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Creating Bass Lines – Part 2 by Rhayn Jooste
Creating Bass Lines – Part 2 by Rhayn Jooste (View Part 1)
Connecting the Dots
Now comes the fun part, connecting the changes. Once you have formulated the main rhythmic pulses and nailed the changes, connecting them smoothly is the next step. This is where knowing your scales and arpeggios along with knowing your fretboard comes in to play. The axiom – Knowledge is power comes into full effect. There are two approaches to this: First, position playing and second, converting the fretboard into the key signature. I use both but generally tend towards conversion, its safer and you will generally never hit a bum note (most of the time).
Position playing is exactly what it says: staying in one position and playing the changes. It relies on you remembering box shapes. However that’s about as far as most players get. You should also get to know the names of the notes within them as well. How else will you know which notes to target? So I would suggest getting to know your CAGED system shapes, all of them!
The conversion method is where you manipulate the natural notes along strings and hopefully the entire fretboard into a key. This does involve more brainpower but once you have learnt your fretboard you never struggle for finding the right notes. e.g. G major = 1 sharp which is F# – so all F’s get sharpened (move 1 fret to the right). The best way to get used to this system is to run 1 and 2 string scales, up and down the fretboard. Then try arpeggios across 1 string. See if your brain can keep up with your hands.
A good test for both systems is the ability to playing one-string scales or box shapes in a cycle of four or five, across key centers.
Timbre and tone: This step is where you make the decision to go low or high in the arrangement of your song. Style, tempo and instrumentation will guide your choice here. One thing to keep in mind is sonic scope; the bass range is large (a standing low E wave is actually 27 feet or 8.33 meters while a low B has a wave that’s 36 feet plus). So don’t just sit on the bottom two strings, use the other notes as well. Listen to the other instruments: Are you in a band with a seven-string guitar? What about the keyboard player; what bass line is he playing? Sometimes the music calls for low bass, a lot of hard rock and metal styles do. However some styles just do not. Keep in mind fretted notes are easier to control and in, say a funk line, allow you the option of staccato notes or even percussive beats. So you would not tend to use open strings as much or would need to control them a lot more.
Between a Rock and a Hard Place
So you have done all the hard work, got an awesome bass line and you roll up to the next rehearsal to dazzle the band only to be told: “Um… could you play root notes please!” or “Something simpler would be better!” What the…!
The bassist’s role in any band is a difficult tight rope between playing the harmony and keeping the groove going. Added to which you have to fit in with the other harmonic instruments, such as guitars and more importantly the vocals. Sometimes keeping it simple is key. So where do you get to be creative? Generally moments of creativity exist in certain sections or (more commonly) the end of sections or phrases where a run is needed. Possibly even when the drums finally come to a stop. However these moments are few and far between in most songs, so savor them. That’s not too mean you can’t be creative, it just means you have to channel and focus the ideas and creativity a lot more than say the guitarist, who will probably get away with long meandering solos, with wrong notes or rhythms misplaced; as its almost expected of them. This is not expected of the bass player. The bass is the foundation of most songs and needs to be steady, as all other instruments sit on top of it and rely on it for their road maps. Most vocalists pitch their note off your line through each chord. Yeah, that dratted the root note is actually quite important. So when you go wrong, so do they!
Rhythm is King
So what do you do when all you have facing you is, 16 bars of I IV V (or worse). You utilize rhythm. Changing the placement of notes with in a song structure is the difference between a song that sounds like its been manufactured and one that has groove. Find creative ways of approaching root note (that’s your walking bass line), Find ways to hold off on certain beats (that’s your funk line). Maybe the song calls for the notes to be punchy and percussive (that’s your pop and slap line). There are a myriad of ways to approach the musical situation you are in, you just need to be aware of them.
Always record your parts; that way you can step back and listen objectively when and evaluate how the bass lines sit in the arrangement. If you can, get the drummer to make a rough demo of his part so that you can formulate your ideas around what is actually being played and not a drum machine copy. Remember that your parts are important and it sometimes has to be kept simple. Bass is the foundation for modern music. The style and mood of the piece will dictate the part more than anything else but so will the knowledge you have under your fingers and in your muscle memory.
Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants.
A final thought: It’s your knowledge of other players lines that will pay off the most when it comes to creating lines of your own. Bass players have been playing root notes for years, so why not use their ideas on how to approach getting it right. Find a Chuck Rainey line to crow bar into a metal song. Or maybe there is a Stanley Clarke harmonic idea that will work great as in intro. I am not advocating out right theft, as that is too obvious. What I suggest is you have a toolbox of ideas you can call on. So that when you do its a case of massaging the notes into your musical situation or key. The bottom line is by studying those that have gone before you; you will have a greater palette of how to choose the correct notes, what rhythms work best or even what tone to use. Eventually you will start to craft your own lines with little or no effort.
