| Lessons in Bass Line Construction
Steve Schmidt
[email protected]
Lesson 0 - Preliminaries
This is the first in a series of lessons whose focus is on constructing
bass lines. The main series of lessons presumes a small but nonzero amount
of musical knowledge on the part of the listener; mostly some things about
notes and time. It also presumes you know how to read TAB. This pre-lesson
is designed to teach that knowledge to anyone who doesn't already have it.
If you know how to find a C# on your bass, know what a quarter note rest
is, and can read TAB, then you can skip the rest of this and move on to Lesson
1. If not, or if the review will do you good, then read on!
A piece of music is composed of a series of notes. These notes are
organized into sets of 12 notes called octaves, and each of these 12
notes has a name. If you sit down at a piano, you'll see that it has
88 keys, 52 white and 36 black, and that each of these keys produces a
different note. The white keys all have one-letter names; the first one on
the left (lowest note) is called A, the next one up is B, and so on. The
seventh white key is called G, and the next white key, the eighth, is also
called A; it begins the second octave. The ninth white key is B, the tenth
C, and so on, until the 52nd and last white note, which is a C.
The black keys are named by their relation to the nearest two white keys,
so each one has two names. First, they may be called "sharp", with the name
of the white key below them: eg, the lowest black key is called A sharp, as
it's immediately above A. There is no black key immediately above B; the second
black note is C#, and so on up the keyboard. Second, black keys may also
be called "flat", with the name of the white key above them: thus, the lowest
black note can also be thought of as B flat, since it's immediately below
the B. Similarly, the black key between D and E can be called either D sharp
or E flat. For now, you can treat the two names as interchangable.
An octave runs from A to G#, 12 notes (7 white keys and 5 black keys)
and then the names repeat for the next octave. Actually, the starting point
doesn't matter: any 12 notes in a row (which will always contain 7 white keys
and 5 black keys) are called an octave.
The strings of a bass are tuned to produce the 4 notes E, A, D, and G
(from thickest string to thinnest). Thus, if you play an E on the piano,
and the open E string on your bass, you'll get the same note (if you choose
the right octave on the piano, that is). Moving up one fret on the string
produces the next highest note. That is, the open A string produces an A
note (hence the name). Fingered at the first fret, it produces an A sharp,
or B flat. Second fret produces a B. Third fret produces C (since there is
no black key above B), fourth fret C sharp, and fifth fret produces D, the
same note as the open D-string. And so on up the fingerboard. With this
knowledge, you should be able to find two or three versions of each note
on your bass. For example, you can get an F at the 1st fret of the E string,
at the 3rd fret of the D string, at the 8th fret of the A string, and at
the 10th fret of the G string. (The 3rd-D note and the 8th-A note are in
the same octave: the 1st-E note is one octave below and the 10th-G note is
one octave above.) Make sure you can find any given note somewhere on your
bass without too much effort, and that you know the names of the notes
produced by playing a given string at a given fret, at least up to the
12th fret.
The next thing to mention is the way songs are arranged in time. Songs
are divided into measures: a common song length is about 100 measures. Each
measure is a certain number of beats long: in almost all modern music there
are four beats to each measure, although other length measures are also used.
Each note in the song has a given duration, and a note that lasts for four
beats is called a whole note. A note that lasts for two beats is called a
half note, and two half notes are the same length as one whole note. Similarly,
there are quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes. (In England
these notes have different names. I'll be sticking to American usage
throughout this lesson series.) Each quarter note receives one beat, and
the quarter note is the basic building block of time and of rhythm. Eight
eighth notes make up a four-beat measure, as you can see, as do four quarter
notes and 16 sixteenth notes. Measures can contain notes of different lengths,
so that a quarter note, a half note,and two eighth notes also make up one
measure.
Other time durations can be written by "dotting" a note: in standard
notation, one literally writes a dot next to the note. Dotting a note makes
it last half again as long as it normally would. Thus, a quarter note lasts
as long as two 8th notes: a dotted quarter note is 50% longer, so it lasts
as long as three eighth notes. Thus, two quarter notes have the same length
as a dotted quarter note and an eighth note. Similarly, a dotted half note
lasts for the same amount of time as three quarter notes: a dotted half note
and a quarter note together make up one measure.
