this is something i see and hear all the time
everyone does it differently
these ideas I present are part of that brooklyn bass line sound
the idea hear is to imitate the way a bass player bops on the groove
now this is more of an organ technique but it works fine on the keyboard too
if you are doing it on organ there is a slight variation possible with it
that really makes it sound tight
but here it is
bear with me i am going to teach it in three parts so if you want to get to the final product check out the last bass line and when you cant figure out what i am doing then come back up to the top and read from the beginning for all you ADD people
the count is
1 e & A 2 E & A 3E & A 4 E & a
and you play these following three note sets on the first three subdivisions of the 16th note
ok a little rhythm theory is in order
their are 16 1/16 notes in a measure
in 4/4 time their are four 1/4 notes
there are 8 1/8 notes
there are 2 1/2 notes
so the bass line that we all learned first we usually play that in 1/8 notes or 1/4 notes depending on what type of groove we are setting up
usually the drummers snare drum will be landing on the 2 and the 4 of a measure
so if you program a drum machine you can set up the bass drum on the 1 and the snare on the 2 and the 4
ok now that we got that out the way
we are going to lay a 1/8 note bass line
lets gp to the key of c since it is a key most of us can easily visualize
due to all the white notes
C E F F# G A Bb B
now lets
lets hook this bass line up by adding approach notes
1 e & 2 e & 3 e & 4 e &
C C E F D F# G F A Bb G B
I put a major third in front of every other tone
and they all land on the first three 1/16 notes of each beat
now lets try it with a fourth instead of a third
1 e & 2 e & 3 e & 4 e &
C B E F Db F# G E A Bb F# B
now that we did that lets try to work with a bass line involving a 2 5 1 with a turn around bass line
what you will notice is that this line now uses chromatics so the set up is on the chromatic not the tone
II V ! VI
D Eb Ab G Ab Db C F Bb A Bb Eb bass line on the same count as previous examples
CDFA BDFA ADG GCDbF right hand chords
we could also do the same example with thirds instead of fourths lets try thirds on a bass line using 6 7 3 6 progression
VII III Vi
B Db F E F# Bb Areally any bass motion that you use to follow any progression you can insert this figure to give a little kick to the progression
the beauty of this line is that it grooves you dont have to play it fast in fact it sounds more in the pocket at slower tempos great for those baptist grooves
I am not saying this is easy to get the hang of I just really understood the concept about an hour ago and it took about a good hour just to play it at 120 BPM
and i had been exposed to the concept over a year ago i just never understood it until now
or maybe my technique was too weak to pull it off
lets do one more progresson just so you can see that it is really user friendly
thiis one is in the key of Bb
it is a 3 6 2 5 1 using substitutes so you get a chromatic bassline
the chords are D-7 C#-7 C-7 B7 Bbmajor7
III bIII II bII I
D Ab Db C Gb B Bb left hand Bass line still usnig the same rhythm
CDFA BEbEAb BbDEbG ADbEbF# ACDF right hand chords this last example is a little faster but it is still the same concept
with all of these different variations if you really dig into this you can play any song and now you can do more then just hold octaves in your left hand
let me know what you think
if you have any problems making it hit just be patient rome wasnt built in a day it tool centuries to build rome
i know yall dont have 100 years but it wont take that long just put on your drum machine and play slowly it will come
if you dont use a drum machine you sill tend to rush and you will always sound raggedy
so takeyour time put on a drum machine at a slow tempo and get it papping
now i want you to add either a chromatic tone above each note
