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- Hey, it's Livvy from Mamalarky,
and we're gonna look at
how to write basslines in a band setting.
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So maybe your friend is sending you chords
and you're like what can I do with these chords?
I'm trying to figure out what's cool.
Well, I'm here to tell you, it's not that complicated.
There's a few scales
and just different ideas you can keep in mind
to throw into your bassline writing process.
So I made a little basic backing track we can play with
and chose a really basic progression,
just a one to a four or a C to an F.
So the first thing you do is identify the root notes.
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Or C, F, or C, F, or C, F, or C, F.
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So the more octaves, you know, the better,
but you can even just start off with one
and make that your home base
as you're figuring out what you want to build.
And yeah, you can really do a lot with just one note.
You can slide down to it.
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You can even do what's known as a pedal tone.
So with a one to four progression,
you can just hold onto the one or the C in this case,
because it's a common tone between the two.
And that's just a really cool way to kind of build this,
both this calmness and this tension, you know?
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And then you know, of course,
throwing in the octave in the fifth is classic choice.
So, yeah, you can really just hold down something like...
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That can carry a whole song,
and there's so many different combinations of rhythms
you can do with that.
Don't feel bad if those are the notes
you want to work with, that's totally valid, you know.
I think it's really funny
because like a lot of guitarists
end up playing bass in their lives,
and they use chord shapes
to actually guide their choices on bass,
which is really cool,
and you can actually play chords on a bass,
and I would recommend checking out
Kayla Buchanan's Technique of the Week
if you want to learn more about that,
but I'll just kinda outline a major bar chord, you know?
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That's pretty simple and kind of cool.
It has that high third at the top.
So after you kind of are playing with those notes,
I would recommend just going through the scale
that corresponds with the notes that you're playing.
So, C major.
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F major. (upbeat music)
You can choose notes from those scales
and throw them into the bassline you're writing
and it'll sound cool.
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Another scale that's really cool
that uses notes from the major scale
is a major pentatonic scale.
A lot of bassists use this.
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Kind of sounds like Bambi to me, I don't know why.
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Just peaceful.
But also it can be really cool and driving
if you play it the right way.
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Once you kind of have the diatonic notes,
or the notes that fit within the scale and key
that you're playing in
you can use chromatic neighbors
to make it sound more interesting
and kind of walk up to things.
I think like really trained jazz bassists
are very good at this.
But there's a few, you know,
there's just like some tricks you can do.
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That's something that a lot of people do
that's just, you know, that's fun.
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Once you have those notes down,
you can make a little melodic motif
that really carries the song.
I think a lot of people think of bass
as some sort of background instrument,
which is just not true,
and you can really be in charge of a melody.
And maybe if you're playing with your band
and you come up with this melodic line,
it will inform the vocalist if you have one,
and they can play with the notes
that you're choosing to make a more interesting song.
Truly, no matter what you play,
however many notes you throw in,
if you play it in pocket, if you play it with your heart,
it's gonna sound good.
I hope the stuff we talked about today is helpful,
but in time, you're gonna be coming up with your own notes
I didn't even touch on today.
And that's really exciting,
and I wish you the best of luck writing your basslines.
I'll see you around, bye!
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