Converting music for Bass

[Eko 4]

Hi my first post , I have been playing at guitar for a good few years for my own amusement. Recently treated myself to a Bass. Have found little music written for bass I also have a decent collection of song books with Melody & Guitar Chords or piano music with Chords, am wondering if their is any standard format to derive a bass line from this??

All or any help much appreciated

Newbee

[Grangur]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Hi Eko,[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Welcome to Basschat. [/font][/color][color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]Do you mean reading dots / music score, or reading tabs?[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]If you mean dots, this thread may be useful to you: [/font][/color][url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/215336-learning-to-read-the-dots-sheet-music-to-learn-with/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.u...__fromsearch__1[/url]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]If you're wanting to re-type music scores from other sources into bass clef, then I do it using Musescore.[/font][/color]

[color=#282828][font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]You can download [url="http://www.musescore.org"]Musescore[/url][/font][/color]

[Coilte]

[quote name='Eko 4' timestamp='1387132430' post='2308523']
Have found little music written for bass
[/quote]

Not sure exactly what you mean, but maybe this will keep you going for a while.


[url="http://freebasspart.pv24.pagesperso-orange.fr/Bass_Players.htm"]http://freebasspart.pv24.pagesperso-orange.fr/Bass_Players.htm[/url]

[Eko 4]

Basically I have a lot of song music with melody only written on treble Clef only with Guitar Chords.

For the melody it is easy enough to play on bass isometimes in a different octave, but Is there a standard way to interpret which chords you would use?

Do you simply take the guitar chords and use that as a root ??

[Coilte]

I think you need to retrain your ear a little to get the feel of how the bass fits into the music. You could play just the root of the chord that the guitarist is playing but that would get very boring very quickly. As you most likely know already, chords are made up of every other note in a scale, i.e. 1,3,5,7 etc. Inversions can be used, for example 3,5,7,1 etc. Even if you dont care much for it, blues music is great for learning bass lines. Listen closely then play along.

A good idea would be to print off some bass clef sheet music from the link I gave you earlier. Then search You Tube for those songs.


Another idea might be to have a browse through this site :

[url="http://www.studybass.com/lessons/common-bass-patterns/"]http://www.studybass...-bass-patterns/[/url]


The lessons are in chronilogical order, so you can jump in at a point you feel is appropriate to your theory level.


To sum up : Listen a lot !!



EDIT : Found some more bass transcriptions in case you are interested.


[url="http://www.thebassment.info/transcriptions.html"]http://www.thebassment.info/transcriptions.html[/url]

Edited December 16, 2013 by Coilte

[Grangur]

Just a question here...
Are you saying you've got the Piano, guitar etc.,. parts for some pieces and want to have the bass parts to go with those pieces?

Or are you saying you have the piano/guitar music and you want to transpose those parts so you can play it on bass as a solo piece?

(Stands back and takes cover ready for an onslaught of BCers saying "a bass is not a solo instrument". Even though Jaco P said bass players should learn to play everything, treble clef, bass clef, tunes, everything..)

[Eko 4]

I have the music in piano and guitar and would like either the bass partor a standard system to transpose the exisiting music.

[Grangur]

I'm learning to read and I like to play proper "tunes" rather than play the bass-line without any backing. I can't be bothered with using a CD or mp3. I use a drum machine for keeping the rhythm.

So what I often do is re-type the score for the music into Musescore (FOC application you can download from [url="http://www.Musescore.org"]www.Musescore.org[/url]). I re-type it exactly as you see it on the page. You can then get the program to play it to make sure it sounds right.

Then I change the clef to the bass clef, select all the bars and take it all down an octave or 2. You can then also make any other changes you want, such as key etc. Then save it and print it or save to PDF.

[Coilte]

[quote name='Eko 4' timestamp='1387463733' post='2312250']
I have the music in piano and guitar and would like either the bass partor a standard system to transpose the exisiting music.
[/quote]



Why not make up [i]your own [/i](or at least try to..) bass lines to the music, if you have a way to listen to the music.

IMO this would make much better for ear training, even if you just played root notes to start.

If you use the links I gave earlier, along with looking up the songs on You Tube, you should have what you require.

[Eko 4]

Thanks to everyone who responded and FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH after a lot of web searching with no results I came across two old song books with Bass included, the interesting part is the Bass root is the guitar chord on the first beat of the bar, then using fifth more often than not, today I came accross a Bealtles song book at my local library which uses the the principal.

So my problem is solved hopefully yours will be as well

Newbie with hope !!!!