For me, it's spatial. I remember the spatial patterns on the fretboard first. Then I think about intervals and key. Then I might think about notation.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Your primary mental tool for memorizing bass lines
- Thread starter DCGuy
- Start date
after thinking about it: it depends on my familiarity with the music. if i have the changes memorized the lines are pretty easy for me to remember.
but i play a lot of jazz so a bassline per se is not always an issue. for the rock/funk stuff it's usually memorization of the changes/patterns. if a tune has unusual "intervals" involved in the bassline = i'm likely to remember it (even with this old brain).
once i 'zoom out' to a comfort level = i'm probably using some spatial/pattern awareness, unconsciously.
but i play a lot of jazz so a bassline per se is not always an issue. for the rock/funk stuff it's usually memorization of the changes/patterns. if a tune has unusual "intervals" involved in the bassline = i'm likely to remember it (even with this old brain).
once i 'zoom out' to a comfort level = i'm probably using some spatial/pattern awareness, unconsciously.
The sound. I listen to the bassline until it becomes an "earworm" I cannot forget.
Last edited:
I phase in and out of different thought processes while I am playing. Much of what I do is anticipate the sound of the chords and the bassline in my head so I can play the notes. It's a form of intuitive relative pitch where I don't think about the note names. I also think intervals, patterns, and key centers. Here I do think about the note names.
A better way would be to number and memorize the chord progression and notes, but I have never really developed that skill. With a system like this you may have to simultaneously deal with numbers and notes. If you master a good number system, transposing songs to different keys would become very easy. Unfortunately my brain doesn't do real well with numbers.
I am closer to Wasnex than anybody elses ideas.
Learn the melody.
Learn the chord progression
Turn on cruise control and let the bassline happen*. If I have a specific bassline in mind, its a second melody.
Example, Right now, I am copying Freddy Freeloader which is a modified blues. I could play any old blues lines over this (except the Ab7, but Paul Chambers has some distinctive patterns that have become the stamp for this song. I pick em up.
* Cruise control refers to a process of doing bassline from years of playing jazz or blues. Its a mix of knowing the changes and the patterns that fit. When I am playing, I am aware of the scale relationships of the notes and may alter those notes to add flavor (b5,b9, chromatic,
etc).
I think it depends on your strengths as a musician. Readers who play or write transcribed lines, probably tend to memorize the notation, and may still "see" it in their head as they perform. Theory experts get to know the chords and progressions, without even thinking of individual notes. If you are primarily self-taught, you probably remember the physics of playing—the finger, the string, the neck placement.
I try to make my fingers play what i hear in my head without thinking, but i am often not able to do it without relying on the stuff dreamadream mentioned.
Btw, if you are sightreading, what you are playing may be missing a lot of the nuances. Transcriptions of Charley Parker solos for example are only approximations. You need to listen and hear what is really being played.
Btw, if you are sightreading, what you are playing may be missing a lot of the nuances. Transcriptions of Charley Parker solos for example are only approximations. You need to listen and hear what is really being played.
Memorizing the music and spatial patterns until I don't have to think about it.
Stringed instrument players including bassists rely on spatial patterns much more than keyboard and saxophonists where pattern are not usually spatially transferable.
