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Tips for playing Melodic Bass anyone?

#41
Learn melodies. Learn the vocal part to different songs. There's a lot more songwriters who come up with great melodies than bass players who come up with great melodies. So don't limit yourself to melodic bass players. As great as McCartney is with his bass lines, the SONG melodies are even better.

So, listen to great singers, melodic soloists on other instruments (jazz horn players generally have that so much more together than rock based instrumentalists), and learn them. Carlos Santana once said he sat down and learned some Dionne Warwick vocal parts, copping all the inflections, the phrasing, etc. Cop some Sinatra, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Coltrane, Miles, Roy Eldridge, Les Paul, Mel Torme, Cleo Laine. Listen to and cop Mozart, Beethoven, Bach.

And then work it out on your bass and work out the underlying theory so it makes sense to you and you can understand what MAKES melodic.

John
 
#43
I heard a great thought on this a while back. "Play a duet with the vocalist." Of course, this does not only mean to exactly copy the vocal line -- but a second melody part to go with it. "A duet". I like that a lot, as it gets me thinking in a whole different way of approaching the instrument.
 
#44
I haven't read through all the replies, but I'm presuming there is great advice as there always is on this forum!

So, in the hope of not repeating anyone else, i'd say that tone has a part to play in this as well. It might not be 100% necessary to create a melodic line, but it'll but your mind and feeling in the place you need to be to stand a better chance of creating them...

Hope it helps :)
 
#45
Hey!

I read this thread and I agree with mostly everything what has been said. I've been studying carols, arpeggios, scales, rhythm etc. and by no means I recommend it.

But, what really opened my eyes, was McCartney talking about his playing in his interview with Tony Bacon. He said: " It is really only a way of getting from C to F or whatever, but you get there in an interesting way." I would also add "to get there in the right time".

You've ever wonder why is James Jamerson's bass line on Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" so preached? Because he's using all of what's been said above, simply and effectively in a way it pleases ear of most of the listeners in this world. Internalize bass melody on this track and you will understand the concept behind melodic bass playing.

Good luck with your playing!
 
#46
With Pacman's very solid advice - play more melodies - we still are missing something. Practicing melodies is very useful to develop hearing and to work on soloing abilities. As I've written many times before on this forum, bass players do not develop their sense for melody in a natural way, like f.e. horn players, who start earlier and go loose on melodic stuff right away. You simply do not take two 4x10's to your darling aunt's party to play Happy Birthday for her. Nor do you practise that in your room for days to make a good impression. So I agree strongly with everone who says that melodic exercises are important.

However, playing melodic basslines in accompaniment of others is far more difficult than 'just' playing an existing or self-invented melody.

It's a pity the scalewise approach was hit so hard in some posts. Ed Fuqua is very right saying that just learning scales will hardly develop melodic instinct. On the other hand, melodic basslines often move in a scale-like manner of whole steps and half steps leading to some goal note or some important harmonic cornerstone. Often this scale-like progression is enhanced by ornamental stuff in higher registers, so if we are analyzing basslines of great players, it's important to define the core of their lines in terms of functional harmony. Understanding and using functional harmony implies a profound knowledge of scales, if only to know where the leading notes are.

Surely nobody who contributed to this thread meant to deny this, but I felt it needed to be emphasized.
 
#47
As regards the scale x chordal approach, I would say the chordal one is more natural to start with, at least for me. Melodies are based on chord(s), usually a melody always contains some portion of a chord above which it is played (sound right to our ear).

I would also say the chordal approach is also confirmed by the evolution of jazz playing from Armstrong through Parker to Coltrane.

It should give anyone the logical and systematical pattern and approach to understand how the harmony functions and how to deal with scales later as one's knowledge progresses.

Starting playing arpeggios over the roots and connect them by their closest notes in a particular song will give a first taste of melody playing to anyone.

Last but not least it will give you a decent tool how to internalize the sound of intervals, which opens up another gates.
 
#48
Blackbird said:
Transcribe solos played by non bassists.

By "transcribing", I don't mean notation, but learning the solo or the vocal melody. Try to reproduce the same inflections on your instrument. John Patitucci says he transcribed a lot of John Coltrane to become a better soloist.
Click to expand...

+100 this what i did to improve my melodic playing. scales and arps are also essential. another factor is knowing when to be melodic and knowing when to keep it more grounded (very loose termology since it is possible to keep things anchored and lock in but still be melodic)
 
#49
Hi Guys
I wrote a book about this :)

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Short version -

Melody can be one of the following:
  1. The recitation of structural elements related to the harmony, such as arpeggios
  2. Opposition and resolution to the primary colors (chord tones)
  3. Ornamentation of chord tones via diatonic (scalar) or chromatic motion, through any number of devices including skips (as set forth in my book, derived from compositional theory).

It's useful to know what NEEDS to be there (is it a fixed line that's part of the song?). Does it have a particular rhythmic scheme? Even within fixed lines, there's room for melodic enhancement - if you know what makes the line work.


:bassist::hyper::ninja:
 
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#50
I learned bass from melodic players and it was basically all i ever wanted to do with a bass, play melodic lines. So I don't know..tips? Listen to a lot of melodic players and learn the songs is my advice. Then it will, hopefully, become natural.
 

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