Pimp Your Bassline

Have you ever been asked to come up with a bassline on the spot? And do you have a hard time coming up with different basslines over the same drum beat? Most likely the problem is too much focus on the notes. Although, we should be fine playing nothing but the root note, we often think of notes first when it comes to parameters of a bassline. 

The Secret Sauce

The truth is, the notes are really just a tenth of our arsenal. We have nine other parameters at our disposal to create a fitting bassline to any drum groove or complete song. The notes should be the last thing we think about. The root note always works. I'm sure you know the saying "Don't change the winning team". 

In my "Pimp Your Bassline" tutorial I challenge you to come up with a bassline focusing on everything else besides the notes you play. You will learn about the nine under appreciated elements of music and how to use them consciously. So you can come up with capturing basslines for days without ever playing more than one note.

The Root Note Curse

Someone put a spell on us bassists. Somehow whatever we play, we always start with the root note. Which makes a lot of sense, because let's be honest, it's our job. But what if we want to play a solo or a bass fill? What if we want to play a melodic bassline in the breakdown of a song?

The Secret Sauce

One thing that helps us to get out of this rut is the concept of triad inversions. In particular the inversions of the 3-string shapes. In "The Triad Inversion Hack" I show you how to avoid only thinking of chord tones in relationship to the root note. With the knowledge of the 3-string shapes of the major and minor inversions you can let go of your addiction to root notes and come up with melodic lines by focusing on voice leading. 

Just think of any chord progression. Moving from one chord to another every note in a triad will dissolves into another note of the following triad. There are only three options. Either you will have to shift it a whole step, a half step or not at all. Using this knowledge when improvising every chord transition will sound smooth and let the melody live on. The typical jump to the root note makes it impossible to play melodic phrases that last longer than one chord.

The Bass Fill Struggle

Have you ever been practicing bass fills, only to realize that what you practiced might have worked on that one song, but surely doesn't on the next one? Or maybe you've been shedding away on this cool basslick you saw on Youtube. But when you wanted to use it on stage, it just didn't sound right and killed the vibe of the song

The Secret Sauce

I'm not a big fan of learning licks and patterns. They are useful when you need inspiration or work on your technique. But music is, for the most part, too organic to just through in licks left and right without ruining the song. In other words, if we want to play in the vibe of the song, we need to be able to react to what and how everyone around us is playing. It's like a conversation. It gets boring if every word is scripted, but if you keep jumping from one topic to the next without any reason, it becomes really hard to follow you. So the secret is knowing the limits of your freedom and acting within them. Or consciously ignoring them. But that's just for special occasions

In "Bass Fill Hacks #1" I show you three approaches that will work in almost any musical context. The key is working with what is already there. Using the vocabulary of the song to come up with new ideas. 

The Augmented Triad Struggle

The first time that I heard of the augmented triad was when I studied jazz in Arnhem (NL). But I lost interest pretty quickly, because I just couldn't seem to make it work. It always sounded like I was playing random notes.

The Secret Sauce

The key for unlocking the augmented triad was a side effect of checking out chromatic approaches. Once I understood the concept of voice leading, I had no problem making the augmented triad sound deliberate and melodic.

Voice leading is the ultimate augmented triad hack. In this context it means connecting one chord with another by dissolving the last note of the current chord into a (primary) chord tone of the next chord. Doing so will outline the chord changes and give your solo harmonic movement, even if you're playing all by yourself.

All of a sudden all the dissonant tones of alterations like augmented fifths will have a direction and your solo will be full of tension and release. One of the surest ways to get your audience hooked