July 11, 2025 • 29 mins
Episode 18: BASS LINES
Episode 18 of THE HARMONIOUS BLACKSMITH : A MUSIC THEORY EXPLORATION is all about Bass Lines. We will review a few terms to lead up to it like : Melody, Harmony, Chords, Chord Progressions, Scales, and even Gregorian Chant.
New terms include : Bass Lines, Range, Voice-Leading, Counterpoint, and SATB/4-part harmony. We will discuss the 4 main vocal ranges for SATB Chorale-style compositions and how the Bass Range lends itself to Bass Lines.
In the end, we will take a famous song as well as the prototypical I-IV-V progression and play a "Bass Line Game" in order to understand how Bass Lines are constructed, function, and the overall creativity that is possible.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:01):
Ladies and gentlemen, do you know what time
it is?
Yes! It is time
SPEAKER_02 (00:17):
for Music Theory!
SPEAKER_01 (00:29):
Let's hit it! Yes! Yes! Let's go! Let's learn!
Let's have
SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
fun! Let's beautify our lives! Let's make music
better! Let's make
SPEAKER_01 (00:57):
our lives
SPEAKER_03 (00:58):
better!
SPEAKER_01 (00:59):
Yes!
UNKNOWN (01:03):
Let us go!
SPEAKER_00 (01:04):
Welcome back to The Harmonious Blacksmith, a music
theory exploration.
I am, of course, your humblehost, Kevin Patrick Fleming.
Oh my! Oh dear, there they are.
Yeah, you all came back formore.
I'm so happy you did.
(01:25):
We're going to have a lot of funtoday.
UNKNOWN (01:27):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
Today, this is episode 18 of my podcast, and
this will be all about
SPEAKER_01 (01:36):
bass.
SPEAKER_00 (01:40):
Please take a moment to take a look in the
description of this episodewhere it says support the show.
Please click on that link andjust check out the options.
Look,$1,$3,$5 a month, whateveryou're willing to give really
does go a long way.
It's money that you won't evennotice is gone, but it can
(02:01):
really help me continue tocreate great content for y'all.
Thanks again for supporting theshow.
Let's go.
SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
Bass lines
SPEAKER_00 (02:13):
are such a cool part of music, which is why we're
studying it today.
I've had a lot of students overthe years show a lot of
curiosity about this.
How do these bass lines comeabout?
Why is that bass line so smoothwhen I hear it?
In other words, what Where doesthe creativity come in and how
can we tap into that?
(02:33):
And if you are new, stumblingacross this podcast for the
first time, first of all,welcome.
But I do feel the obligation totell you this is a cumulative
podcast, meaning episode oneleads to episode two and episode
one plus two are needed forepisode three and so on.
So if you're new, please do goback to the beginning and get
(02:57):
caught up with us so you canunderstand For the first
definition of the day, we willask what is a bass line?
A bass line is a melodic seriesof connected notes that come
from the bottom range of theharmony within a chord
progression or a piece of music.
(03:18):
The notes can be root notes ofthe chord, as the bass often
plays and functions that way, orit could be any note that works
within the harmony or thechords.
And that would be in the form ofwhat we call chord inversions,
if you remember that from pastepisodes.
And look, we're going to getinto examples of all of that
(03:39):
very soon today.
So we are going to put a lot ofprevious skills and definitions
together in order to understandbass lines.
Things like melody, harmony,chords, chord progressions,
scales.
All of these things are comingtogether.
together to help you understandwhat a baseline is, how it's
(04:03):
created, and how it functions.
First thing we need to do is todistinguish between what the
base range is and what abaseline is.
So we already defined what abaseline is.
So what is...
Range in music.
(04:23):
Range refers to a specific setof notes, either low, medium, or
high, that an instrument or avoice can perform successfully.
So if I play my regular oldacoustic guitar, the range would
be like this.
The lowest note I can play ishere, which is what we call the
(04:43):
low E on a guitar.
The highest note I can playsounds like this.
It's so high, it almost soundslike I'm playing a piano.
I swear it's a guitar.
And that is a high C sharp.
Therefore, the range of myguitar is that low E note you
heard all the way up to thathigh C sharp.
(05:05):
And there's a certain number ofoctaves that we attribute to
that.
But to truly understand rangeand baselines in music, it's
necessary to go back andunderstand the evolution of
Western harmony and where itcomes from.
So things I talked about all theway back in episode one are
(05:26):
about Gregorian Chant And thisis where everything evolved
(05:58):
from.
So if you recall, Gregorianchant started with one vocal
line, just singing a melody.
Then multiple other voices wouldjoin in in unison.
Eventually, they realized thatyou could have another voice
sing a static note while anothervoice moves above it, and
harmony was born.
