July 27, 2025 • 28 mins
🎙 Episode 19: Bass Lines – Part 2 dives deeper into the world of bass lines—exploring their theoretical foundation, historical evolution, and critical role in shaping musical harmony and rhythm. Whether you're a music theory student, composer, musician, or just obsessed with what makes music tick, this episode offers a comprehensive look at how bass lines anchor chord progressions.
THEORY TERMS that are relevant to this episode: Melody, Harmony, Chromatics, Scales, Chords, Triads, Chord Progressions, Walking Bass Lines, Root Note, Chord Inversions, Melodic Bass Line, SATB, 4-part compositions, Arpeggios, Keys, and I-IV-V Progressions.
Perfect for music education, this episode is packed with practical insights and historical context, giving listeners tools to better understand and write stronger bass lines.
Tune in to enrich your knowledge of music composition, expand your understanding of tonal harmony, and discover why the bass is one of the most underrated forces in music.
#musictheory #musictheorypodcast #musiccommentary #musichistory
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:01):
So,
SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
Greetings and salutations to all my fellow
music theory lovers out there.
The guitar track that you justheard me perform at the
beginning is an excerpt from apiece titled Libra Sonatine by
the late great French composerRoland Dienz.
(00:54):
It is a three-movement sonatina,and this is an excerpt from the
third movement titled Fuoco.
Roland Dienz was born in Tunisiain 1955 and he died in 2016.
He was the guitar composer andinstructor at the Paris
(01:16):
Conservatory.
He had a storied concert career.
He composed incredible music forthe modern guitar player, as you
just heard.
And he was really a nice guy.
To share a short story, I hadthe pleasure of meeting Roland
Dienz.
after he performed an incredibleconcert in downtown Atlanta
(01:37):
Georgia and I got to meet himright after his concert was over
and have a brief conversationwith him and I felt like I was
just talking to another guitarstudent at university which is
what I was at the time he was sodown to earth so very cool it's
always great to meet one of yourheroes and he is definitely one
of mine and it didn't disappointwe got to talk about a Giuliani
(02:02):
piece I was working on and howhard the thumb stuff was because
he had performed it that night.
He just talked about it like wewere students playing together.
What's really cool about hisconcert, if you know anything
about classical music concertsand classical guitar concerts,
they tend to have programs thatare very meticulously followed
when you perform.
(02:22):
Roland Jens was a veryinteresting character because
you would show up at theconcert, open the program, and
there was nothing in it.
Nothing as far as a listing ofmusic that you were going here
that night which is very rareand very strange as it turns out
he would come out and the veryfirst thing he would do is just
do a full-blown improvisationfor about five to ten minutes
(02:44):
and it was his way of feelingout the performance hall feeling
out the room and then he woulddecide what he was going to play
from there so when he played thesecond piece based on the
audience response he wouldcontinue to tailor his entire
program around what the audiencethought of the pieces he played
(03:05):
and he did a lot ofimprovisation and I can't
emphasize that enough I thinkthere's a stigma with classical
musicians that they only playnotes that are on a page but
classical musicians improvisewith the best jazz blues rock
musicians you can think of theyreally can and this guy was
living and walking proof of itand again I just had the joy of
(03:28):
meeting one of the heroes of mylifetime the late great Roland
de the end.
Rest in peace, sir.
Welcome back to The HarmoniousBlacksmith, a music theory
exploration.
This is episode 19.
It is all about bass lines, andthis is part two of bass lines.
(03:48):
I am your host, Kevin PatrickFleming.
Hey, too kind, too kind.
I appreciate you.
I very much appreciate you.
Thank you so much.
So we now embark upon part twoof our two part series about.
(04:10):
Bass! Bass! Basslines! Basslinesare so fun, and I'm just so
happy you're joining me withthem.
Let's talk about a few of thethings that are going to come up
today terminology-wise.
First of all, you already knowbasslines.
We're going to talk about whatbass range is.
We're going to talk about SATB,that's Soprano Alto Tenor Bass,
(04:31):
as far as different ranges of afour-part chorale or four-part
type of writing system.
We're going to talk aboutmelody.
We're going to talk aboutharmony chords.
chord progressions, triads, andwe might even talk briefly about
modes and chromaticism.
So let's start by recalling justwhat a bass line is, right?
(04:54):
A bass line is a series ofconnected melodic notes that
also play the lowest note in therange of music, and generally
they play notes that outline thechord progressions that we're
playing.
Most of the time, bass lines aregoing to include a lot of your
big root notes of your chords,okay?
(05:16):
But not always.
As we learned from last episode,you can flip the chords in what
we call chord inversions, right?
And I'm going to get to audioexamples real quick here in a
second.
So let's just start with themost basic example possible.
So let's say I'm in the key ofG.
And I'm just playing a 1-4-5progression.