The last thing to know is that rests, or times when the bass is not playing,
are named the same way: thus, a whole rest means that the bass does not play
for one measure. A quarter rest means that the bass does not play for one
beat, and there are eighth rests and dotted half rests and so on.
One last note: in some jazz and classical music, a note other than the
quarter note is given the one-beat length. Since almost all music is written
with the quarter note getting one beat, I've assumed it is so throughout
the lesson series. However, if you get into more difficult music, you may
run into music where the half-note or the eighth-note is one "beat" long.
My advice is not to worry about this until it comes up.
The last thing you need to know is how to read TAB. Bass tabulature, or
TAB for short, is a simple method for writing bass music. There are several
different versions of tabulature, but the following features are common to
almost all of them.
Bass tab is written on four-line staves. In text interfaces these are usually
written using dashed characters. Each space corresponds to one string on the
bass: the lowest space corresponds to the E string, the next lowest to the A
string, the next to the D string, and the highest to the G string. A number on
a given space represents a note played at the given fret on the corresponding
string; thus, to indicate playing a G at the third fret on the E string,
one would write:
G------------------------------------
D------------------------------------
A------------------------------------
E----3-------------------------------
Notes are played from the left of the staff to the right; thus, an
ascending G major scale might be written:
G------------------------------------
D-------------------2--4--5----------
A----------2--3--5-------------------
E----3--5----------------------------
Or, using open strings, it might be written like this:
G-------------------------0----------
D----------------0--2--4-------------
A-------0--2--3----------------------
E----3-------------------------------
Chords can be written by writing two numbers in the same vertical bar. Thus
one might write a simple A major chord as:
G-----9------------------------------
D-----11-----------------------------
A-----0------------------------------
E------------------------------------
which means to play an open note on the A string, to play a C# at the 11th
fret on the D string, and an E at the 9th fret on the G string.
Various fingering techniques can be noted in TAB as well. This is done by
writing a single character after the note being fingered. The most common of
these are:
h - hammer-on from previous note
p - pull off from previous note
\ - slide up to note
b - bend note
S - slap the note with the right-hand thumb (left hand if left-handed)
P - pop the note with the right hand (ditto)
t - tap the note with the right hand (ditto)
H - harmonic
Thus a funky bass line might be written like this:
G---------5P-7h-5p-------------------
D------------------------3b----------
A---0S\5-----------3S-5S----5S-5H---
E------------------------------------
A muted note (one that is not fingered cleanly and makes a percussive
sound rather than a clear tone) is written by placing an x on a line
instead of a number:
G------------5--7--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---5--x--x--------5--x--5-----------
E------------------------------------
Similarly, a rest is indicated by writing an r on a line (any line will do):
G------------5--7--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---5--r--r--------5--r--5-----------
E------------------------------------
When it is not obvious which left-hand (right-hand to lefties) finger should
be used to to fret a particular note, this may be indicated by writing a
number under the note, with 1=index finger, 2=middle finger, 3=ring
finger, 4=pinkie finger, and rarely, 5-thumb:
G---------5--7--5--------------------
D------------------------------------
A---0--5-----------------------------
E------------------------------------
1 1 3
It is becoming popular to indicate time in TAB by writing over each note
a letter indicating the time value of the note: s=sixteenth note, e=eighth
note, q=quarter note, h=half note, w=whole note. It is possible to add
dots to this system as is done with normal notes. In addition, vertical bars
are usually used to indicate measure breaks. TAB noted this way might look
like this:
w q s s e q h q. e e e s s e h
G-----|----5--7--5-------|-------------5--7--7-|----
D-----|------------------|-3--3--5--7----------|----
A---0-|-5-----------8--5-|---------------------|-5--
E-----|------------------|---------------------|----
--
Steve Schmidt <>< [email protected]
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist
indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist
conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids!