Then, as you can imagine in theevolution, more and more parts
(06:21):
kept getting added over theyears and centuries until it
blossomed into a full four-partharmony style that we call SATB
or Soprano Alto Tenor Bass.
SATB or Soprano Alto Tenor Bassrepresents a four-part harmony
(06:43):
style in which the fourdifferent vocal ranges are
represented and work together inorder to create full and rich
sounding compositions.
Most of you probably have an eyewhat each parts are like.
So for example, soprano isreally the highest range of any
(07:03):
composition.
If it's vocal, it's generallysung by women.
Then you have an alto part,which is lower women or higher
sounding men.
Tenor is generally speaking thehigher range of the men that
sing.
And then bass, of course, is thelowest of the low and is
generally all men singing at thelowest part of the range.
(07:24):
Now, if we're talking aboutchoir or chorale style music,
that is the case.
But that style has permeated andevolved all the way into all of
our instrumental stuff too.
And that's the reason that I'mexplaining it.
So SATB, four parts going fromhigh to low.
And as you can tell, bass is thepart in the bottom.
(07:45):
Now it's important to explainthat because bass is not just a
range.
It doesn't just have to be superlow notes.
It can actually just be thebottom part of any composition.
Let me give you an example.
Let's say you have a quartet ofpiccolos, right?
Piccolos are super high soundingflute style instruments.
(08:07):
And let's say you have four ofthem.
Well, guess what?
There's going to be one on thebottom that's playing the lowest
sounding note of thatcomposition, even if they're all
high.
So in other words, even if youhave four instruments or four
voices that are singing reallyhigh, you can still have what we
call a bass part at the bottom.
So the bass part has afunctionality generally speaking
(08:29):
it is to carry the lowest notesof the chords or harmonies in
the lowest part or lowest rangeof that particular music and it
is relative to that particularmusic so listen to this
beginning part of a famous songcalled blackbird by the beatles
(08:50):
that sounds like this so So thissong actually operates in three
parts.
I would kind of call it like asoprano tenor bass kind of
thing, but it still has the sameprinciple.
You can tell there's a lowrange.
(09:13):
And I'm emphasizing that with mythumb.
So you're hearing a bass linethat goes like this.
And then you're hearing a tenorline that just goes like this.
stays stagnant and doesn't move.
(09:33):
Then you hear a soprano linethat does this.
And so there's your recognizablehigh line.
And again, when you put themtogether, you get this.
But if I go back and I take eachone of those parts, so I'll
(09:56):
start in the beginning where youheard this.
And really those three notesform a chord together.
It forms a G major chord, whichis not a surprise because we're
gonna get chord formations outof all these parts.
And when I play that chord, thisis the lowest note in the chord
and becomes the bass note.
(10:17):
Really at its core function,bass plays the lowest note of
all the chords.
That's a very general definitionand it's not always the case
because sometimes it's gonnaplay other notes and I can show
that right now.
When I play this G major chord,this is a root note.
(10:38):
Now the next chord we go tosounds like this.
And that's an A minor 7 chord,but it also has an A in the
bass.
But the next chord we get soundslike this.
That is a G slash B chord or afirst inversion G chord.
(11:00):
So if you recall from inversionsand our definition of them,
basically an inversion in achord is just flipping the chord
so that the root note is nolonger in the bass.
Now you have one of the othernotes in the chord in the bass
other than the root note.
That is what an inversion is.
(11:20):
So when you hear G slash B orthe first inversion, we have a B
in the bass, yet it's a G chord.
So this is where bass linesstart to take off in creativity.
The idea that if I play a Gchord, I could use a G in the
bass, I could use a B in thebass, or I could use a D in the
(11:43):
bass.
So I can literally have my bassline start on any of those three
notes.
So the bass note on the firstchord is root.
So it's a G chord with a G bassnote.
And then the second chord alsohas a root bass note.
It's an A minor seven with an Ain the bass.
(12:06):
And now we go back to theoriginal G chord, except we have
a different bass note.
And that's what makes itinteresting, right?
It gives it variety.
So why didn't Paul McCartney goG, Why didn't he make the bass
line just root notes?
(12:29):
Because that's less charming andless connective, and also it has
less of a rise in musicaltension than when you go up like
you're in a scale.
So that's what he wrote, asopposed to...
(12:51):
The choices he made in theactual track are much more
smooth and connected than if wejust played the root notes as
you heard.
It just sounds a littledisjointed that way and it's not
as charming and lovely anddoesn't create as much of a
linear sound.
I will come back to Blackbirdlater so we can check out the
(13:12):
next parts that have really coolbass lines but I do want to pull
back and just simplify things alittle bit.
So what we're going to do We'regoing to take the prototypical
1-4-5 progression in a major keyand we are going to figure out
what our baseline possibilitiescould be.