(05:37):
So I have a G, which is a Ichord.
Then I have a C, which is a IVchord.
And then D, which is a V chord.
And then I'm back to I.
UNKNOWN (05:47):
you
SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
The prototypical chord progression, as we know
it, one, four, five in a majorkey.
So the most basic baseline comesfrom where?
Just think in your mind, well,where does the baseline come
from?
In this case, I'm going to pickroot notes.
Your bass note on a G chord willbe that lowest root G.
(06:10):
Okay, so my first bass note willbe G.
Then as you can imagine, when Igo to C, I'm going to take my
lowest root note C And then whenI go to D, I'm going to take my
lowest root note D.
And then I'm back to G again.
If I wanted to play the mostbasic and effective bass line of
root notes in the key of G, itwould sound like this.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
SPEAKER_02 (06:41):
Pretty plain and simple.
SPEAKER_00 (06:43):
But Kevin, come on man.
That ain't no bass guitar.
That ain't no funky bass line.
SPEAKER_02 (06:52):
That's true.
I was playing low bass notes ona guitar, but it's important to
distinguish between what a bassline is and bass range.
We talked about this in partone, which is bass range is a
specific set of notes in areally low range that basses
sing or play, as opposed to abass line, which is really just
(07:14):
the lowest connective part inany composition.
In some of my spare time, I dosolo finger style guitar
versions of famous tunes.
And recently I had the pleasureof doing Time After Time by
Cyndi Lauper, a great 80sclassic.
And 100% of the reason that Idid this song is because when I
(07:39):
heard it again, the bass lineand the chorus absolutely
captivated me.
It caught my ear.
I couldn't stop hearing it.
And I was like, I gotta do thatpiece.
So let me break it down for you.
So my version of Time After Timeis in the key of C major.
C is one, F is four, and G isfive, right?
(08:01):
And in this part of it, we'realso going to get a minor six
chord, the A minor.
So we have a four chordprogression here for a classic
pop tune.
Now here's the part that got mein the chorus.
So the chorus starts on the fivechord, and the bass does what
you expect it to do.
It plays a root note G.
(08:22):
The next chord we're going to goto is going to be the sixth
chord.
And it does go to the root noteA, but it does something
fabulously creative after that.
So let me play for you firstwhat it sounds like.
So we start on the G, and thenwe go to the A minor.
F, G, C.
(08:45):
I'll do that one more time.
So we're on a G chord, and thenwe're going to go to an A minor
chord.
F, G, C.
And you can tell it resolves atthe end, right?
That's always nice.
So again, that bass line startson a G, and then it goes to an
A.
But what's it doing here?
(09:05):
Then it goes to an F, then a G,then a C.
Wow, that's really cool.
So let's break it down.
So on the 5 chord, we have aroot note G.
When we go to the 6 chord, whatin the world was going on there?
It goes from the root note tothe 3rd, to the 5th, to the
octave, and back down again tothe 5th, to the 3rd, to the
(09:30):
root.
And then it connects that to the4 chord, and then to the 5
chord.
And then we resolve to the rooton C.
So the full bass line for TimeAfter Time by Cyndi Lauper with
(09:53):
a repeat would sound like this.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
So who out there is feeling confident enough that
they can describe in musictheory terms what is going on
there on that six chord?
Any of you?
Well, Kevin, I think I
SPEAKER_00 (10:25):
got this.
That there sounds like ascale-like riff or something
like that, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02 (10:35):
Incorrect.
Good guess.
But no go.
Anybody else?
Well, Kevin, I think it is achord that it comes from.
Yeah, that's also incorrect.
I will give you partial creditfor calling it a chord.
It does come from a chord, buthow do we really describe it in
(10:57):
detail?
It turns out it is an arpeggio.
Recall what an arpeggio is,which is a chord or triad broken
into its individual components.
So Instead of playing the entireA minor chord, you can play it
any way you want.
Right?
(11:18):
You can play it like that, butyou can also play it like this
bass line plays it.
And that is another way that youhear arpeggio style.
So this is like a melodicarpeggio style.
So again, it's based on the Aminor chord.
You get the root of the A minorchord, then it goes to the
(11:38):
third, then the fifth, then theoctave.
So that is an arpeggio.
It's also based on a triad.
And remember, triads are themost basic form of chords.
Remember, a chord requires threenotes.
A triad is only three notes.
Triads are the basis of allother chords, being built on top
(12:02):
of them, basically.
So in this case, they're justusing the basic triad.
One, three, five, octave.
And then back down again.
Five, three, one.
Okay, so I hope you enjoyedthat.
Let's go ahead and move on toexample number two of our bass
(12:22):
lines today.
And I'm going to do acontinuation of a song that I
was breaking down in the lastepisode, Blackbird by the
Beatles, written mostly by PaulMcCartney, who of course was the
bass player in the Beatles,period.
