How do you write bass lines?

[g3o2]

For melody (lead), I’ve come across the following principle: “Steps are easy, leaps are hard.”
The underlying assumption is that leaps are more difficult to sing along with and therefore considered less melodic. Does the opposite apply for bass or would it depend on the lead?

In the same train of thought, would a busy drum rhythm imply a more simple bass line and vice versa? Which drum part(s) would you associate most with the bass line?

When do you record your bass lines live (with or without quantisation) and when do you rather resort to a sequencer?

[bodymechanics]

I watched a Thundercat video on his favorite bass lines the other day. It was very inspiring, especially this one part where a bass line was extremely simple and he was breaking down what made it great.

If I don’t know what I want, I scroll sounds and play keys till I find something that gets me excited about it.

[malus_mons]

If you don’t dance then you won’t be able to do it. The bass moves bodies. I recommend standing up and dancing to the beat and see what happens. I believe it was Humpty Hump (aka Shock G) who once said:

“Ahdooooooooreee dooooreeee”

Or something like that

[bodymechanics]

I’d add not all bass/music is for dancing.
Sometimes I just wanna lay on the couch with an eye mask and be swallowed by psychedelia.

[Klaptastic]

swallowed by psychedelia and climbing back to reality with the dance vibes a few hours later seems to be how those days go for me

[bodymechanics]

I’m never able to predict any expectations about it. Sometimes I’m anti social and couch locked, other times I wanna boogie and I could easily play my best live sets

[chaocrator]

i believe basslines are genre dependent to great degree, but anyway.
i start with a rhythmic phrase, just 16th root notes.
once it satisfies me rhythmically, i start changing pitches of some notes, typically to characteristic notes of used scale.
then adding accents & slides.
then randomizing some notes (whether they’re triggered) to add variation.
that’s it.

[dobermate]

In general, I just ask myself what Alan Wilder would do and try to copy that

[g3o2]

@sinktothesea

There are useful books that are specifically written for creating bass lines, but they are mainly intended for the bass. They still work for electronic music.

Would you have any more specific reference by any chance?

[natehorn]

@malus_mons

I recommend standing up and dancing to the beat and see what happens.

I sprained my ankle, is my bassline done yet?

[holonology]

Start with the chords and play “low lead” based off the root notes, but dancing round them a bit more. At least that’s what I think I’m doing!

[whim]

Besides many good ideas already mentioned, I’d emphasize

Audiation

ie. imagining sounds—in this case, allowing writing in your head. Though it can be a hard skill to start developing, I believe it can benefit almost any musical practice

[error.eyes]

Most of the times I just hum something and then try to play it or sequence it with an instrument, go back and forth until something feels right. I know there are theories that play parts in that, but I don’t always explicitly go, “this bass needs to be in root this and that, and match the drums, and theory this and that.” I just go with what I feel a track needs, and what the track is making me feel.

Humming, like beatboxing, is great because that is the freest form of coming up with musical ideas without the hindrance of having to pick up and learn an instrument, and one can get pretty creative and experimental quickly too - humming doesn’t have to be simple.

One thing I will say though, is that bass is very important to me, not just as subs or cool distorted this and that, but as an instrument that provide a foundation for the rest of the instruments, while being its own thing and do cool interplay with other instruments. Whenever it feels right to me, a bass track has to say and convey as much as any other instrument in that track.

That’s it.

[Suspect_Frequency]

@malus_mons

it was Humpty Hump (aka Shock G) who once said:

‘Just grab ‘em in da biscuits’

[Microtribe]

@whim

imagining sounds

This.

I have very limited basic music theory. Which is useful. 90% of everything I do is imagined in my head then worked out with my hands/ears

[MuttBeats]

I tend to jam along with a beat on my bass guitar. Usually my Stingray but sometimes my Fender Precision, depends on what vibe I’m after. I can noodle away for quite a long time, just trying stuff out and getting a feeling for what works.

When (sometimes ‘if’…. don’t always feel it) I land on something that works, I record it into Live or Reason (if I’m working with my computer) or I’ll sample it straight into the Digitakt in my DAWless setup (via a Q-Strip preamp pedal) while the beat is playing if I reckon I can nail it as a straight take with timing that’s bang in the pocket (usually OK for this if I’m warmed up and I’ve got the line worked out in my head).

Sometimes I’ll double the line I’ve recorded with a synth bass where I’m playing in the same notes using a MIDI keyboard or the Digitakt chromatic keyboard. Bass guitar doubled with a big fat analog monosynth (or VA in my case, usually my Hydrasynth) can be pretty monstrous. Some lines work great if I run my bass through an analog octave pedal (MXR Bass Octave Deluxe is my favourite) when recording/sampling which is a more subtle way of achieving the same aim. The main thing though is that the composition part… coming up with the line in the first place… begins with my bass guitar.

Another trick I’ve recently begun experimenting with is sampling individual notes, hammer ons, slides, slaps etc into the Digitakt where each note is within the scale of the track. Then I use trig locks and sample start to ‘play’ a completely new bass line where the source sounds come from my bass guitar but the end result is a chopped up glitchy mashup. It’s similar in concept to playing with slices in a sample slicing machine on the Digitakt… but unlike slicing on the DT (which is automatic on the grid and can’t be adjusted) I can fine tune the start time of each note to get the timing bang-on. Having a lot of fun with this!

[jing_cenric]

An age old approach is to learn and play (or perhaps sequence in this case) a number of famous bass lines - or at least ones you like. This way you can learn the vocabulary and get it into your musical intuition without having to only rely on explicit rules/principles on the one hand or happy accidents on the other. The specifics are style dependant of course.

[g3o2]

@error.eyes

I just go with what I feel a track needs, and what the track is making me feel.

I also do bass line writing by ear 90% of the time, as I do with the rest of the tracks except for drums. Songwriting would not be fun if it was purely mechanical or methodical. With drums, I have felt more humbled ever since I tried playing the real thing - not my kind of motor function.

Nonetheless, I also think that those theoretical and practical trick bags can be pretty useful when things don’t quite work out the spontaneous way (i.e. it doesn’t feel right whatever you do), when you want to find out why they do work out, or when you need to understand the trophy that you’ve just copied from your source of inspiration. It helps consistency and persistence in the songwriting process.

[Suspect_Frequency]

As said above, I’ll often get a beat/melody and then jam with this first…

Or my electric bass or a synth and just experiment. I’ll usually find something I like then record it, then also try variations once the first idea is recorded to see what else comes along.

Other times I will use something like Rozeta Bassline and see what the random algorithms can do to inspire a starting point, taking something it spews out as inspiration to explore and build upon.

[malus_mons]

You got 2 ankles, and only one excuse. Dance!