New to music, music theory and bassline/melody.

[gustavort00]

Hi guys, i am new to this forum and music (making it) i don't speak to much english so i may have some errors So i was following a Tornado Twins tutorial (youtube) where they teach how to make a full dubstep song in Ableton Live, i already have finished it and i want to start making dubstep and EDM, i also want to take music making seriously, so i would like to know a little bit of music theory (enough). I also have a question; how can i make the melody to match the bassline ( or how to make the bassline match the melody)? Also some good advice about music making or video tutorials would be good. Thank you and sorry for the bad english

 

[bandcoach]

I answered this just yesterday

...

There are many ways to create a bass line:

• take the root of each chord and play it with some rhythm that usually syncs up with the kick drum
• take the notes of each chord and play through them like the bass in rock around the clock (arpeggio bass 1-3-5-3)
• take the notes of the chord and play them with joining scale runs or leaps to notes outside the chord and then fall back into the chord note (e.g. 1-4-3-2-3-4-5)
• take the notes of each chord and construct a line that moves up or down smoothly, effectively mimicking scale runs but with chromatic (out of key) notes where needed; this is generally called a walking bass line as it walks from chord to chord. You can also jump out of a note to another chord tone to push the flow of the line if needed
• create a melody that pays attention the chords but is not tied to using the root of any one chord, creating a line that flows

many more besides.

So the short answer is that you need to learn:

• chords and chord spellings
• scales
• melodic devices
• chromatic notes (non-scale tones) and when they should be used

Chords and chord spellings

Keyboard fingering charts - a collection of different chords

Scales



Melodic Devices


Bass matching the melody and vice versa
Addressing your issue about matching the bass the melody, if they are both based within a chordal concept (chord progression) then it will happen as a matter of course.

If not then you need to analyse one or the other to see if there is an underlying chord in each bar and as a result a larger scale progression or sequence of chords in use. This type of analysis is beyond the scope of the (simple) theory discussed above.