So it's not going to surpriseyou that the bass line in
Blackbird is super cool andslinky.
(12:44):
Now, I will warn you, it's a lotmore advanced than what I was
breaking down before.
So I'm just going to break downthis one really cool part that
rises and falls in the verse.
Let me play it for you first,and then we're going to break it
down.
It goes like this.
(13:19):
The bass line of that part justgoes like this.
(13:40):
This was, of course, a longerexcerpt, but a much different
baseline, right?
Which is why I wanted to usethis example in juxtaposition
with the previous, just to giveyou a comparison.
So, is anybody out there braveenough to answer what is going
(14:00):
on with that baseline in termsof music theory?
SPEAKER_00 (14:05):
Well, Kevin, I'm gonna have to guess that it's a
scale-like bass line again.
That's what it sounds like tome.
SPEAKER_02 (14:15):
That is correct.
It is a scale-like bass line.
But it's a specific type ofscale.
Can you name what type of scaleit is?
Well, sounds like a happy majorto me.
That is incorrect.
The correct answer is based ona...
Chromatic scale.
(14:38):
Do you remember what chromaticmeans?
Here's the reminder.
Chroma, the root of chromatic,in Latin means color.
or colors, kind of like a chromakey that is used for
videography.
So chromatic in music means allthe colors in the spectrum of
(15:00):
music.
So in the case of our Westernsystem, that is gonna be all 12
half steps.
So a chromatic scale is gonnainclude every single pitch in
our system in a row and wouldsound like this.
So now that you recall whatchromaticism is, back to our
(15:27):
Beatles example, and let's breakit down with the chords.
Blackbird is in the key of G.
So our I, IV, V is going to beG, C, and D, of course, and
those chords are going to comeand go.
So this particular part startson IV chord C.
And then the chromaticism startshere.
(15:47):
This particular part starts onthe four chord C.
And then the chromaticism startsfrom there.
So we go from C in the bassline.
We go from C to C sharp on thischord, which is a diminished
chord that is used to createthis chromaticism.
(16:07):
Look, if you haven't gotten thatadvanced yet, don't sweat it.
It's no big deal.
Just keep listening to thispodcast and I'll eventually get
to all of it, I promise.
But for now, just accept what itis.
Remember that we have major,minor, and diminished triads in
our diatonic system.
So you're going to have somediminished triads here and
(16:29):
there.
From the four chord C to the Csharp diminished triad.
And then that chromatic chord isgoing to lead up to a D chord.
So we went from the four to thefive in G, but in between, we
had this chromatic diminishedchord.
And then we made it to the fivechord.
(16:50):
And then guess what?
We have another chromaticdiminished chord that pulls in
that musical tension kind ofway, pulls you up to E minor.
So then you get an E minor in G,which is the sixth chord.
So that whole part again wouldsound like this.
(17:11):
Four chord C, C sharpdiminished, five chord D, D
sharp diminished, and then thatpulls us up to E minor.
So now they start to go backdown.
So the bass line chromaticallypulled up.
You can hear all that tensionfrom before.
Now it's going to droop backdown as I describe it.
(17:33):
So from the E minor, our bassnote is an E and it drops one
half step and then all of asudden you have an
SPEAKER_00 (17:42):
E flat
SPEAKER_02 (17:43):
major.
Yeah, don't ask where that comesfrom.
It is a chromatic chord and itis used for coloring and they
are borrowing it from anotherkey.
This is not a key change or amodulation mechanism.
This is what we call a borrowedchord, and I will get to those
very soon.
Once again, I realize this ismore advanced than I usually get
(18:04):
into, but stay with me.
So after the E flat, that leadsus straight down a half step to
the V chord D.
And then it goes right back tothat C sharp diminished, which
has the C sharp in the bass, toa C chord with the C in the
bass.
And guess what?
This is kind of cool.
From the C major chord, which isyour IV, he then just
(18:26):
chromatically drops the othervoicing to get a C minor.
So he went from a C major to a Cminor.
So the bass note actually didn'tmove.
Then that one goes to a...
G slash B, which again is achromatic move from C to B.
But this is a G chord, which isa one chord, right?
(18:48):
But it's an inversion nowbecause the B's in the bass.
Root position G would have a Gin the bass, right?
So I'm just reminding you aboutchord inversions.
We flipped the chord and thebass note now is the third of
the chord.
Then we go to an A7, which has aroot bass.
(19:09):
Then we go to a D7, which alsohas a root bass, and then we're
back to home.
So this is the V7 chord, andthen it resolves back to home.
Ah, we finally made it.
So to recap, my chromatic linegoing up, C, C sharp, D, D
sharp, E, and then it droopsback down, right?
(19:34):
It's so interesting andcolorful.
