Hello revolutionary music makers, I’m Kate Harmony, this is Ray Harmony, and welcome
to Hack Music Theory, where we help you make great music that stands out. If it’s your
first time here, please help yourself to our free book “12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn
Scales & Chords”, which you can download from our website: HackMusicTheory.com. And
just a quick heads up, our Black Friday sale has started, so you can get 40% off all our
books, PDFs, and our online course now! Alright, it’s time to open your DAW to hack music
theory. But first… tea!
Over the last couple of lessons you’ve learned how to write an epic chord progression and
melody, so now you’re gonna learn how to write an epic bass line underneath. And this
theory hack is inspired by the chorus of recent single “Alleviate” by the awesome Norwegian
band Leprous. But, the example in this lesson is actually our music, which we wrote using
their theory. Right, so start by setting up four bars of 4/4, with your grid set to 1/8
notes, and your tempo set to 116 BPM. Leprous use D natural minor for their chorus, and
the natural minor scale is a common choice for epic music, so we’ll use it too.
STEP 1. THE PATH
Your bass line needs to be the path upon which all your other instruments will walk, so it’s
essential to build a solid path that can take the weight of everything above it. And the
best way to do that is to play the root of every chord, as the root is by far the most
stable note. Our chords are: Dm → Fmaj → B♭maj → Csus4, so we started writing our bass
line by using D→F→B♭→C. And another thing to keep in mind is that as soon as you
play a note on your bass guitar, it starts to fade, which weakens the path. So to counter
that, simply play 1/8 notes, which has the added advantage of giving your bass line a
driving momentum.
STEP 2. STRAY
Now, there’s a huge difference between your bass being a path, and it being a doormat.
If your bass only plays root notes, it’ll blend into the background and your other instruments
will walk all over it. That’s not cool, so don’t let your bass be a doormat. The
best way to avoid that fate (and to ensure your bass line becomes a path) is actually
rather counterintuitive. To be the path, your bass needs to stray from the path. Think about
it: Your listeners won’t notice your bass line when it’s only playing root notes,
so as soon as it strays from those roots, it attracts attention to itself. Then, as
soon as it has that attention, it can return to the path, but now that it’s been noticed,
the next root note it plays won’t blend into the background. We strayed with one or
two 1/8 notes at the end of each bar. And this straying also creates the opportunity
to inject motifs, which are short musical ideas that are repeated to make your music
memorable, like these ascending 1/8 notes at the end of bars 1 and 2, and these descending
1/8 notes at the end of bars 3 and 4.
So, now that you’ve got one section down, how do you write the other sections? Then,
how do you transition between them (especially when they’re in different keys)? And then,
how do you structure and arrange your song? These are issues many songwriters and producers
struggle with, and that’s exactly why we made our online apprenticeship course, which
guides you through every step of the music making process, from blank screen to finished
song. So, if you wanna learn our secret method for writing (and finishing) great songs, which
we don’t teach in these free lessons, then check out our online apprenticeship.
Alright, now let’s have a listen to our epic bass line, but just before the playthrough,
if there’s an artist you’d like us to hack, please let us know. And remember, this
bass line is not the only epic thing going down this week, our epic sale starts today,
so get over to HackMusicTheory.com for 40% off everything, including our bestsellers:
the Songwriting & Producing PDF and the online Apprenticeship course. Thanks for watching
(or listening, if you’re on the podcast), and we’ll see you next time.