|
| Lessons in Bass Line Construction
Steve Schmidt
[email protected]
Lesson 1 - The Role of the Bass Line
This is the first in a series of lessons whose focus is on constructing
bass lines. The goal is to introduce players to the basic elements of music;
to explain why the bass plays a particular note at a particular time and the
effect that bass lines have on a piece of music. While most of the examples in
the lessons will be drawn from rock music and blues (my particular genres),
the basic principles being explained are applicable to any form of music
featuring a bass line, whether played on an electric bass, acoustic bass, or
other instrument. The lessons presume some minimal knowledge of music theory:
mostly that one know the names of the notes (A, B, B-flat, etc), can find
those notes on the bass, and have some notion of time (quarter-note,
half-note, measure). Other concepts are introduced as needed, though not
always in great detail, and if you have not studied music theory a good book
on that subject might also be a good thing to read while learning to play
bass. Examples will be given in TAB notation because of the ease of
transmitting it over computer networks, although it is wise to learn to read
standard music notation as well.
The first thing to understand in constructing your bass lines is the role
that the instrument plays in the music. In almost all musical forms, the bass
has two important functions to fulfill. First, the bass defines the chords
being played and guides the movement of the music from one chord to another.
This role is usually shared with a guitar or a piano. Second, the bass
provides the rhythm of the music being played. This role is usually shared
with the drums. Because it links the two functions of rhythm and harmony, the
bass is often the instrument around which the rest of the music is organized.
This lesson begins with a very brief discussion of chords, and then follows
with a discussion of rhythm and how the bass defines it. Lesson 3 will take up
the subject of chords in more detail.
All music is organized into chords. A chord is a set of three or more
different notes being played simultaneously, with one of the notes being the
root note of the chord and the other notes defining the type of chord being
played. The job of the bass is to indicate which chord is being played at a
given moment, and this is most easily achieved by playing the root note of the
chord. For example, the song "Dancing with Myself" by Billy Idol is organized
into 8-measure verses and choruses. In each of these 8-measure patterns, an E
major chord is played in the first two measures, a A major chord is played in
the 3rd and 4th measures, a B major chord is played in the 5th and 6th
measures, and the A major chord again in the 7th and 8th measures. In each
measure, the bass plays 8th notes on the root of the given chord:
(all notes 8th notes)
E A
G-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
D-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
A-------------------------|------------------------|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|
E--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|------------------------|
Well I've been all around the world, and there's Every type of girl
B
G-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
D-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
A--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|-2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2-|-2--2--2--2--2--2--2--2-|
E-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
But your Empty eyes seem to pass me by and leave me
A
G-------------------------|------------------------|
D-------------------------|------------------------|
A--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|
E-------------------------|------------------------|
Dancing with myself... oh oh oh oh
This is a very simple bass line, but it fulfills both of its intended roles.
First, it clearly indicates what chord is being played at any moment in the
song, by playing only the root note on each beat. There is a very large amount
of music (dance music, heavy metal) in which most or all of the notes played
by the bass are just the roots of the chords being played by the band, and
some very powerful bass lines can be written this way.
Secondly, this bass line gives a simple and clear rhythm to the song: an even
rhythm of 8th notes. If you sing this bass line to yourself, you probably sing
it as "dah dah dah dah dah dah dah dah", with the same stress, or accent, on
each beat. Other bass lines supply different rhythms using the root notes of
the chords. For example, the bass line to the Police song "Message in a
Bottle" also uses only root notes, but uses a very different rhythm. Over the
verses, the bass line repeats this two-measure phrase:
e q e q. e e q e q. e e
G----|----------------|---------------|
D----|----------------|---------------|
A--4-|--4--4--0--r--0-|-2--2--------4-|
E----|----------------|-------2---r---|
Just a castaway.... Island lost at sea, oh...