E, E flat, D, D flat, C, C, thenB, then A, Then it goes to the V
chord D, and then resolves backto G.
What a cool bass line.
(19:54):
Whew, all right, that was a lotreally quick.
So let's pivot one more time andgo to our final example of our
bass line.
two-part bassline series.
And in this one, we're going toanalyze the wonderful old hit
called Landslide by FleetwoodMac.
(20:16):
This is yet another song in thekey of G.
You can see that that's apattern.
I mean, really, key of G is themost common key when people
write in guitar.
It is absolutely the most commonkey.
So if you recall, the song openslike this.
(20:42):
But didn't I just say it was inthe key of G?
This one's interesting becausethe entire thing starts on a IV
chord.
And you're going to ask, holycow, how would you know it
wasn't in the key of C and notin G?
Ooh, that's going to bake yournoodle for the week.
But it is, in fact, in the keyof G, and you'll figure that out
as we go.
So we're starting on a C chordwith a root note, C.
(21:05):
Then our next chord is this.
which is actually a G chord.
It's a I chord.
But it doesn't use the root notein the bass.
It uses the third.
So remember, it is a chordinversion, the first inversion
to be exact.
Now, I want to discuss why theymake choices like this, because
(21:28):
you might be asking, well, whyaren't we using the root note?
It really is to make a smooth,connective, melodic-sounding
bass line, which is really whatwe've been talking about.
So the C chord starts on C, thenthe G slash B has a B.
So notice the bass notes, C, B,rather than C, G, right?
(21:51):
So it's just smoothly connectingit.
One rule I can give you rightoff the bat, when you're writing
a riff or a melody or a harmony,generally speaking, it is a lot
easier for the ear to listen tonotes that are closely connected
together rather than jumpingaround.
So after the four chord C goesto the one chord B, then you get
(22:13):
this chord.
And that's an A minor seven.
And so the A minor seven chordactually has a root note of A.
Now, why didn't this one go toan inversion?
Again, because the bass line issmoothly connected using that
root note.
So our bass line now goes C, B,And then we're going to go back
(22:35):
to G over B.
So G over B is every other chordin the main part of this song.
C, B, A, B.
So notice when you play that,it's connected.
Nice, smooth, and connected.
So when we put it together, seeif you hear that smooth and
(22:58):
connected bass line now.
So this particular bass line, asopposed to the chromatic one in
(23:19):
the Beatles song previously,this one really does line up
diatonically with the G majorscale.
So it does come from...
It comes from the goodold-fashioned major scale.
And by the way, eventually, nowwe'll move to the next part as
(23:40):
we go towards the second part ofthe song.
After we go C, B, A, eventuallyit goes to...
F sharp.
Ooh, which again is still in thekey of G.
That is the only sharp we havein the key of G, if you recall.
And you go, all right, well,what is the bass doing there?
So it's actually connected to...
(24:03):
the V chord, okay?
And the V chord in G is D.
And so it's not a root note.
So, hmm, what's going on thereagain?
It's an inversion in order tomake the bass line smooth and
connect.
So instead of having a D bassnote, they chose an F sharp.
Why would they do that?
(24:24):
Because the F sharp is theleading tone.
It has all this tension in thekey of G, right?
Ah, that's going to pull youback up to the root.
So instead of going...
Which would have been perfectlyacceptable, by the way.
Instead, they chose to do this.
(24:44):
Closer, smoother, more tensionin the music, from tension to
resolution with the leadingtone.
That becomes the choice.
So if I keep going through this,D over F sharp...
Then we're back to the I chord,which is a G bass note, like I
was saying.
Then right back to the D chordwith the F sharp in the bass.
(25:08):
And then that bass note getsconnected to a VI chord, E
minor.
So your bass line's going Fsharp, G, G, F sharp, E, right?
Smooth and connected.
So...
G...
five chord over the F sharp andthen six chord with the E in the
(25:29):
bass.
Then they jump back to somethinga little more conventional and
go back to that beginning partwhere you go to a four chord.
And then the cycle continuesafter we go to the two chord.
(25:51):
Then they go to the Invertedfive chord again with the F
sharp in the bass that resolvesup to tonic G.
The key of the music.
And it just keeps circlingaround like that.
How cool is that?
Wow, that was a lot of fun.
I hope you enjoyed it as much asI did.
And to go ahead and let youknow, I am segueing these two
(26:14):
bassline episodes into how tohear a chord progression in my
next episode.
We're going to be combining alittle bit of ear training with
our knowledge that we'relearning about basslines right
now, and we're going to turn itinto a session on, if I'm
listening to a song, how can I,by ear, figure out what the
(26:36):
chord But now it's time forbreakdown.
Today was our second part oflearning all about bass lines.
(27:05):
We reiterated concepts like bassrange, Gregorian chant, scales,
melodies, harmonies, triads,chords, and chord progressions.
