what's the importance of the bass line?

J

josey whales

New member
i hear everyone talking about bass lines. i also hear that it is more in down south music. i listen to music but i never really notice any bass lines unless they really stand out. is the bass line a secret ingredient to a good track? does the bass line suppose to mirror alongside another instrument?
 
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The bass adds the bottom end, and helps the track "roll". It is rarely something that sticks out of a track, but is very noticeable when it isnt there.

Listen to Michael Jackson's Bille Jean for how important abass line can be
 
Other important bass lines:

Beat It, by Michael Jackson

Higher Ground, by The Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally by Stevie Wonder)

YYZ, by Rush

Schindleria Primataurus, by Yes (ok, it's really 7 bass lines, but still. =) )

Mendellsohn's 4th symphony, 4th movement.

As for mirroring other instruments:

In most rock music, the bass is usually "pumping 1/8th notes" along with the root note of the chord. Most of the rest of the time, the bass is doubling the guitar line. Practically invisible (ok, inaudible).

In the blues genre, the bass has more of a mind of its own, it usually "walks" through arpeggios of whatever chord the guitar is playing.

In funk, the bass is even more independent, usually with it's own counterpoint, and "lead" fills. There is usually more "space" available in funk for a bass to fill, so it doesn't make the track sound cluttered.

In electronic music, the space delegated to bass may use low frequency effects in lieu of an actual "bass" line.

There. Bass 101. Have fun.
 
Carnage said:
Listen to Michael Jackson's Bille Jean for how important abass line can be
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I second that. Take away that bassline and there will not much left...
 
wow,i have a lot to learn about the bassline technique. i listened to the micheal jackson tracks above and i have a good idea of the role a bassline plays. "poppa was a rolling stone" by the Temptations is another good song. i'm mostly making hip hop music and when it comes to adding a bassline i have just been throwing in a bassline with it's own melody. is there any links that explains the art of the bassline in depth?
 
the bass in a song plays a very stratigic part. you can play alot of games with bass with changing keys inside one key and so forth getting advanced in music theroy.
bottom line the bass will set up the rest of the song in key. when you get into the harmonic chart ( heres where some games in music come in and some interesting writing methoeds ) you could have a bass playing a G then at 3 octaves up have an instrument playing D this will be in tune. there usally is a myth where people feel the bass has to follow the rest of the intruments and usally is correct if you want a thick sound being herd and if you have written a song on a guitar most commen is you usally havnt planned the bass part, but what people dont know is just say the guitar is at an E you can get a bass playing 5 octaves down at a C and you will be in tune.and this will give you a different feel alltogether. the bass dosent have to mirror other instruments and in alot of classical and more advanced writing in music the bass will be in one part and not playing the same note as the violins or guitar, jimi hendrix understood this tool can do it at times king crimson very much understand alot of this , but is not understood with alot of pop music and pop rock where usally the bass and guitar play the same thing.
in theory depending on your BASS note you can play any note as long as its in the right octave. and this does work not just in theory.
example of the harmonic scale or short explenation is inside one note ( we will use the note of E for the guitar players ) there is every note heard at the same time . plato did this experiment in is time.
octave 1 E
octave 2 E
octave 3 B this is where the first new note appears
octave 4 E
octave 5 G# another new note appears
octave 6 B
octave 7 D
octave 8 E
octave 9 F#
octave 10 G#
octave 11 A
octave 12 B
and we will stop there yes is does keep going actually to infinity, and this is what happens when you hit the note E,
try this experiment to understand or to see whats going on
get a guitar a tuner and a peice of string then take one peice of the string and hold it at the nut take it down to the bridge and make sure its as close as you can get to being exact ( then tie a not at each end so you now have that length ) then fold it half, you will then notice that the string is now at the 12th freet of the guitar hit the harmonic on the 12th freet and what do you get the same note wich is the second octave in the harmonic scale ( as above ) then fold the string again in half so its in 1/4 and you will get again the same note which is the forth harmonic now fold it in thirds and take it from the nut or the bridge and hit the harmonic and you will get the third harmonic. notice the pattern inside the scale how things double and so on, but when you get to number 11 it may be tricky this one is a wierd one.
when plato did this he got a massive peice of string and then tied it on two posts and then stretched it as tight as he could, ( like a guitar string but at a bigger scale) and with this he could see how the string moved he then marked the points where the string didnt move the first point was where the 12th freet harmonic is, im soory i find it hard to write down the explanation for this and find it alot easier with spoken word, but this is a very interesting experiment with how the string moves and also gets back to the point on how a bass can play a part in a song. the bass is a very underestimated instrument it really does have alot of power with in a song alot more than what people will take it for.
 
