Bass Lines - Writing your own

[Linus27]

Does anyone else tend to write bass lines that at first, are too hard to play? I always seem to come up with a bass line that is just impossible to play but after a few days of getting my head around it and playing it live at rehersals, I seem to master it and never have a problem after playing it.

Just wondering if anyone else does this.

[xilddx]

Many, many times ..

I sing lines in my head and try to play them, naturally I disappear up my own arse half the time But I find it really beneficial to write this way. Having a bass in my hands is so restrictive.

I have to write a bunch of bass lines for this new band and I am going to work out the lines without a bass first, so they should be reflective of me as a musician, not just a bass player. If I can't play them at first, I'll learn how to.

[Linus27]

[quote name='silddx' post='534838' date='Jul 7 2009, 04:04 PM']Many, many times ..

I sing lines in my head and try to play them, naturally I disappear up my own arse half the time But I find it really beneficial to write this way. Having a bass in my hands is so restrictive.

I have to write a bunch of bass lines for this new band and I am going to work out the lines without a bass first, so they should be reflective of me as a musician, not just a bass player. If I can't play them at first, I'll learn how to.[/quote]


I pretty much do the same. I find singing the bass line in your head does not give you the restriction that working one out on the bass does. Its easy to fall into the trap of following the same patterns or routes when writing on a bass. Singing it in your head is a lot more free flowing. It just means it might be a bit harder to transpose when you do try it on the bass but its worth it in the end.

[BottomEndian]

[quote name='Linus27' post='534844' date='Jul 7 2009, 04:08 PM']I pretty much do the same. I find singing the bass line in your head does not give you the restriction that working one out on the bass does. Its easy to fall into the trap of following the same patterns or routes when writing on a bass. Singing it in your head is a lot more free flowing. It just means it might be a bit harder to transpose when you do try it on the bass but its worth it in the end.[/quote]
+1. I'm a much better singer than I am a bassist, so I can make life [i]really[/i] difficult for myself sometimes.

Not quite the same thing... at all... but it's kind of related: I've read somewhere that Johnny Marr used to come up with the complex, swirling guitar lines for The Smiths by tracking a basic rhythm guitar part with the bass and drums, and then listening to it on headphones really, really, REALLY loud so it was all distorted. At that volume, he heard all sorts of bizarre overtones that created little melodies over the top of the music, and those are the lines he played on guitar. Bonkers. And I bet he had an absolute swine of a time transferring them onto guitar.

[xilddx]

[quote name='Linus27' post='534844' date='Jul 7 2009, 04:08 PM']I pretty much do the same. I find singing the bass line in your head does not give you the restriction that working one out on the bass does. Its easy to fall into the trap of following the same patterns or routes when writing on a bass. Singing it in your head is a lot more free flowing. It just means it might be a bit harder to transpose when you do try it on the bass but its worth it in the end.[/quote]

Couldn't agree more. You're only restricted by your musicianship. I really like supporting the vocal so I often like to follow vocal flourishes rather than the drums when they happen. I get weird syncopations that way and I think it adds loads of weight to the vocal lines. As long as it's done sympathetically of course

[Low End Bee]

If I'm being honest I've got four or five 'stock' ones that I enjoy and am comfortable with. I just fit them in with the route note with maybe a run here or there.

I'm selling this as my signature style.

I did use to try all sorts of stuff that was hard work. Now I keep it pretty simple on a new song (even if I've written it) and alter it over time.

[iamapirate]

Minor pentatonic scale, major 10th, minor 10th (dependant on chord) and the major scale (for high composing) are all I use practically! But recently I've been singing stuff (or making stuff up) in my head [i]after[/i] a rehersal when the song's stuck in my head and in my head sing basslines and maybe tap the kick pattern. Either that or blast some 80s heavy rock out the car

[steve-soar]

Use to but I find my lines have become back engineered, so one day, I will be on stage and play one note, with so much feeling and emotion, that it will make the audience sob, have sex with each other, batter each other, hang their heads in shame, hug and leave the gig with each others telephone numbers to meet up at a later date to change the world forever.

[xgsjx]

I find myself writing basslines for new songs that take me ages to get right & then when I play them to the band we re-write everything & give it a different chord structure, so bits of the bassline remain but lots of it is different. A bit of a pain when you spend a few evenings getting the tricky stuff perfected!

Infact, one song that we have been working on (for the past 6 months or so) has only about the first 10 notes from what it started life as & each time we pick it up we change a chord here or there which buggers up most of what I'd done prior.

[Jase]

I generally have to re-learn most bassparts I come up with and sometimes have to tab them out in a primative sort of way so I don't forget them.

[skankdelvar]

I just start with the roots and some really easy transition passes. After that, I'm not really competent or interested enough to plan a bass line.

Once I'm playing the song with a band, I just sort of turn my brain off and think about other things, like "What's for tea?" or "Are we going to get canned off?". At that point, more interesting stuff just kind of emerges by accident.

Trouble is, this means I rarely play any song exactly the same way twice.

Edited July 8, 2009 by skankdelvar

[thisnameistaken]

I usually start out with bass parts that are really easy to play, probably because I'm often trying to sing at the same time. Usually my bass parts get more detailed once everybody else has settled into their parts, once I notice hooks that I can play around or places where something interesting needs to happen and nobody's stepping up.

[51m0n]

Less and less.

Not cause I'm so great now, but because I simply dont need to do things just to impress, if that makes sense, so what I tend to come up with is usually pretty easy to play. It didnt always used to be like this!

I do like to revisit a bassline once I've heard the final vocal though, sometimes I'll leave well alone, somtimes I'll add a few complimetary fills, sometimes I'll redo the whole thing, it all depends!

[xgsjx]

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='535702' date='Jul 8 2009, 02:19 PM']I just start with the roots and some really easy transition passes. After that, I'm not really competent or interested enough to plan a bass line.

Once I'm playing the song with a band, I just sort of turn my brain off and think about other things, like "What's for tea?" or "Are we going to get canned off?". At that point, more interesting stuff just kind of emerges by accident.

Trouble is, this means I rarely play any song exactly the same way twice.[/quote]

Are you sure you're not really a gu*tarist that bought a bass by accident?

The Gu*tarist in my band is just like that, comes up with some fantastic stuff but we could play the same song 20 times & to him it would be 20 different songs!!!

[51m0n]

Funny all this talk of getting the roots and joining them together.

Having played a lot of the funky stuff, its best done a bit like that (IMO), having various motifs through a song and then stretching out on the imbetweeney bits. Could be a motif at the beginning of every other bar, and in between there is a 'groove' bit which is loosely the same each time, with variations. Never played the same twice mind. Then there are the variations brought about by the dynamics of the song itself. One of the nicest examples I've produced of that style if Flutebeast on my myspace page. Really got to the point where it was a free form thing as the moment took me, lots and lots of interplay going on between the band memebers (although it sounds pretty carefully laid out structurally, at a microscopic level it was very free form). Loved playing that track!

I absolutely love that way of playing music, as opposed to the rigid, this note on this string ALWAYS happens at this point in the song, everytime around, but for every single note. I find that very tedious indeed - in fact I think very few people really play like that for longer than it takes to work out a way of mixing it up a bit more!