We talked about chromaticism.
(27:28):
We talked about inversions andwhy they're used in bass lines
to create smooth, connected basslines.
Coming up on the next episode,you're gonna wanna tune in for
the ear training and the chordprogressions.
(27:48):
But until then, I will lookforward to...
continuing this musicexploration with all of you.
Thanks again, everybody.
Until next time, have abeautiful music-filled week.
So,
SPEAKER_02 (00:33):
Greetings and salutations to all my fellow
music theory lovers out there.
The guitar track that you justheard me perform at the
beginning is an excerpt from apiece titled Libra Sonatine by
the late great French composerRoland Dienz.
(00:54):
It is a three-movement sonatina,and this is an excerpt from the
third movement titled Fuoco.
Roland Dienz was born in Tunisiain 1955 and he died in 2016.
He was the guitar composer andinstructor at the Paris
(01:16):
Conservatory.
He had a storied concert career.
He composed incredible music forthe modern guitar player, as you
just heard.
And he was really a nice guy.
To share a short story, I hadthe pleasure of meeting Roland
Dienz.
after he performed an incredibleconcert in downtown Atlanta
(01:37):
Georgia and I got to meet himright after his concert was over
and have a brief conversationwith him and I felt like I was
just talking to another guitarstudent at university which is
what I was at the time he was sodown to earth so very cool it's
always great to meet one of yourheroes and he is definitely one
of mine and it didn't disappointwe got to talk about a Giuliani
(02:02):
piece I was working on and howhard the thumb stuff was because
he had performed it that night.
He just talked about it like wewere students playing together.
What's really cool about hisconcert, if you know anything
about classical music concertsand classical guitar concerts,
they tend to have programs thatare very meticulously followed
when you perform.
(02:22):
Roland Jens was a veryinteresting character because
you would show up at theconcert, open the program, and
there was nothing in it.
Nothing as far as a listing ofmusic that you were going here
that night which is very rareand very strange as it turns out
he would come out and the veryfirst thing he would do is just
do a full-blown improvisationfor about five to ten minutes
(02:44):
and it was his way of feelingout the performance hall feeling
out the room and then he woulddecide what he was going to play
from there so when he played thesecond piece based on the
audience response he wouldcontinue to tailor his entire
program around what the audiencethought of the pieces he played
(03:05):
and he did a lot ofimprovisation and I can't
emphasize that enough I thinkthere's a stigma with classical
musicians that they only playnotes that are on a page but
classical musicians improvisewith the best jazz blues rock
musicians you can think of theyreally can and this guy was
living and walking proof of itand again I just had the joy of
(03:28):
meeting one of the heroes of mylifetime the late great Roland
de the end.
Rest in peace, sir.
Welcome back to The HarmoniousBlacksmith, a music theory
exploration.
This is episode 19.
It is all about bass lines, andthis is part two of bass lines.
(03:48):
I am your host, Kevin PatrickFleming.
Hey, too kind, too kind.
I appreciate you.
I very much appreciate you.
Thank you so much.
So we now embark upon part twoof our two part series about.
(04:10):
Bass! Bass! Basslines! Basslinesare so fun, and I'm just so
happy you're joining me withthem.
Let's talk about a few of thethings that are going to come up
today terminology-wise.
First of all, you already knowbasslines.
We're going to talk about whatbass range is.
We're going to talk about SATB,that's Soprano Alto Tenor Bass,
(04:31):
as far as different ranges of afour-part chorale or four-part
type of writing system.
We're going to talk aboutmelody.
We're going to talk aboutharmony chords.
chord progressions, triads, andwe might even talk briefly about
modes and chromaticism.
So let's start by recalling justwhat a bass line is, right?
(04:54):
A bass line is a series ofconnected melodic notes that
also play the lowest note in therange of music, and generally
they play notes that outline thechord progressions that we're
playing.
Most of the time, bass lines aregoing to include a lot of your
big root notes of your chords,okay?
(05:16):
But not always.
As we learned from last episode,you can flip the chords in what
we call chord inversions, right?
And I'm going to get to audioexamples real quick here in a
second.
So let's just start with themost basic example possible.
So let's say I'm in the key ofG.
And I'm just playing a 1-4-5progression.
(05:37):
So I have a G, which is a Ichord.
Then I have a C, which is a IVchord.
And then D, which is a V chord.
And then I'm back to I.
UNKNOWN (05:47):
you
SPEAKER_02 (05:48):
The prototypical chord progression, as we know
it, one, four, five in a majorkey.
So the most basic baseline comesfrom where?
Just think in your mind, well,where does the baseline come
from?
In this case, I'm going to pickroot notes.
Your bass note on a G chord willbe that lowest root G.
(06:10):
Okay, so my first bass note willbe G.
