or a R-R for each chord. Notice the progression used -- 1-6-2-5 and 3-6-2-5 get that to muscle memory. Add this where it fits.

Now let Google find you songs that use the AABA format. Old Country will use AABAB and tag last line. Point being you've been using AABA just not realizing it. Let it work for you.

Now all that said, you still have to fit with the way the rest of the band is playing. 1-6-2-5 is moving into Jazz, and may not fit ....

Food for thought. Good luck.

 

[dreamadream99]

how do I create interesting bass lines?

You can create interesting baselines into simple steps:
Step 1: listen and learn the greatest hits of your genre.
Step 2: do this for a couple of decades.

The best way to create, is to know your genre inside and out.

 

[mambo4]

Of course my main job is to outline the root of the chord but that gets a bit dull just playing roots all the time.

Your job is not to "outline the root"

The function of bass line is to outline the harmony
using a stylistically appropriate rhythm

Beyond root notes, the choice of chord tones and other tones has a lot more to do with what is stylistically appropriate
old school Salsa and old school country are both heavy root -five rhythms, but stylistically distinct

--

He has consistent rhythm but tends to strum the same pattern on each song.

Therein lies your challenge: rhythm strumming is going to imply some style or at least be close to an identifiable style. Best to see if you can find examples of great tunes that are similar, hunt down those bassists and study what they did.
Perhaps you can negotiate with him to switch up the rhythm for some songs.

--

Just don't make the mistake of thinking more notes = more interesting
I used to look for ways to make the bass line "more interesting"
But now my approach is keep it simple, respect the rhythm, and listen
If you do that opportunities for interesting become clear.

 

[Malcolm35]

Yes ^^. dirt simple rhythm is what the BL wants, best to give that. If you use fake chord, so is he, so be true to what fake chord is giving you.

My .02

 

[Bob_Ross]

dirt simple rhythm is what the BL wants, best to give that.

Malcolm's sentence is missing a very critical word: "If dirt simple rhythm is what the BL wants, best to give that." But right now we're just guessing; OP hasn't explicitly mentioned what it is the bandleader wants.

 

[mambo4]

OP hasn't explicitly mentioned what it is the bandleader wants.

the claim is that the guitarist/singer "tends to strum the same pattern on each song"
which implies little thought beyond vocals.

The challenge is that , in spite of our inherent awesomeness, compelling rhythms are not created by bassists alone without some agreement from the rest of the ensemble -even if it's only one guy. The contract is usually most critical between the bass and drums, but even between bass an rhythm guitar they got to be on the same page.

and immediately I think of the counter example:


so yeah OP just do what Jamerson did lol

 

[Bob_Ross]

the claim is that the guitarist/singer "tends to strum the same pattern on each song"
which implies little thought beyond vocals

Oh, I agree that OP's description of the band leader is fairly damning, at least as far as Creativity goes...but we still don't know what the band leader wants from the basslines.

Or whether he's even capable of conveying what he wants.

So best not to presume "[this] is what the BL wants" just yet.

 

[AGCurry]

My friend is an good guitar player. He has consistent rhythm but tends to strum the same pattern on each song. He also plays pretty simple CAGED cowboy chords.

He may be a good guitar player, but I suspect he doesn't give much thought to the world of rhythm ... musical tunnel vision. I also guess that his lyrics tend to have a limited variety of meter. It's how he thinks. The cowboy chords aren't so much the issue as the predictable strumming pattern.

I'd just talk straight with him. "I can only do so much with that rhythm pattern. Can we think about some rhythmic variety? I think the CD would benefit from it."

 

[Malcolm35]

I've been spending some time with the keyboard and left hand piano accompaniment. The book 100 left hand patterns by Jerald Simon may give you some ideas of useable bass lines.

Jerald notates below the bass staf the baseline spelling, 5-3-2-1 or |5-5-3-3, 2-2-1-2|, etc. That alone opens another door.

 

[Spin Doctor]

He may be a good guitar player, but I suspect he doesn't give much thought to the world of rhythm ... musical tunnel vision. I also guess that his lyrics tend to have a limited variety of meter. It's how he thinks. The cowboy chords aren't so much the issue as the predictable strumming pattern.

I'd just talk straight with him. "I can only do so much with that rhythm pattern. Can we think about some rhythmic variety? I think the CD would benefit from it."

My experience with hum and strum guitarist and sort of local players in general is that they don't really want to get better. They hit a level and they never want to change it. There's only so much you can do if that's the case.

 

[Malcolm35]

My experience with hum and strum guitarist and sort of local players in general is that they don't really want to get better. They hit a level and they never want to change it. There's only so much you can do if that's the case.

^^ Yep that is the good ole boy bands you find in East Texas. We all had day jobs and all the gigs we wanted.

 

[Dadum]

You could think about setting a mood based on the lyrics and his tempo. Sad song, happy, driving energy, build up to a peak, etc.

Would syncopation work?

Would copying some of his melody work?

Does a counter melody pop into your head when you listen to the song? You can play his music in a loop, turn on a recorder and just sing/scat what you’re feeling. The next day, listen for anything that seems to work and base your baseline on that beat structure.

I’ll have to dig for the books that had a list of these types of ideas.

 

[SoCal80s]

Just a couple ideas:

Rhythm: Play on some of the opposite beats that the guitar is playing. For example, if the guitar is playing 1 2& &4&, leaving out the & of 1 and the 3, then play on those notes left out such as 1& &3 4&.

Leading tones: use roots and 5ths on strong beats and play a couple leading tones on the weak beats leading into those notes. You can use a scale run, a chromatic run, arpeggios, do them going up to the strong note but also going down to the note. Combine that with octaves to funk it up! Use figurations to add spice (such as trills, turns etc.) leading into strong notes. Such as sixteenth notes on beat 4 leading into a C: ABAB-C, or CDCB-C, or ABAGAB-C etc.

Whatever you do, a little goes a long way!