Yo! What’s up everybody? Walt Ribeiro here. Today, we’re going to be working on how to write a bass line. We had a few questions about that so let's just jump right in to it.
Now, if I write a song that—let’s say B [demonstration], D [demonstration] to G, okay. So that little melody, your bass line, you would usually reference the root note of all the chords that you're playing. So when I'm playing a B chord on the guitar [demonstration], okay, B to G, the bass line the short answer would be this [demonstration]. Okay, so that when I have this [demonstration], you could very well make this the bass line [demonstration], okay?
So you can also have the bass line be actually a counterpoint from what you had in the chord or in the guitar part. So instead of the bass line that goes like this [demonstration], you, you’ve got like this have this, something that would sound great and then maybe if I guess, right, [demonstration], okay. So that’s something that will actually work well and the reason why I use the fifth is because when I'm—the finger being the B, so here's the B, the fifth being the F sharp [demonstration], right here, the F sharp [demonstration]. That’s the fifth of the chord. It makes it extremely easy for me to go as a bass line because the third we use doesn’t work and I wanted it something different than the B in the root, so creating a little harmony [demonstration].
Okay, so that’s the idea of writing a bass line but really there's no hard in simple rule. I guess that the only rule is just to have fun with it because what's going to happen is that when you're playing that bass line you really wanted to kind of lead the song and where it’s going, okay. So, that’s the idea of the bass line and the cool thing is that sometimes you write the bass line from the guitar part and somehow you write the guitar part from the bass line. So if your bass line goes [demonstration], okay. So if that’s your bass line, then you would have to write a guitar part on top of that or maybe we don’t even want to write a guitar part. Maybe the song actually has no guitar part in it and it’s just all bass, you know, like just bass just drums or maybe the song has no bass and just guitar and drums like the White Stripes or something.
But whatever it is, the idea is you to have fun it and don’t get to crazy about it. When you understand the chords and you’re playing on the guitar, you want the bass line to be very symmetrical with what you’re playing on the guitar for starters like for something simple. As you get more advance, you can make it more difficult or maybe more complex but you keep it simple, right?
You know, it goes back to the idea of just keep it simple stupid. So that’s the idea, whatever chords you're playing, have that rule, B your bass line. So, that’s the idea and you can even have the bass line just hold out while you change the chord so you’ve got the B [demonstration].
Okay, so there, my voice would have been the bass line there just holding that whole time to create suspension. So that’s it guys, I hope that helps and any question you’ve got or if there's any cool ideas, leave them in the comments below, don’t forget to subscribe and write comment and thanks everyone for everything, you guys are awesome and we’ll see you all back here tomorrow. Peace.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services