Then as you can imagine, when Igo to C, I'm going to take my
lowest root note C And then whenI go to D, I'm going to take my
lowest root note D.
And then I'm back to G again.
If I wanted to play the mostbasic and effective bass line of
root notes in the key of G, itwould sound like this.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
SPEAKER_02 (06:41):
Pretty plain and simple.
SPEAKER_00 (06:43):
But Kevin, come on man.
That ain't no bass guitar.
That ain't no funky bass line.
SPEAKER_02 (06:52):
That's true.
I was playing low bass notes ona guitar, but it's important to
distinguish between what a bassline is and bass range.
We talked about this in partone, which is bass range is a
specific set of notes in areally low range that basses
sing or play, as opposed to abass line, which is really just
(07:14):
the lowest connective part inany composition.
In some of my spare time, I dosolo finger style guitar
versions of famous tunes.
And recently I had the pleasureof doing Time After Time by
Cyndi Lauper, a great 80sclassic.
And 100% of the reason that Idid this song is because when I
(07:39):
heard it again, the bass lineand the chorus absolutely
captivated me.
It caught my ear.
I couldn't stop hearing it.
And I was like, I gotta do thatpiece.
So let me break it down for you.
So my version of Time After Timeis in the key of C major.
C is one, F is four, and G isfive, right?
(08:01):
And in this part of it, we'realso going to get a minor six
chord, the A minor.
So we have a four chordprogression here for a classic
pop tune.
Now here's the part that got mein the chorus.
So the chorus starts on the fivechord, and the bass does what
you expect it to do.
It plays a root note G.
(08:22):
The next chord we're going to goto is going to be the sixth
chord.
And it does go to the root noteA, but it does something
fabulously creative after that.
So let me play for you firstwhat it sounds like.
So we start on the G, and thenwe go to the A minor.
F, G, C.
(08:45):
I'll do that one more time.
So we're on a G chord, and thenwe're going to go to an A minor
chord.
F, G, C.
And you can tell it resolves atthe end, right?
That's always nice.
So again, that bass line startson a G, and then it goes to an
A.
But what's it doing here?
(09:05):
Then it goes to an F, then a G,then a C.
Wow, that's really cool.
So let's break it down.
So on the 5 chord, we have aroot note G.
When we go to the 6 chord, whatin the world was going on there?
It goes from the root note tothe 3rd, to the 5th, to the
octave, and back down again tothe 5th, to the 3rd, to the
(09:30):
root.
And then it connects that to the4 chord, and then to the 5
chord.
And then we resolve to the rooton C.
So the full bass line for TimeAfter Time by Cyndi Lauper with
(09:53):
a repeat would sound like this.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
(00:00):
.
SPEAKER_02 (10:10):
So who out there is feeling confident enough that
they can describe in musictheory terms what is going on
there on that six chord?
Any of you?
Well, Kevin, I think I
SPEAKER_00 (10:25):
got this.
That there sounds like ascale-like riff or something
like that, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02 (10:35):
Incorrect.
Good guess.
But no go.
Anybody else?
Well, Kevin, I think it is achord that it comes from.
Yeah, that's also incorrect.
I will give you partial creditfor calling it a chord.
It does come from a chord, buthow do we really describe it in
(10:57):
detail?
It turns out it is an arpeggio.
Recall what an arpeggio is,which is a chord or triad broken
into its individual components.
So Instead of playing the entireA minor chord, you can play it
any way you want.
Right?
(11:18):
You can play it like that, butyou can also play it like this
bass line plays it.
And that is another way that youhear arpeggio style.
So this is like a melodicarpeggio style.
So again, it's based on the Aminor chord.
You get the root of the A minorchord, then it goes to the
(11:38):
third, then the fifth, then theoctave.
So that is an arpeggio.
It's also based on a triad.
And remember, triads are themost basic form of chords.
Remember, a chord requires threenotes.
A triad is only three notes.
Triads are the basis of allother chords, being built on top
(12:02):
of them, basically.
So in this case, they're justusing the basic triad.
One, three, five, octave.
And then back down again.
Five, three, one.
Okay, so I hope you enjoyedthat.
Let's go ahead and move on toexample number two of our bass
(12:22):
lines today.
And I'm going to do acontinuation of a song that I
was breaking down in the lastepisode, Blackbird by the
Beatles, written mostly by PaulMcCartney, who of course was the
bass player in the Beatles,period.
So it's not going to surpriseyou that the bass line in
Blackbird is super cool andslinky.
(12:44):
Now, I will warn you, it's a lotmore advanced than what I was
breaking down before.
So I'm just going to break downthis one really cool part that
rises and falls in the verse.
Let me play it for you first,and then we're going to break it
down.
It goes like this.
(13:19):
The bass line of that part justgoes like this.
