Funky bass line

TDOT · Apr 23, 2014

What' up FP? BC?

I have a question about something I've been stumped on or for the last week.

What are some tips to get the loose funky style bass? In terms of scale or timing?

I have a beat I've started that has a nice hoes progression using an EPIANO, and when I hear it the progression I can only hears funky bro soul type bass over top of it.

The key is in Cmin...should I stick with that scale for my bass? Try the relative major? Anything?

I've played with the keys for quite a while now to get a nice funky bass but nothing seems to work other then the same old root note bass key...

bandcoach · Apr 23, 2014

send me sample so I can nut out some specific ideas for what you have and then distill that to a general tutorial

some things that come to mind straight away are
octaves
repeated notes,
b7 above root,
use scale tone 3rd and 5th as well

scale runs as appropriate (pretty much use anything), but there are some specific things to do with rhythm and sound/articulation/playing technique that are also important

TDOT · Apr 23, 2014

Sweet thanks BC, when I get home tonight I'll send you the WAV file to my chord progression.
It's pretty basic and simple, I used some inverted chords and I really likre the EPiano I chose to use.

===
Until then though, for your examples do you mean?

octaves: Playing the bass line between a few octaves?

repeated notes: repeating the same note, I get this one cause it was kind of working with this progressions. When I would use the root notes of my chords as the bass and repeat it with the tempo it somewhat gave that sound I was looking for.

b7 above root: A bit confused

use scale tone 3rd and 5th as well: to use the 3rd and 5th tones of my scale?
===

Thanks again bandcoach, you kind of reassured me of what I was thinking and added to it.

I'll send you that link tonight first thing,

bandcoach · Apr 23, 2014

TDOT said:
Sweet thanks BC, when I get home tonight I'll send you the WAV file to my chord progression.
It's pretty basic and simple, I used some inverted chords and I really likre the EPiano I chose to use.

===
Until then though, for your examples do you mean?

octaves: Playing the bass line between a few octaves?

Play the note play the octave above it - think early disco as in 1974-5 which borrowed heavily from proto-funk and funk anyway

repeated notes: repeating the same note, I get this one cause it was kind of working with this progressions. When I would use the root notes of my chords as the bass and repeat it with the tempo it somewhat gave that sound I was looking for.

b7 above root: A bit confused

say my note is C play Bb above (C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-C reads 1-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7-8 in scale tone terms)

Now if I were to play Eb, I would play Db above it or D depnding on the surrounding chords and whether playing the dom7 note above the major chord Eb-G-Bb would work in this context

use scale tone 3rd and 5th as well: to use the 3rd and 5th tones of my scale?

if my chord were Cm7, then playing a line using any of C, Eb, G and Bb is appropriate

===

Thanks again bandcoach, you kind of reassured me of what I was thinking and added to it.

I'll send you that link tonight first thing,

TDOT · Apr 24, 2014

hey BC how can I get you that WAV file?

bandcoach · May 1, 2014

so, after some thinking and catching up with other stuff here are some additional thoughts

funk is about rhythm and decoration - to quote bootsy, "land on the 1 and everything else you do is the funk"

larry graham, who developed the popping and snapping technique in a duo with his mother playing organ says that the two basic sounds are about providing a kick like bottom end on 1 and 3 and a snare like snap on 2 and 4 - the rest of the technique is simply about handling the notes.

This is where the idea of using octaves comes form - the octave is the equivalent of the snare in the pattern played. you can then go further and decorate this with the m7 of the current tonic resolving up to the octave as a hammer-on.

You could further decorate by using hammer-pulls and pull-hammers - 1-b7-8-b7-1 or 1-8-b7-8-1

Slides and bends are much more advanced and need to be treated with a great deal of caution unless you play bass to begin with - hard to emulate in s\w (although you can get close with the scarbee series of sounds in jaybass for kontakt) and so you need to understand the dynamic of creating such an articulation on the real instrument first, imho

so rhythmically we have an interesting set of possibilities

some licks you might be able to use over a cm7 chord (or any dominant 9th chord)

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

1b

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

2

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

2b

1

e

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u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

2c

1

e

&

u

2

e

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u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

3

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

3b

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

4

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

4b

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

G[sub]0[/sub]

A[sub]0[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]0[/sub]

5

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

5b

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

6

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

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u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

6b

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

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u

4

e

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u

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

7

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

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u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

8

1

e

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u

2

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u

3

e

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u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

8b

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

8c

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

9

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

9b

1

e

&

u

2

e

&

u

3

e

&

u

4

e

&

u

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

C[sub]1[/sub]

C[sub]2[/sub]

the last few may work better if you go to half tempo - i.e. double the duration of every note

Note that you could easily convert the above lines into decorated kick and snare patterns as well

C[sub]1[/sub] and below = Kick
B[sup]b[/sup][sub]1[/sub] and C[sub]2[/sub] = snare hits

caveats about octave numbers used
usual caveats apply
Middle C = MIDI note Number 60 = C[sub]3[/sub] = C[sub]5[/sub] in FL and BiaB
add 2 to the octav numbers above if using fl or BiaB

TDOT · May 4, 2014

Thanks a lot BC, I just got back from vacation and was glad to see your response. I'm really going to have to try and break this down over some time to fully understand this.

bandcoach · May 5, 2014

audio and notation added

Funky bass line

TDOT

New member

bandcoach

Zukatoku - Mod Scientist

TDOT

New member

bandcoach

Zukatoku - Mod Scientist

TDOT

New member

bandcoach

Zukatoku - Mod Scientist

TDOT

New member

bandcoach

Zukatoku - Mod Scientist

Bass Alone	As a kick and snare pattern	Together with ElPiano

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-01.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-01.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-01.mp3[/mp3]
1b

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-02.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-02.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-02.mp3[/mp3]
2

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-03.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-03.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-03.mp3[/mp3]
2b

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-04.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-04.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-04.mp3[/mp3]
2c

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-05.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-05.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-05.mp3[/mp3]
3

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-06.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-06.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-06.mp3[/mp3]
3b

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-07.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-07.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-07.mp3[/mp3]
4

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-08.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-08.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-08.mp3[/mp3]
4b

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-09.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-09.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-09.mp3[/mp3]
5

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-10.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-10.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-10.mp3[/mp3]
5b

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-11.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-11.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-11.mp3[/mp3]
6

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-12.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-12.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-12.mp3[/mp3]
6b

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-13.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-13.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-13.mp3[/mp3]
7

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-14.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-14.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-14.mp3[/mp3]
8

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-15.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-15.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-15.mp3[/mp3]
8b

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-16.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-16.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-16.mp3[/mp3]
8c

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-17.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-17.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-17.mp3[/mp3]
9

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-18.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-18.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-18.mp3[/mp3]
9b

[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsBass-19.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsDrums-19.mp3[/mp3]	[mp3]http://www.bandcoach.org/fp/audio/funkyRiffsAll-19.mp3[/mp3]