where the chords are C# minor, A major, B minor, and F# minor, and they change
every half-measure. This rhythm stresses beats 1, 2, 2-and, and 4-and, by
playing notes on those beats and holding notes, or resting, on the other
beats. (Count each measure as 1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and, providing 8 beats for
the 8th notes to fall on. The accented beats are the 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 8th of
the 8th notes in the measure.) However, the chorus uses almost the same even
8th note beat as the Billy Idol song above does:
e e e e e e e e e e e q e e e
G--|------------------------|---------------------|
D--|------------------------|---------------------|
A--|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|-5--5--5--7--7--7--7-|
E--|------------------------|---------------------|
I'll send an SOS to the world....
where the chords are A major over the first bar, and D major and E major over
the second bar. By varying the rhythm used over the two parts of the song
(along with variations by the drummer), the bassist adds considerable variety
and style to the song, even though he hasn't played any notes except the root
notes of the various chords.
Both of the above songs are organized aroud an 8th-note beat; that is to say,
the smallest unit of rhythm is the 8th note. No 16th notes are used in the
rhythm figures. Most popular music nowadays is written to 8th-note beats,
although dance music and funk music uses 16th-note beats, and jazz musicians
write music in a number of different beat patterns. To generate a rhythm, the
bassist (and drummer) simply choose which beats to accent and which beats not
to accent. In the Billy Idol song, all notes receive the same emphasis. In the
Police song, however, some are emphasized, or accented, and others are not.
As a bass player, you have four tools at your disposal to provide emphasis, or
the lack thereof, to a beat. They are:
1. Play the root note of the chord being played on a given beat. This is the
strongest, most emphatic note you can play.
2. Play a note on the beat, but not the root note of the chord. This is still
emphatic but not so much so as the root note.
3. Don't play a new note on the beat, but carry over the note you were playing
on the previous beat. This de-emphasizes the beat, because the bass isn't
adding a new sound on it.
4. Rest: play no note at all. This is the most de-emphasizing thing you can do
on a beat.
The most important part of writing a bass line is deciding which beats to
emphasize and which beats not to emphasize. In particular, deciding where to
use rests to de-emphasize a beat is essential to constructing good, solid,
supporting bass lines. Sting, the bass player for the Police, is an excellent
bass player to listen to if you want to hear the creative use of rests in bass
lines. You can see the rests used in the song Message in a Bottle above: by
placing a rest on the 4th beat of each measure, he makes the use of the root
note on the 4-and beat even more emphatic than it would ordinarily be. Sting
is a master of very simple, very elegant bass lines that add a lot to the
music he's playing, and every beginning bass player should listen to a lot of
his music to hear how he does it.
Which notes should you emphasize and which should you not? This is a question
which can only be answered by you as the artist, and the drummer, who is your
partner in determining the rhythm of the song. There are some general
guidelines that you can use to help you select your rhythms, however. The most
important is that you should usually play the root note on the first beat of
each measure. Since this note defines the start of the measure, and since most
chord changes occur on this beat, it is important to determine the overall
rhythm of the song by placing a strong emphasis here. Almost all bass lines
you'll ever see place the root note on the first beat of each chord, and on
the first beat of each measure even if the chord has not changed. In doing so
they set a general pattern for the music. Other beats in the rhythm of the
song can either highlight this pattern, or contrast with it, depending on the
amount of tension you want to have in the rhythm of your song. A second
guideline is that you should stick to one basic rhythm pattern for a fairly
long period of time (8-16 measures at least) in order for the rhythm to be
heard, and felt, by the listener. If you change rhythm every two measures,
then the audience won't have time to detect the patterns you're playing, and
won't be able to feel the patterns in the music, or the changes in those
patterns which are what makes music interesting.
There are a number of basic rhythms that are common to many types of music.
One of the most common rhythms in jazz is the quarter-note rhythm. Like the
8th-note rhythm, all the beats are even, but the notes played are quarter
notes, and the first beat of each measure is emphasized by playing the root of
the given chord under it, while other notes are usually not the root notes. An
example:
(all notes are quarter notes)
C major D minor G7
G-----------2-|--5--2-------|-------3--2-|-0----------|
D-----5--3----|--------5--2-|-0--3-------|----0--3--2-|
A--3----------|-------------|------------|------------|
E-------------|-------------|------------|------------|
Note how the root of the chord is played on the first beat of each measure;
although for the two measures of C chord, a different C is played. Note also
that none of the notes on other beats are the roots. By playing the root on
the first beat, the bassist strengthens that beat just enough to provide a
recognizable rhythm, and also defines the chord changes.
