Latest
The Melody…. God Save the Queen! by Igor Saavedra
This month’s article won’t be a long one, and it will be dedicated to emphasizing which, in my opinion, is the most important aspect within the context of a song or a “normal” musical piece: The Melody; The jewel of the crown, the queen, the point of reference, the context itself, etc. (and I would be able to add many more adjectives to try to define how I see melody within the musical context). Perhaps the last comparison I can make is just to say that if a musical piece or a song is something like a kingdom or much better, “An Empire,” the melody would be the equivalent to “Rome”… that means every road leads to it, everything has to be reported to it and has to be dedicated to it. I think you already know what I mean 😉
Being a bass player myself, I’m conscious that my instrument is mainly a rhythmic based instrument in the first place; I’ve written many articles in here about that specific topic. The rhythm is taking most of our attention while playing, but there’s something even more important than Bass… ohhh how sacrilegious I’m being hahaha! But trust me on this, because “Music” is obviously more important than Bass, and in my opinion Bass has to serve Music and not the opposite.
How I see it, everything we play as bassists has to be related to the melody; let’s see some good examples…
When the melody is actually being played…
– When it comes to dynamics we must lower our volume when the singer or any of the lead instruments is exposing the melody.
– When it comes to esthetics, we have to care about not playing busy while the melody is being exposed, just a few notes, perhaps longer notes… play simple my friends, let the melody shine!
– Also in the esthetics field, play with the proper textures that you may think will help the melody to glow, e.g. palm muting, playing closer to the neck, choosing the proper pickup configuration, etc.
But what happens when the melody was already played and now is time for the solos? Can I just forget about it?
In my opinion the answer must be a gigantic and enormous NOOOOOOOO!
Melody is an entity that should be all the time and every millisecond of the musical piece, acting as the centripetal axis of the song, and the most glorious moment to reflect that concept is on the soloing. But beware, that’ll happen only when it’s time for a really good, musical, and fully mature soloing concept!
Remember the article I wrote some months ago “Think When you Study… Feel When you Play?” well this article is somehow closely related to what I’m saying here.
When we improvise or solo on a song we should be literally “playing” and I want to stress the fact that I’m being absolutely literal here, I mean PLAYING like the kids! We should be singing new melodies and having a great time like kids do as this is not the moment for thinking about the chords that support the song.
Did you see that I said “Chords that are supporting the song?” This is very important, because it’s the main role of the chords. They are not and end in themselves, they are “helping the song,” and more specifically they are helping the melody and any melodic line. So how could anybody relate or base their improvisations on the chords or the harmony? You can immediately notice when a musician starts to do that, because you will start to hear a very identifiable type of solo, which will sound like blocks, pieces, parts of something that are clearly separated from each other, abuse of arpeggios, structured scales, sequences, patterns, etc.; you won’t be able to listen to an idea that’s a whole in itself.
I can literally tell you how I see this…
“When I improvise, I just focus on the original melody of the song, I never think about chords at all. I see the melody as ‘The Real Queen of the Song’ and the point of reference for every note I’ll be playing in my solos.”
When you improvise, you are recreating something, you are relating to a context, and that context is The Melody. While soloing over the melody’s chordal structure, if you are able to abstractly sing the melody in your mind with absolute clearness, thinking about the chordal structure becomes completely unnecessary, and believe me, this is the exact moment for takeoff in your soloing. Try doing it with your voice and you’ll see that in most of the cases it is quite easy, and your consciousness won’t be asking for the chordal structure at all.
And if the song has a special vamp for the solos that has nothing to do with the melody’s chordal structure, well then I suggest you please INVENT A MELODY IN REAL TIME AND RELATE EVERY NOTE OF YOUR SOLO TO IT!
Obviously, translating this concept to an instrument is something harder to achieve, but completely doable. You need to study a lot, play a lot of scales, arpeggios, phrases & chords, organize them, structure them, practice and practice even more. At the end of that cycle, which in average can take from 5 to 20 years, when you are playing and mostly when you are soloing you must be able to purposely “forget” or “take away from your conscious thinking” all you’ve learned.
Remember that I’m not the owner of any truth; I’m just sharing what I’ve learned from my experience. You may agree with it or not, no problem, I love you guys anyway J
Long life to the melody… respect it, serve it, glorify it, help it, love it!
See you on the next!!
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag
FEATURED @kilianduartebass @meridian_guitars @adamovicbasses @marleaux_bassguitars @jcrluthier @sandbergguitars @ibanezuk_official @dingwallguitars @torzalguitars @ariaguitars
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag
FEATURED @bacchusguitars @franz.bassguitars @mendesluthieria @ramabass.ok @meridian_guitars @adamovicbasses @shukerbassguitars @fantabass.it @andys_vintage_guitars @valdesbasses
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag
FEATURED @murraykuun_guitars @ja.guitars @combe_luthier @overloadguitars @kevinhidebass @franz.bassguitars @indra_guitars @petercrowdesign @baboomin_bass @jcrluthier
Check out our top 10 favorite basses on Instagram this week…
Click to follow Bass Musician on Instagram @bassmusicianmag
FEATURED @sandbergguitars @benevolent_basses @rayriendeau @olintobass @wonkorbasses @bite.guitars @adamovicbasses @maruszczyk_instruments @skervesenguitars @ramabass.ok
Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
Visit online:
Official Website
Facebook
Instagram
YouTube
Spotify
Gear News: Fender Unveils Highly Anticipated Vintera III Series
New Music: Oteil Burbridge & Lamar Williams Jr. New Single, Hush
Interview With Bassist Virginia Franks
Nathan East, Echoes of a Lineage – April/May 2026 Issue
Gear Review: Italia Leather Straps
Mar 2 Edition – This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Mar 9 Edition – This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Mar 16 Edition – This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram
Mar 23 Edition – This Week’s Top 10 Basses on Instagram