Example two: Enigma.
I have utilized a Sankara ballad, called Enigma, to highlight all that I have gone over in the last 2 months articles. The key is D major however the harmony is B aeolian for the most part, except the bridges, which are D, major proper.
It was originally written by the singer Gareth Jones and is primarily a piano based piece. The demo I was given had a simple bass line that always hit all the root notes and had semi quavers running through the bridges, with the B to C# slur. The bare bones of the verse part was in place I added one substitution, because the chorus chord progression is exactly the same as the verse, the arpeggio walking, the slurs and along with syncopating the bass part through out the song. I allowed the bridge part to breathe with some rhythmic spacing of the notes and added 6 string idiosyncratic ideas (2 part harmony, hammer ons and some chordal diads). The fills were added to give more interest to section changes.
The bass part syncs in heavily with the bass drum beats in the verse and is almost a feature of that section (there is very little going on around it or in its frequency) and so has to be rock steady. Arpeggios are used to distinguish the verse from the chorus where a root to fifth approach to texture was used. The chorus is a simple root note bass line that locks into the bass drum beats as tightly as is humanly possible.
I used a 6 string bass guitar on this piece as it gave me more range to my note choices from a low B to a high D as well as giving me the option for chords. Each section (and its variations) has changes in language, range, rhythms or texture to create interest and move the song along. See notes in the music for details.
Bass Videos
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes…
It is always great to meet a super busy bassist who simply exudes a love for music and his instrument. Erick “Jesus” Coomes fits this description exactly. Hailing from Southern California, “Jesus” co-founded and plays bass for Lettuce and has found his groove playing with numerous other musicians.
Join us as we hear of his musical journey, how he gets his sound, his ongoing projects, and his plans for the future.
Photo, Bob Forte
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www.lettucefunk.com
IG @jesuscsuperstar
FB@jesuscoomes
FB @lettucefunk
Bass Videos
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
“These stories from the front are with real-life, day-to-day musicians who deal with work life and gigging and how they make it work out. Each month, topics may include… the kind of gigs you get, the money, dealing with less-than-ideal rooms, as well as the gear you need to get the job done… and the list goes on from there.” – Steve the Bass Guy and Shawn Cav
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This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
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Bass CDs
New Album: Jake Leckie, Planter of Seeds
Bassist Jake Leckie and The Guide Trio Unveil New Album Planter of Seeds,
to be released on June 7, 2024
Planter of Seeds is bassist/composer Jake Leckie’s third release as a bandleader and explores what beauty can come tomorrow from the seeds we plant today.
What are we putting in the ground? What are we building? What is the village we want to bring our children up in? At the core of the ensemble is The Guide Trio, his working band with guitarist Nadav Peled and drummer Beth Goodfellow, who played on Leckie’s second album, The Guide, a rootsy funky acoustic analog folk-jazz recording released on Ropeadope records in 2022. For Planter of Seeds, the ensemble is augmented by Cathlene Pineda (piano), Randal Fisher (tenor saxophone), and Darius Christian (trombone), who infuse freedom and soul into the already tightly established ensemble.
Eight original compositions were pristinely recorded live off the floor of Studio 3 at East West Studios in Hollywood CA, and mastered by A.T. Michael MacDonald. The cover art is by internationally acclaimed visual artist Wayne White. Whereas his previous work has been compared to Charles Mingus, and Keith Jarrett’s American Quartet with Charlie Haden, Leckie’s new collection sits comfortably between the funky odd time signatures of the Dave Holland Quintet and the modern folk-jazz of the Brian Blade Fellowship Band with a respectful nod towards the late 1950s classic recordings of Ahmad Jamal and Miles Davis.
The title track, “Planter of Seeds,” is dedicated to a close family friend, who was originally from Trinidad, and whenever she visited family or friends at their homes, without anyone knowing, she would plant seeds she kept in her pocket in their gardens, so the next season beautiful flowers would pop up. It was a small altruistic anonymous act of kindness that brought just a little more beauty into the world. The rhythm is a tribute to Ahmad Jamal, who we also lost around the same time, and whose theme song Poinciana is about a tree from the Caribbean.