Another beat that's common to many forms of music, including country and
western music, polka music, and klezmer music, is the following beat. Like the
jazz beat above, it's a quarter-note beat, but instead of playing notes on all
four beats, it rests on beats 2 and 4 to de-emphasize those beats and
strengthen the 1 and 3 beats. (Quarter-note beats are counted 1-2-3-4,
1-2-3-4). It might go like this:
(all notes are quarter notes)
C major F major C major
G-------------|-------------|------------|-------5--r-|----
D-----r--5--r-|-----r--5--r-|-3--r-------|-3--r-------|----
A--3----------|--3----------|-------3--r-|------------|--3-
E-------------|-------------|------------|------------|----
where again, the root is played on beat 1, a different note is played on beat
3, and no note is played on beats 2 and 4. If you sing this to yourself, you'll
probably sing it "dum (rest) dum (rest) dum (rest) dum (rest)", highlighting
the difference between the accented beats and the rest beats. Note how
different this rhythm is from the following one:
C major F major C major
h h h h h h h h h
G-------|------|------|------|----
D-----5-|----5-|-3----|-3----|----
A--3----|-3----|----3-|----3-|-3-
E-------|------|------|------|----
which is exactly the same except that there are no rests: each note is a half
note rather than the quarter notes above. This beat is dull and monotonous
compared to the one above, which has a distinct up-down-up-down feel which is
added by the rests. Let this serve as an example of how powerful rests can be
in creating rhythmic bass lines.
A variation on this beat that's used in a lot of pop music is the following
one. It's actually an 8th note beat, and instead of emphasizing beats 1 and 3,
it emphasizes beats 1 and 2-and. For simplicity, I'll show it here with all
root notes:
C major F major G major
q. q. q q. q. q q. q. q q. q. q
G----------|---------|---------|---------|
D----------|---------|-3--3--r-|-3--5--r-|
A--3--3--r-|-3--3--r-|---------|---------|
E----------|---------|---------|---------|
Beats 1 and 2-and are emphasized by the root, beat 3 is slightly de-emphazised
by carrying over the note from the 2-and beat, and beat 4 is strongly
de-emphasized by resting on that beat. Lesson 2 will feature a song using this
beat prominently to give you more of a feel for it.
There are hundreds or thousands of beats out there for you to listen to: rock
beats, jazz beats, swing beats, shuffle beats, rap beats, reggae beats,
calypso beats, and many more. Rhythm is a very difficult thing to talk about
abstractly: it's something you have to experience and feel before you'll be
able to play it. The best solution is to put on your headphones and listen to
music. Hear the bassist and drummer, and hear the rhythm they're playing. The
interaction of the bassist and the drummer to create rhythm is probably the
most single important element of popular music (at least most bass players
seem to think so!) and it's the single most important skill for a bass player
to have. (Or, as Jeff Berlin is fond of saying, "You will never be hired to
tap.") To develop rhythm, you have to listen to other people who have it, and
also to a few who don't. It comes with experience, and there is no way to
teach it in a purely academic way.
The last comment about rhythm to make is that sticking strictly and rigorously
to a single rhythm, with no variations, is boring. Good rhythm sections find a
way to maintain a basic rhythm while occasionally providing slightly different
accents, or extra notes to highlight a particular half-measure. This is where
the partnership between a bassist and drummer is most important: as one player
departs from the basic rhythm to add accents and fills, the other player must
play solid and steady so that the first player can come back to the basic
rhythm. Listen to your favorite bands and hear when the drummer departs from
the basic rhythm and when the bass player does, and hear how they come back
together again to provide a steady and familiar yet not boring pattern. When a
bassist and drummer have played together long enough to know each other's
styles and habits, they can play complicated and difficult patterns together
without losing track of the basic rhythm they're playing (and, more important,
without the listeners losing track). This is why it's important to find
yourself a live drummer and play with him/her regularly: you need to develop
these give-and-take skills, to keep a rhythm going with a partner, varying it
in time and in accent without losing the basic thread of the song. You can't
do this with a metronome or a drum machine, for the obvious reasons. It's what
makes the rhythm section the heart and soul of any good band.
