what makes a good bass line

[broy]

Hi all - I've got access to a bass. Never used it before, but figured I might try and figure out how to add it to my acoustic songs.

I can hit the basic 1-2-3-4 beats and it seems to fill up the lower end of the sonic space, but any recommendations on how to spice it up?

[Mandobart]

Electric bass guitar, acoustic bass guitar or upright double bass?

What genre(s)? What other instruments are playing?

[Mobilemike]

A great bassline is melodic - even hummable.

A great bassline enhances the rhythmic groove of the song. Doesn't need to hit every beat, or even every chord change, but just where it counts.

A great bassline is simpler than expected.

Genre dependent of course. And IMO not every song needs a great bassline - sometimes the bass is there just to serve a function and not call attention to itself. That is perfectly valid too.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

The way to play good bass lines is to listen to good bass lines. Listen to some of your favorite tunes and zone in on the bass player.

[Steve DeRosa]

If you're playing electric in an acoustic context, IMO two of the best (unfortunately both deceased) were John Stockfish, who played on all the United Artists-era Gordon Lightfoot tracks and worked with Jim Croce early in his career, and Tom Rowe of Schooner Fare - melodically/rhythmically interesting, without losing the all-important groove that keeps the music moving; here's a few examples:







I'd also take Bob's advice about zoning in on the bass player on some of your favorite tunes - fortunately the bass line is generally mixed fairly high in just about anything from the last 60 years or so (especially '60s soul/R&B - Motown, Atlantic, Stax/Volt, Muscle Shoals, etc.) so it's generally easy to pick out. Some of the cuts I used to hone my chops when I started playing bass:

[Rudy4]

Bob From Brooklyn's advice is rock solid.

You can learn a whole bunch about good bass playing by reading the (LONG!) AGF topic "Playing bass like a bass, not a guitar".

[Charlie Bernstein]

All good above. Regardless of your music style, it's worth paying attention to Willie Dixon, Duck Dunn, James Jamerson, and Paul McCartney.

Dixon and Dunn will show you how to hold down steady grooves and pivot through turnarounds. Jamerson and McCarney will show you how to employ those skills across shifting chord changes and arrangements.

The rest is practice and imagination.

To answer the question in your subject line, what makes a good bass line are:

- being on the right chord at the right time. (Like every other instrument, even the fanciest playing requires it: Jack Bruce, Stanley Clark, Phil Lesh, Jaco Pastorius.)

- being as one with drummer. (The Stones' Wyman and Watts, the Band's Danko and Helms, Cream's Baker and Bruce.)

- supporting the other instruments without dominating them. (Harvey Brooks, Jack Cassady, Nick Lowe.)

Someone once asked Bill Wyman how he overcame his famous stage fright when he played in front of thousands. He said he'd never had to: No one was ever looking at him, anyway.

That's the sign of a great bassist.

[Rudy4]

As long as names are being bantered about, Carol Kaye played on somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 recordings and shattered the "glass ceiling" for women in music.

https://youtu.be/q4JWqK6r6N4?si=A59V0NY5RntideTB

[mike o]

All good stuff. I’m guessing you have some music knowledge. This is a very simple way to start off.

Play some simple 3 cord songs and just play around with the root note only on the chords. Get a feel of what the drummer is doing and then think of hitting a note with the kick. If you have trouble hearing the kick work with drum tracks. I’m a huge fan of this app for a metronome/drum grooves (below). It simple but takes time. The next progression would be playing off the root, five and octave for each chord change. Bouncing off the 1-5 is basic country music movement. Then graduate to walking in and out of chord changes. Partice that for a year and you’re ready to tour.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/super-...te/id604175633

[broy]

Thank you all for the replies, great food for thought. Looks like I've got some listening to do. great input and gives me the start I was hoping for.

From a couple questions above

• What type of music: Rock, blues, Americana... everything from Beatles, Kinks to Sierra Ferrel and Ray Wylie Hubbard.
• What type of bass: Home made stand up bass i made out of a wash basin several years ago when my wife said she'd learn a certain song if I made it. I made it - she never learned the song - and the bass awaits.

[broy]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

As long as names are being bantered about, Carol Kaye played on somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 recordings and shattered the "glass ceiling" for women in music.

https://youtu.be/q4JWqK6r6N4?si=A59V0NY5RntideTB

+1 for Carol Kaye

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

As long as names are being bantered about, Carol Kaye played on somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 recordings and shattered the "glass ceiling" for women in music.

https://youtu.be/q4JWqK6r6N4?si=A59V0NY5RntideTB

Yes, Carol Kaye was a guitar player who became a bass player but she knew where she was going with the bass. She was extremely inventive. She was part of the "Wrecking Crew" in LA. She is the one who came up with the bass line on Sonny & Cher's "The Beat Goes On." She also came up with all kinds of bass lines for the Beach Boys.



There is nothing wrong with playing the root note or root-5th combinations, but a really good bass player is inventive. It can be hard to teach that, but listening to really good bass player's is very helpful to get a start on ideas.

- Glenn

[zuzu]

Bass is one of those things where details make a difference. From "good" to "great" in a bass line is often not as much what you do as how you do it.

I was in the audience the other night observing a singer/guitarist using a pro backup band for a one off performance. The bass player was surely a pro, top shelf, but...I could hear him sight reading. Hence, his lines were good, exactly what was expected, but not great in any sense. And no knock on him! I sure couldn't read my way through the performance he gave, he did the job professionally and competently, got the music done. I'm sure if he had some time to settle into some of those grooves he would show some great bass lines.

My point is that he only had time to consider the "what" of his playing on that gig, not time to develop the "how", a more involved process.

[fantex]

Leland Sklar plays some great bass on James Taylor’s stuff.