Who writes their own?

[Deep Thought]

It has come to light in recent months that our guitarist has a problem coming up with guitar lines of his own ( I write bass lines and lyrics, he comes up with his own guitar lines). I genuinely think he'd rather play covers than come up with stuff of his own. This is strange to me-the first things I ever played on bass were lines I'd come up with myself-mainly so nobody could tell me I was playing them wrong! I've always come up with bass lines of my own, yet in talking to others, I get the impression he's not the only one who doesn't write their own material. You folks write your own, or happy playing other people's? (not that there's anything wrong with that!)

[The Funk]

I write my own. For some tunes I write all of the parts. I also now enjoy writing new arrangements of other people's work as well.

[Jobiebass]

I think its common knowledge I have no idea how to write my own stuff.

[Protium]

Both the guitarist and me pool ideas, but I find it 10000 times easier to write stuff on the guitar...

[onehappybunny]

Just writing some stuff now I generally need something to work with like a drum loop or sample which provides a bit of inspiration (not that this apparent from the bass lines I come up with )

EDIT - also play other people's bass lines (or as close as I can get to them) in a very amateurish covers band

Edited September 16, 2009 by onehappybunny

[skankdelvar]

Unless it's mission-critical riff whose absence would noticeably alter the song, I roll my own.

[Bassassin]

I write all my band's music, and the lyrics & melodies are provided by our vocalist. The band started as a recording project with just the two of us, and despite having been a full gigging band for the last 9 years it's stayed that way. It's not the intention - I had high hopes of writing outrageous prog monstrosities with our guitarist when he first joined - but he's happy just playing/interpreting what I write.

Drummer's been threatening to contribute some lyrics for years now, and they've yet to materialise. On balance this is probably a good thing.

Jon.

[EssentialTension]

I write my own basslines but I also borrow and steal bits from other people's basslines and make them my own. I also copy whole basslines when I want to or it's when necesssary to do so.

I was once in a band where the bandleader (guitar and vocals) wrote all the parts - the bassline came written out as notation with a cassette of it played on guitar an octave up - sometimes she was a stickler for me doing exactly what she'd written other times I'd make suggestions for changes and she'd go with them. It was one of my most exciting and challenging musical experiences.

If another band member suggests I do something in particular with the bassline, I listen to what they suggest and we discuss it and listen to it and come to a decision about what works best.

For me, it's about what's best for the song and not about who wrote it. I'd rather play a great Jamerson line than a crap line of my own any day.

[thisnameistaken]

Sometimes our guitarist comes with a bass part in mind for one of his songs and if he does he's usually thought it through and it's a good idea so I play them. Strangely this is the first time in 20 years I've ever had anyone tell me what they want me to play, but fortunately it's someone who has musical talent. Phew!

[EssentialTension]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='600949' date='Sep 17 2009, 12:51 AM']Sometimes our guitarist comes with a bass part in mind for one of his songs and if he does he's usually thought it through and it's a good idea so I play them. Strangely this is the first time in 20 years I've ever had anyone tell me what they want me to play, but fortunately it's [b]someone who has musical talent[/b]. Phew![/quote]
That can make a difference.

[maxiburke]

99% of the basslines in the band are mine. The guitarist in the band is the main songwriter and sometimes he has a bassline in mind as a key part of the song, if thats the case they are usually pretty good and I have no problem playing them. It usually evolves over time as I'm playing it anyway that more and more of my style creeps into the riff or line.

Everything else he'll come in with a bare riff or progression on guitar and we will jam it and discuss it and I'll write a line or riff and let it develop.

[BigRedX]

Apart form the lyrics (I'm not really a word person as you can probably tell from my posts), I've been the main writer or co-writer in all my bands until recently. If I'm playing bass, I'll normally write my own lines although I'm equally happy to take someone else's idea and use that - although it will normally develop as the song does. Conversely when I write a guitar part, if I'm not going to be playing myself I would only consider it a starting point for the guitarist to develop from.

What I have discovered is that I'm not a very conventional player, and guitarists if they are fairly traditional will struggle to get the ideas that I come up with. This was particularly evident in my last band where both guitarist were technically way better than me, they had real difficulties playing what I'd written, even after I physically showed them on the guitar. As a result over almost 4 years we ended up only doing 3 songs I'd written and none of them bore much resemblance to my original ideas.

For the covers band I've recently joined I tend to stick pretty much to the recorded version, although I'm not precious about it. If the bassline isn't obvious on the recording then something that fits will do perfectly well instead. Also I've found that some of the older numbers we cover when analysed could do with beefing up from the recorded version to suit modern audiences.

[Cat Burrito]

I write my own. I've worked with songwriters in the past who try to dicate what I should do - in which case I try and base what I do on their idea but make it better. For me it's all part of the creative process. That said I don't knock people who do covers and pull off a good bassline exactly. It's all good fun

[Bilbo]

I am a jazz musician. What can I say?