(13:35):
So now it's time to put some ofthat good old music theory
knowledge to work.
Some of the stuff we've beentalking about and learning this
entire time in my series.
So we're going to back up andwe're going to take a typical
1-4-5 5 progression and we'regoing to do it in the key of g
(13:56):
the most common key in guitarplaying and so first of all
think about what that meansfirst of all what is a 1 4 5
progression we should know thatby now and in the key of g that
would be g major c major wouldbe 4 and d major would be 5 So
(14:18):
I'm sure you all got that prettyquickly by now.
But now remember, the otherthing is to understand what
pitches work in harmony againsteach one of those chords, right?
Recall scale degrees.
When we talk about scaledegrees, remember, we're just
talking about the number orderthat the pitches come in.
(14:38):
So when I'm in G major, I'mstarting on G as one, right?
And then I'm going in orderbased on the original major
scale formula.
And I'm going...
one two three four five sixseven one so for example when
you play a one chord recall thatthe triad has the one three and
(14:59):
five notes in it So those triadnotes, those notes that actually
build that entire chord, end upbeing the note choices we have
for bass lines.
So, if I'm a guitar playerplaying a G chord, my bass
player generally is going tostart on a G.
(15:20):
Let's say we're just playing asong for the first time, writing
a song, maybe covering a song,that's the place to start.
But it doesn't mean that I can'teventually get creative if I'm
the bass player and play thethree.
Just like we were talking aboutearlier with Blackbird.
And then there's also the five.
So now, I did go over thatearlier, but now let's go to the
(15:43):
four chord, which is C.
Now, what three pitches make upthat triad?
Do you recall?
They are four, six, and one.
So in this case, it's a C, E,and a G.
That is four, six, and one on aC chord.
And those become the triadicnotes you can use on a C chord.
(16:06):
So I can use that one and thenplay the chord or I can use the
E and then play the chord or Ican use the G and play the
chord.
I can even use a low G and playthe chord.
So it gives you a lot ofdifferent melodic possibilities
and bassline possibilities asyou can imagine.
So finally we move to the Vchord and that is a D major
(16:30):
which is of course going tooutline in the triad at scale
degrees 5, 7, and 2.
So those are the three pitchesthat you can use, once again, if
you're a bass player.
SPEAKER_02 (16:44):
Okay, Kevin, you've really re-explained all this
stuff really well, but what inthe world am I supposed to do
now?
Well, now it's time for...
SPEAKER_01 (17:07):
The Baseline Game.
SPEAKER_00 (17:12):
That's right, it's time to play The Baseline Game.
And it's really, really fun.
Basically, it's a game ofconnecting chords within a chord
progression using the differentpossibilities of bass notes that
will work.
So to begin, let's go ahead andjust connect our I chord with
(17:34):
our IV chord.
So I chord G.
And we're going to connect thatto our four chord C.
Now, can you think right off thebat how many possibilities we
have of going from a G triad toa C triad?
Hmm.
Yes, this is a big part of thegame.
(17:55):
Let me give you an example ofwhat I mean.
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to go ahead and set my
first bass note as a root notescale degree one G.
So when I play my one chordright now, my bass note is G.
Now I'm going to move to a fourchord, which is a C.
(18:17):
And as you can imagine, the veryfirst connective possibility is
to go to the root note scaledegree four, which is a C.
So our very first bass line thatconnects chord one to chord four
is going to be a G to a C.
Now we sound like we're playinga bass line, right?
(18:39):
Very simple, but effective.
So that's your firstpossibility.
So if I outline that a littlebit using finger style, it could
sound like this.
So you can tell I'm playing thechord, but I'm emphasizing the
(18:59):
bass note so you can hear it.
Okay, so that's possibilitynumber one.
Now, what would possibility twobe?
So really we're going throughwhat we call permutations in
math.
No, I'm not going to go intothat, I promise.
But that's essentially the term.
That's what we're doing.
So I'm going to start on Gagain.
(19:20):
But this time, I'm gonna move toa different pitch within the
four-chord triad.
So recall, within thefour-chord, we have four, six,
and one.
All right, so we already playedfour, so now I'm gonna go to
six.
So this time, I'm gonna go froma scale degree one, which is a
G, on a G chord.
(19:41):
Now when I move to a four-chord,my bass note is going to be an E
instead of a C, which is scaledegree six.
It's gonna sound like this.
So now my bass line sounds likethis.
(20:01):
Hmm, a good bit different,right?
So let's compare the bass lines.
Our first one was G to C, or oneto four.
Now our second one is going fromone to six, or G to E.
(20:22):
Now, that is a completelydifferent sound, is it not?
And yet, those pitches meld withthe same exact chord
progression.
So again, if I go one to four,accenting the second bass line,
it would sound like this.
