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How I Create Ideas by Franz Vitulli
Wow, ‘create’ ideas, sounds presumptuous, doesn’t it?
It’s been a long time since my last article here on BMM, and I was thinking about sharing something that I have been developing for the last months… how to create ideas? I mean, practicing ideas, composing ideas, any kind of idea that I can use when I hold the bass and want to play it. And it’s not by chance that I called the article “how I” instead of “how to”, which would have been more web-friendly (we all stumble upon some “how to” article on a daily basis), but the topic seems to me too wide to give a unique recipe. This is just one of my methods… by far not the only one!
Anyway, most of the time, when it’s time to practice, I start from a tune that I don’t know – or don’t remember – and begin studying it. I play the melody, memorize changes, play chords, some walking bass, some soloing, etc., until I can say that I’ve ‘mastered’ it, no matter what.
But sometimes, especially when I am studying a tune for my personal repertoire and don’t have to play it in a gig after 3 hours, I may find something that can be reduced, adapted or changed in some way. And then I realize that I can work on that on a multiple level.
For example, some days ago I was studying the Tom Jobim’s bossa nova standard ‘How Insensitive’, and the forth line of the lead sheet captured my attention. There was nothing particularly special, it was ‘just’ a minor II-V-I, Em7b5|A7b9|Dm7 followed by a Db13, and I tried to approach this part by reducing those chords to triads. I didn’t mean to play just an E diminished triad, A major triad and D minor, it would have depleted the entire progression. I simply tried to apply some basic harmonic substitutions. What I’m going to do now has nothing to do with ‘How Insensitive’ per se, I’m ‘moving forward’:
Em7b5 > G minor triad (it’s the same chord, but without the root).
A7b9 > Bb minor triad (I am interpreting this chord just like it was an A7alt built on the 7th mode of the Bb melodic minor scale).
Dm7 > D minor triad (just removed the 7).
Db13 > DbMaj7 > F minor triad (chords with 13 are often used in lieu of Maj7 chords, and F minor triad is just the DbMaj7 without the root).
What I have now is this progression: Gm|Bbm|Dm|Fm
What I just found is, actually, an harmonic sequence: we have two couples of triads, Gm|Bbm and Dm|Fm, with the same interval distance (a minor third), and the second couple is a fifth above the first.
We have a lot of options here.
For example, we can go further with the sequence, doing something like this:
||:Gm|Bbm|Dm|Fm|Am|Cm|C#m7b5|D7:|| (I created another couple, again a fifth above its preceding one, and closed with a D7 to create a refrain)
Or we can keep practicing just those four bars.
Or we can change the distance between each couple of bars and create new sequences.
We can practice different scales over each triad, ascending and discending, and find new melodies.
We can use what we find for composing a new tune, or for personal technical development (for example alternating ascending and discending triads on two octaves). When you want to practice embracing the ‘fitness’ approach, doing it with an harmonic background is so much better than playing nonsense random scales up and down the neck.
Or we can go back to ‘How Insensitive’ and use this approach to solo over those chords.
Remember that this is just ONE idea. I am not telling you to practice with Gm|Bbm|… and all those chords. The entire point of this article is about how to create ideas for many purposes and this is just a single way to do it. I am sure that if I do this, you can do something like this as well. Just remember:
- when I feel that I don’t know what to do when I’m practicing (it’s a rare circumstance, but, you know, it happens), music is the answer. There’s so much to explore in every single existing tune that it’s always possible to find new things. You can even start from an harmonic progression (I was talking about ‘How Insensitive’ but I could just have said “lets start from a minor II-V-I… but that idea came from ‘How Insensitive’ so I thought it was better to stick with what actually happened!), either found on a book, or made up by yourself.
- in every step forward you make, from somewhere to I-don’t-know-where, you have the power to make effective choices: you can go further and further or stick with a ‘level’. You are in charge. As soon as you find something interesting, write it down and choose what to do. Technical development? Composing? Both? Something else? It’s just your choice.
Hope it helps. As always, I would be more than happy if you comment on this article and share it on your social walls. I look forward to reading your thoughts!
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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.
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