[Earbrass]

I write my own bass lines, but, without intentionally copying, sometimes they come out sounding suspiciously similar to Lemmy (Space Ritual era), or John Wetton (Crimson era) .

I've contributed just one song to my current band so far, but they seem to like it, so maybe I'll write some more for them one of these days.

Been a PRS writer member for almost 20 years now, and have done loads of writing in the past - mostly rubbish though!

[WonderHorse]

Well I've just joined a band who have been together 6 months and have about 12 songs. So it's all up to me to write the bass parts

I like to write my own bass parts anyway, generally. But I'm open to suggestions from other members of the band.
One of our guitarists writes the music and lyrics. Records it on CD then gives us a lyric sheet with the chords for me and the lead guitarist to sort out our parts.

[Low End Bee]

The guitarist and I bring in a basic idea/ideas then we all jam it into a song.

We both pitch in on lyrics.

The drummer looks after the beats. I come up with the bassline. The guitarist comes up with guitar stuff.

We knocked out a rather good one last night like this.

I have honestly never worked any other way. If a member of the band I was in told me exactly how to play a bass line I would tell them exactly how to f*** off. That's demarcation that is.

[mrcrow]

[quote name='Deep Thought' post='600791' date='Sep 16 2009, 10:01 PM']It has come to light in recent months that our guitarist has a problem coming up with guitar lines of his own ( I write bass lines and lyrics, he comes up with his own guitar lines). I genuinely think he'd rather play covers than come up with stuff of his own. This is strange to me-the first things I ever played on bass were lines I'd come up with myself-mainly so nobody could tell me I was playing them wrong! I've always come up with bass lines of my own, yet in talking to others, I get the impression he's not the only one who doesn't write their own material. You folks write your own, or happy playing other people's? (not that there's anything wrong with that!)[/quote]

if you play your own you can change them and adapt...
if you play others you have just hung your brain up

i play my own...and i dont play covers

i tried all that on saxes spending hours listening to CD's
i got free and started to develop some personal riffs

as for bass i keep it simple and read the score to see if there are reinforcing areas required melodic or harmonic
otherwise....just let it flow

[The Funk]

Oh, I forgot to say that my guitarist writes as well and for some of his tunes he'll write out a bass part. They sound good and fit the song well so I've got no problem just playing the parts.

[Soulfinger]

We are lucky to have an amazing musical chemistry in our band. We play all original material and come up with one or two new songs every rehearsal by jamming. We really had to hold back when we were practicing our material for the upcoming gig...

So yes, the basslines are all mine, and some of them pretty much define the song. That´s a good feeling.

[ash_sak]

[quote name='Jobiebass' post='600831' date='Sep 16 2009, 10:30 PM']I think its common knowledge I have no idea how to write my own stuff.[/quote]

(on a tangent)

I read your bulliten the other day about 'hanging up your bass' as such.

And if you're able to, then try and learn to improvise it's great fun.

There's probably a bulliten somewhere on this website about learning to jam, it's great and provides a whole new field of bassing to explore.

(and on topic)

I write most of my own bass lines but the guitarist in one of my bands has no trouble writing them either.

[Rich]

[quote name='Bassassin' post='600933' date='Sep 17 2009, 12:14 AM']Drummer's been threatening to contribute some lyrics for years now, and they've yet to materialise. On balance this is probably a good thing.[/quote]
Especially when you consider some of the complete arse Neil Peart has written in the past

[size=1]He has come up with some gems too, mind.[/size]

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='skankdelvar' post='600932' date='Sep 17 2009, 12:13 AM']Unless it's mission-critical riff whose absence would noticeably alter the song, I roll my own.[/quote]

+1... I think every line I play, original or cover, has a bit of 'essence of WoT' in it.

[Bassassin]

[quote name='Rich' post='601222' date='Sep 17 2009, 12:35 PM']Especially when you consider some of the complete arse Neil Peart has written in the past

[size=1]He has come up with some gems too, mind.[/size][/quote]
Speaking as a Rush fan, that's certainly a worry!

J.

[xgsjx]

The majority of songs we play are originals. These form in several ways, they are...

The Singer (guitarist/banjo whacker) says "I've come up with a song", He has lyrics & a chord arrangement. We all write our own parts around what he comes with, sometimes adapting what he has done to suit what we want.

I come in with a bassline/ chord arrangement/ series of riffs/ melody and we work on it from there. We always let the singer write the lyrics.

We jam & something evolves from something one of us are doing, quite often something turning out to be sheer genius.

Problem I have is the lead guitarist can't remember sh!t & it can be quite anoying. especially if he's come up with a good hookline for in a song & then a month down the line he never plays it again! Other problem is constant noodling! Especially when there's singing going on.

Whenever we cover something else, we do our version of it. As if someone said "there's some lyrics & a chord arrangement, have fun".