(20:43):
So vastly different.
So as you can tell, we can keepgoing with this.
So what's the next possibility?
Again, we're gonna stay on scaledegree one on chord one, but now
exhausting our possibilities onfour, because we have three
notes in a triad, we already usescale degree four.
We already use six.
Now we're gonna use one again.
(21:04):
So guess what?
One, that sounds familiar.
Isn't that the bass note I justplayed?
So yes, it is a possibility thatscale degree one could stay
static and stay there as thechord moves and it'll still work
like this.
(21:29):
So I could just stay there andnot move.
And that actually works becausethat scale degree one is in both
a one chord and a four chord.
I could go to the octave if Iwant as well, because remember
the octave and one, they're thesame, even though they sound
different.
It's the same pitch.
So I could go.
That's another possibility.
(21:53):
And that would sound like this.
UNKNOWN (21:56):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (22:00):
So right away, I'm already coming up with some
interesting possibilities forchords one and four only.
So in conclusion, we came upwith four different
possibilities for a differentbass line sound going from one
to four.
The first one was just rootnotes, one to four.
(22:21):
The second one went from theroot note of the first one to
the middle note of the secondone.
So from a G to an E.
The third one went to theoctave, because we realized that
G worked on both chords.
And then lastly, you could juststay on the low G and not even
move.
(22:45):
And even though that seems likethe least interesting, sometimes
it's effective depending on thetype of music you are making.
So now we continue on in thebass line game.
Now it's time to connect ourfour chord to our five chord so
(23:08):
that we can connect all threechords using a bass line.
So recall your four chords of Cand our The V chord is going to
be a D.
So the triad for our IV chord isC, E, and G.
Or scale degrees IV, VI, and I.
And then our V chord, of course,is going to be D, F sharp, and
(23:31):
A.
Or V, VII, and II.
All right, so let's start withthe basics.
On the IV chord, we're going tostart with the root note C.
and harmonize that with thechord.
And then we're gonna move to thesimple solution of going the
(23:51):
root note to D.
Now, remember, this is the basicfunction of a bass player to
play a root note And so this isthe most common bass line you'll
hear.
But we're going to get creative,of course.
So that is scale degree four.
Going to scale degree five.
(24:12):
All right, let's go on topossibility number two.
We're going to again start onscale degree four for the four
chord.
But this time I'm going to go tothe next note in the triad of
the five chord.
Instead of scale degree five,I'm going to go to seven, which
is an F sharp.
This makes for a reallyinteresting bass line right
(24:33):
away.
So listen to this.
So that bass line is what wecall the good old fashioned
tritone.
UNKNOWN (24:51):
Tritone.
SPEAKER_00 (24:55):
Quite dissonant sounding and awkward, right?
You're like, that's my bassline?
Yeah.
It works really well, actually,for that chord progression.
And it's actually interestingsounding rather than the typical
stuff we're used to.
So instead of going...
Which, of course, works reallywell.
(25:16):
Now we're going...
against the same chordprogression.
So back to back, it would soundlike this.
Here's root notes.
Now here's the secondpossibility from root note to
the middle note of the secondone.
(25:41):
Very interesting right away.
And to exhaust ourpossibilities, now we're gonna
go to the last note of the fivechord triad, which is scale
degree two.
So again, scale degree four onmy C chord.
But now I'm gonna play scaledegree two for my five chord.
And I decided to move down onthis one just to show you
(26:02):
another possibility.
So now I'm going from scaledegree four down to scale degree
two so my bass line now soundslike this and we're getting a
bit of what we call counterpointi'm not going over that in this
(26:23):
episode but i will very soon Allright, so our three
possibilities we came up withsound like this.
This is number one.
This is number two.
(26:44):
And then this is number three.
All three sound very differentand can create different
possibilities and interestsbased on the type of music that
you play.
All right, so we are justgetting started with this bass
(27:07):
line connection idea in thisbass line game.
And notice, I didn't even movethe notes on the first chord out
of the two chords we wereworking on.
I always just stayed on the samenote and then went to another
one.
So you can imagine that you cannow change the notes on the
first one too and come up withall kinds of possibilities we
(27:28):
are going to do more of that inthe next episode when i go over
a little bit more complex basslines and also the concept of
voice leading and counterpointall of that in the next episode
do stay tuned but now it's timefor break down Today we talked
(27:59):
all about bass lines.
We talked about the differencebetween a bass line and the bass
range.
That discussion led into SATB orfour part harmony soprano alto
tenor bass parts.
(28:20):
We reviewed scale degrees,triads, and chords so we could
understand how to connect thesethings.
Then we had the joy of playingthe bass line game where we
learn how to connect chords in achord progression using
different bass notes.
(28:43):
Coming up on episode 19...
We will continue to explorebaselines.