“Big Sur Jade” was written on a trip Leckie took with his wife to Big Sur, CA, and is a celebration of his family and community. This swinging 5/4 blues opens with an unaccompanied bass solo, and gives an opportunity for each of the musicians to share their improvisational voices. “Clear Skies” is a cathartic up-tempo release of collective creative energies in fiery improvisational freedom. “The Aquatic Uncle” features Randal Fisher’s saxophone and is named after an Italo Calvino short story which contemplates if one can embrace the new ways while being in tune with tradition. In ancient times, before a rudder, the Starboard side of the ship was where it was steered from with a steering oar. In this meditative quartet performance, the bass is like the steering oar of the ensemble: it can control the direction of the music, and when things begin to unravel or become unhinged, a simple pedal note keeps everything grounded.
The two trio tunes on the album are proof that the establishment of his consistent working band The Guide Trio has been a fruitful collaboration. “Santa Teresa”, a bouncy samba-blues in ? time, embodies the winding streets and stairways of the bohemian neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro it is named for. The swampy drum feel on “String Song” pays homage to Levon Helm of The Band, a group where you can’t always tell who wrote the song or who the bandleader is, proving that the sum is greater than the individual parts. Early jazz reflected egalitarianism in collective improvisation, and this group dynamic is an expression of that kind of inclusivity and democracy.
“The Daughters of the Moon” rounds out the album, putting book ends on the naturalist themes. This composition is named after magical surrealist Italo Calvino’s short story about consumerism, in which a mythical modern society that values only buying shiny new things throws away the moon like it is a piece of garbage and the daughters of the moon save it and resurrect it. It’s an eco-feminist take on how women are going to save the world. Pineda’s piano outro is a hauntingly beautiful lunar voyage, blinding us with love. Leckie dedicates this song to his daughter: “My hope is that my daughter becomes a daughter of the moon, helping to make the world a more beautiful and verdant place to live.”
Bass CDs
Debut Album: Nate Sabat, Bass Fiddler
In a thrilling solo debut, bassist Nate Sabat combines instrumental virtuosity with a songwriter’s heart on Bass Fiddler…
The upright bass and the human voice. Two essential musical instruments, one with roots in 15th century Europe, the other as old as humanity itself.
On Bass Fiddler (Adhyâropa Records ÂR00057), the debut album from Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and bass virtuoso Nate Sabat, the scope is narrowed down a bit. Drawing from the rich and thriving tradition of American folk music, Sabat delivers expertly crafted original songs and choice covers with the upright bass as his lone tool for accompaniment.
The concept was born a decade ago when Sabat began studying with the legendary old-time fiddler Bruce Molsky at Berklee College of Music. “One of Bruce’s specialties is singing and playing fiddle at the same time. The second I heard it I was hooked,” recalls Sabat. “I thought, how can I do this on the bass?” From there, he was off to the races, arranging original and traditional material with Molsky as his guide. “Fast forward to 2020, and I — like so many other musicians — was thinking of how to best spend my time. I sat down with the goal of writing some new songs and arranging some new covers, and an entire record came out.” When the time came to make the album, it was evident that Molsky would be the ideal producer. Sabat asked him if he’d be interested, and luckily he was. “What an inspiration to work with an artist like Nate,” says Molsky. “Right at the beginning, he came to this project with a strong, personal and unique vision. Plus he had the guts to try for a complete and compelling cycle of music with nothing but a bass and a voice. You’ll hear right away that it’s engaging, sometimes serious, sometimes fun, and beautifully thought out from top to bottom.”
While this record is, at its core, a folk music album, Sabat uses the term broadly. Some tracks lean more rock (‘In the Shade’), some more pop (‘White Marble’, ‘Rabid Thoughts’), some more jazz (‘Fade Away’), but the setting ties them all together. “There’s something inherently folksy about a musician singing songs with their instrument, no matter the influences behind the compositions themselves,” Sabat notes. To be sure, there are plenty of folk songs (‘Louise’ ‘Sometimes’, ‘Eli’) and fiddling (‘Year of the Ox’) to be had here — the folk music fan won’t go hungry. There’s a healthy dose of bluegrass too (‘Orphan Annie’, ‘Lonesome Night’), clean and simple, the way Mr. Bill Monroe intended.
All in all, this album shines a light on an instrument that often goes overlooked in the folk music world, enveloping the listener in its myriad sounds, textures, and colors. “There’s nothing I love more than playing the upright bass,” exclaims Sabat. “My hope is that listeners take the time to sit with this album front to back — I want them to take in the full scope of the work. I have a feeling they’ll hear something they haven’t heard before.”
Available online at natesabat.bandcamp.com/album/walking-away
Interview With Bassist Erick “Jesus” Coomes
Working-Class Zeros: Episode #2 – Financial Elements of Working Musicians
Tour Touch Base (Bass) with Ian Allison
New Gear: Spector Woodstock Custom Collection Volume II