Lesson 2 will talk about playing notes other than the root notes; which ones
to play, where to play them, and what their effect is.
Steve
This lesson is copyright 1993 by Steve Schmidt. Permission to distribute
this lesson without charge is granted, provided that it remain unaltered,
including this notice. You may not charge money for the use of this lesson,
and you may not alter the terms of this license.
--
Steve Schmidt <>< [email protected]
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist
indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist
conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids!
|
| Lessons in Bass Line Construction
Steve Schmidt
[email protected]
Lesson 2 - Beyond the Root Note
In the previous lesson we discussed the two main functions of the bass in
music: defining the chords and providing rhythm. In this lesson, we're going
to talk about using non-root notes to provide a motion from one chord to the
next, which gives a song a sense of direction, and about some ways to make the
bass line a little more interesting than a sequence of roots.
The bass lines in the last lesson used predominantly root notes to define
chords. When the chord changed, the bass line leapt from one root to the next,
like so:
(all notes are 8th notes)
E A E A E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A--------------0--0--0--0-|-------------0--0--0--0-|----
E--0--0--0--0-------------|-0--0--0--0-------------|-0--
The movement from one chord to the next is rather abrupt. By making the
movement from one root to the next in a couple of steps, rather than in one
large leap, the bass line can provide a sense of movement and anticipation to
the music that isn't present in the simple examples earlier. You can also play
something other than the root note for change...
The simplest way to do this is to add a single note, on the beat before each
change, which is in between the two roots, usually just below the higher one.
For example, we might play this:
(all notes are 8th notes)
E A E A E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A--------------0--0--0--3-|-------------0--0--0--3-|----
E--0--0--0--3-------------|-0--0--0--3-------------|-0--
In this figure, we play the note G# (a half-step below the A) as a transition
between the E and the A. Such a note is called a leading tone, or passing
tone. It gives a sense of movement to the bass line which isn't present in the
first line. In addition, playing a non-root note on the 2-and beat, and the
4-and beat, reduces the emphasis on that note slightly, providing a contrast
with the new root note coming in on the 3 and 1 beats following.
You can play a single passing tone, or, if the chord changes are farther
apart, you can play more than one. For example, consider this bass line:
(all notes are 8th notes)
E A E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A-------------------------|-0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|----
E--0--0--0--0--0--0--0--0-|------------------------|-0--
Here, there are 8 beats between chord changes, and we can use more than one of
those beats to move from the E to the A. We might alter the last three notes
of each measure as follows:
(all notes are 8th notes)
E A E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A-------------------------|-0--0--0--0--0----------|----
E--0--0--0--0--0--2--3--4-|----------------4--3--2-|-0--
Here we use a sequence of three leading tones to move us from the E to the A.
In this particular case, we've used three notes each a half-step apart to make
the transition. There are other possibilities. In between the E and the A are
4 notes and you can use any or all of them in making the change. We'll take up
the choice between the possible sequences in a later lesson; but it would be
possible to use any of them in an appropriate piece of music.
The following bass line, from the theme song to the movie "Stand By Me" (I
can't remember who the original artist was, unfortunately), demonstrates a
bass line that moves between 4 chords, using passing tones to get from one to
the next. It also uses the dotted-quarter note rhythm, emphasizing the 1 and
2-and beats with root notes, that we saw in lesson 1.
D major B minor
e e q. q. e e q. q. e e q. q. e e q. q. e e
G-------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
D-------|-0--0-------|-0--0--0----|------------|------------|
A--0--4-|-------0--4-|----------4-|-2--2--r--0-|-2--2--2--0-|
E-------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
Oh I won't be a- fraid, no I won't shed a tear, just as
G major A major D major
q. q. e e q. q. e e q. q. e e q. q.