We're going to get into what wecall walking baselines.
We are also going to get into aconcept called voice leading.
We're going to play more of thebaseline game.
(29:04):
It's going to be a lot of fun,so do tune in.
So until the next episode, wecan...
Continue this music theoryexploration with all of you.
Thanks again for tuning in,y'all.
Have a wonderful music-filledweek.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you know what time
it is?
Yes! It is time
SPEAKER_02 (00:17):
for Music Theory!
SPEAKER_01 (00:29):
Let's hit it! Yes! Yes! Let's go! Let's learn!
Let's have
SPEAKER_00 (00:46):
fun! Let's beautify our lives! Let's make music
better! Let's make
SPEAKER_01 (00:57):
our lives
SPEAKER_03 (00:58):
better!
SPEAKER_01 (00:59):
Yes!
UNKNOWN (01:03):
Let us go!
SPEAKER_00 (01:04):
Welcome back to The Harmonious Blacksmith, a music
theory exploration.
I am, of course, your humblehost, Kevin Patrick Fleming.
Oh my! Oh dear, there they are.
Yeah, you all came back formore.
I'm so happy you did.
(01:25):
We're going to have a lot of funtoday.
UNKNOWN (01:27):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00 (01:29):
Today, this is episode 18 of my podcast, and
this will be all about
SPEAKER_01 (01:36):
bass.
SPEAKER_00 (01:40):
Please take a moment to take a look in the
description of this episodewhere it says support the show.
Please click on that link andjust check out the options.
Look,$1,$3,$5 a month, whateveryou're willing to give really
does go a long way.
It's money that you won't evennotice is gone, but it can
(02:01):
really help me continue tocreate great content for y'all.
Thanks again for supporting theshow.
Let's go.
SPEAKER_01 (02:09):
Bass lines
SPEAKER_00 (02:13):
are such a cool part of music, which is why we're
studying it today.
I've had a lot of students overthe years show a lot of
curiosity about this.
How do these bass lines comeabout?
Why is that bass line so smoothwhen I hear it?
In other words, what Where doesthe creativity come in and how
can we tap into that?
(02:33):
And if you are new, stumblingacross this podcast for the
first time, first of all,welcome.
But I do feel the obligation totell you this is a cumulative
podcast, meaning episode oneleads to episode two and episode
one plus two are needed forepisode three and so on.
So if you're new, please do goback to the beginning and get
(02:57):
caught up with us so you canunderstand For the first
definition of the day, we willask what is a bass line?
A bass line is a melodic seriesof connected notes that come
from the bottom range of theharmony within a chord
progression or a piece of music.
(03:18):
The notes can be root notes ofthe chord, as the bass often
plays and functions that way, orit could be any note that works
within the harmony or thechords.
And that would be in the form ofwhat we call chord inversions,
if you remember that from pastepisodes.
And look, we're going to getinto examples of all of that
(03:39):
very soon today.
So we are going to put a lot ofprevious skills and definitions
together in order to understandbass lines.
Things like melody, harmony,chords, chord progressions,
scales.
All of these things are comingtogether.
together to help you understandwhat a baseline is, how it's
(04:03):
created, and how it functions.
First thing we need to do is todistinguish between what the
base range is and what abaseline is.
So we already defined what abaseline is.
So what is...
Range in music.
(04:23):
Range refers to a specific setof notes, either low, medium, or
high, that an instrument or avoice can perform successfully.
So if I play my regular oldacoustic guitar, the range would
be like this.
The lowest note I can play ishere, which is what we call the
(04:43):
low E on a guitar.
The highest note I can playsounds like this.
It's so high, it almost soundslike I'm playing a piano.
I swear it's a guitar.
And that is a high C sharp.
Therefore, the range of myguitar is that low E note you
heard all the way up to thathigh C sharp.
(05:05):
And there's a certain number ofoctaves that we attribute to
that.
But to truly understand rangeand baselines in music, it's
necessary to go back andunderstand the evolution of
Western harmony and where itcomes from.
So things I talked about all theway back in episode one are
(05:26):
about Gregorian Chant And thisis where everything evolved
(05:58):
from.
So if you recall, Gregorianchant started with one vocal
line, just singing a melody.
Then multiple other voices wouldjoin in in unison.
Eventually, they realized thatyou could have another voice
sing a static note while anothervoice moves above it, and
harmony was born.
Then, as you can imagine in theevolution, more and more parts
(06:21):
kept getting added over theyears and centuries until it
blossomed into a full four-partharmony style that we call SATB
or Soprano Alto Tenor Bass.
SATB or Soprano Alto Tenor Bassrepresents a four-part harmony
(06:43):
style in which the fourdifferent vocal ranges are
represented and work together inorder to create full and rich
sounding compositions.
