Bass lines writing help!

[baz]

Ok, here’s the situation.

I was asked to play bass in a heavy metal band a few months ago by a friend who knew I had started learning guitar and knew I loved the music, I went along to practice, brought a bass guitar, signed up to bass chat and practice when I can and I love it. We have been doing some covers but the other guys are more experienced than me and want to do our own stuff, they have the guitar parts down and want me to add bass to it, as you can imagine it seems a very daunting thing for me to do as I’m extremely new to this but up for the challenge.

Now you know the background is there any place to start, tips, books or just any advice would be hugely grateful.

[ThomBassmonkey]

Depends what kind of metal it is. What bands do you sound like?

To be honest, while you're learning, you're probably best off just following the guitars. If you watch where their index finger on their fretting hand is, then just play that note on your bass until you feel more confident.

Once you're happy with a song, you can try putting in a few linking notes (so if you go from the 5th fret to the 2nd fret on the 3rd string, you might want to try the 3rd and 4th frets to see if either note fits in between them) but one of the beauties of bass is that it's so simple to initially pick up.

[renniks]

Play root notes and then expand on that... (essentially what Thom said)

[thisnameistaken]

Ask the band what the chords are, work out what intervals make up those chords, see if you can come up with a bass part using those intervals + any passing notes you think work well leading from one chord to the next.

Next time you look at a bass tab or learn a song by ear from a record, try to figure out what the chords are (or look at a guitar tab) and - again - see if you can see why the bass player is playing the notes he/she's playing and how they relate to the chords. This will help you create appropriate bass parts of your own.

[6stringbassist]

Learn the notes on the fretboard (that IS a simple thing to do). Then ask what chords they're playing (supposing they know), and play the root note of that chord ie. A major just play an 'A' etc.

Have lessons, please ! It'll save you loads of messing about in future and will make the learning process a whole lot easier and more fun.

[renniks]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='853628' date='Jun 1 2010, 02:49 PM']Next time you look at a bass tab or learn a song by ear from a record, try to figure out what the chords are (or look at a guitar tab) and - again - see if you can see why the bass player is playing the notes he/she's playing and how they relate to the chords. This will help you create appropriate bass parts of your own.[/quote]

Any sites with comparable (one on top of the other) guitar and bass parts? Seems like a good little exercise

[Gust0o]

Guitar Pro would be of some use - you'd be able to see how all the elements of a track fit together.

The guys above have nailed it. Know your fretboard; know which chords the bands are playing; know the progression and structure; play roots and elaborate from there.

The interesting part comes when the bass comes to the front - if you're playing a bridge, or somesuch, when the guitars aren't playing. Because it's not always about following the guitars

[malbass]

Get them to do you a recording of the guitar parts - you can play it over and over at home and spend as much time as you like/need to come up with something you're happy with.

[rmshaw37]

the way i tackle the bass in our band is to make everything sound bigger!

if the guitars sound thin, mirror them, if the drums need beefing up, sync in with the rhythm, if all is well, play something that holds your interest!

seems to work with our kind of hard rock/ metal - same effect as backing vocals! metal aint really a place to stick bass at the forefront, but it aint half as heavy without us!

[Mog]

Root, 5th, and octave. Metalheads best friend! Dont be a typical bassist, ie, straight 8's. Do stuff they wouldn't expect and make the guitars follow you and the drummer once in a while. If you get really stuck in a rut just ask yourself "what would Mike Inez do".

[Cat Burrito]

Talk to the songwriter about what he has in mind too. From my experience of playing rockier stuff (a while ago now) bandmates seemed happiest when I kept it fairly straight. Chances are they will not be expecting you to take the song to a new level, just hold down a groove and drive the band a bit. There is some good advice here already. IF it's possible to get together with the songwriter you may be able to go through some ideas together. Try to keep them in the style of the lines you already play as this is probably why you are in the band at the moment - they like what you are doing.

Oh, and don't forget to have some fun with it!

[El Bajo]

[quote name='baz' post='853563' date='Jun 1 2010, 01:51 PM']Ok, here’s the situation.

I was asked to play bass in a heavy metal band a few months ago by a friend who knew I had started learning guitar and knew I loved the music, I went along to practice, brought a bass guitar, signed up to bass chat and practice when I can and I love it. We have been doing some covers but the other guys are more experienced than me and want to do our own stuff, they have the guitar parts down and want me to add bass to it, as you can imagine it seems a very daunting thing for me to do as I’m extremely new to this but up for the challenge.

Now you know the background is there any place to start, tips, books or just any advice would be hugely grateful.[/quote]

Welcome to the forum.

I would just play root notes, ask the guitarist to point them out or even write them down on a tab. From there experiment with some notes/frets leading up to the next chord or some fills. It might be best to have a look at some of your favorite bands music (try Ultimate-guitar.com) and have bash at a few songs to get some ideas.

Also listen to the drummer, as in ask for advice. Basicly don't be afraid to look stupid in front of your band mates by asking for their ideas. I've been playing for years but I still ask the guys what they think I should do if I can't come up with anything.

Also buy some bass books. Rage Against the machine self titled is a great place to start in my opinion. Some people have posted learn the fret board and intervals, thats all very well in time but I got the impression that you need bass lines NOW, so just keep it simple and get your timing right.

[baz]

I want to thank all that have replied to my post, there are some great advice here and things are a little clearer now, I will defiantly take this and put it to good use. Thanks again and its great to know that there's so many friendly and helpful people here.