G-------------|------------|------------|-------
D-------------|------------|-0--0-------|-0--0--
A-----------2-|-0--0--0--4-|-------0--4-|-------
E--3--3--3----|------------|------------|-------
long as you stand, stand by me.
This line is one of the simplest and yet most powerful bass lines in popular
music. It has a lot of features worth noting. First, it uses the same rhythm
in each measure: two dotted quarter notes on the roots, followed by two eighth
notes, or a note and a rest. (Note that the vocal line is singing essentially
the same rhythm.) Second, the dotted quarters are always roots, which
emphasizes those beats more strongly than the eighth notes, which are not
roots, but are leading notes, leading towards the root of the next measure:
A to C# to D for the D major chords, D to C# to B for the B minor chords, B to
A to G for the G major, and G to B to A for A major. See that, while the
leading tone is usually between the two root notes, it doesn't have to be: for
the G major to A major transition, with only G# as a possible in-between note,
the author chose instead to go up to the B, then back down to the A. This is
still called a leading tone, although it's not quite the same as the others,
because it fulfills the same function: it warns of an upcoming chord change,
and gives a pointer in the direction that the chord is going to move.
A third thing to note is that the leading notes are played each measure,
regardless of whether the chord is changing or not. So in measure 6, we play
A-C#-D to move from the A chord to the D chord; and in measure 7 we play
A-C#-D again even though we're staying on the D chord. The sequence still
points to the root of the chord, so why not play it again? By doing this, we
make the bass line a little more interesting, and we give it more of a sense
of movement than it would have if we just played D all the time. Playing
leading sequences is one way to add movement and emphasis to a song that isn't
changing chords at all. For example, here's the bass line from the Doors song
LA Woman:
(All notes are 8th notes)
A major
G-------------------------|------------------------|
D-------------------------|------------------------|
A--0--0--0--0--0----------|-0--0--0--0--0----------|
E-----------------0--3--4-|----------------0--3--4-|
repeat ad infinitum :)
This song stays on the same A major chord for 50-60 measures in places, but
the leading sequences in the bass lines give it a sense of motion that would
not be present if the bassist just played 8th-note A all the time. Although
the Doors had no bass player (Ray Manzarek, the keyboard player, used a second
keyboard to play the bass parts) for their last few albums a studio bassist
was used, and I believe that this line was played on a bass, rather than on
keyboards.
Another thing that can be done to add interest to a bass line is to play two
different versions of the root note. This idea is the mainstay of funk bass
lines. For example, if you were playing a D major chord, you could play the
following line:
(Slap all notes on the A string with the right-hand thumb: pop all notes on
the G string).
D major
e e s s s e s s s s s e
G--------7-----------7--------------7-|
D-------------------------------------| Repeat as needed
A--5--5-----r--5--5-----r--5--5--5----|
E-------------------------------------|
This line has a lot of things to note about it also. First, all the notes are
root notes, but the line uses a low one and a high one to provide variety.
Second, this line uses a 16th note rhythm: look at the 16th rests in the line.
They follow the popped high note, which increases the impact of the pop. Also,
the fifth through ninth notes don't start on an even 8th note. 16th note
rhythms are counted "1-e-and-a-2-e-and-a-3-e-and-a-4-e-and-a"; the first four
notes start on numbers and ands, but the next five start on "e"s and "a"s.
This gives the line a much more syncopated, funky feeling. It also makes it
harder to play correctly: you'll probably have a hard time reading this rhythm
if you haven't played it before. Work it out very slowly, counting aloud,
until you have it down, then gradually work up the tempo. Larry Graham, of Sly
and the Family Stone, and later his own band Graham Central Station, was one
of the first bassists to play 16th note rhythms, and was also one of the first
to slap and pop. If you're into 16th note rhythms, you can get a lot of
inspiration from his lines.
You can also combine the ideas of playing different roots and playing leading
tones into one bass line. The following line is from the song Purple Haze, by
the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with Noel Redding on bass. (At least, this is how
I play it in my band. I think the recorded version is a little different.)