Most of you probably have an eyewhat each parts are like.
So for example, soprano isreally the highest range of any
(07:03):
composition.
If it's vocal, it's generallysung by women.
Then you have an alto part,which is lower women or higher
sounding men.
Tenor is generally speaking thehigher range of the men that
sing.
And then bass, of course, is thelowest of the low and is
generally all men singing at thelowest part of the range.
(07:24):
Now, if we're talking aboutchoir or chorale style music,
that is the case.
But that style has permeated andevolved all the way into all of
our instrumental stuff too.
And that's the reason that I'mexplaining it.
So SATB, four parts going fromhigh to low.
And as you can tell, bass is thepart in the bottom.
(07:45):
Now it's important to explainthat because bass is not just a
range.
It doesn't just have to be superlow notes.
It can actually just be thebottom part of any composition.
Let me give you an example.
Let's say you have a quartet ofpiccolos, right?
Piccolos are super high soundingflute style instruments.
(08:07):
And let's say you have four ofthem.
Well, guess what?
There's going to be one on thebottom that's playing the lowest
sounding note of thatcomposition, even if they're all
high.
So in other words, even if youhave four instruments or four
voices that are singing reallyhigh, you can still have what we
call a bass part at the bottom.
So the bass part has afunctionality generally speaking
(08:29):
it is to carry the lowest notesof the chords or harmonies in
the lowest part or lowest rangeof that particular music and it
is relative to that particularmusic so listen to this
beginning part of a famous songcalled blackbird by the beatles
(08:50):
that sounds like this so So thissong actually operates in three
parts.
I would kind of call it like asoprano tenor bass kind of
thing, but it still has the sameprinciple.
You can tell there's a lowrange.
(09:13):
And I'm emphasizing that with mythumb.
So you're hearing a bass linethat goes like this.
And then you're hearing a tenorline that just goes like this.
stays stagnant and doesn't move.
(09:33):
Then you hear a soprano linethat does this.
And so there's your recognizablehigh line.
And again, when you put themtogether, you get this.
But if I go back and I take eachone of those parts, so I'll
(09:56):
start in the beginning where youheard this.
And really those three notesform a chord together.
It forms a G major chord, whichis not a surprise because we're
gonna get chord formations outof all these parts.
And when I play that chord, thisis the lowest note in the chord
and becomes the bass note.
(10:17):
Really at its core function,bass plays the lowest note of
all the chords.
That's a very general definitionand it's not always the case
because sometimes it's gonnaplay other notes and I can show
that right now.
When I play this G major chord,this is a root note.
(10:38):
Now the next chord we go tosounds like this.
And that's an A minor 7 chord,but it also has an A in the
bass.
But the next chord we get soundslike this.
That is a G slash B chord or afirst inversion G chord.
(11:00):
So if you recall from inversionsand our definition of them,
basically an inversion in achord is just flipping the chord
so that the root note is nolonger in the bass.
Now you have one of the othernotes in the chord in the bass
other than the root note.
That is what an inversion is.
(11:20):
So when you hear G slash B orthe first inversion, we have a B
in the bass, yet it's a G chord.
So this is where bass linesstart to take off in creativity.
The idea that if I play a Gchord, I could use a G in the
bass, I could use a B in thebass, or I could use a D in the
(11:43):
bass.
So I can literally have my bassline start on any of those three
notes.
So the bass note on the firstchord is root.
So it's a G chord with a G bassnote.
And then the second chord alsohas a root bass note.
It's an A minor seven with an Ain the bass.
(12:06):
And now we go back to theoriginal G chord, except we have
a different bass note.
And that's what makes itinteresting, right?
It gives it variety.
So why didn't Paul McCartney goG, Why didn't he make the bass
line just root notes?
(12:29):
Because that's less charming andless connective, and also it has
less of a rise in musicaltension than when you go up like
you're in a scale.
So that's what he wrote, asopposed to...
(12:51):
The choices he made in theactual track are much more
smooth and connected than if wejust played the root notes as
you heard.
It just sounds a littledisjointed that way and it's not
as charming and lovely anddoesn't create as much of a
linear sound.
I will come back to Blackbirdlater so we can check out the
(13:12):
next parts that have really coolbass lines but I do want to pull
back and just simplify things alittle bit.
So what we're going to do We'regoing to take the prototypical
1-4-5 progression in a major keyand we are going to figure out
what our baseline possibilitiescould be.
(13:35):
So now it's time to put some ofthat good old music theory
knowledge to work.
Some of the stuff we've beentalking about and learning this
entire time in my series.
So we're going to back up andwe're going to take a typical
1-4-5 5 progression and we'regoing to do it in the key of g
(13:56):
the most common key in guitarplaying and so first of all
think about what that meansfirst of all what is a 1 4 5
progression we should know thatby now and in the key of g that
would be g major c major wouldbe 4 and d major would be 5 So
(14:18):
I'm sure you all got that prettyquickly by now.
