Writing Chord Progressions Over Stagnant Basslines

[ELxNIGHTHAWK]

Hi everyone, I am familiar with writing chord progressions based off of my bass lines and all that, but lately I have been writing a lot more (not sure how to describe it properly) riff style basslines. I am having trouble writing chord progressions over these, as they are more stagnant and repetitive. Any suggestions or resources you could point me towards? Thanks in advance!

 

[monsterthompson]

Van Halen has some stuff with a decent amount of guitar movement over repetitive bass parts. I'm thinking of stuff like Running With The Devil.

I'd say if you know the riff key/scale, you probably want to determine the target notes of the riff, the ones at the point of a chord change, and build the chords that way. Thinking in terms of inversions is probably helpful, since that gives you multiple chords to build around the same bass target note in the riff. I've not written that way, but that's how I'd start thinking about it.

 

[GastonD]

Another approach could be to think of the main tones of the bass riff as different chord tones of the chords that run over it, ex. the bass ostinato is based around the tonic of the first chord, but then treat it as the 3rd or 5th of the next chord etc.

 

[BassChuck]

Chords don't have to reflect the nature of the bass line, each can have it's own identity as long as they don't fight the forward energy of the music.
Historically harmonies came about because of different melodies happening at the same time (horizontally). The sounds that people found the most useful became codified in terms of chords (vertically).
Don't be afraid to experiment. The worst that can happen is a horrible sound, and goodness knows there have already been plenty made... and we all survived.

 

[MalcolmAmos]

Hi everyone, I am familiar with writing chord progressions based off of my bass lines and all that, but lately I have been writing a lot more (not sure how to describe it properly) riff style basslines. I am having trouble writing chord progressions over these, as they are more stagnant and repetitive. Any suggestions or resources you could point me towards? Thanks in advance!

This may help; lets say the songwriter writes the tune first, then the chords are placed so that the chosen chord will share some of the active tune's notes, i.e. the songwriter places the chord so that the chord has some of the tune's notes in it. The sharing of like notes between the treble and bass clef gives us harmonization. So.... in our example the chords are added to the song before the bass line is written.

So instead of starting with a bass line to get a chord. Start with a chord to get a bass line riff. A major chord tone = R-3-5-7-9-11-13 any of those notes will be safe notes and sound good. What about the 2, 4, 6 and 8? Well, about the only place you find a 2 and/or 4 in chords is with sus chords and how many of those do you fine in what we play? So lets skip over the 2 and 4 for right now. How about the 6 and 8? Well the 8 is just the root in the next highest octave so it is always a safe note. The 6 is safe in major chords. OK that out of the way go make some riffs.

See if that helps. It is really the chicken or egg story, but, your bass line should contain notes of the active chord. Why? Because the songwriter placed a chord under the active portion of the melody line that has some of the notes in the melody line. OK how do I do that? If the chord contains notes of the tune and your bass line contain notes of the chord everything is going to harmonize with the active part of the tune. And everything will sound good together.

So start with the chord and see if that helps.



Little something on chord movement:

• I's are the tonal center of the song and can go anywhere in the progression they want.
• ii's are sub-dominant and want to go to a dominant chord.
• iii's are the middle chord and like to move the progression somewhere. The iii will normally drag the vi with it.
• IV's are also a sub-dominant chord and want to go to a dominant chord. As both the ii and IV want the same thing they can sub for each other. ii-V-I or I-IV-V-I
• V's want to move to the tonic I chord.
• vi's like to move to a sub-dominant chord.
• vii's are also a dominant chord like the V, however, are not in a big hurry to resolve. Because of this they make good movement chords like in a turn-a-round vii-iii-vi-ii-V7-I

Have fun.

 

[Wood and Wire]

Off the top of my head :

Faith No More - Epic / Small Victory / Midlife Crisis


Girls Against Boys - Tucked In / From Now On / Disco 666

 

[dreamadream99]

There are three styles of writing where the bass functions differently, and simpler than the accompaniment:

1. Pedal. The bass sustains a long unchanging note (often the fifth or root of the key), while the accompaniment continues the chord progression.
2. Ostinato. A repeating figure in the bass, while the accompaniment continues the chord progression.
3. Suspension. A chord tone from the previous chord is held across the change to a new chord, or a chord tone from the next chord is forecasted in the current chord. These are shorter versions of a pedal.

From a writing perspective, keep the progression going as long as the pedal or ostinato figure doesn't clash too badly with any of the chords.

 

[arbiterusa]

Just as a musical example: Doors, Riders on the Storm. Just repeating eight notes in the bass over and over again. I hate the song, just to be clear. What's worse, I'm playing it tonight at a gig. But the way they handled a melody and chord progression over a very static bass line is impressive.

 

[mambo4]

Even a static riff is implying a tonality / scale / mode of some kind. Identify the scale implied by the riff and try out chords from that scale . It helps if you understand how to harmonize a scale (the pdf linked in my signature covers the basics)

Riffs can also imply specific chord progressions. Does the riff sound like it has two or more parts that center around different notes?

Often a riff based progression will turn out to be a simple 2 chord vamp , like V-I, I- IV, I- ii. Cycling between those chords Wil cover the majority of the notes in a scale, making a riff in that scale more likely to fit.

 

[Don Kasper]

Here is a recording of the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" that I arranged -
The Verse is all over a C# pedal/ostinato (2 measures each) :
C#min9,11
F#min9,11/C#
C#min6/9, maj7
Dmaj7/C#
I worked this out at the piano, FYI. It took me a long time, as I am NOT a pianist!

 

[Deleted member 268085]

Just as a musical example: Doors, Riders on the Storm. Just repeating eight notes in the bass over and over again. I hate the song, just to be clear. What's worse, I'm playing it tonight at a gig. But the way they handled a melody and chord progression over a very static bass line is impressive.

Given that you hate the song, how do you feel about O'2L's version?