E #9 G7 A7
e e e. s e e e. s e e e. s e s e s e
G-------------------------|---------------------------|
D--------2--2--------2--2-|-------5--5----------------|
A-------------------------|-------------------5--6--7-|
E--0--0--------0--0-------|-3--3--------5--5----------|
Note the use of the octaves on the E and G roots. This matches the drummer's
pattern: where the bass is playing the lower note, the drummer is playing the
bass drum and where the bass is playing the higher note, the drummer is
playing his snare. For the A7 chord, the bass doesn't play the octave note:
instead, it plays D-D#-E leading back to the low E for the next measure. (The
drummer plays a drum fill while this is happening, so there's no need to keep
playing the octave: he won't be matching it anyway.)
To conclude this lesson, I'll give you one more bass line. It combines all the
ideas we've talked about so far: using roots to define the chord, using rests
to de-emphasize particular notes, switching from one rhythm to another when
changing from verse to chorus, and using leading tones to add movement when
the chord isn't changing. This is the bass line from the Police song
"Roxanne", and again Sting is the bassist. Observe how the root note is
played, but never on the first beat of the measure: in the verse, the bass is
resting, while in the chorus either the previous root is tied over, or a
leading tone is played on the first note. In the verses, the bass is a little
bt behind the chord changes: in the chorus it's a little bit ahead. It makes
for a very interesting line, and demonstrates that there's no such thing as a
hard and fast rule (at least not for Sting).
Verse:
G min F maj Eb maj D maj C min
e e q h e e q h e e q h e e q h e e q h
G-------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
D--r--5--5--r-|-r--3--3--r-|-r--1--1--r-|-r--0--0--r-|-r----------|
A-------------|------------|------------|------------|----3--3--r-|
E-------------|------------|------------|------------|------------|
Roxanne.. You don't have to put on the red light. Walk the street for
F maj G min
e e q q e e w w
G-------------------|---|-----|
D-------------------|---|-----|
A-------------------|---|-r---| repeats
E--r--1--1--r--3--3-|-3-|-----|
\_/
money... You don't care if it's wrong, or if it's right.
Chorus:
Bb maj F major
q e e e e e e e e e e e e e e q e e e e e
G-------|------------------------|---------------------|------------
D-------|------------------------|----------------1--3-|-3--3--3--3-
A--3--1-|-1--1--1--1--0--1--1--1-|-0--1--1--1--1-----\___/----------
E-----\___/----------------------|---------------------|------------
Roxanne........ Roxanne....
G minor
e e e e e e e e e q e e e e e e e e e
G-------------|---------------------|------------------------|
D--2--3--3--3-|-2--3--3--3--3-------|------------------------|
A-------------|----------------3----|------------------------|
E-------------|-------------------3-|-3--3--3--3--2--3--3--3-|
\_/
Roxanne..
e e e e e q e
G----------------------|----
D----------------------|----
A-----------------3--1-|-1-- repeats
E--2--3--3--3--3-----\___/--
Lesson 3 will talk about chords in more detail. We'll talk about a few
different types of chords, and about using chords in constructing your
bass lines.
Steve
This lesson is copyright 1993 by Steve Schmidt. Permission to distribute
this lesson without charge is granted, provided that it remain unaltered,
including this notice. You may not charge money for the use of this lesson,
and you may not alter the terms of this license.
--
Oops! There's a mistake in the TAB in lesson 2. In the second TAB example:
E A E A E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A--------------0--0--0--3-|-------------0--0--0--3-|----
E--0--0--0--3-------------|-0--0--0--3-------------|-0--
All those 3's need to be 4's. Otherwise they aren't G#, they're G.
Should read like this:
E A E A E
G-------------------------|------------------------|----
D-------------------------|------------------------|----
A--------------0--0--0--4-|-------------0--0--0--4-|----
E--0--0--0--4-------------|-0--0--0--4-------------|-0--
--
Steve Schmidt <>< [email protected]
I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist
indoctrination, Communist subversion, and the international Communist
conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids!
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