But now remember, the otherthing is to understand what
pitches work in harmony againsteach one of those chords, right?
Recall scale degrees.
When we talk about scaledegrees, remember, we're just
talking about the number orderthat the pitches come in.
(14:38):
So when I'm in G major, I'mstarting on G as one, right?
And then I'm going in orderbased on the original major
scale formula.
And I'm going...
one two three four five sixseven one so for example when
you play a one chord recall thatthe triad has the one three and
(14:59):
five notes in it So those triadnotes, those notes that actually
build that entire chord, end upbeing the note choices we have
for bass lines.
So, if I'm a guitar playerplaying a G chord, my bass
player generally is going tostart on a G.
(15:20):
Let's say we're just playing asong for the first time, writing
a song, maybe covering a song,that's the place to start.
But it doesn't mean that I can'teventually get creative if I'm
the bass player and play thethree.
Just like we were talking aboutearlier with Blackbird.
And then there's also the five.
So now, I did go over thatearlier, but now let's go to the
(15:43):
four chord, which is C.
Now, what three pitches make upthat triad?
Do you recall?
They are four, six, and one.
So in this case, it's a C, E,and a G.
That is four, six, and one on aC chord.
And those become the triadicnotes you can use on a C chord.
(16:06):
So I can use that one and thenplay the chord or I can use the
E and then play the chord or Ican use the G and play the
chord.
I can even use a low G and playthe chord.
So it gives you a lot ofdifferent melodic possibilities
and bassline possibilities asyou can imagine.
So finally we move to the Vchord and that is a D major
(16:30):
which is of course going tooutline in the triad at scale
degrees 5, 7, and 2.
So those are the three pitchesthat you can use, once again, if
you're a bass player.
SPEAKER_02 (16:44):
Okay, Kevin, you've really re-explained all this
stuff really well, but what inthe world am I supposed to do
now?
Well, now it's time for...
SPEAKER_01 (17:07):
The Baseline Game.
SPEAKER_00 (17:12):
That's right, it's time to play The Baseline Game.
And it's really, really fun.
Basically, it's a game ofconnecting chords within a chord
progression using the differentpossibilities of bass notes that
will work.
So to begin, let's go ahead andjust connect our I chord with
(17:34):
our IV chord.
So I chord G.
And we're going to connect thatto our four chord C.
Now, can you think right off thebat how many possibilities we
have of going from a G triad toa C triad?
Hmm.
Yes, this is a big part of thegame.
(17:55):
Let me give you an example ofwhat I mean.
So what I'm going to do is I'mgoing to go ahead and set my
first bass note as a root notescale degree one G.
So when I play my one chordright now, my bass note is G.
Now I'm going to move to a fourchord, which is a C.
(18:17):
And as you can imagine, the veryfirst connective possibility is
to go to the root note scaledegree four, which is a C.
So our very first bass line thatconnects chord one to chord four
is going to be a G to a C.
Now we sound like we're playinga bass line, right?
(18:39):
Very simple, but effective.
So that's your firstpossibility.
So if I outline that a littlebit using finger style, it could
sound like this.
So you can tell I'm playing thechord, but I'm emphasizing the
(18:59):
bass note so you can hear it.
Okay, so that's possibilitynumber one.
Now, what would possibility twobe?
So really we're going throughwhat we call permutations in
math.
No, I'm not going to go intothat, I promise.
But that's essentially the term.
That's what we're doing.
So I'm going to start on Gagain.
(19:20):
But this time, I'm gonna move toa different pitch within the
four-chord triad.
So recall, within thefour-chord, we have four, six,
and one.
All right, so we already playedfour, so now I'm gonna go to
six.
So this time, I'm gonna go froma scale degree one, which is a
G, on a G chord.
(19:41):
Now when I move to a four-chord,my bass note is going to be an E
instead of a C, which is scaledegree six.
It's gonna sound like this.
So now my bass line sounds likethis.
(20:01):
Hmm, a good bit different,right?
So let's compare the bass lines.
Our first one was G to C, or oneto four.
Now our second one is going fromone to six, or G to E.
(20:22):
Now, that is a completelydifferent sound, is it not?
And yet, those pitches meld withthe same exact chord
progression.
So again, if I go one to four,accenting the second bass line,
it would sound like this.
(20:43):
So vastly different.
So as you can tell, we can keepgoing with this.
So what's the next possibility?
Again, we're gonna stay on scaledegree one on chord one, but now
exhausting our possibilities onfour, because we have three
notes in a triad, we already usescale degree four.
We already use six.
Now we're gonna use one again.
(21:04):
So guess what?
One, that sounds familiar.