[Fat Rich]

Maybe see if you can come up with a repeating pattern that works over the chord changes. A bit like this:

[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxcDTUMLQJI"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxcDTUMLQJI[/url]

So for starters, take the root note, 3rd or 5th from the first chord (for example) and see if it fits over the other chords in the song. Then try the root, 3rd, 5th from the second chord and so on. You'll get a feel for what notes work and what notes to avoid, there'll probably be some notes that are common to several chords. You'll maybe find other notes that aren't in the chords but sound good, then see if you can make something interesting out of them.

The best basslines have notes that sort of fit the chord to create tension and release... just make sure the odder sounding notes aren't on a downbeat unless you want to get some funny looks!

It can sometimes give a completely different feel although you shouldn't do it for every song, and it might not be what the songwriter had in mind so be prepared to ditch it.

[JackLondon]

As someone said above, get the songwriter to record stuff for you and then listen to it repeatedly and try to come up with the bassline in your head and if you know what you want to play then you achieved 50% and now it's time to work out how to play it! In heavy stuff the bass shouldn't be too busy if the guitars are doing a lot of riff shredding and you can easily get away with just simple bass lines! Listen to some trash metal and see how the guys there do it and you'll be surprised how easy some of it is. Whatever you do have loads of fun because once you get to that time when you nail a song on the practice it feels really good

[Prime_BASS]

[quote name='Mog' post='853862' date='Jun 1 2010, 05:43 PM']Hi folks. Wasn't sure where to lob this one so apologies if its in the wrong section.
I've noticed that when I use my Yamaha BB G5 into my TE the notes decay rapidly. Theres no comp/limiter in the chain and the volume pots on the bass are brand new.Strings are never more than 5 gigs old and still bright by most peoples standards when I change them. Totally stumped as to what the problem is. Eq settings maybe??
Anyone got a solution?[/quote]

my experience of metal guitar/bass playing is short lived.
As for as I'm concerned it's just drop D tuned and fast power chord changes.
For now (while you are learning) play the Root of whatever the guitars are doing, if they both go into a stupid harmonic riff, then just repeat the lines from the versus or churos (whatever fits to your ears and drums)

+1 on lessons, practice, learn notes along the fretboard, learn some scales, learn the notes that make the chord .

Basically a lot of learning

[charic]

Just an attempt to be helpful but seeing as your learning check out some megadeth basslines. Some are quite complex and some are very simple but they all hold the fundamentals to great basslines, just a few from when I started out:
A toute le monde
Angry Again

I also got in rancid/offspring in a fairly big way as it was a bit off the beaten track, punk is a great way to learn metal basslines imho

[xgsjx]

Another method is to follow the vocals & play their melody or even harmonize with them (mind & play some extra notes when they're not singing (such as after each line in the verse/chorus).

Alternitavely, just play alternating octaves & pop down a disco groove

[dan670844]

[quote name='baz' post='853563' date='Jun 1 2010, 01:51 PM']Ok, here’s the situation.

I was asked to play bass in a heavy metal band a few months ago by a friend who knew I had started learning guitar and knew I loved the music, I went along to practice, brought a bass guitar, signed up to bass chat and practice when I can and I love it. We have been doing some covers but the other guys are more experienced than me and want to do our own stuff, they have the guitar parts down and want me to add bass to it, as you can imagine it seems a very daunting thing for me to do as I’m extremely new to this but up for the challenge.

Now you know the background is there any place to start, tips, books or just any advice would be hugely grateful.[/quote]

He goes, this is how I learned the bass

First I learned the root notes i.e. A the root note is A
Then I learned the 5th note higher and lower (the 5th note is always one string higher and two frets closer to the bridge) the low fifth is on the same fret but one string lower.

Then I learnt the 3rd note and the flat third.

This is how chords are built up from three notes Root note, 3rd, 5th = Major chord,
Root note, flat 3rd (move down one fret) 5th = minor chord

At this point you should learn the major scale on the bass, then you will know what I am talking about!

Then you can add the octave which is two frets closer to the bridge and two strings higher (this is the same as the root, but two frets higher)

Your job as bassist is to mark out the chords that the guitars are playing, but of course if its fast metal then you will be limited what you can do. You will be limited to making a rhythm pretty much.

I know what its like 20 years ago when I was in my fast band. What you need to do is blag it, learn where the root and 5th, octave 3rd, flat third is. Learn if you can the pattern of the pentatonic minor and pentatonic major scale (you can find this on the internet for bass) and you won't go far wrong, just learn these patterns and you will be able to keep the gig. experiment try to hear which notes fit the music, but concentrate on the rhythm of the song, eg drums etc you can do this with one note! just ask mick khan (the bassist) hehe If your lines fit the rhythm of the song, you will be ok.

A lot of metal is just root high / low fifth thirds and octaves, but with connecting notes , (passing tones) between the chords. The more complex stuff revolves around the modes, which sound daunting but it isnt once you know the patterns. I would try and get yourself a bass scale book, just for reference, (i still use mine!)

Playing bass is all about learning patterns, once you know the patterns and how they connect across the fretboard you will be able to make blistering bass lines...... as a warm up excecise I always practice scales modes for a minute or two etc. That way you will get your ear and you will start to hear it all in the music you listen too.
For metal I would try to keep you amp setting flat and boost the high mids a little (a tiny amount) and try using a compressor such a the EBS one. Your notes will stand out more and wont just be a wall of noise! but sometimes this is good!

Any questions just ask

Dan