(13:40):
This was, of course, a longerexcerpt, but a much different
baseline, right?
Which is why I wanted to usethis example in juxtaposition
with the previous, just to giveyou a comparison.
So, is anybody out there braveenough to answer what is going
(14:00):
on with that baseline in termsof music theory?
SPEAKER_00 (14:05):
Well, Kevin, I'm gonna have to guess that it's a
scale-like bass line again.
That's what it sounds like tome.
SPEAKER_02 (14:15):
That is correct.
It is a scale-like bass line.
But it's a specific type ofscale.
Can you name what type of scaleit is?
Well, sounds like a happy majorto me.
That is incorrect.
The correct answer is based ona...
Chromatic scale.
(14:38):
Do you remember what chromaticmeans?
Here's the reminder.
Chroma, the root of chromatic,in Latin means color.
or colors, kind of like a chromakey that is used for
videography.
So chromatic in music means allthe colors in the spectrum of
(15:00):
music.
So in the case of our Westernsystem, that is gonna be all 12
half steps.
So a chromatic scale is gonnainclude every single pitch in
our system in a row and wouldsound like this.
So now that you recall whatchromaticism is, back to our
(15:27):
Beatles example, and let's breakit down with the chords.
Blackbird is in the key of G.
So our I, IV, V is going to beG, C, and D, of course, and
those chords are going to comeand go.
So this particular part startson IV chord C.
And then the chromaticism startshere.
(15:47):
This particular part starts onthe four chord C.
And then the chromaticism startsfrom there.
So we go from C in the bassline.
We go from C to C sharp on thischord, which is a diminished
chord that is used to createthis chromaticism.
(16:07):
Look, if you haven't gotten thatadvanced yet, don't sweat it.
It's no big deal.
Just keep listening to thispodcast and I'll eventually get
to all of it, I promise.
But for now, just accept what itis.
Remember that we have major,minor, and diminished triads in
our diatonic system.
So you're going to have somediminished triads here and
(16:29):
there.
From the four chord C to the Csharp diminished triad.
And then that chromatic chord isgoing to lead up to a D chord.
So we went from the four to thefive in G, but in between, we
had this chromatic diminishedchord.
And then we made it to the fivechord.
(16:50):
And then guess what?
We have another chromaticdiminished chord that pulls in
that musical tension kind ofway, pulls you up to E minor.
So then you get an E minor in G,which is the sixth chord.
So that whole part again wouldsound like this.
(17:11):
Four chord C, C sharpdiminished, five chord D, D
sharp diminished, and then thatpulls us up to E minor.
So now they start to go backdown.
So the bass line chromaticallypulled up.
You can hear all that tensionfrom before.
Now it's going to droop backdown as I describe it.
(17:33):
So from the E minor, our bassnote is an E and it drops one
half step and then all of asudden you have an
SPEAKER_00 (17:42):
E flat
SPEAKER_02 (17:43):
major.
Yeah, don't ask where that comesfrom.
It is a chromatic chord and itis used for coloring and they
are borrowing it from anotherkey.
This is not a key change or amodulation mechanism.
This is what we call a borrowedchord, and I will get to those
very soon.
Once again, I realize this ismore advanced than I usually get
(18:04):
into, but stay with me.
So after the E flat, that leadsus straight down a half step to
the V chord D.
And then it goes right back tothat C sharp diminished, which
has the C sharp in the bass, toa C chord with the C in the
bass.
And guess what?
This is kind of cool.
From the C major chord, which isyour IV, he then just
(18:26):
chromatically drops the othervoicing to get a C minor.
So he went from a C major to a Cminor.
So the bass note actually didn'tmove.
Then that one goes to a...
G slash B, which again is achromatic move from C to B.
But this is a G chord, which isa one chord, right?
(18:48):
But it's an inversion nowbecause the B's in the bass.
Root position G would have a Gin the bass, right?
So I'm just reminding you aboutchord inversions.
We flipped the chord and thebass note now is the third of
the chord.
Then we go to an A7, which has aroot bass.
(19:09):
Then we go to a D7, which alsohas a root bass, and then we're
back to home.
So this is the V7 chord, andthen it resolves back to home.
Ah, we finally made it.
So to recap, my chromatic linegoing up, C, C sharp, D, D
sharp, E, and then it droopsback down, right?
(19:34):
It's so interesting andcolorful.
E, E flat, D, D flat, C, C, thenB, then A, Then it goes to the V
chord D, and then resolves backto G.
What a cool bass line.
(19:54):
Whew, all right, that was a lotreally quick.
So let's pivot one more time andgo to our final example of our
bass line.
two-part bassline series.
And in this one, we're going toanalyze the wonderful old hit
called Landslide by FleetwoodMac.
(20:16):
This is yet another song in thekey of G.
You can see that that's apattern.