Isn't that the bass note I justplayed?
So yes, it is a possibility thatscale degree one could stay
static and stay there as thechord moves and it'll still work
like this.
(21:29):
So I could just stay there andnot move.
And that actually works becausethat scale degree one is in both
a one chord and a four chord.
I could go to the octave if Iwant as well, because remember
the octave and one, they're thesame, even though they sound
different.
It's the same pitch.
So I could go.
That's another possibility.
(21:53):
And that would sound like this.
UNKNOWN (21:56):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (22:00):
So right away, I'm already coming up with some
interesting possibilities forchords one and four only.
So in conclusion, we came upwith four different
possibilities for a differentbass line sound going from one
to four.
The first one was just rootnotes, one to four.
(22:21):
The second one went from theroot note of the first one to
the middle note of the secondone.
So from a G to an E.
The third one went to theoctave, because we realized that
G worked on both chords.
And then lastly, you could juststay on the low G and not even
move.
(22:45):
And even though that seems likethe least interesting, sometimes
it's effective depending on thetype of music you are making.
So now we continue on in thebass line game.
Now it's time to connect ourfour chord to our five chord so
(23:08):
that we can connect all threechords using a bass line.
So recall your four chords of Cand our The V chord is going to
be a D.
So the triad for our IV chord isC, E, and G.
Or scale degrees IV, VI, and I.
And then our V chord, of course,is going to be D, F sharp, and
(23:31):
A.
Or V, VII, and II.
All right, so let's start withthe basics.
On the IV chord, we're going tostart with the root note C.
and harmonize that with thechord.
And then we're gonna move to thesimple solution of going the
(23:51):
root note to D.
Now, remember, this is the basicfunction of a bass player to
play a root note And so this isthe most common bass line you'll
hear.
But we're going to get creative,of course.
So that is scale degree four.
Going to scale degree five.
(24:12):
All right, let's go on topossibility number two.
We're going to again start onscale degree four for the four
chord.
But this time I'm going to go tothe next note in the triad of
the five chord.
Instead of scale degree five,I'm going to go to seven, which
is an F sharp.
This makes for a reallyinteresting bass line right
(24:33):
away.
So listen to this.
So that bass line is what wecall the good old fashioned
tritone.
UNKNOWN (24:51):
Tritone.
SPEAKER_00 (24:55):
Quite dissonant sounding and awkward, right?
You're like, that's my bassline?
Yeah.
It works really well, actually,for that chord progression.
And it's actually interestingsounding rather than the typical
stuff we're used to.
So instead of going...
Which, of course, works reallywell.
(25:16):
Now we're going...
against the same chordprogression.
So back to back, it would soundlike this.
Here's root notes.
Now here's the secondpossibility from root note to
the middle note of the secondone.
(25:41):
Very interesting right away.
And to exhaust ourpossibilities, now we're gonna
go to the last note of the fivechord triad, which is scale
degree two.
So again, scale degree four onmy C chord.
But now I'm gonna play scaledegree two for my five chord.
And I decided to move down onthis one just to show you
(26:02):
another possibility.
So now I'm going from scaledegree four down to scale degree
two so my bass line now soundslike this and we're getting a
bit of what we call counterpointi'm not going over that in this
(26:23):
episode but i will very soon Allright, so our three
possibilities we came up withsound like this.
This is number one.
This is number two.
(26:44):
And then this is number three.
All three sound very differentand can create different
possibilities and interestsbased on the type of music that
you play.
All right, so we are justgetting started with this bass
(27:07):
line connection idea in thisbass line game.
And notice, I didn't even movethe notes on the first chord out
of the two chords we wereworking on.
I always just stayed on the samenote and then went to another
one.
So you can imagine that you cannow change the notes on the
first one too and come up withall kinds of possibilities we
(27:28):
are going to do more of that inthe next episode when i go over
a little bit more complex basslines and also the concept of
voice leading and counterpointall of that in the next episode
do stay tuned but now it's timefor break down Today we talked
(27:59):
all about bass lines.
We talked about the differencebetween a bass line and the bass
range.
That discussion led into SATB orfour part harmony soprano alto
tenor bass parts.
(28:20):
We reviewed scale degrees,triads, and chords so we could
understand how to connect thesethings.
Then we had the joy of playingthe bass line game where we
learn how to connect chords in achord progression using
different bass notes.
(28:43):
Coming up on episode 19...
We will continue to explorebaselines.
We're going to get into what wecall walking baselines.
We are also going to get into aconcept called voice leading.
We're going to play more of thebaseline game.
(29:04):
It's going to be a lot of fun,so do tune in.
So until the next episode, wecan...
Continue this music theoryexploration with all of you.
Thanks again for tuning in,y'all.
Have a wonderful music-filledweek.
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