Creating Bass Lines

Creating bass lines

“But I’m a guitar player J, why would I want to do this?!”

1) It’s fun to be able to play a bit of bass when jamming with people. 2) It’ll help your song writing - when you write a song, you may want to write a bass line for it. 3) Even if you’re just creating a backing track, it’s going to be more inspiring to solo over if there’s a bass line.

“Bassics” The role of the bass in most musical styles is to outline the chords and provide rhythmic drive, locking in with the drums. The 4-string bass guitar is tuned like the bottom 4 strings of a guitar, but every string is an octave lower.

(In all the musical examples below, I’ve used guitar Tablature, so it’s easy to see how you can play them on guitar, but I’ve only written on the bottom 4 strings, which would equate to the strings on a 4-string bass guitar, meaning it’s easily transferable). All of the ideas and examples work just as well played on guitar.

Root note The simplest type of bass line is just to play the root notes of the chords (example A). The rhythm could be based on the kick drum pattern, or a rhythm played by another instrument. In rock, it’s common to play constant quavers (known as “rock eighths”, eight notes = quavers) – (example B).

www.aucklandguitarschool.co.nz Task: Record a simple chord progression (it could be a song you know already), and try playing a “rock eighth” root note bass line underneath it

Inversions You can play notes other than the root note for the bass line. For instance, if you have the chord progression G – D - Em, the bass could play G, F#, Em. (Example C).

The D chord contains the notes D, F# and A (root, 3rd, 5th), so you’re playing the 3rd as the bass note (this is called a first inversion).

Connecting chords together using inversions is one way to create melodic basslines (think Paul MacCartney). It’s worth knowing that these kind of bass lines often descend (but don’t have to…)

Task: Here’s a list of the notes in each of the chords in the key of C major. Take a simple chord progression in C major (you could make up your own) and try connecting the chords together with a bass line that uses inversions.

Chord R 3 5 C C E G Dm D F A Em E G B F F A C G G B D Am A C E B dim B D F

www.aucklandguitarschool.co.nz Walking bass lines Common in jazz, the basic rhythm here is crotchets/quarter notes. This will give you 4 notes to play in a bar of 4 beats.

Jimi Hendrix’s version of “Hey Joe” features a chromatic walking bass line that connects the root notes of the chords (example D):

A common walking bass line uses the following principals:

Note 1 – the root Notes 2 & 3 – other chord tones / non-chord tones which resolve to chord tones using chromatic or diatonic stepwise motion Note 4 – stepwise motion to next root note (half or whole step)

Here are the first 4 bars of a walking bass line for a blue sin the key of F, using these principals (example E):

Walking bass lines are a very effective way of connecting chords together, and the concept can be used with other rhythms and be adapted to fit in any style of music.

Drone/pedal bass In this type of bass line, the bass note remains constant, whilst the chords/riff being played on top change. Often the pedal note will be the tonic (root note of the key), or the 5th note of the key. In the following example, the bass stays on the tonic (we’re in the key of D) whilst the chords change (example F).

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Examples: Van Halen’s “Jump” has a pedal C note under the main keyboard part. Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” has a pedal G under the main riff.

Ostinato (Riff) Often this will simply double the guitar riff. (Ostinato is the classical music term for a riff). Most times the riff will change to reflect the chord sequence.

Some examples of riff-based bass lines include: Day Tripper (Beatles), Green Onions (Booker T and the MGs), Money (Pink Floyd), War Pigs (Black Sabbath), Kashmir (Led Zeppelin) etc.

In blues/rock n roll you’ll often get a riff-type bass line based the arpeggio of the chord (example G).

What next? Ø Apply one of these ideas to a simple chord progression. Record the chords, and then work out a bass line (play it on your guitar) that fits under the chords. Ø Then try a similar process with each of the other ideas.

Ø Use these ideas in real musical situations – when you’re jamming or recording music!