I mean, really, key of G is themost common key when people
write in guitar.
It is absolutely the most commonkey.
So if you recall, the song openslike this.
(20:42):
But didn't I just say it was inthe key of G?
This one's interesting becausethe entire thing starts on a IV
chord.
And you're going to ask, holycow, how would you know it
wasn't in the key of C and notin G?
Ooh, that's going to bake yournoodle for the week.
But it is, in fact, in the keyof G, and you'll figure that out
as we go.
So we're starting on a C chordwith a root note, C.
(21:05):
Then our next chord is this.
which is actually a G chord.
It's a I chord.
But it doesn't use the root notein the bass.
It uses the third.
So remember, it is a chordinversion, the first inversion
to be exact.
Now, I want to discuss why theymake choices like this, because
(21:28):
you might be asking, well, whyaren't we using the root note?
It really is to make a smooth,connective, melodic-sounding
bass line, which is really whatwe've been talking about.
So the C chord starts on C, thenthe G slash B has a B.
So notice the bass notes, C, B,rather than C, G, right?
(21:51):
So it's just smoothly connectingit.
One rule I can give you rightoff the bat, when you're writing
a riff or a melody or a harmony,generally speaking, it is a lot
easier for the ear to listen tonotes that are closely connected
together rather than jumpingaround.
So after the four chord C goesto the one chord B, then you get
(22:13):
this chord.
And that's an A minor seven.
And so the A minor seven chordactually has a root note of A.
Now, why didn't this one go toan inversion?
Again, because the bass line issmoothly connected using that
root note.
So our bass line now goes C, B,And then we're going to go back
(22:35):
to G over B.
So G over B is every other chordin the main part of this song.
C, B, A, B.
So notice when you play that,it's connected.
Nice, smooth, and connected.
So when we put it together, seeif you hear that smooth and
(22:58):
connected bass line now.
So this particular bass line, asopposed to the chromatic one in
(23:19):
the Beatles song previously,this one really does line up
diatonically with the G majorscale.
So it does come from...
It comes from the goodold-fashioned major scale.
And by the way, eventually, nowwe'll move to the next part as
(23:40):
we go towards the second part ofthe song.
After we go C, B, A, eventuallyit goes to...
F sharp.
Ooh, which again is still in thekey of G.
That is the only sharp we havein the key of G, if you recall.
And you go, all right, well,what is the bass doing there?
So it's actually connected to...
(24:03):
the V chord, okay?
And the V chord in G is D.
And so it's not a root note.
So, hmm, what's going on thereagain?
It's an inversion in order tomake the bass line smooth and
connect.
So instead of having a D bassnote, they chose an F sharp.
Why would they do that?
(24:24):
Because the F sharp is theleading tone.
It has all this tension in thekey of G, right?
Ah, that's going to pull youback up to the root.
So instead of going...
Which would have been perfectlyacceptable, by the way.
Instead, they chose to do this.
(24:44):
Closer, smoother, more tensionin the music, from tension to
resolution with the leadingtone.
That becomes the choice.
So if I keep going through this,D over F sharp...
Then we're back to the I chord,which is a G bass note, like I
was saying.
Then right back to the D chordwith the F sharp in the bass.
(25:08):
And then that bass note getsconnected to a VI chord, E
minor.
So your bass line's going Fsharp, G, G, F sharp, E, right?
Smooth and connected.
So...
G...
five chord over the F sharp andthen six chord with the E in the
(25:29):
bass.
Then they jump back to somethinga little more conventional and
go back to that beginning partwhere you go to a four chord.
And then the cycle continuesafter we go to the two chord.
(25:51):
Then they go to the Invertedfive chord again with the F
sharp in the bass that resolvesup to tonic G.
The key of the music.
And it just keeps circlingaround like that.
How cool is that?
Wow, that was a lot of fun.
I hope you enjoyed it as much asI did.
And to go ahead and let youknow, I am segueing these two
(26:14):
bassline episodes into how tohear a chord progression in my
next episode.
We're going to be combining alittle bit of ear training with
our knowledge that we'relearning about basslines right
now, and we're going to turn itinto a session on, if I'm
listening to a song, how can I,by ear, figure out what the
(26:36):
chord But now it's time forbreakdown.
Today was our second part oflearning all about bass lines.
(27:05):
We reiterated concepts like bassrange, Gregorian chant, scales,
melodies, harmonies, triads,chords, and chord progressions.
We talked about chromaticism.
(27:28):
We talked about inversions andwhy they're used in bass lines
to create smooth, connected basslines.
Coming up on the next episode,you're gonna wanna tune in for
the ear training and the chordprogressions.
(27:48):
But until then, I will lookforward to...
continuing this musicexploration with all of you.
Thanks again, everybody.
Until next time, have abeautiful music-filled week.
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