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A simple reply would be that in hip-hop/rap music, the bass (bassline) works with the drums to establish the groove, which in my opinion is the most import part of a groove oriented music such as hip hop. Check Dr. Dre's work on the chronic (songs like ain't nuthin but a g thang) etc.
BR
 
that was an awsome read houseofthesun. very imformative. gives me a lot to study up on. i will check out dr. dre breakabreaka.
 
i have another question for you all. i read from HouseOfTheSun and THM, that without the bassline the song is basically lifeless, so my question is can their be a substitute sound?

1. to be clearer, what other instruments or sounds that can be used to create the bassline besides the bass?

2. can you only make the bassline with string instruments, or can you play other instruments in low octaves?
 
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Carnage said:
The bass adds the bottom end, and helps the track "roll". It is rarely something that sticks out of a track, but is very noticeable when it isnt there.

Listen to Michael Jackson's Bille Jean for how important abass line can be
Click to expand...


the bassline alwways stick out of a track. especially if its a rollin BL. cuz most of the time the BL is the melody replaying.
 
josey whales said:
i hear everyone talking about bass lines. i also hear that it is more in down south music. i listen to music but i never really notice any bass lines unless they really stand out. is the bass line a secret ingredient to a good track? does the bass line suppose to mirror alongside another instrument?
Click to expand...

If you have to ask, you'll never know.
 
Fumbling on Ecstasy said:


If you have to ask, you'll never know.
Click to expand...

Before I learnt bass i would have had to ask, now I know, so just keep learning.

and by the sounds of it keep pestering house of the sun.

good post:cheers:

as a furthurence if you look up your chords you can use the bass to play a low note the guitar cannot reach to finish (or change) the chord.

i.e C E G

have a 5 string bass play the low C and the guitar play the notes aove.

I think it was staind who did this a lot in the voyages into downtuned sonic murk!
 
thanks for all of the latest responses. i realise that a lot of earlier music had more of string bass in them. the music today (hip hop) i notice that it appears to be many variety of instrument playing a deep note to cover the lowend and roll the song along not just a string instrument. some songs i hear that are hits and they have no apparent bassline playing, just another instrument playing in a low octave.

maybe i'm not making any sence but i asked a question earlier, what are the different type of instruments that can be used to create basslines.

i don't want to limit myself to just string instruments if i don't have to.
 
doing some close listtening i noticed that a lot of songs just use deep synths to cover the low end.

so is a bassline composed of any bass sound?

i'm using software to create bass sounds. the bass sounds aren't deep enough. can i just add some low end to it with the eq?

in the future i know that i'm going to look back on some of these posts that i am posting and laugh at myself.
 
josey,
any instrument you want can play the bassline. just do some research, grab some of your favorite tracks and listen to em on a system with good low end. traditionally in rock music, the electric bass does play the bass and in jazz an upright bass (althought again an electric bass can do it). there aren't any rules and it doesn't have to sound stringy. listen to anything by the neptunes and listen to that first signature style hit. I'm sure, given their musical background, it's from a bass guitar of some sort but it's processed in such a manor that it has a unique sound. experiment with it like that, run effects on it and find your own sound.
BR
 
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